Earlier text: THE GUERDON OF DISLOYALTY“BECAUSE HE WAS A CHRISTIAN.”
In Sherman’s campaign it became necessary, in the opinion of the leader, to change commanders. O. O. Howard was promoted to lead a division which had been under the command of another general. Howard went thru the campaign at the head of the division, and on to Washington to take part in the review. The night before the veterans were to march down Pennsylvania Avenue, General Sherman sent for General Howard, and said to him:— “Howard, the politicians and the friends of the man whom you succeeded are bound that he shall ride at the head of his old corps, and I want you to help me out.” “But it is my command,” said Howard, “and I am entitled to ride at its head.” “Of course you are,” said Sherman. “You led them thru Georgia and the Carolinas, but, Howard, you are a Christian.” “What do you mean?” replied Howard. “If you put it on that ground, it changes the whole business. What do you mean, General Sherman?” “I mean you can stand the disappointment. You are a Christian.” “Putting it on that ground, there is but one answer. Let him ride at the head of his corps.” “Yes, let him have the honor,” added Sherman, “but, Howard, you will report to me at 9 o’clock, and ride by my side at the head of the whole army.” In vain Howard protested, but Sherman said gently but authoritatively, “You are under my orders.” When the bugle sounded the next morning, Howard was found trembling like a leaf, and it required another order from General Sherman before he was willing to take the place assigned to him. He had, as a Christian, yielded the place to another which rightly belonged to him, and in the grand review found himself not at the head of the corps, but at the head of the army. Even worldly men know where Christians should be who have laid down their lives in self-sacrifice for others.—Selected. NO MAN should be judged by a single act, but by the series of acts which makes up his moral character and indicates his destiny. Viewed at one point in his experience, Jacob was a deceiver; but when regarded in the main trend and ultimate development of his life, he appears as a prince of God. Observed at one point of his career, David was a brute; but taken all in all, he was a man after God’s own heart. It is the disposition and settled habit of life which determines a man’s character, and so his eternal future. Neither a devil nor a saint is made in a day.—N. Y. Observer. LORD, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make!
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take!
What parched grounds refresh, as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear;
We kneel how weak! We rise how full of power! Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,
Or others, that we are not always strong,
That we are ever overborne with care,
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
And joy, and strength, and courage are with Thee?
—Anon. WHY ARE CATHOLICS UNMOLESTED THERE?
THE Catholic Mirror of January 26 has an article entitled “The Church in Old Holland,” by the Rev. Charles Raaymakers, S.J., Doctor in Civil Law and Political Sciences, one who is supposed to know whereof he writes. Here are his opening words:- “As a rule, Holland is called a Protestant country, yet there is hardly any country in Europe where Roman Catholics are as unmolested as they are in Holland. This has not always been the case. In 1798 religious freedom was already proclaimed in the new constitution, tho our long and severely-persecuted forefathers in the faith danced with the republicans round the tree of freedom, and joyfully joined in their chorus of ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,’ yet their liberty was, to a great extent, only nominal. But gradually all restrictions have disappeared.” “at the present day their liberty is no longer a mere word, but a perfect liberty; no differences, either political or social, are any more to be noticed between Catholics and those belonging to other religions. Tho this, of course, is by no means an ideal state of things, yet for the present we ought to be thankful for the peace we enjoy.” Now, the very reason for this liberty is Protestantism and its principles. The very reason why Roman Catholics and their religion have been banished and proscribed in the past, has been because they were not content with equal rights. They believe, and have believed, that the Golden Rule applied only to Catholics; that religious liberty is for those who profess the Roman Catholic religion. They have failed to grasp the great Gospel fact that faith and religion are personal matters between man and his God. Failing in this, they have not only been intolerant of what they considered error, but of those who held it. And, because of this intolerance, because of the continual grasping after civil power, that thru civil government “heretical sects” might be suppressed, so-called Protestant governments, and even nations largely Catholic, have felt compelled, in order to preserve the government, to place restrictions upon Roman Catholics, and, especially, Roman Catholic orders. All the persecution that came upon Roman Catholics after the Reformation, all the restrictions under which they have labored, were laid upon them because of the principles of Roman Catholicism, still retained by those who had broken with the Roman fold; or because such restrictions seemed absolutely necessary to safeguard civil government from medieval ultramontane intrigue. As soon as Protestant peoples have felt that the government was safe from Rome’s continual and avowed purpose to subject all to the “see of Peter,” they have removed the restrictions and have given Rome as free a hand as other religious bodies. Thus has England done. Thus has Holland done. Thus did the United States from the beginning. The true Protestant-Christian ideal of what civil government ought to be is absolute non-interference of the secular magistrate in religious matters. Jesus Christ was intolerant of error as none other has ever been. His pure, right soul abhorred it unspeakably. But He loved the sinner. He did more than tolerate him; He gave him the absolute right to choose or refuse the Gospel. He came to preach. His words are, “If