p. 14 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 13. (3/27/1907)

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

By J. O. Corliss

[Excerpts from speech of Elder J. O. Corliss at the hearing before the Assembly Committee of the California Legislature, February 4. We have not space for all this excellent speech.]

MR. CHAIRMAN, GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: I appear before you to-day in behalf of the "California Religious Liberty Association." I will here take time to repeat the principles which govern this Association:

1. We believe in the religion taught and lived by Jesus Christ.

2. We believe in temperance, and regard the liquor traffic as a curse to society.

3. We believe in supporting civil government and submitting to its authority.

4. We deny the right of any civil government to legislate on matters of religion and conscience.

5. We believe it is the right, and should be the privilege, of every individual to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience; or not to worship at all, if he so chooses.

6. We also believe it to be the duty of all to oppose religious legislation, and all movements tending thereto; that we and our fellow citizens may enjoy the inestimable blessings of both religious and civil liberty.

To effect a change in the Constitution in order to recognize Sunday laws, appears to many to be a purely religious matter. A civil bill can make provision for only civil matters, but this proposition enjoins the observance of a particular day, the non-observance of which is no incivility to any one. Sunday worship originated in religious worship, and has ever been regarded as a purely religious rite.

CIVIL OFFENSES

are those which invade the rights of property or person; but if one labors on Sunday, he invades the rights of no man, since he robs no one of any property, or of a single right. His neighbor may observe the day if he chooses, just the same as if the other man were doing so. It is not the day on which an act is performed, which makes it civil or uncivil. Whisky has the same effect if drank on Monday, as if taken on Sunday. It is just as wrong to strike a man on Monday as to do it on Sunday. If it were true that the day itself on which an act were done constituted it a civil offense, then it might be argued that labor on Sunday is a civil offense. But just as soon as the position is assumed that labor is a civil offense (no matter on what day it is performed), then labor of itself is made a crime.

It may be said that labor becomes a crime only when performed on Sunday; but if labor is a criminal offense when performed on one day of the week, it is the same on any and every day of the week, since it is not the day itself, on which a deed is done, that constitutes the crime, but the deed itself (if it be a crime), on whatever day it is performed. So then, if the courts of the State are called to recognize the principle that labor done on one day of the week is a crime, when on all other days of the week the same labor would be lawful, then crime would really be legalized on every day of the week except one.

A MATTER OF THE IMAGINATION.

But, it may be said that Sunday labor is a disturbance to others, and this disturbance is that which constitutes the crime. But why should labor on Sunday disturb one any more than labor done on any other day of the week, since the act is just the same as the it were done on other days of the week? Manifestly only because it is THOUGHT to be religiously wrong. In other words, such disturbance can only be of a MENTAL character. For instance, if one goes into his garden and quietly works, or even goes on the street and works on Sunday, he takes nothing from any man, nor does he deprive any one of his right to keep the day. Then, wherein is the disturbance? Certainly not in the deprivation of rights. It can, therefore, be nothing more than a MENTAL disturbance.

On that point, permit me to recite the decision of Judge Walton, of Lewiston, Maine, handed down in 1880, a case to which I called attention when appearing before a committee in Congress, which had the celebrated Breckinridge Sunday Bill before it. The law of the State of Maine is that

"no person conscientiously believing that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as the Sabbath, and actually refraining from business and secular labor on that day shall be liable to said penalties, for doing such labor on the first day of the week, if he does not disturb other persons."

The case under consideration was that of a man who had drawn cordwood thru the streets of the city on Sunday. In his charge to the jury, the judge said that his impression was that the complaint could not be maintained.

"If the defendant quietly and in an unobtrusive manner hauled a load of wood from his place to the wood-yard, in the vicinity of the settled part of Lewiston, without coming into the immediate neighborhood of any meeting where religious services were being performed, it would not be a disturbance, in the meaning of the statute."

The prosecuting attorney suggested that it might be a disturbance to drive thru the streets of the city with loaded teams when the people were going to and from church; but the judge made answer that

"such disturbance could be only of a mental kind, as a matter of conscience, because they thought it wrong, and did not like the looks of it; but this was not the kind of disturbance that the statute contemplates. For my part, I do not see why one driving alone with his load quietly should cause any more disturbance than the thousand other teams that go thru our streets for visiting, pleasure, or for anything else. It only disturbs people, because they think it wrong."

