THESE are days of rumors of war and of war preparations. Ponderous and powerful battleships, and cruisers, and torpedo boats, and torpedo-boat destroyers, are being built to fight on the seas, and great and terrible cannon, and machine guns, and rapid-fire guns, are being forged for both sea and land. Great forts line the coasts of all nations, and armies are being increased, and the call grows louder for more and more marines to man the fighting ships.
The facts, yes, the terrible facts, in regard to the destructive powers of modern weapons of war, are kept constantly before the people through the discussion of the subject that is incessantly kept up. There are few, if any, who do not know of the great cannons that will throw shells weighing 2,300 pounds to a distance of twenty miles. There is scarcely a person who has not heard of the rapid-fire guns that will throw their 200-pound projectiles at the rate of eight a minute. Perhaps there is no one but has heard more or less of the machine gun that will throw from 600 to 1200 bullets a minute, keeping a steady stream of steel missiles of death pouring from its muzzle. And as these things are mentioned, the mind will run on to think of the smokeless, slow-burning, but powerful powder, of the terrific high-explosive shells, and so on to the end of the awful list.
The standing armies of the nations are being increased, and the war-tax is becoming more and more difficult to bear. A great peace conference of the nations has been held, but the war spirit continues to increase in its restless, turbulent fury. We have been told that the millennium morning has dawned, but every nation has a quarrel on hand with some other nation; and while the dream is for peace, the sweeping currents of preparation are all in the direction of war. The state has its military and naval training-schools; the public schools in many sections have their military companies to which the arts of war are being taught; and even some of the churches are training companies of boy soldiers to fight with sword and gun, thus attempting the impossible task of harmonizing the horribly murderous butcheries and destructions of war with the gentle and tender love of the Prince of Peace.
All these things are prominently before the world. It would be a waste of time to give any detailed description or statistics concerning that which is already making such an impression upon the public that10it is painful. Many are anxiously and earnestly asking, What will be the end of it? How will it finally result? There is a source of unmistakably correct information from which we may draw. Every question in regard to the outcome of this war-spirit that pervades the world is accurately and clearly answered.
The god of war is full brother to the god of selfish, grasping greed. The two work hand in hand. This age is the most remarkable of the centuries for its greed. Men are all absorbed in the amassing of millions, and to possess even billions is the goal for which some are feverishly struggling. The present struggle in the field of commerce can not help creating animosities that must be settled on the bloody field of battle. Every item of human experience as recorded in human history goes to prove it. Wars of the past that have been fought in the interest of greed have been brought on by men whose covetous grasp had only reached to hundreds of thousands, with here and there a millionaire. But in the struggle that is upon us to-day, a few iron hands have laid hold of the multiplied millions and combined them into multiplied billions. Islands are despoiled, and nations are trampled upon, that the bursting coffers of wealth may be filled to still greater overflowing. The magnitude of the greed is so colossal that it could result in nothing short of a world-wide war—a war in which every nation and tribe on the face of the whole earth will enter the death-struggle.
In the latter times of this world’s history the prophetic book tells of but one battle that shall involve the whole world. But it does tell of that one minutely and clearly. The record is, “And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: ‘for they are spirits of devils, working signs; which ‘go forth unto the kings of the whole world, ‘to gather them together unto the war of the great ‘day of God, the Almighty.” Rev. 16: 13, 14, R.V. Observe that it is “the kings of the whole world” that are to be gathered to the “war of the great day of God.”
The means of travel and thought communication make it possible to-day for a speedy world-wide gathering to war. Such a thing could not have been accomplished so rapidly at any time in the past. But now everything is in readiness for whole nations of men to be quickly whirled onto that great and final battle-field. And it is the working of demons that is turning the expressed sentiments of peace into acts of war, even while men are uttering their hopes for world-wide tranquility. Men talk beautifully of peace, only to turn about and fervently orate on the glories and heroism of war. The religion of the Messiah, the Hero of peace, is held as a theory; but the sermon on the mount and the Decalogue are not made the text-books of practise. The heroes of faith and of Gospel labor are but little known, while the Scipios, and the Caesars, and the Napoleons are minutely and enthusiastically studied.
