Earlier text: Somebody CaresEditorial Correspondence
By F. M. W.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAL., March 1, 1912. ONE very encouraging feature of our denominational work is the change that has taken place in the purposes and plans of our institutions during the last few years. There was a time when our colleges were educating many young persons who, on graduating, went out into worldly pursuits. Only a few, comparatively, of those who completed their school work found a place in connection with this great movement. The last few years have witnessed a great change in this respect. Our schools now exist for the special purpose of providing workers for this cause; and that they may fit themselves for the carrying of this message is the great purpose which possesses the majority of the young men and women who enroll as students. This same transformation has been wrought in the experience of our publishing houses. Years ago the two leading publishing houses of this denomination were engaged in turning out a large amount of commercial work. It was felt that this was necessary to their existence, that they would not be able to exist on the income received from the publication of denominational literature alone. Repeatedly and urgently the instruction came through the spirit of prophecy that commercial work should not be done; that its demoralizing influence should be eliminated from our publishing houses; and that if our offices of publications would undertake the manufacture of books dealing with the great truths of God, these would find ready sale, and that the publishing houses would have all they could do on denominational work alone. Contrary to human judgment, but in faith that God was leading in the matter, our publishing houses undertook this work. The Review and Herald Publishing Association in the East, the Southern Publishing Association in the South, and the Pacific Press in the West left off commercial work, and since that time the facilities of the institutions and the energies of the workers have been devoted in ways which contribute to the advancement of this message. God has signally blessed this course. The most expectant hopes of our brethren have been realized, and to-day our publishing houses are sometimes sorely pressed in their efforts to meet the demand which exists in the field for our books and periodicals. Of the prospering hand of God in this particular, and of his great mercy which has attended the work in many other and in very special ways, the Pacific Press Publishing Association is fully cognizant. The sale of their plant in Oakland and the removal to a quiet country town was attended with many difficulties. But this step was in line with providential leadings. Removed from the evil influences of a large city, in the quiet, restful atmosphere of a suburban town, the institution has been able at last to surround its workers with such an atmosphere, and to direct the work in such ways, as have brought to it both material and spiritual blessings. The earthquake disaster, followed by the fire of 1906, which nearly destroyed the institution, was a severe blow; and yet those connected with the institution believe that God overruled even this disaster for the good of the work, in that it brought the association more fully than ever before to realize their dependence upon God, and the call of God to devote the entire resources of the work to the promulgation of this message. Every year has witnessed material progress. The year just closed has been one of special victory in many ways. The year 1910 ran ahead of every preceding year in the volume of business transacted, but 1911 exceeded the business of 1910 by over $9,000, making the volume of business for last year in excess of $397,000. The interest-bearing debt for 1911 showed a reduction of $5,000. The net gain in the operation of the institution for 1911 was over $28,000. As indicating something of the volume of business which is being carried forward, over fifty car-loads of paper and binding material was used in the work during last year. During the same time 154 tons of bound books and tracts were shipped out to various parts of the field from the main office in Mountain View. Three regular journals are published by the Pacific Press; namely, the Signs of the Times weekly, Signs of the Times Monthly, and Our Little Friend. The Signs of the Times weekly enjoyed a splendid increase of circulation over that of the preceding year. Fifty numbers were issued, with an average circulation of nearly 25,000 copies. This did not include the Harvest Ingathering number, of which 550,000 copies were printed and circulated. The average circulation of the Signs of the Times Monthly amounted to nearly 35,000 copies. This made a total circulation gain over the preceding year of nearly 45,000 copies. The average circulation of Our Little Friend during the year was nearly 15,000 copies. The value of these publications may be estimated according to the price placed upon such matter in the marts of the world, but what estimate can be placed upon the good accomplished as these books and periodicals have been read by their thousands of readers during the last twelve months? Their value can be estimated only by the value of the souls to whom they will be instrumental in bringing the saving knowledge of the gospel of our Lord. That these periodicals are doing a splendid work in reaching the hearts of men and women, there is abundance of evidence. In the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists to-day may be found many men and women filling important positions in our denomination who received their first knowledge of this closing message from the reading of our pioneer missionary paper, the Signs of the Times. In those days this paper was largely used by our church missionary