p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 46. (11/21/1895)

News and Notes

SINCE OUR LAST ISSUE.

FOREIGN.

—A famine is reported in Jamaica, owing to the destruction of crops by caterpillars, in certain districts.

—A despatch from Granada, Mexico, states that over thirty schoolchildren lost their lives in a burning school building at that place recently.

—Mr. A. R. Colquhoun, representative of the London Times, who was present in Central America when the United States Commission made its investigation of the Nicaragua Canal, strongly urges that this enterprise be carried through by this government. He estimates the cost at between $100,000,000 and $150,000,000. Concerning the Panama Canal he has no words of commendation, as there appear almost insurmountable obstacles, while the cost would be above $200,000,000. The report of the U. S. Commission will be given to Congress when it meets.

—Matters in Turkey still retain their hold on public interest. Added to the disquieting rumors that have come from day to day of uprisings and riots here and there, comes the report, substantiated by a second despatch from another source, of the killing of 800 persons by Mussulmans at Kharput, 200 miles southwest of Erzeroum, the scene of recent massacres. From the various reports, stripped of newspaper sensationalism, it is safe to say that the Armenians themselves have provoked many of these assaults. They are nominally Christians, but among them are turbulent elements, perhaps capable of disposing of the Turk much in the same manner that the Turk deals with them, if they had the power. While one's sympathies are aroused over deeds of wanton murder, and one may decry religious persecution wherever it manifests itself, it is well to be cautious in denouncing all that comes from southeastern Europe as such. It will be well, also, to consider the relations of earthly powers to religious matters when tempted to ask their interference on such grounds. No one should be led to violate a vital principle by a popular cry.

DOMESTIC.

—Over $3,000,000 in gold were shipped from this country to Europe during the past week.

—By the burning of a match factory at Detroit, Mich., on November 16, three employees lost their lives.

—The Chicago Tribune, Times-Herald, and Inter-Ocean have all reduced the price of their week-day issues to one cent per copy.

—Four men were killed near Warwick, N. Y., on November 10 by the explosion of a locomotive boiler while the train was running.

—The thirteen miners at Spring Valley, Ill., who drove out the colored population some time ago, have all received penitentiary punishments.

—A shower of black bugs fell near Doolittle, Ind., on November 10, covering an area of about two miles square to a depth, it is reported, of one or two inches.

—It is reported that the Florida orange crop will not be more than 100,000 boxes this year, as against the average crop of 5,000,000 boxes. The frost last January killed the trees.

—The author of the words of the well-known song “America,” Dr. S. F. Smith, died at Boston on the 16th inst. at the age of eighty-seven. The song was written and first sung in 1832.

—The missionary schooner Robert W. Logan, of the American Board of Missions, sailed from San Francisco for the Caroline group of islands on November 15, with a party of missionaries.

—The government has taken action in the cases of the murder of Bannock Indians at Jackson’s Hole, Mont., and has arrested a number of the murderers. It is hoped that these parties, who are of the rough element, will have justice meted out to them.

—The residents of Denver, and especially the devotees of Schlatter, the alleged Christ and healer, are shocked and troubled over his disappearance, which occurred on the night of the 15th inst. He is reported to have been seen tramping the roads forty miles east of that city.

—Two robbers at Colorado Springs, Colo., secured a package containing $20,000 from the Wells Fargo Express agent on the night of November 11. By closing the safe doors immediately after being forced to deliver up the package, the agent saved $35,000 for the company, the robbers believing the money they had secured to be all in the safe.

—The Atlanta Exposition, in spite of protests, has had its bullfight. The scene was not bloody, but all the elements were ready for whatever might have happened,—the actors and the spectators. That it received no greater plaudits as a success was probably owing to a lack of what the people wanted to see.

—Yale University has established a course in “modern novels,” and, as evidence of its popularity, it is stated that over two hundred and fifty students have entered it. Its object is said to be to assist the rising generations to correctly estimate literature of that class, with the view to avoiding the bad and defining what shall be called good.

—On the 16th inst. a trolley car plunged through an open draw of an iron bridge over the Cuyahoga River, at Cleveland, Ohio, taking to their death, in its drop of 100 feet, over twenty-five persons. The motor man escaped before the fall, and is held for manslaughter, as, although it was at night, it is claimed by the bridge men that all signals were in position.