And yet men would dream of peace. They might as well sow seeds of thistles and expect to reap a harvest of wheat. The multitude may be feebly asking their standard-bearers to keep the banners of peace unfurled, but they are marching the quickstep of Mars, the war-god. Every prophecy shows that the end of time is right at hand. And this marshalling of the nations to the battle of the great day of God is one of the incidents in the closing scenes. God’s Word foretells it, and the events of the passing days show that the divine predictions are fulfilling right before us.
The mere thought of such things is thrilling. And while the spirits of devils are working their signs to lead men to war, God is calling for volunteers who will enter His great school quickly to learn the ways of peace, and then hasten forth to the children of men, to warn them of the dangers that are impending. Where will you stand? It is a vital question. T.
Can Wealth Give Happiness?
By Young
Can wealth give happiness? Look round and see
What gay distress! what splendid misery!
Whatever fortune lavishly can pour,
Her mind annihilates, and calls for more.
— Young.
Right Must Win
By F. W. Faber
For right is right, since God is God,
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.
—F. W. Faber.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.
By J. O. Corliss
THE Jewish day of atonement which fell on the tenth day of the seventh month, was the day of all days in the year to that people. It was, in a sense, the yearly day of judgment, because on that day, when the sanctuary was cleansed from sin, in order that it might be God's recognized dwelling among men, every person of the congregation must also be made free from sin, or leave the camp, bearing away his iniquity, so that no sign of sin should be seen, for the time, in Israel. Were any one on that day found to have neglected the opportunity to send his sins into the sanctuary, through confession, and so to have them cleansed away, with all others, by the blood ceremony of that occasion, there could be no alternative but for him to be separated from the people of God.
In view of such far-reaching consequences, all were given an opportunity to prepare to meet the demands of that typical judgment day. Ten days before its decisive ceremonies, on the first day of the same month, attention was called to the fast-approaching occasion, by having trumpets blown, long and loud, all over the land. Lev. 23:24, 27. Had any neglected his necessary purification till then, he was thereby warned of the shortness of time in which to attend to that work.
This being typical of Christ's actual work for the world, it follows that some warning of the final judgment must precede it, which would call the attention of the world generally to the shortness of the time left in which to prepare to stand faultless before the Judge of all the earth. So about ten years before the ending of the 2300 symbolic days, an announcement came to the world, with sudden distinctness, telling that the mystery of God (salvation through the Gospel) was about being finished, and that time was closing. While this message was being sounded in America by William Miller, and many other evangelical ministers, Mr. Irving in England, Mr. Mason in Scotland, and others in Scandinavia, Europe, and the far East were proclaiming, unknown to one another, the same solemn warning. Rev. 10:1-6. For the years that intervened between the falling of the stars near the end of 1833, and the close of the 2300 days in 1844, this message stirred the world to a greater religious depth than any other ever heard since the proclamation of the birth of a Saviour.
While the end of the world did not come in 1844, as those who heralded the message supposed it would, because they believed that to be the logical outcome of the ending of the 2300 days, the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary did there begin, which is only another way of saying that the investigation of the cases of men was then opened, which would determine who was worthy to receive immortality at the soon-coming of the Master. This was made known to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, by “another” angel flying in the midst of heaven, calling attention to the fact that the hour of God's judgment had actually arrived. From that time forward until the judgment shall have done its appointed work of sealing those who are to stand on Mount Zion with their returned Lord, having the Father's name in their foreheads (Rev. 14:1-5), this message is to be proclaimed, and that, too, without the uncertainty which comes of having the message “clothed with a cloud.” Rev. 10:1.
Yet this first message which proclaimed that time should “be no longer,” had the foundation of an unfailing prophecy. The angel there shown, which was typical of the future messengers of the warning, had a “little book” open, from which his time proclamation was given. The only little book having such a message, was the book of Daniel, and the time message was that of ch. 8:14, which predicted that after 2300 days (years) the sanctuary should be cleansed. The time set forth in that message was to end in 1844. So when that time was near at hand, the trumpet proclamation was heralded throughout the world, that “there should be time no longer.” The time allotted to reach to the great sanctuary cleansing, was about closing, and true to His infinitely merciful way, God sent the warning abroad that all men might know that the great atonement, which is the final judgment, was at hand. As the closing work of this solemn time, the “mystery of God,” that is, the divine plan to save men, will be finished as God has declared so many times by the mouths of His servants the prophets. Rev. 10:7. Then will be the coming of Christ, and the gathering of the saints to their eternal home. This is truly an important time to all. J. O. CORLISS.