societies and by individual members. It was sent out to addresses obtained in various ways, followed up by letters of inquiry and correspondence, resulting in study on the part of the readers, and their subsequent acceptance of the truth. That kind of missionary work, while it brought people to a knowledge of the truth, kept those already in the truth alive and awake to its spirit. That old-time spirit of missionary labor is sadly needed among Seventh-day Adventists to-day. There is danger that we shall adopt worldly methods and seek to do even the work of God by proxy. We may pay a faithful tithe for the support of the work in the home land, we may give liberally to the support of foreign missions; all this is good, but all this may be done and yet the doers thereof lack the touch of personal missionary work, of work that is the very life of the soul. It is the personal touch with Jesus Christ, the personal touch with men in imparting to them the grace we ourselves have received, that keeps the love and missionary spirit of the Lord Jesus burning brightly in our hearts. This spirit we need to cultivate. And we know of no better medium for carrying on such work than the excellent papers published by the Pacific Press Publishing Association. Scores of our brethren and sisters should be engaged in the sale of the Signs of the Times Monthly. Our church missionary societies, and our isolated brethren and sisters should take clubs of the Signs of the Times weekly, and revive the work which proved so effective in the beginning of this movement. They will find that such methods have lost none of their power. It has been a genuine pleasure for us to associate with the editors, and the management of the Pacific Press Publishing Association, during the last few days. We have found here an earnest company of men and women whose hearts God has touched, and who are laboring devotedly to give the trumpet a certain sound, in the writing and preparation of the gospel message for these last days. While rejoicing in the material success which has come to the work, they feel that the true and greater success to be attained, after all, is a living connection with God, which will give them power so to present the message they carry as to move the hearts and mold the lives of men. Let us pray God to give power to these great agencies that are operating in the world. Let us hold up the hands of our institutional workers, because these, even above the workers in the field, need a daily divine unction. Shut up within four walls, laboring day after day, and many times at work which appears wholly mechanical, they need the constant, divine touch in order that they may be sanctified instruments through whom God can constantly permit his divine Spirit to flow out to the world. The work is one. Let us remember this. No institutional walls should confine our interests; no conference lines or sectional divisions should mar our unity. We are debtors to all men. Let us stand together as one united army of the Lord to accomplish his work in this generation. Thus laboring, we shall see of the revelation of his mighty power in cutting the work short in righteousness. The True Idea of Sacrifice
By William W. Prescott
When John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God,” he furnished the key for the correct interpretation of the ritual service which had for so many centuries preached the gospel of the coming Redeemer. Every lamb that was offered in sacrifice, either in patriarchal times or later in the services of the sanctuary or of the temple, was designed to direct the mind of the offerer to the one true sacrifice. In that wonderful fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, in which the sufferings of Christ are so touchingly portrayed, we read:— “He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” Isa. 53:7. This was the very passage of Scripture which the eunuch was reading when Philip joined him, and in reply to the question, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this?” “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, preached unto him Jesus.” That the blood of the lamb of the ancient sacrifice was a type of the blood of Christ, “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God,” is clearly implied in the following scripture:— “Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ: who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake.” 1 Peter 1:18-20. In harmony with this interpretation we find that in his vision of heavenly beings John— “saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, . . . and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” Rev. 5:6-8. So also we read of “the twelve apostles of the Lamb;” that “the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple” in the holy city Jerusalem; that the river of water of life proceeds “out of the throne of God and of the Lamb;” and that “the throne of God and of the Lamb” shall be in the New Jerusalem. But while understanding clearly that the sacrifices of the ritual service were thus a type of Christ, who “gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God,” it is of the greatest importance for us to understand the practical lesson which we are to draw from the whole scheme of sacrifices, and which we are to apply in our own experience. This lesson is clearly suggested in the following interpretation:— “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body didst thou prepare for me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: then said I, Lo, I am come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Heb. 10:5-10. There was nothing accomplished for the sinner by the mere sacrifice of an animal. Unless it was the expression of a personal experience, it was mere formalism, as is plainly taught by the words of God through the