—An opinion has been given by Judge Gibbon, of the Superior Court of Cook County, at Chicago, which may open the way to test the validity of the Sunday law for barbers. The judge believes that business to be conducive to the good of a community, but, aside from this, as to the law itself, defines the province of the courts in moral questions, thus: “The courts can not take cognizance of the moral aspect of the case, even though a seventh day of rest seems to be established by divine or natural necessity.” His concluding words are these: “When the Legislature of this state shall, in its wisdom, enact a law based upon a wise public policy to promote rest from labor on Sunday, a law applicable alike to all classes of citizens and operating upon all business and vocations, then it shall be upheld; otherwise it must receive the seal of judicial disapproval as partial and arbitrary in its nature, and an unwarrantable exercise of legislative power.” It is precisely because no law can be enacted by civil Legislatures that will apply alike to all classes of citizens and businesses concerning a rest day, which is by nature of a religious character, that Legislatures have no right to make or attempt to make such laws. Somebody’s rights will necessarily be infringed upon, and the right judgment of all such laws is made by Judge Gibbon in his closing words, that such laws are “partial,” that is, class legislation, and “arbitrary,” and “unwarrantable exercise of legislative power,” because outside of the realm of civil government. Although defining the principle so fully and accurately, it is evident that the judge does not fully appreciate it, as it is implied that he stands ready, as many others do, to enforce such laws, as he did enforce the Sunday law in the case under consideration, when they are on the statute books, or placed there by voices that shall announce them for the public good.

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The Sunday Question in the Independent

The Sunday Question.—The Independent of November 7 has a symposium on “The Sunday Question,” in which is discussed authority for Sunday observance, Sunday laws, etc.

Hon. W. P. Frye, of Maine, declares that “laws recognizing the Lord’s day as one dedicated to worship, to works of charity, and to rest from labor, should be enforced.”

Cardinal Gibbons writes on the “Danger of Sunday Desecration.” He speaks of “the desecration of the Christian Sunday” as “a social danger against which it behooves us to set our face and take timely precautions.”

Talbot W. Chambers, D.D., says that when the enemies of Jesus charged him with transgressing the Sabbath law, “he repelled their charge with unanswerable force, but in no way impeached the authority of holy time,” a fatal admission to the scriptural claims of Sunday; for Jesus and his enemies had reference to the seventh day alone. Dr. Chambers says again that the apostle Paul “was very far from” abolishing the Ten Commandments, or the fourth, in such passages as Rom. 14: 5, 6; Gal. 4: 10; Col. 2: 16, 17. Again: “The great apostle acknowledged the continuing and universal validity of the Ten Commandments which the Lord spake out of the midst of the fire.” Deut. 10: 4. He did not, “could not, mean to except any of them.” But how, as Dr. Chambers says, “the change of the day leaves the fourth commandment unimpaired,” is more than we can see. When God said “seventh” did he mean “first”? And when did he rest upon, bless, sanctify, the first day of the week?

The next writer, Prof. J. Henry Thayer, D.D., Litt. D., of Harvard University Divinity School, begins his article with, “In strictness of speech, for the Christian there is no ‘law of the Sabbath.’ The Sabbath is an integral and distinctive part of Judaism, and Judaism for the Christian is ‘antiquated and abrogated.’ . . . There is no warrant in the records of primitive Christianity—either in the words of our Lord or his apostles, or in extra canonical literature—for the allegation that this Christian day of rest [Sunday] was ever identified with the Jewish, or regarded as its continuation, or invested with its sacredness, or upheld by the positive enactment and sanctions connected with the Sabbath in the earlier Scriptures.”

Prof. T. H. Zahn, of the University of Erlangen, Germany, takes the same ground as does Professor Thayer. He says: “The observance of Sunday for them [the early Christians] stood in no connection with this [the fourth] commandment. . . . No distinction was made by them between Sunday and the other festival days which celebrated the memory of the great deeds of salvation.”

The articles on “The Parisian Sunday,” “Sunday in Berlin,” and “Sunday in Italy,” do not strengthen the Sunday cause from a Biblical viewpoint.

Dr. A. H. Lewis, Seventh-day Baptist, defines the position of the Seventh-day Baptists. He has one sentence the truth of which the Independent symposium demonstrates: “The observers of Sunday have no common ground of union or concert of action.”

There are several articles on Sunday legislation, which we may notice hereafter. The Independent itself says editorially in reviewing the symposium: “As to the importance of preserving our American Sunday, none of our contributors, except Mr. Stanton and the Seventh-day advocates, would differ. Cardinal Gibbons and Father Doyle speak for the Roman Catholic Church; and it is encouraging to be assured of the help of that great church in all efforts [by law and otherwise] to preserve our rest day.”

And why not? It is Rome’s day and Rome’s methods, and Rome will reap the triumph.

The Aim of the W. C. T. U. as Stated by a Friend.—

We have sometimes been thought uncharitable because we have said that one of the great objects of the W. C. T. U. was to bring about a man-made theocracy, a union of church and state, not in the sense of any particular church, but in the sense that religious organizations would control legislation, pervert it to selfish ends, etc. In proof of this we have quoted extracts like the following, declared in the Union’s national convention of 1887:—

“The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, local, state, national, and world-wide, has ONE vital, organic thought, ONE all-absorbing purpose, ONE undying enthusiasm, and that is that CHRIST SHALL BE THIS WORLD’S KING; yea, verily, THIS WORLD’S KING in its realm of cause and effect,—king of its courts, its camps, its commerce,—king of its colleges and cloisters,—king of its customs and constitutions. . . . THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST MUST ENTER THE REALM OF LAW THROUGH THE GATEWAY OF POLITICS.”