A MATTER FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.

We submit that this is the basis of all Sunday legislation. People think Sunday work to be wrong, and are therefore disturbed because some one else does not believe just the same as they do in the matter. But if MENTAL DISTURBANCE is made to constitute a civil offense, then the preaching of opinions diverse from those of the majority of people would also be a civil offense, and would legitimately be indictable in the courts of the country. It is thus easy to see that such reasoning would quickly deprive the minority of all their religious rights. Let such an amendment pass, as this bill contemplates, and it would be a positive movement toward making all mental disturbance on Sunday a crime. Then we betide the man who dared publicly to proclaim any religious views on that day not in harmony with those held by his neighbors. The danger lies in taking the first step in religious legislation. It is every one's right to keep the Sabbath, not as a civil

DUTY, but as a religious PRIVILEGE. That is, however, a matter belonging wholly to individuals as a right of conscience, with which the courts have nothing to do, except to protect each one from disturbance in his devotions.

In matters of religion and conscience, I assert with James Otis, of colonial fame, that

EVERY MAN IS AN INDEPENDENT SOVEREIGN.

subject to no law but that divine one written on his own heart, and revealed to him by the Ruler of the universe, thru His infallible word. This right is inherent and inalienable, and can never be justifiably surrendered by any except idiots and lunatics,—who are irresponsible before their Maker. Why then should sane men consent to bind themselves about with human laws which not only deprive them of heaven-born rights, but entail possible oppression upon their posterity. The measure under consideration gives unbounded, unlimited, and exclusive power of legislation on the matter of a weekly rest day to each local community. Place this prerogative in the Constitution, and what appeal is there from any hardship brought to an individual thru religious bigotry? If oppression should follow the adoption of the measure,—as it surely will,—how could such a condition be remedied? The Constitution is too sacred an instrument to be thus made the means of venting religious spleen. We can not afford so to degrade the organic law of our grand commonwealth.

The Constitution of a State is made by ALL THE PEOPLE OF A STATE, for the PROTECTION OF ALL ALIKE, against any law to their detriment, which might be enacted for political profit. It, therefore, becomes the FOUNDATION OF ALL LAW, and the LIMITING POWER of the SCOPE OF ALL LAW, by which the RIGHTS OF ALL THE PEOPLE, of ALL THE STATE ALIKE, should be safeguarded. This power of the Constitution is the strength of its dignity, which it is the duty of the Supreme Court to maintain.

SIN AND CRIME.

Civil government can properly have nothing to do with legislating in those matters which belong wholly to God's government. The reasons for this are many. In the first place, the two governments are radically different in nature and methods. The moral Governor of the universe says that when one guilty of violating Heaven's laws shall repent and confess his wrong, he shall at once be forgiven and go free. While this is all right in moral things, the same course pursued in civil government would destroy its authority, and pandemonium would soon reign. For instance, were one to be brought before the courts on the charge of theft, and he should confess himself guilty, he would have to be released to go and steal again, as many times as he pleased, provided he confessed his guilt each time. Sin and crime MAY be the same, but not necessarily so. Sin is the violation of moral requirements, and involves the conscience. Crime is a disregard of civil law, in which the conscience is not considered. Consequently, moral government takes cognizance of matters of heart and conscience; but civil government has no power to read the inner man. It has to do alone with outward action, without regard to conscience. For this reason, the punishment for violation of civil law can be only of a temporal nature, while the continued violation of moral law brings eternal punishment. For instance, tho a man be hanged for murder, he has but met the penalty of a civil law against crime, but must be judged again for his sin at the bar of God, and receive the punishment that Heaven's government provides. For these and other reasons which might be mentioned, civil government can not enter the realms of conscience. In attempting to do so, it

assumes the place of God to the individual.