psalmist:— “Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” “Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me.” Ps. 50:13, 14, 23. The psalmist David knew that the mere taking of the life of animals did not make a man right with God. He says:— “Thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Ps. 51:16, 17. This brings us nearer to the proper meaning of all typical sacrifices as revealed in the life of Christ, in contrast with those sacrifices and offerings which in themselves availed nothing. He gave himself up to a life of obedience to God, which culminated in his death on the cross. Of this we read:— “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Jesus himself testified that he came to this earth wholly devoted to the doing of the will of God:— “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work.” John 4:34. “I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” John 5:30. “I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” John 6:38. This complete yielding of his life to do the will of God is found in the prayer of our Lord in the garden the night before his crucifixion:— “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Matt. 26:39. “My Father, if this can not pass away, except I drink it, thy will be done.” Verse 42. This sacrifice of himself to do the will of God was made for our sake. This experience was wrought out in the flesh for the benefit of those who through the weakness of the flesh are unable of themselves to yield perfect obedience to the will of God. When the Son of man made an offering of himself in complete consecration to the doing of the will of God, he consecrated potentially the whole church constituting his body upon earth. This is the meaning of the statement:— “By which will we have been sanctified [consecrated] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Heb. 10:10. He in whose heart Christ dwells by8 faith is enabled to avail himself of that potential consecration which was effected by Jesus in behalf of the church by his own consecration to the will of God, and in this way is answered the inspired prayer:— “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Rom. 12:1, 2. Inasmuch as the perfect will of God is revealed in his perfect law, that sacrifice which is acceptable to him is found in complete obedience to the law of God, rendered through that personal faith in Christ which makes such obedience possible. This means the writing of the law in the heart through the mediation of our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Thus the experience which is involved in the true idea of sacrifice is the very experience that belongs to the people of God under the closing message,—the preparation for the coming of the kingdom. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth” Spiritual Babylon and Her Prototype
By C. M. S.
BABYLON has had much to do with the people of God in all ages. Her name appears no less than two hundred sixty-four times in the Sacred Volume. With her history is inextricably intertwined the history of the church of God from earliest times, and it will continue so to be until the time when the true church of Jesus Christ shall triumph over all the powers and deceptions of great Babylon, the ensnaring enchantress of the ages. The long-buried bricks that babble of the glories of ancient Babylon tell us what her character was, and just as truly what modern Babylon's is. God named her when the bolt of his displeasure smote the head of her great tower, when he drove the wedge of a confused speech into her organization. That bolt of his disapproval, like a meteor fallen into the sea, sent wave on wave of humanity in concentric circles widening and expanding to the confines of the earth, with Babylon, the beginning of kingdoms, the center of the radiation; but wherever they went, they carried with them that distinguishing element of Babylon—confusion. That character persists. It has worked out along different lines in different lands, but the result is the same, tenacious, insistent, persistent, unchanging—confusion. God did not leave men in ignorance as to the various forms of life that exist upon the earth. We have the record of that creation in God's Word; Adam had it from God's own lips; and the world had Adam for the space of nine hundred thirty years to testify truly concerning the creation of man; and that true testimony was handed down by his posterity. Nevertheless, Babylon from earliest times taught a pantheistic evolution, a doctrine of the emanation of the human from the divine substance. The historian says of Babylon upon this point:— The fundamental ideas of the pantheistic and emanative theories, which were the basis of all religion in Chaldea and Egypt, as well as in India, left everything uncertain as to the creation of mankind. Men, as well as all other created beings, were supposed to have issued from the very substance of the Deity, . . . and they came into being spontaneously.—Lenormant, “Manual of Ancient History.” Evolution, pantheism, agnosticism, and infidelity,—these are not inventions of modern times or of modern genius. They are as old as Babylon; they spell confusion; they were all germinant in the character and teachings of the Babylon of old. God gave to man explicit instruction in regard to the order of creation, the distinction between the different species. But great Babylon must confuse the minds of men on this point also. So we have, among the fragments of the writings of Berosus, the following account of the condition of things in the new-created world, as believed in Babylon:— There was a time when there existed nothing but darkness, and an abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were produced of a twofold principle. There appeared men, some of whom were furnished with two wings, others with four and with two faces. They