The Curse of Militarism
One of the sad things in connection with the militarism of to-day is the fact that it is fostered in so many reformatories, schools, religious organizations, and churches. Roman Catholics have many of their youth under real military drill, and boys’ brigades are playing at the same thing,—all tending to foster the brute spirit inherent in the natural man. The strenuous life is a curse; it makes brute men rather than brave men.
COMMERCIALISM AND CORRUPTION.
Commercialism, the trade spirit, is the dominant spirit of the age, moulded largely by the desire to become rich. Mr. Gustavus Myers, author of the “History of Tammany Hall,” in the New York Independent of Jan. 17, 1901, tells us, and proves it, “that at the root of many of the evils inherited or ‘foisted upon cities, states, and the nation, lies that ‘sinister, powerful, all-pervading force in politics ‘known under the generic term of commercialism.’” Mr. Myers points out instances of this in New York’s history through the last century. From dealing with legislatures it extended to the “debauching of ‘voters.” The men who did this were “commonly known as respected and respectable, the leaders of public opinion, and some of them of the exclusive ‘society of the day. Millions upon millions were ‘paid in bribes to the legislature in Albany.’”
Take, for instance, the assembly of 1885. Of the one hundred and twenty-eight members it was said to be established as a fact that ninety-four were open to “influence,” of one kind or another, and that seventy-five per cent. of these stood ready to sell their votes for money on any bill in which they were not otherwise interested. What is this source of corruption?—Purely that of commercialism. At every session of the Legislature, from the year 1799 to the present, as we have shown by instances and references, the saturnalia has been going on unceasingly.
Mr. Myers thus speaks of the new “boss” system which has largely superseded the “lobby”:—
It is common knowledge that corporations of all kinds contribute lavishly to the campaign chests of both parties with the tacit understanding that such a token will find for them grace in the eyes of the “boss.” As one railroad president is said to have remarked recently upon making a political contribution of $100,000: “I like the ‘boss’ system. It saves one so much time and trouble when you want to arrange matters.”
And we are told that this spirit, this “double ‘conscience,’” “well-nigh pervades the entire union.” An editorial in the same issue of the Independent indorses Mr. Myers’ facts, and declares it to be “the appalling truth that the wickedness of bribery and wholesale stealing from taxpayers for the benefit of the few, lies almost wholly at the doors of men who move in what are called the ‘well-to-do’ or ‘exclusive’ circles. It lies at their doors to-day, and it has lain there from the beginning of human government. . . . The sources of infamy in civic affairs are rich and powerful classes who could, if they would, make the cities in which they dwell honorable and fair to behold.”
And all this emphasizes the truth of God’s Word that we are living in the last days, and that the end is at hand. Read Isaiah 59 and 2 Tim. 3:1–5, and see the fulfillment of both to-day.
Courts as a Gaming Establishment
The Molineux murder case in New York has consumed fifty-seven days of the court’s time, and the printed record makes 3,300 large pages. The defense makes a point of the fact that an additional thousand pages, consisting chiefly of wrangles among the lawyers which the recorder considered had no bearing upon the case, were omitted from this voluminous record. The courts of the land have come to be a great gaming establishment, where the winner is not the man with a just cause; but he wins who can make the greatest and most cunning use of money. The winning lawyer is not the one who stands the most bravely for the right, but he wins who is the most artful in technicalities and quibbles. Such things as these do not foreshadow the millennium that the world is talking about, but they do foreshadow the rapidly approaching end of time that the Bible so abundantly predicts.
The Spirit of Christ in Social Relations
The Spirit of Christ on the part of the rich would lead men to use wealth to benefit the poor and needy. The Spirit of Christ on the part of the poor would lead men to be faithful to God, doing faithful service to their employer because faithful to God. On the part of either would be no oppression, no forcing of men to terms repugnant, no combinations against smaller dealers or non-union workingmen. The Golden Rule would be the rule of life, and righteousness and peace the result.
ABANDONMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.—Concluded.