any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” And He further shows that judgment in matters of religion, and conscience, and faith, is not committed to church or mortal, to council or prelate, by His statement which follows: “He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My sayings, hath One that judgeth him; the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.” John 12: 47, 48, R.V. And this is the teaching of the Golden Rule: “All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them; for this is the law and the prophets.” Matt. 7: 12, R.V. Surely the Roman Catholic would not be restrained or restricted in his religious rights by the Protestant, the Jew, or the pagan. He, therefore, should not seek or desire to restrain them. Nay, more, the Christian will demand for his enemy the same rights, civilly and publicly, which he himself desires. He knows that God is love, that love can not be compelled, but that it must be a matter of free choice. The only safeguard (yet it is sufficient) to even the eternal government of God, is the great fact that, in the face of sin, rebellion, misrepresentation, His subjects have chosen Him, and proved loyal in trial. They will have demonstrated the goodness of God; they will never desire another master. “Affliction shall not rise up the second time.” If Dr. Charles Raaymakers, and Roman Catholics generally, knew this, they would ask no more than they would be willing to grant to Protestant or infidel. Jefferson’s crystallization of the thought,— “Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever State or persuasion, religious or political,—is certainly an ideal condition in the imperfect governments of this earth. No Christian could ask more; no other man should have more.” The waning of the spiritual life is always marked by indifference in the things of God. And waning spirituality means waning faith in the Word. Nominal belief may still abide, but living, operative faith is dying. There may be work, plenty of work of a sort, with dying faith. The prophets of Baal worked much more than the prophet of God in the great testing-time at Carmel. The Pharisee of old could say, no doubt truthfully, “I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess,” and much more. Of old, when Israel became backslidden, she still appeared at the courts of the Lord, kept and increased her oblations, held more meetings, and multiplied prayers. Isa. 1: 10-15. They were ready to offer thousands of rams, and to pour out ten thousands of rivers of oil; nay, more, to give their first-born. But they failed to recognize the true, godlike virtues of humility, justice, love, and mercy. The wicked balances and deceitful weights were still in evidence before the court of heaven. The statutes of Omri, and the works of sun-worshiping Ahab, were still performed, mingled with the pretended worship of Jehovah. See Micah 6. The first chapter of Malachi teaches the same lesson. The loss of vital faith, the evil, selfish practises indulged, blinded the spiritual vision, till God was considered “altogether such an one” as themselves. Ps. 50: 21. Having polluted bread, they offered it upon the altar of God. More than this, the altar, the worship, the service of God, were considered of minor importance. There were blind among the sheep, and lame among the goats, and sick among the kine, and these cost less, and were therefore offered to God. Lack of moral sensibility prevented their discerning the holiness and greatness of God. Multiplied or scant tho the offerings may be, which are reproved by Isaiah, Micah, or Malachi, the spirit of the transgression is the same, engendered in unbelief of God’s Word. In the time of Micah the people seemed to feel that they could buy God’s favor if they paid sufficient price. They considered the gifts and requirements of God of limited worth, capable of being obtained by human effort. Those to whom Malachi brings reproof feel that the service of God is of minor importance. They do not regard the unseen God as highly as they do the seen governor. The prophecy is left on record for this generation, “upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10: 11. The spirit of commercial greed is sweeping nations before its rising tide. The spirit of Biblical criticism, based largely on guess and hypothesis and assumption, has weakened faith and blinded the spiritual vision. The vision of God is become to such as a book that is sealed (Isa. 29: 11), and the near dollar, the proximate commercial gain, blinds the soul to the beauty of the Gospel, the glory of God’s requirements, the holiness of His law, the necessity of whole-hearted soul service. As a result, the Word of God is placed on a level with the words of men; the spiritual laws of God are considered mere matters of expediency, which men may ignore, or may legislate upon and enforce; the precepts of God and the precepts of tradition are placed side by side as of equal worth, the latter sometimes, as in7 the case of the Sunday sabbath, hiding and usurping the rightful place of the other; the house which has been builded for God’s worship may be used alike for a religious service or a political meeting or worldly entertainment; the minister of the Gospel dwarfs his office to that of a minister of the law, and the lobbyist of a Legislature; the morning newspaper is of more importance than the morning prayer; the wine, the beer, the tobacco, the tea and coffee, wholly evil and unnecessary, receive their millions, while the work of missions languishes, vice stalks boldly in high places, and congresses of religions and peace congresses become the prelude to religious persecution and world-wide war. The Lord truly says, and the words will apply here as truly as to a once-prospered land of old: “Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in the midst thereof. Her priests have done violence to My law, and have profaned Mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey; to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” Eze. 22: 24-30, R.V. The Remedy?