The observance of Sunday having originated in deference to moral requirements, its regulation is beyond the purview of civil government. Yet this suggested amendment proposes to require the observance of Sunday as a day of rest to all, excepting those who "conscientiously" believe that the seventh day of the week should be observed as the Sabbath. This exemption clause clearly shows that the authors of this measure understand it to be of a religious nature. If it were purely a civil enactment, no one by right could be exempted from the penalties to be enforced for its violation. But this measure proposes to exempt from the penalties it provides, those who conscientiously disbelieve that Sunday is the Sabbath. Whether or not this is a sop, held out for the purpose of securing favorable legislation upon the subject, it is not for us to decide; but it seems very clear that such a measure once put in operation violates as much the religious freedom of the first-day Christian as it does the seventh-day Christian, or the Jew. Because the conscience of one Christian compels him to keep Sunday as the Sabbath, it does not deny him the right to object when the Legislature invades his freedom of religious worship, and assumes the power to compel him to do that which he has a right to omit if he please; because religious worship is not made compulsory by the laws of the Most High.

Section 4 of Article 1 of the Constitution now gives seventh-day observers the right and privilege to observe that day, without further legislation, because it declares that the "free exercise and enjoyment of religious worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this State."

With the religious privileges of seventh-day observers thus safe-guarded by the Constitution, why should a special amendment be added, exempting them from a requirement to observe the first day of the week?

Then, again, this article of the Constitution grants the same freedom of religious worship to first-day observers as it does to all others. Why, then, should they demand that those who do not care to observe a day in common with them, should become subject to a civil penalty for not recognizing the particular religious faith by which their consciences are controlled? It would seem that since seventh-day observers have, by the present form of the Constitution, a perfect right to observe the seventh day, that the proposal to give them this right in an exemption clause, is but a concealed attempt to deprive them of it altogether. To admit the right of the State the power to grant this by special provision, carries with it an admission of their power to withhold such privilege; for, in consenting to the one, we consent to the other. This is merely toleration, and not religious freedom as is now guaranteed by the Constitution.

It will be noticed that the proposed amendment requires that this exempted class must "conscientiously" believe in and observe another day of the week than Sunday. But, from the Constitution, as it now is, they have the constitutional right to rest on Saturday, or any other day, whether they do it "conscientiously" or not, or whether they conscientiously believe it to be the right day to observe or not.

What right has the Constitution of a civil government to require one to have a conscience in what he does? And who is to decide whether one is conscientious in his belief of the observance of the day or not? Were one haled before the courts for working on Sunday, and the charge distinctly made against him of the violation of the law, the burden of proof would rest upon him who makes the claim of conscience, and that proof must be such as would satisfy the court. Since one's conscientious convictions do not appear to those outside of himself, they are not, therefore, susceptible to proof before judge or jury. Of what avail, then, is an exemption clause to these supposedly TOLERATED persons? One's own affirmation in the matter might be disregarded, or overridden, in every case, and what appears in this measure to be toleration, would become intoleration of the type of the Dark Ages.

It is clear, then, that such an amendment would invade the freedom of religious worship, because it would assume the power to compel a man conscientiously, or religiously, to do that which he has a right to omit, if he pleases. The principle is the same whether the act compels him to do that which he wishes to do, or whether it compels him to do that which he does not wish to do. In either case, the State assumes control of the rights of conscience, and the freedom of every man to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience is gone, and thenceforth all are required to worship according to the dictates of the State.

In a purely civil matter, one's religious belief should not entitle him to any exemption from the penalties provided for violation of the law, but all alike should be held amenable to every clearly civil enactment.

When every one, without exception, shall be required to "render unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar's," and shall also be permitted to "render unto God, the things that are God's;" then the State will cease to legislate in behalf of religion, and the church will no longer knock at legislative doors for power to enforce its ordinances and decrees.

When every one is permitted to elect for himself whether he will be religious or not, according to his own conscientious scruples, then the proclamation can truly be sounded forth from one part of this commonwealth to the other, that IT IS, AND BY RIGHT OUGHT TO BE FOREVER, FREE AND INDEPENDENT OF ALL ECCLESIASTICAL CONNECTION, INTERFERENCE, AND CONTROL. J. O. CORLISS.

WHAT CONGRESS DID.

Some of the More Important Measures Passed.

Authority was given to establish an agricultural bank in the Philippines.

New immigration legislation was enacted, altho it was less drastic than the President desired. It gives the President power to exclude Japanese coolies.

Permission was given to cooperate for the prevention of atrocities in the Kongo Free State, the President meantime having grown weary of waiting and taken steps without authority.

An appropriation of $2,000,000 was made to aid in repairing the Salton Lake dam.

The Santo Domingo treaty was ratified.