By Alonzo T. Jones
We have seen the republic of Rome deny to the peoples of her new and foreign possessions the privileges of her constitution, and make of them tributary subjects governed entirely without the constitution. We have seen that it was the thought of the responsible governmental party, that this should be done while retaining intact the constitution at home; but that the first step involved other issues which forced yet other steps in which those in power remodeled the constitution—“changing not the letter, but merely the practise of ‘the existing constitution.’”
And still “punishment followed in the steps of ‘wrong. The new provincial system NECESSITATED ‘the appointment of governors whose position was ‘absolutely incompatible . . . with the Roman ‘constitution.”—Mommsen.
The principle of the Roman constitution was that of self-government—government from the people themselves, by themselves; that men were capable of governing themselves, without any such thing as kingships. The theory upon which Rome’s new foreign possessions were held under Roman sovereignty, and their peoples held as tributary subjects of Rome, was that those peoples were not capable of self-government. Therefore when Roman governors were appointed to those peoples, it was upon the assumption that the people could not govern themselves, and must be governed. Accordingly, “as the Roman communities in the provinces took ‘the place of the former rulers of the land, so the ‘governor appeared there in the position of a king.”—Mommsen.
Nor was it only in the theory that the Roman governors “appeared there in the position of a king.”
Those peoples had been ruled by kings. Their immediate governors had been the official representatives of kings. These governors had dwelt in kingly palaces and maintained the state of kings. And now, since the whole theory of this Roman governorship was that those peoples were incapable of self-government, in order for the Roman governor to maintain the theory it became essential that he should actually hold toward the new subject peoples exactly the attitude, as well as the position, of a king. And this is why it was that “the new ‘provincial system necessitated the appointment of ‘governors, whose position was absolutely incompatible, not only with the welfare of the provinces, ‘but with the Roman constitution.”—Mommsen.
And up to this point the course of the republic of Rome has been followed by the republic of the United States. To the new possessions of the republic of the United States, governors have been appointed precisely upon the theory, and under precisely the local conditions, that the republic of Rome appointed her new governors. And how certainly the position of these new governors is not only absolutely incompatible, but is also recognized by the government to be absolutely incompatible with the United States Constitution, is made plain by the legislation of Congress respecting the government of the Philippine Islands.
February 27, 1901, there was before the Senate of the republic of the United States, for consideration and enactment, the following provision for the governing of the Philippine Islands:—
All military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern the Philippine Islands acquired from Spain by the treaties concluded at Paris on the tenth day of December, 1898, and at Washington on the seventh day of November, 1900, shall, until otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner, as the President of the United States shall direct for the establishment of civil government and for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of such islands in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion: Provided, That all franchises granted under the authority hereof shall contain a reservation of the right to alter, amend, or repeal the same.
This provision at once merges in one “person” all governmental powers in the Philippine Islands. A fundamental principle not only of the United States Constitution but of the genius of Anglo-Saxon government is that all governmental powers shall not be vested in one person, but shall be distributed—the legislative, the judicial, and the executive powers—in departments. This principle is that absolutism in government—all governmental power lodged in one man or one set of men—is not good; and that therefore not more than one portion of governmental power shall ever be exercised by one person or set of persons, so that each department shall be a check upon the others, in the interests of liberty and the protection of the people.
Upon this principle the government of the United States consists of three co-ordinate branches—the legislative, the judicial, and the executive; and Section 1 of Article I of the Constitution declares:—
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
And Section 1 of Article III of the Constitution says:—
The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.
It is therefore easily seen that the proposal respecting the government of the Philippine Islands is “absolutely incompatible with the” United States Constitution. For to make effective the new order of government for the new possessions, it was found necessary for the responsible power in the government of the United States, while retaining the letter, to change the practise, of the existing Constitution. For when the Constitution definitely confines to Congress “all legislative powers” granted, and to a supreme court, and such inferior courts as may from time to time be provided, all judicial powers; and then Congress passes over to, and vests in, “such person and persons . . . as the President of the United States shall direct,” all civil and judicial powers necessary to govern territory of the United States, that is nothing less than for Congress so far to abdicate its own power, and so far to take away from the courts their powers. It is also a clear abandonment of the Constitution of the United States, so far as the Philippine Islands are concerned, and, in principle, so far as any place is concerned.