—It is to return to the Word of God, to simple faith in Jesus Christ. “BELOVED, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live thru Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4: 7-10. HE is only good. His character is love. He therefore created or made only that which is good. He created man “upright.” His finished work of creation He, in His infinite knowledge, pronounced “very good.” There is no evil in Him or in His works. Sin and evil are the perversions of good. In God righteousness is outflowing, fruit-bearing, blessing others, and flowing back of itself upon the giver thru unnumbered channels. Sin is the perversion of God’s blessing to self, from without inward. Hatred is perverted love; it is so much love of self that the opposer of self is hated. Men hate those who are not in harmony with self. In the beginning man’s flesh was good. Ruled by the Spirit, it would have borne good fruit. But sin perverted its every function. “The works of the flesh” are now evil, or perverted good. “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness” are but manifestations of perverted or inordinate love. “Idolatry, witchcraft,” are perversions of true worship. “Hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,” etc., are perversions of love to self, the transgressions of the commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Yet the power in all these workings is of God. Sin has no power in itself; it is wholly negative. “The strength of sin is the law.” 1 Cor. 15: 56. God’s power is in His law. It is in every precept and word of His law. The law was “ordained unto life.” Rom. 7: 10. Forever it would have ministered to life if it had not been perverted; but, perverted, love is hatred, righteousness is sin, and the perversion brings death. Herein is the wisdom of God. There are no surprises in His government. He does not say arbitrarily that the transgressor against Him shall die because what he does displeases God; but in the very perversion of the power and life, in the transgressed law, is death. No rebellion, therefore, can overthrow God’s government; for every rebellion against absolute goodness has within itself the seeds of death, the precursor of its sure end. But God does not want man, the rebel, to die. He did not want Satan, he who was once Lucifer, to die. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Were it not for God’s mercy, all who have chosen sin would long ago have perished. He spares them, nay, more, pours out His life upon them, that He may exhaust His love, if necessary, in endeavoring to win them back to love and life. Yet, tho God does this continually, men pervert the life, and charge God with the evil. Could there be worse ingratitude? He showed how great His love by giving His only Son to die to win men back. That Son “gave Himself.” Yet men pervert even this, and charge God with cruelty. O soul, come to God as He is, and find in Him all that He wants to be to you, a God of infinite love, and only love! THESE words of our Saviour need often to be emphasized; for the tendency of the professed church is to the use of physical force, even to the employment of carnal weapons, in defense of the faith. The proneness to imitate the world in the promulgation and defense of the Gospel, has done much to deprive the church of legitimate power. It should not be forgotten that Peter was not yet converted when he used the sword upon one of the men whom the high priest had sent to arrest Jesus. The Lord uttered a double rebuke to this hasty, cruel, human idea of defending His cause. First, He peremptorily stopped that mode of defense, by the command to put up the sword; secondly, He used His divine healing power to remedy the evil done by this initial attempt at human defense. Had this command and this act of healing always been heeded, there never would have been any Dark Ages of persecution and death in the name of Jesus Christ. There never would have been any “holy wars” for the propagation of the Gospel. There never would have been any Inquisition, or racks, or thumbscrews, or imprisonments, or confiscation of goods in the name of Christianity. It was befitting that such a religion as that of Mohammed, or that of the Papacy, be established by the sword; for such as these are religions of carnal force, and belong to this world. They aim to conquer this world for the material spoils, as witness all their history. But Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My kingdom not from hence.” John 18:36. Then it is evident that any religion that is backed by the sword—which stands for the civil power of this world—is not the religion of Jesus Christ, whatever the profession may be. To endeavor to promote Christianity by any kind of civil power—whose ultimatum is physical force, the sword, if driven to that extremity—is false to the word and the example of Jesus Christ, and of all His apostles. But many professed Christians are prone to attempt the advancement of the kingdom of Christ by doing something physically heroic. How many missionaries among the heathen carry their carnal weapons! And many others put their trust for defense in the naval or military power of the governments of which they claim to be citizens. Some of the very best missionaries in China are admitting the mistakes that have been made by giving the natives to understand that the missionaries will be sustained by the governments that have robbed that country in trade, and forced the officials into making treaties and concessions which are humiliating to the people. Then, when the “uprisings” come, the missionary can not fall back upon his being a child of Christ, and show himself a non-combatant, working only for the good of souls. Why?