A law prohibiting the contributing of money by corporations for political campaign purposes was passed.

A bill granting the government the right of appeal on points of law in criminal cases was passed, but amended beyond all recognition.

A bill was passed limiting the hours of continuous labor for railroad employees, but an eight-hour day was not created for them.

A ship subsidy law was created, but in a vastly modified and reduced form.

National banks were given authority to withdraw an aggregate amount of $9,000,000 in their notes during one month, instead of $3,000,000 a month as heretofore.

Two first-class battle-ships were authorized, costing $10,000,000 each, being double what the President insisted should be allowed.

A material increase was made in the number of men for sea-coast defense service.

Customs receipts may hereafter be deposited in national banks, as are internal revenue receipts now.

Some additional money was allowed for practise marches and target practise.

A reluctant but partial exoneration was given the President in reference to his action in discharging without honor negro soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, this being accomplished by a coalition of Democrats and Administration Senators. Investigation of case at Brownsville, Texas, ordered and in progress.

One of those participating in the yellow fever experiments was given reward.

The Algeciras treaty was ratified.

Law providing for expatriation of foreign-born citizens who return to foreign countries and of American women who marry foreign husbands.

Free alcohol law, giving farmers advantage of manufacturing denatured alcohol.

River and harbor improvements authorized to the amount of $87,000,000.

Salaries of Senators and Representatives increased to $7,500, salaries of speaker, vice-president and cabinet officers increased to $12,000.

General service pension law giving a minimum pension of $12 a month to all veterans of the Civil War or the Mexican War.

Senator Smoot declared entitled to his seat, after four years' fight against him on account of affiliation of Mormon Church.

Thirty-Seven Messages Received from the President.

A number of reasonably good fights were made by friends of the President to secure favorable action on some of his other important recommendations, but without success. Among these were measures to prevent the employment of child labor in mines and factories and to lease all coal, oil, and asphalt lands.

Some Things the President Wanted, But Did Not Get.

Authority to appoint a one-man isthmian canal commission.

The enactment of laws for the canal zone.

Legislation to prevent shortage in freight cars.

That Congress approve the reform system of spelling.

A twenty per cent. increase in salaries for all government employees.

To eliminate the "slum" district in the city of Washington.

Authority to discharge officers, in certain cases, without court-martial or other formal process of trial.

An amendment to the Constitution giving Congress authority to deal with the entire question of marriage and divorce.

Increased powers for the Interstate Commerce Commission so as to give it a larger and more efficient control over railroads.

A graduated inheritance tax, and, if possible, a graduated income tax.

THE REMAINING CONCORDATS.

By Editor

WITH the end of the French Concordat there remain but seven countries that have concordats with Rome; namely, Austria, Bavaria, Belgium, Monaco, Portugal, and Spain, and Ecuador in South America. It is a long stride since Luther, facing Charles V and Rome at Worms, said: "Ich kann nicht anders." But all Europe, except France, maintains union of Church and State, even Protestant England and Prussia, and our States do practically the same thing when they give appropriations to private charities of various denominations. There should be constitutional amendments forbidding these subventions. Even the pope, who refuses to receive the $600,000 a year allowed him by the Law of Guarantees, receives indirectly thousands of dollars from the Italian Government in the form of free transmission of his telegrams and despatches. During the Christmas holidays he received countless telegrams from all over the world, and the number increased by the French troubles, and all these were answered, not always in few words, and all franked. The number was so great that the public service was all upset.—N. Y. Independent.

The remarkable career of the pseudo-Elijah the Restorer, John Alexander Dowie, was brought to a close March 9 by the hand of death, at Shiloh House, Zion City. Dowie has been before the great American public since 1890, when he went to Chicago where he first started his work. In 1901, Zion City was founded, and in two years reached a population of 10,000, with factories and other institutions to support the inhabitants. His career was a long series of assumption, deception, arrests, dissensions, final break-down, and deposition. He leaves over twenty million dollars, taken in most part from his dupes or the product of their industry.

The prophecy of Habakkuk is a prediction of conditions in the last days, of which his own time was a type. It was a time when ambitious men counted men "as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them," to be used to exploit and profit the few. Against these does the prophet hurl the divine denunciations. "Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood and establisheth a city by iniquity." It may promise well, but the end will be woe and desolation.