had one body but two heads,—the one that of a man, the other that of a woman,—and likewise in their several organs both male and female. Other human figures were to be seen with the legs and horns of goats; some had horses' feet; while others united the hind quarters of a horse with the body of a man, resembling in shape the hippocentaurs. Bulls likewise were bred there with the heads of men; and dogs with fourfold bodies, terminating in their extremities with the tails of fishes. In short, there were creatures in which were combined the limbs of every species of animals. Here again are the teachings of Babylon, spelling out in plainest letters that name which God gave to that system as well as to that system's great monument—confusion. Situated at the junction of upper and lower Asia, within reach of the two great rivers communicating with the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, the city of Babylon became the depot for caravans from the East and the West, as well as the port for ships arriving from Africa, Arabia, and India. “Everything proves,” says the historian, “that this great city was, from remotest antiquity, one of the chief commercial centers of the East.” International highways radiated in all directions from Babylon, and the most precious fabrics and products from all countries were exchanged there. She manufactured the most gorgeously colored cloths of woolen and linen; and while Babylon fondled the nations upon her knees, she taught them the secrets of her traffic in virtue. “Everything proves,” says Lenormant, “that the most unbounded and shameless naturalism played a great part in the worship of the Babylonians. . . . Belit had a magnificent temple in the center of Babylon, where an infamous custom compelled every woman once in her lifetime to give herself up to a stranger. . . . At Cuthah, Nanaa or Zarpanit was worshiped under the name of Succoth Benoth, a name referring to the prostitutions in honor of that goddess.” Knowing these things, what a striking meaning there is in these words of the revelator picturing the iniquities of spiritual Babylon in the doings of her prototype, Babylon of old:— “I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things of her fornication, and upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Rev. 17: 3-6. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, that hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Rev. 14: 8. “For by the wine of the wrath of her [Babylon's] fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness.” “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more; merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet; . . . and merchandise of horses and chariots and slaves; and souls of men.” “Thy merchants were the princes of the earth; for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth.” Rev. 18: 3, 11-13, 23, 24. As Babylon of old sat at the gate of the nations dispensing delicacies, soul corruptions, and doctrines of confusion to all corners of the earth, so sits spiritual Babylon to-day, with the same influence over the nations, disseminating dogmas of confusion, trafficking in the “souls of men,” the pages of her history red with the blood of martyrs; arrayed in purple and scarlet and silk and9 fine linen and precious stones, but cherishing in her heart an undying thirst for the lives of those who deign to serve God as they believe God requires, untrammeled by her trappings and unswerved by fear of her anathemas. As Babylon of old turned aside from the laws of God and trampled upon their precepts, and brought confusion into the ways of men and nations, so has spiritual Babylon opposed herself to the law of God, set up rites and ceremonies of her own, and exalted herself even above the God whom she professes to serve. Babylon of old sought to seat herself in the sky by building a tower that would place her there; and in harmony with that persistent character we find the leader of spiritual Babylon denominated in Holy Writ “the son of perdition” who “opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thess. 2: 3, 4. All this spiritual Babylon has done. Her boast is that she never changes. How true it is! Every step in the history of spiritual Babylon was taken, before she took it, by her temporal prototype, and every such step in every age has spelled her name—confusion. C. M. S. Notes on Important Eras of Prophetic History
By W. A. S.
The Hand of God in History — No. 5
Notes on Important Eras of Prophetic History
A Great Prophetic Measuring Line
THE longest time prophecy of the Bible is the twenty-three-hundred-year period (Dan. 8:14), stretching from ancient times to the midst of the nineteenth century, the opening days of our own generation. It is awe-inspiring to trace the great measuring lines of prophecy through the ages, and to see the exactness with which events take place to meet the specifications of the divine Word. The Lord speaks. A thousand years, two thousand, pass. Then, as the flight of time brings the hour for the fulfilment, the event is brought forth. It is the precision of Eternity, the working of him in whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. In the third year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, the Lord gave to Daniel a vision of the great apostasy that was to come in later times. First he was shown the kingdom of the Medes and Persians which followed Babylon, and that Grecia would come next upon the stage of world dominion. Dan. 8:20, 21. The views were like moving pictures upon the screen, one power appearing, doing its work, then giving place to the next. Following Grecia, the prophet beheld the rise of a people of “fierce countenance,” stern soldiers, who were to take possession of the pleasant land. It was Rome that followed Grecia, and that annexed the Holy Land. As Daniel watched the later history of Rome, he saw apostasy developing, exalting itself, treading underfoot the people of God, and casting down the truth of God, seemingly triumphant. The prophet’s heart must have cried out to know if this power would forever prosper in its work; for next he heard the voice of a holy one asking the question for him,— “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?” Verse 13. “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Verse 14. In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year. Eze. 4: 5, 6. This two-thousand-three-hundred-year period, we know, reaches to the latter days; for the angel said further, “At the time of the end shall be the vision.” Dan. 8:17. The question was, “How long?” or, more literally, “Until when?” And the answer was, Unto two thousand three hundred years. Then what?