—Because he has identified himself with some one of the governments that have been oppressing the people and disregarding their customs. Many missionaries will hold up the power of their home governments as a menace to those who seem hostile to their work, thus virtually indorsing the impositions that have come upon those whom they are seeking to convert to Christianity. Then, when the testing-time comes, and escape is impossible, they find their trusted defense is too far distant for present help. Then their enemies have a turn at boasting of their prowess, and Christianity is deemed inferior to the religion of the heathen. Concerning the incident in the Garden of Gethsemane, Joseph Parker makes this apt comment:— “There was one impetuous man on the side of Christ, who stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, and smote off his ear. That was a little man; he was the victim of the continual sophism, which debases our thinking, and causes our action to palpitate with vicious life, that it is necessary to do something. Jesus showed what could be done by submission. There is a force of passiveness, there is an energy of silence, there is a magnificent retort of non-resistance, which puzzles men of common mind and ordinary heart, the very mystery of heroism, to those who mistake noise for music, and tumult for power.” To this we add another terse utterance, by Dean Howson:— “Human vengeance will produce its own punishment. Resist, and you will be resisted. Treat men unkindly, and they will treat you unkindly. But, on the other hand, be gentle, and you will rule. Be willing to bear injuries, and you will triumph. ‘Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.’ Christ is the great fulfilment of that beatitude; and His example is here before us, consistent to the end.” This incident in Gethsemane is the last we hear of any resort to the sword on the part of the apostles, or of any professed disciples, until centuries had passed in the development of the “mystery of iniquity.” They adhered to the principle that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty thru God to the pulling down of strongholds.” 2 Cor. 10:4. In all of the “whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11–18) there is not one carnal weapon. The sword, standing for all human government, will perish when Christ comes to establish His glorious kingdom. Then “all they that take the sword [depend upon it for defense] shall perish with the sword.” Matt. 26:52. The “sword,” and all its dependents, will go down to the bottomless pit together. G. “BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD.”
By G.
AMONG the false doctrines which the enemy of truth has foisted upon credulous people, is the idea of being baptized in lieu of those who have died without being baptized. It is believed that in some way this proxy baptism benefits those in whose behalf it is performed. It is akin to all other services and sacrifices offered by the living for the dead, for the purpose of ameliorating their future condition. Like all false doctrine, it comes from a perversion of the truth. If the dead could be saved, or at all benefited, by the formal baptism of the living in their behalf, then their salvation could be by works alone. Not only so, but they could be saved by the works of others than themselves, regardless of what their own lives might have been. Then could salvation be purchased by carnal sacrifices. But the Scripture assures us that we “were not redeemed with corruptible things, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19. Another scripture says, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” Eph. 2:8, 9. Then if one, even while living, can not be saved by his own works, how could he, when dead, be benefited by the works of another fallible being? It is true that faith must be proved by works; in Abraham’s case, “by works was faith made perfect.” James 2:22. But the works that prove the necessary faith for salvation must be done by the individual who is to be saved, and not by another fallible one in his stead. And each work must be done by the individual himself while he is alive; for in the grave he is powerless. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Eccl. 9:10. And, even when alive, the works which one does in proof of his faith are not his own works, nor the works of any other finite being. They are the works of the Spirit of God; “for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13. The notion that persons may benefit the dead by being baptized for them arises from a perversion of 1 Cor. 15:29, which reads, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead?” From this it is inferred by some that there was then a custom, which the apostles virtually indorsed, of some persons being baptized for those who were dead. This conclusion comes of the too common practise of applying the words of a text without seeking its import in the context, or in other scriptures. In this chapter the apostle is discoursing upon the resurrection of Christ, and the necessity of a resurrection in order to obtain immortality. Some of the Corinthian brethren had in some way imbibed the idea that there was no resurrection. So Paul writes: “Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” Verses 12-14. So important is this idea that the apostle repeats it in these words: “If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verses 16-18. The point is that a dead Christ could do nothing for any one. He must necessarily rise from the dead in order to avail anything for those who believed in Him. Now, those who had been baptized were baptized in the name of Christ. The rite of baptism showed that the one who received it believed in the Death and resurrection of Christ, through which he hoped for salvation. But if Christ was not raised, his faith was vain; then what was the benefit of his baptism in the name of the dead, or “for the dead”? The text in question has sole reference to being baptized in the name of a Christ who died. The apostle goes on to show that it is all folly to be baptized for, or in the name of, Christ if the dead rise not, which they do not. “Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? . . . If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” Thus the apostle bases all hope of immortality on a resurrection from the dead. Here is his summing up on this point:— “Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Verses 51-55. It is true that “God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Eccl. 7:29. The enemy of souls is the real inventor of the things which men have “sought out,” and there seems to be no end to his inventions of ways and means by which they may be saved without recourse to the Lord’s way. And it is true of the masses, as it was of the Jews, to whom Jesus said, “Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might be saved.” Men will do almost anything but come to Him who only is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” G. GOLD RUSTING.