A Splendid Pen

By Editor

There is a burning Christian zeal for God which is worthy of all praise. It forgets self, regards others, and seeks God's glory.

There is a zeal ostensibly for God, but it is a zeal without knowledge. Great effort is put forth. Great shrewdness is manifest in zeal. Justice toward others is not considered. Sharp bargains are driven for the Lord's sake; and the souls that do it all take great praise to themselves, as did Jehu of old who said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah." Of such zeal the Lord has said, "The zeal of thy house hath eaten Me up."

Nothing built on wrong will prosper. We may rear a superstructure above the highest towers of earth; we may name it after our blessed Lord; we may carve upon every stone the name of saint or angel; we may emblazon the walls with Scripture scrolls and flaming words of truth; but if there be unrighteousness in the building of it, it will not only hold down the truth of the Gospel which may be preached therein, but it will come to desolation at last. Better a hovel on the Rock, builded in righteousness, than the costliest structure founded in the sands of injustice.

A Splendid Pen.

If there is any one who needs a good pen, smooth writer, free-flower, ever-ready pen, it is an editor. Years ago we possessed one. It was a Paul E. Wirt Fountain Pen. We let a friend have it who scribbled till he emptied a full fountain of ink. He was a good penman and voluminous writer. We purchased another, and, after years of using, literally wore it out. Since that we have tried five or six standard makes and highly recommended pens, but never have found any like those first Wirts till the present. The pen used in the writing of this note exceeds them in smoothness and ease of writing; but this, too, is a Paul E. Wirt. It is the best we ever used. There is no scratching or blotting or blank places in its even, delightful work. It seems to us that it is about as near the perfect fountain pen as it is possible for man to make. We are not selling them, but we cordially recommend them to one who wants a reliable fountain pen. It is durable and reliable, easily managed, and is made in a hundred different styles and sizes to suit any hand. All pens are guaranteed. Address, Paul E. Wirt Fountain Pen, Bloomsburg, Pa.

Financial Panic.

March 14 witnessed a panic in Wall Street, and stocks went down to a lower price than has been seen in three years. Many speculators were swept to ruin. It would have been a crash to the country if the government had not come to the aid of the market with a $25,000,000-bond purchase. As it was, it is reported that there was a shrinkage in stocks to the amount of a quarter of a billion dollars. Money rates ran as high as twenty-five per cent. Financiers laid the blame upon the government in its prosecution of the law-breaking railways; others contended that it was a big bear raid by certain financiers. One of these days there will come a panic which the government can not check without imperiling its credit, and the times of prosperity will vanish as in a night. It certainly is a time for conservative, sane, safe business policy; and it is the best kind of wisdom on the part of God's people to invest their money in the Bank of Heaven, which no financial crisis can affect.

The Weight of Souls.

According to despatches from Boston, five Massachusetts doctors have learned that man has a soul and that it weighs something. They have been experimenting for six years, and have found, after deducting all other known losses, such as respiratory air, secretions and excretions of the body, evaporations, etc., that there is a sudden and measurable lack of weight at the moment of death, amounting to from one-half to one ounce. Both dying men and women have been the subject of experiments. This will, we presume, be used as a proof of the immortality and separate consciousness of the soul; but if it is all it claims to be, it means nothing more than that life is a substance, and its loss can be measured. The word of God likens life to a "vapor" that passeth away. It was given as life; as life it departs. The same experiments on dogs showed no difference in weight.

China Relief Fund.

In response to our little note of a few weeks ago, the following has been received, up to March 1: Mrs. J. S. Christiansen, $5.00 C. M. McIlwain, 5.00 Ellehn Terris, 2.00 I. F. Pullen, 1.00 Watertown, N. Y., 5.00 Wm. F. Schmidt, .75 Happy Hansen, .20 C. A. Tiffany, 2.50 Total, $21.45

We have not felt that we could give so much space to this matter because of our plans in other respects. There are also other strong papers, like the Christian Herald, which are making a specialty of this. We do feel, however, that we wish to let our readers know something of the awful ravages which famine is making in China. Last December it was thought that more than a million souls would be affected and thousands might die, but at the present time it is said that fifteen million are affected, with a possibility of four million deaths.