—“Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Then, according to the burden of the prophecy, we may look for God to begin to cut short the reign of that apostasy, and finally to bring it to an end. The cleansing of the sanctuary is God’s answer to this lawless power. Apostasy may for a time exalt itself against God, and tread underfoot the people and the truth of God; but the just balances of the sanctuary will yet pronounce judgment, and the apparent prosperity of evil be cut short. “I was envious,” said the psalmist, “when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” Ps. 73:3, 17. What, then, is involved in the cleansing of the sanctuary? The cleansing of the sanctuary, in the typical service of the earthly tabernacle, was the last phase of the ministry of the high priest. When the time for this period in the Levitical ministry came, on the last day of the yearly round of service, the high priest entered the most holy place with the sprinkled blood of the sin-offering. All through the year the people had been confessing their sins over the sacrifice, and the blood of their offerings, bearing their sins, had been ministered in the holy place, the first apartment, before the second veil. But when the time came for the last phase of priestly ministry, the high priest entered the most holy place, and the time of cleansing the sanctuary was come. Leviticus 16. Sins had been forgiven when the penitents brought their offerings day by day. But all the record of the year was registered in the sanctuary by the sprinkled blood of the offerings over which the sins had been confessed. Now, when the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary from all this record came, in the last period of the ministry,—on that solemn “tenth day of the seventh month,”—it was a miniature day of judgment in Israel. The record was made up. Every man’s life came in solemn review that day. And whosoever was not found right with God, as that service was performed, was cut off from part with the Lord’s people:— “For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.” Lev. 23:29. All this was but an “example and shadow of heavenly things,” a representation of the ministry of our great High Priest, Jesus, in the true sanctuary, the heavenly temple. The last phase of Christ’s ministry, then, is a work of judgment, a review of the heavenly record, corresponding to the ministry in the second apartment of the earthly tabernacle in that period of the Levitical service when the sanctuary was cleansed. Daniel the prophet was shown in vision this change in the ministry of the heavenly temple, the true sanctuary. He saw the opening of the judgment hour in heaven. The prophet describes the wondrous scene, as God’s living throne, with its wheels of fire, moved into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary for the closing work of Christ’s ministry:— “I beheld till the thrones were cast down [“placed,” Revised Version], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7:9, 10. It is the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary from the record of sin, and, according to the teaching of the type, whosoever, when that work closes, is not found right with God, loses his part eternally with the people of God. But our great High Priest has made the promise, recorded in Rev. 3:5:— “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” The great prophetic period of Dan. 8:14 was given to let men on earth know when this hour of investigative judgment began in heaven. Atlantic Union Conference
Statement of $300,000 Fund, March 1, 1912
Atlantic Union Conference
Central New England ........ $3,797.79
Greater New York .......... 3,386.10
Maine ..................... 496.61
New York .................. 1,899.08
Northern New England .... 1,153.03
Southern New England ...... 635.69
Western New York ......... 2,010.90
Total .................... 13,379.20 Canadian Union Conference
Maritime .................. 329.41
Ontario .................. 1,780.23
Quebec ..................... 599.60
Newfoundland
Total ..................... 2,709.24 Colorado ................. 2,189.04
East Kansas .............. 1,653.15
Nebraska ................. 12,101.55
North Missouri ........... 1,117.82
South Missouri ............. 549.45
Western Colorado ........... 841.26
West Kansas .............. 2,150.61
Wyoming .................. 1,674.70
St. Louis .................. 118.50
Total .................... 22,396.08 Columbia Union Conference
Chesapeake ............... 1,190.49
District of Columbia ..... 1,568.37
Eastern Pennsylvania ..... 2,348.85
New Jersey ............... 1,928.80
Ohio ..................... 5,319.54
Virginia ................... 475.85
West Pennsylvania ........ 1,334.61
West Virginia .............. 488.50
Total .................... 14,655.01 East Michigan ............ 5,174.56
Indiana .................. 4,578.70
Northern Illinois ........ 2,769.76
North Michigan ............. 816.61
Southern Illinois ........ 2,228.39
West Michigan ............ 6,402.75