If this does not mean union of church and state in its broadest sense, we do not know what language can express it. The New York Voice of November 7 has an article on “The W. C. T. U. and Its Critics,” in which it defends the Union against the charges of inconsistency with reference to union with other reform parties. The most of this editorial is immaterial to the point we are discussing, but the closing paragraph is peculiarly to the point. The Voice says:—

“But the truth is, most of the criticisms of the W. C. T. U., both now and heretofore, proceed on the assumption that the union has but one object, namely, prohibition. The W. C. T. U. holds no less firmly to that object than it did at the start; but it has broader aims to-day than it had at first. It has been growing and developing, lo! these many years; and to-day its purpose, whatever may have been the case at first, is not included in the one word prohibition. The purpose now, as we view it, may be broadly stated as the application of the laws of God to political affairs; to carry the standards of morality and religion into national life; to bring about, not a union of church and state, but a harmony between them, and to make the acts of the citizen conform to his acts as a Christian.”

The only way to keep harmony between church and state is to keep them, in the words of U. S. Grant, “forever separate.” But the aim of the W. C. T. U. will result in the strongest union of the two, which will form the weakness and ruin of both.

Special Symposium Issue on the Lord's Coming

By Editor

Our next issue will be a special symposium number on the nearness of the Lord's coming. We believe that it will be of interest, and will prove a great help in the preaching of the Gospel.

Questioning the Christian Character of the W.C.T.U

The New York Voice of November 7 says editorially that “the two prime objects of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s work” is “Prohibition and Woman Suffrage.” It might well be asked, What is there “Christian” about either of these? There are, it is safe to say, infidels and Jews working for both. Now that the W. C. T. U. has become in its prime objects a political organization, would it not be consistent to drop the term “Christian,” or the initial “C”? The organization does not stand for what it once did.

Union Means Ruin and Death.

There are certain foods, both nutritious and palatable when eaten separately, but which form an unwholesome and loathsome dish when mixed together. There are certain chemicals which alone are harmless and useful, but which combined form powerful explosives or poisons. So it is with church and state. Each is of divine origin, yet both came in consequence of sin. The church is the body of Christ, and designed to be his means of gathering out from the world of sin those who desire the eternal salvation to be found in him. Its source of power, strength, life, wisdom, and authority are all direct from Christ. In the world, it is not of the world. The civil power, or the state, is ordained of God to protect the rights of all irrespective of class or religious belief. It came in as a consequence of sin, to protect the weak and to punish the uncivil. Each (church or state) has its appointed place in the divine plan. Separated, they will always be blessings, but united they form a virulent poison in the body politic, and mine deadly explosives underneath the dearest and most sacred rights of the people. Strange that the great masses of the people can not see this in our own land to-day. The blindness of death seems to be upon the people. They do not know, hence the work of destruction goes on in our own land. The Jews and powers of earth in Christ’s time did not know, “for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” “It is high time to awake.”

Deceptions About the Lord's Coming

Deceptions.—In a paper read at a Methodist ministers’ meeting in San Francisco on the 5th inst., on the Lord’s coming, the speaker said that three things must take place before Christ came:—

“The first of these is the universal proclamation of the Gospel; the second, the ingathering of the heathen and the conversion of the Jews; and the third, the appearance of antichrist and his apostasy. The conversion of the world is the work of the church and the theory advanced that Christ will come before this work has been accomplished is merely a ruse conceived by Satan, by means of which he hopes to block the progress and stay the activity of the church.”

(1) The first of these is rapidly fulfilling, as far as the “proclamation” of the Gospel is concerned. It will be preached “for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24: 14. (2) But this does not mean the conversion of the world; for the wheat and tares, the righteous and the wicked, will grow together in this world till the harvest, “the end of the world.” Matt. 13: 30, 38-43. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Tim. 3: 13. That man of sin, that wicked, the persecuting little horn, will abide upon the earth till Christ comes again. 2 Thess. 2: 3-8; Daniel 7. (3) There is no promise to the Jews only through Christ, and he reads the New Testament strangely who ignores this. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. 2: 27, 28. The very name Israel is not a name according to the flesh, but a faith-acquired, God-bestowed name, indicative of character wrought out in God’s school. See Gen. 32: 24-28. The true Israel of God, the true children of Abraham, are the children of faith. See Gal. 3: 29; Eph. 2. 11-20; Rom. 9: 8. The gathering of Israel from among all nations will be the gathering of the children of faith through the Gospel of God and by the coming of Christ. “Be not deceived.”

BIBLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING MAN.

By Alonzo T. Jones

By Alonzo T. Jones. Bible Students' Library, No. 76. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. 16 pp.; 2 cents. Kansas City, Mo. New York City, N. Y.