The region affected is in northern China, known as Kianpeh. It means "North of the River," that is, the Yangtze River. A territory nearly as great as the state of Pennsylvania, forty thousand square miles, is affected. All the horrors of the last year, including the great earthquakes, are not to be compared with this awful horror of China; and yet news comes to us that thousands will also die in Russia as the result of prevailing famine there. Any of our readers who wish to contribute to the needy field of China, the physical needs of which are simply the indication of its spiritual needs, may send the money to us and we will forward it for them.

The Springfield "Republican" of March 7 devotes almost two columns to an editorial on the fearful and constant increase of insanity, and tells us that "wherever any careful count is made of this class of persons, both in the public and private establishments and in private families, or indeed where only the insane under public care are counted and classified, as new cases or old, as curable or incurable, this increase is manifest." Among the cases of insanity which are rarely curable, is mentioned syphilitic insanity. French physicians declare that a large increase of the incurable forms come from alcoholism. Dr. Robert Jones, having charge of the largest asylum in England, with more than four thousand patients, declares that with the progress of civilization mental break-down becomes more serious and more frequent, and the form of insanity more frequent and less curable than when life was simple and men were more content. It is stated that the percentage of the incurable insane is growing fast. Massachusetts records as her insane population fourteen thousand, or one for every 225, and the Republican estimates the whole United States to have not less than 350,000. One hundred years ago but very little was known of insanity at all. It might be well to inquire how many of these weak-minded souls are as truly possessed by demons as were the afflicted ones in the days of the first advent of Christ. If we are to believe the New Testament as a record of that time, we certainly know that there were many indeed who were possessed with demons—insane; and there are many evidences at the present time that show that the afflicted now are similarly affected to those who were afflicted then.

"The Circle" for March has a most interesting article entitled "The Adventurous Army of Bible-Sowers," by William George Fitz-Gerald, showing something of the romance connected with the scattering of the Bible thruout the world, and especially in the wilder regions of the earth. It also shows what wonderful labors the translators of the Bible have been thru. For instance Bishop Schereschewsky, a remarkable Bible scholar, well-nigh helpless thru incurable paralysis, for over fourteen years pounded on a typewriter with a solitary forefinger, whose use he retained, prepared every word of both Testaments for this monumental translation into the Easy Wen Li dialect of Chinese, thus making the Bible accessible to scores of millions of people who speak that tongue. The Bishop sat in the same chair for nearly twenty years, working with amazing persistence, and requiring two secretaries to keep pace with him; and yet this grand old man, at the time of his death a few weeks ago was planning twelve years' additional work. There are many other good things in the Circle, but every Bible student will feel that this article will repay him. The price of the magazine is fifteen cents.

Investigations of the affairs of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy are being inaugurated by her son, George W. Glover, and others, who demand a statement as to her financial affairs, and also seek to ascertain her mental condition, which from letters purporting to be from her to her son, seems to be weak. To prove this untrue, her coterie of advisers, four of whom have been served with papers to appear in equity proceedings in Concord, N. H., will be obliged to bring Mrs. Eddy into court, or produce physician's statement as to her condition, both of which proceedings will be distasteful to a Christian Scientist, especially to the venerable founder of the cult.

The March number of "Sunset Magazine" is full of information which almost every reader would like to know. In dealing with the great West, there are three striking articles, one on the Great Northwest, one on Oakland, and one on the Capture of the Colorado River. The last article is of exceptional interest, showing how for three times over man made a fight with the Colorado River before it was restored to its own bed, and thousands upon thousands of dollars saved to the State of California and to Mexico. The article is well worth the price of the magazine.

In Our Issue of March 6, we noticed a little pamphlet entitled, "Recent Researches in the Japanese Slave Trade in California," by those noble women, Elizabeth Andrew and Katherine Bushnell. We said at that time the tract could be procured at Oakland, Cal., General Delivery, as the copy we then had gave no address. Dr. Bushnell writes that their correct address is Post-office Box 203, Oakland, Cal.

Our steady rain for the last three months has not been pleasant, but it seems to have been exceptional weather thruout the country. There have been fearful floods at the headwaters of the Ohio, in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and in Pittsburg and other towns along the Ohio Valley. Many thousands made homeless for a time. The loss in Pittsburg and vicinity is estimated at $10,000,000.

The most reasonable thing in the world is to trust in the Most High God. The most unreasonable, is to trust in self, which has failed us a thousand times.