Not only is this true in principle, but in the Senate, and by the Senate, it was seen to be true; and action was taken accordingly. First, an amendment was proposed to the Philippine section as follows:—
SEC.—That the Constitution of the United States is hereby extended over, and declared to be in force in, the Philippine Islands, so far as the same or any provision thereof may be applicable.
This was rejected by a vote of thirty-nine to twenty-three: not voting, twenty-six.
Afterward there was offered the following amendment:—
And provided further, That no judgment, order, nor act by any of said officials so appointed shall conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States.
This was rejected by a vote of forty-five to twenty-five: not voting, eighteen.
After this an amendment was offered requiring that—
Every person in whom authority is vested under this grant of power shall take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States.
This also was rejected, by a vote of forty-one to twenty-five: not voting, twenty-two.
When the Constitution itself had been thus definitely excluded and abandoned in the government of the Philippine Islands, there was offered an amendment embodying, and extending to the people of the islands, the substance of the Bill of Rights contained in the first few amendments to the Constitution, as follows:—
All persons shall be bailable unless for capital offenses where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate, and no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers and the law of the land. If the public exigencies make it necessary for the common preservation, to take the property of any person, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. No ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made. No law shall be made which shall lay any person under restraint, burden, or disability on account of his religious opinions, professions, or mode of worship, in all of which he shall be free to maintain his own, and not burdened for those of another.
This, too, was rejected, by a vote of forty-one to twenty-three: not voting, twenty-four.
When, thus, it had been voted, over and over again, to bestow unlimited power upon such persons as the President shall name to govern the Philippine Islands, then attempt was made to limit the time of the exercise of this power. Accordingly, an amendment was offered limiting this time to March 4, 1903. But this was rejected by a vote of forty-three to twenty-six: not voting, nineteen.
When it had been so positively decided that unlimited power should be given to these men,—and for unlimited time,—an attempt was made to give the Filipinos a part in the government of themselves. Accordingly, an amendment was offered, as follows:—
And secure to them such participation in the affairs of the civil government so to be established as shall be consistent with the safety of the government.
But this was rejected by a vote of thirty-nine to twenty-three: not voting, twenty-six.
When it had thus been explicitly and confirmedly settled that the powers of such men as the President shall appoint to govern the Philippines, shall be unlimited for all time, and shall be absolute over the people of the islands, attempt was made to save at least a vestige of constitutional liberty, as follows:—
Mr. Hoar: Mr. President there is one principle of constitutional liberty not yet slain, and I desire to give it a little chance for its life. I move the amendment which I send to the desk, to be inserted at the end of the bill.
The Presiding Officer: The Senator from Massachusetts submits an amendment, which will be stated.
The Secretary: It is proposed to add as a new section the following:—
“In the government of the Philippine Islands no person vested with legislative powers shall ever exercise the executive or judicial powers, or either of them; no person vested with executive powers shall ever exercise the legislative or judicial powers, or either of them; no person vested with judicial powers shall ever exercise the legislative or executive powers, or either of them; to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men.”
The Presiding Officer: The question is on the amendment of the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Hoar] to the amendment of the committee.
Mr. Jones, of Arkansas, and Mr. Pettus called for the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered, and the Secretary proceeded to call the roll.
And even this last principle of constitutional liberty was slain. It was rejected by a vote of forty-three to twenty-six: not voting, nineteen.
See the whole account in Congressional Record dated Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1901.
As already stated, the next day but one—Friday, March 1—the House of Representatives passed this legislation as it came from the Senate, without any change whatever. And since it was all done at the demand of the executive, of course it was all approved by him when it came before him to be signed. And Monday, May 27, 1901, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered a decision likewise abandoning the Constitution and recognizing “an unrestrained possession of power on the part ‘of Congress’” with respect to the new possessions.
Then, and up to date, the republic of the United States has repeated the course of the republic of Rome, step by step and item by item, in the apostasy from government of the people to government by a few or by one; from Constitutional government to absolutism; from the principle of a republic to that of monarchy.
The republic of Rome did not stop at that point. Will the republic of the United States stop at this point? Can she stop at this point?
Further consideration next week.
ALONZO T. JONES.
Ancient History Which Is Also Modern
All Things Are Yours
By Apostle Paul
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts [“reasonings,” R. V.] of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.—Apostle Paul.