By G. B. Thompson
In James 5:3 we read that in the last days the gold and silver will be cankered and that it will “rust.” Gold continually circulated will not rust, and the fact that the Lord speaks of it as being rusty would seem to indicate that it would be piled up unused. The following from the London Mail is of interest in the light of the text above referred to:— “The world is full of millions and millions of long-lost sovereigns. A competent authority has just completed some investigations which, he declares, show that in three years the Bank of England has lost trace of no fewer than 20,000,000 golden coins of the realm. This wholesale disappearance of the elusive sovereign has been going on for years. “A river of gold has flowed unceasingly from Threadneedle Street to all parts of the world, but it has come back only as a tiny yellow streamlet. What has become of the surplus in its wanderings? ‘Misers’ is the unpoetical explanation for a great part of this disappearance. There still exist in this and other countries people who are business-like enough to hoard up gold and keep it lying idle by them for the sole pleasure of knowing it is there and occasionally counting it. “The people of India appear to be particularly addicted to a habit that is more reminiscent of medieval times than of an age when money is generally saved so that more can be made with it. In the regency of Bombay it is estimated that 12,000,000 golden sovereigns are hoarded. If that is the record of Bombay alone, what is the full tale for the whole country? China, too, absorbs a vast amount of gold that never sees the light again. As a matter of fact, while the whole world is searching for and trying to acquire gold, a goodly part of it appears to be engaged in the less thrilling pastime of hiding it away. “Great Britain is not guiltless of this commercial sin. Dotted all over the kingdom are graveyards of gold, which, if discovered and opened, might restore to circulation a vast amount of wealth at present absolutely useless. At a spot about two miles from Herefordshire Beacon, a treasure chest is recorded in the local history as having been buried by a great family once resident in the district. But the money can not be found. There is a similar record in connection with Hulme Castle, formerly a seat of a branch of the Prestwich family. Somewhere near Stokesay Castle, Shropshire, there is believed to be hidden a great oaken chest filled with gold coins, but up to the present all efforts to find it have ended in failure.” The covetousness of rich corporations is, by unjust schemes, wringing from the pockets of the poor that which is theirs by right. By fraud they are increasing their ill-gotten gain. They are hoarding in their coffers the gold and silver of the earth. But “be ye patient.” The cry of the oppressed has9 entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts. The just judge standeth before the door. Gold and silver will not deliver in the day of His vengeance. As we believe this sign of His coming judgments, may it inspire us to hide in Him for deliverance. CHINESE GIRLS SOLD IN SAN FRANCISCO.
By T.