Wisconsin ................. 2,443.49
Total .................... 24,414.26 Northern Union Conference
Iowa ..................... 6,457.03
Minnesota ................ 4,286.94
North Dakota ............. 2,397.37
South Dakota ............. 3,194.77
Total .................... 16,336.11 North Pacific Union Conference
Montana .................. 1,624.44
Southern Idaho ........... 2,032.56
Southern Oregon .......... 1,096.88
Upper Columbia ........... 3,550.11
Western Oregon ........... 4,221.25
Western Washington ....... 3,791.27
Alaska ....................... 7.15
Total .................... 16,323.66 Arizona ..................... 770.11
California ................ 9,934.33
Southern California ....... 6,782.04
Utah ........................ 217.65
Central California ........ 2,580.14
N. California-Nevada ...... 2,999.01
Total .................... 23,283.28 Southeastern Union Conference
Cumberland ............... 1,778.92
Florida .................. 1,922.15
Georgia ..................... $887.32
North Carolina ............. 523.30
South Carolina ............. 425.25
Asheville ..................... 1.00
Total ..................... 5,537.94 Southern Union Conference
Southern Union Conference. ... 70.66
Alabama ..................... 234.81
Kentucky .................... 317.70
Louisiana ................... 539.82
Mississippi ................. 710.53
Tennessee River ............. 913.11
Southern Union Mission ....... 6.15
Total ..................... 2,792.78 Southwestern Union Conference
Arkansas ................... 361.46
New Mexico .................. 248.85
North Texas ............... 1,336.27
Oklahoma .................. 2,486.31
South Texas ................. 294.21
West Texas .................. 184.20
Southwestern Union Mission .... 3.05
Total ..................... 4,914.35 Western Canadian Union Conference
Alberta .................... 785.20
British Columbia ........... 867.98
Manitoba .................... 965.60
Saskatchewan .............. 1,045.00
Total ..................... 3,663.78 Miscellaneous ............ 15,916.68 Grand total ............ $166,322.37 Note and Comment
By Editor
During a stormy session of the Central Labor Union held in Washington, D. C., on March 11, this slogan was adopted: “Help our friends; beat our enemies.” Of course, this is a far departure from what might be termed one of the slogans of the gospel: “Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you.” Matt. 5:44. The verse preceding this reads: “Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.” These last-quoted words our Saviour condemns by substituting for them the motto above given. The one is Christian; the other is utterly opposed to the spirit of Christianity. The one flows from a heart of love; the other is dictated by the natural man, unconverted and unreconciled. In spite of this, however, there are certain religious organizations which have deliberately joined forces with the organization working under that slogan to bring about the compulsory observance of a religious ordinance, the Sunday sabbath. With such a yoking together of believers and unbelievers, which is itself condemned by our Saviour, we may expect to see more or less of the spirit of that slogan actuating the united forces when they bring pressure to bear upon all who oppose the unchristian purpose which they have in view. “Help our friends; beat our enemies,” is a slogan that stands for selfishness on the one hand and violence on the other; and yet the spirit manifested in the two clauses is very much in keeping with some of the stock utterances of the organization that is doing most to bring in again the enforcement of religious ordinances by law, and persecution for those who conscientiously oppose its program, and stand for the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peace Promoters Disappointed
The failure of the Senate on March 7 to ratify the treaties of arbitration between the United States and England and France has brought great disappointment to the advocates of world peace. Concerning the fate of these two arbitration treaties the Washington Post of March 9, says:— Summing up the action of the Senate Thursday in stripping the treaties of their vital features, government officials who followed the negotiation of the two pacts agreed yesterday that participation by the United States in general arbitration of international difficulties was a dead issue, so far as this session of Congress was concerned, and probably for many years to come. There is little thought that President Taft will submit the treaties in their mangled form to either of the powers for possible approval. President Taft and his immediate advisers were strongly in favor of the ratification of the treaties. Whether politics or a real fear of the consequences inspired the Senate to reject the pacts, the incident demonstrates that the world is not ready for peace. Those who have been giving the “peace and safety” cry, and prophesying the dawn of an era when swords, cannons, and war-ships will be converted into the implements of husbandry, and war give place to peace and universal brotherhood, see in this merely a postponing of the hour of that dawn. The prophesying and the cry go on, and the world that will not recognize God’s plan and program will go on paving with its own prophecy a road leading to its own ruin. He who proclaims “peace and safety” now or soon to be is spreading a snare for his own feet as well as for the feet of others. In an address on Socialism in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, March 3, the English priest, Bernard Vaughn, S. J., declared: “Briefly, civil society was instituted to protect, not to appropriate, man’s rights.” This is sound doctrine. Now let Catholics and Protestants stand by this definition, and there will be no interference with the rights of conscience.