Gong Gow, who for years has kept one of the disreputable dens in San Francisco, decided recently that he would go back to China. Among his assets were five young girls that he had kept in his den as prostitutes. These were put upon the block and sold at public auction. They were not sold to a slave-driver and condemned to a life of hard, laborious toil; it was far worse than that; they were sold to another dive-keeper and condemned to a life of vice—perhaps their education is such that they know nothing of shame. If such a thing as this had been done in some corner under the cover of secrecy it would not have been so shameful, so far as the community is concerned. But the auction was duly advertised, and took place at midday in the heart of “Chinatown,” which is not far removed from the business center of San Francisco, and is only a little way from the most aristocratic residence portion of the city. What do such things as this say in regard to the boasted civilization of this time? Did men really possess the virtues that we boast of to-day, could such a thing as that happen in one of the leading cities of this enlightened land? If the sentiments of purity and uprightness were anything more than a veneer in so many of the cases that profess it, no heathen would think it safe to do such things in the light of day in the open streets of a leading city. It should be manifest to any one who will stop to think of it, that this world is getting into a terribly sunken condition. Not that we would attach so much importance to the fact that a heathen sold some girls to a life of vice, but that it could be done in such a land as this. Where is our boasted morality when such things can be done in the open, and no one seem to pay any particular attention to it? And should not the blush of shame cover our faces when we think that the moral sentiment of the community is so low that any one would dare do such things? Even a heathen knows better than to go right in the face of a strong public sentiment in any of his debaucheries. Happenings of this kind not only show that vice is becoming more and more prevalent, but they also show that the people are becoming more and more indifferent to it. T. FOUR minutes and seven seconds after the death of Queen Victoria a telegram announcing the fact was in the Examiner office in San Francisco. In seventeen minutes after the message reached the office, a special edition of the paper was off the press, and the newsboys on the streets were crying, “Special edition of the Examiner, telling all about the death of the queen.” This message had to be transmitted from the Isle of Wight, where the queen died, to London, thence under the Atlantic Ocean to New York, and then flashed all the way across the American continent to San Francisco. In the War of 1812 the battle of New Orleans was fought after peace had been declared between the two nations. But the means of communication were so slow that it took a number of days to get the message announcing it to the generals in the field. How different are things to-day! The whole world seems to be in the same neighborhood. And we can know of things in the farthest corners of the globe just as they are happening, the same as we know the things of our own town. The Lord has a great object lesson for us in all this. He has a message to give to the world in regard to the second coming of His Son. The time is at hand for that message to be given, and He says that it shall be preached in all the world. Do you not see how He has stirred men to invent things and get them in place so that this message can be given in an incredibly short time? And how thrilling is the thought that the sublime event of His coming is right at hand! How good it is for Him to have all these things so prepared that every one may know of the signs that are fulfilling day by day to herald His coming! He has foretold in His Word the things that the various nations of earth would be doing in the last generation. He has told what would be the condition of society. He has told of the storms by land and sea. Now how could we know of all these things, and see them as signs of the coming Saviour, were not the telegraph and the printing-press connecting every community on the face of the earth? How wonderful are all these things, and how absolutely do they fit the prophetic Word! And by the combined concurrence of it all we may know of a surety that the reign of sin is at an end, and that the Master will soon appear. Let us be ready; for it is the most joyous event of the ages. T. THE SABBATH QUESTION IN SAMOA.
By T.
The Sabbath question has come to the front in a rather novel way in Tutuila, one of the Samoan group of islands. The native ministers, or faifeaus, are very strict in their requirement that every one shall keep Sunday. All are to attend church, and no one is allowed to sing anything but religious songs or hymns on that day. After the United States took the island under its care, the natives came to think that they would not be required to observe such regulations under a republic, and so they have petitioned Commander Tilley, the governor of the island, to “abolish the fourth commandment.” Here is a lesson for those who would have us compelled to observe Sunday whether we desire to or not. Such restraint does not produce a real change in the individual, it only binds him to a thing that is against his will, and keeps him from reasoning upon what he is doing, and thus is he kept away from the good that might come to him thru the moral power of a voluntary act. If men could be made good by compulsion in any such way, the Lord would have absolutely compelled men to obey His laws. But the Lord takes cognizance of the fact that unless there is the positive choice of the individual acting in the matter there is no real morality. When a man is bent on murder or robbery or something of that kind, the civil law should take hold of him and say, You must not do such things. That is the only way by which the rights of others can be preserved. But this necessary use of civil law should not be confused with the voluntary obedience to God’s moral law. This distinction should be plain to any one who takes the time to think upon it, and if men would only recognize it we would have no religious persecution, and the world would move on much better than it does. The fact that Sunday is not the Sabbath does not change the principle in the least. It would be just as wrong for men to attempt to compel the observance of the true Sabbath as it is for them to compel Sunday observance. God’s government is not a despotism, as so many suppose and affirm. It is a pure democracy. Every one who ever has a place in the kingdom of Christ will be there because he has chosen to serve Him. He will have elected the Son of God his king for eternity. And ruling by the power of love is the force that the Master uses in holding and guiding His subjects. No other plan than this could make the subjects of His kingdom perfectly happy. The Lord invites us earnestly. He urges us to come to Him. But He never drives us. He says, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve,” and tells us, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” We should carefully study these principles, and then we will see clearly that there is no place in God’s government, either in heaven or upon earth, for the enforced observance of any of His precepts. T.