Earlier text: The Forty-Second PsalmChristians and the Laws
By L. A. S.
SPEAKING about the necessity of activity on the part of Christians to secure the enforcement of law, the Northwestern Christian Advocate says:— A revival of genuine Christian patriotism is needed. There must be a waking up of public sentiment on the subject of the enforcement of law. Those whose duty it is to enforce the law, do it not. Those who have the power to insist upon it, do not use their power, and those who grieve over the demoralization seem powerless, because they do not see how to move in concert. There is a law in most of the States against open saloons and against doing ordinary work or business on the Sabbath, and yet saloons and play-houses run wide open, stores sell goods, printing offices hum with work, Sunday papers issue, and are hawked about the streets by yelling urchins in open day, making the Sabbath hideous with the noise of secular pursuits, while the humble worshiper, whose conscience demands obedience to the law of God, is contemned, and his rights are trampled upon. The Advocate is here speaking of the laws of man. But no doubt the Advocate and all those for whom it speaks will admit that the laws of God are violated far more frequently and flagrantly in this world than are human laws. This being so, the first and great concern of the Christian should be to secure a reform among men with respect to the laws of God. His zeal and activity should be employed to secure reverence and obedience for those laws, in the place of the general disregard of them which on all sides is so painfully evident. Occupying himself to this end, the Christian will find that the work is one which calls for his whole measure of time and service. The great controversy between good and evil, between righteousness and sin, overshadows and transcends all human conflicts. It affords the fullest opportunity for his constant and best endeavors. Whatever interest he may have in human affairs, in the enforcement of just laws among men, he can not cease his activity in the cause of God. He can not transfer his energy in behalf of the kingdom of God, to the maintenance of a government of earth. He will not let go of the greater* thing to take up the less. And yet every Christian does work, and works effectively, for good government on the earth. The extension of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men can not but afford a sure support for the cause of justice among men, and regard for human rights, upon which the best earthly government is founded. Obedience to the law of God can not but mean obedience to all human laws which do not conflict with the eternal code. It is because men have lost reverence for the law of God that they display so little respect for the laws of man. It is because men have lost sight of the truth that they are bound by divine, immutable precepts upholding the eternal government of God, that they are so prone to regard law as a light and trifling thing. The preachers have proclaimed from the pulpit that God's law has been done away; and that idea, eagerly welcomed by the carnal heart, has been disseminated, and is bearing fruit unto lawlessness. Christians do their part in the cause of good government on the earth. They do more than any other class of people7 to maintain peace and obedience to law. They do this not at the polls or the primary, where their power individually is only equal to that of the knave; they do it not by any appeal to force, but by co-operation with divine agencies, by means of which one chases a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight. They do it by being the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The Christian can not do more, and he ought not to do less. By being zealous in the service of God, he renders the best possible service to his fellow men. Divine agencies, not the law and the police, are the real preservers of the world's peace. L. A. S. Our Keynote
By Arthur G. Daniells
“THE return of Christ to our world will not be long delayed; let this be the keynote of every message.”—“Testimony for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 406. Seventh-day Adventists are proclaiming a definite message. They are carrying on a world-wide movement. That message, that movement, has a keynote. What is it? It is this: “The return of Christ to our world will not be long delayed.” The keynote in music is “the fundamental tone of a movement to which its modulations are referred, and with which it begins and ends.” The fundamental truth in our message to-day is that Christ is coming, and that his coming shall be delayed no longer. This is the truth to which every part of our great movement should conform. This is the truth with which the whole movement began, is to continue, and will finally end. Eighteen hundred years ago the message we are giving to-day, the movement we are carrying forward in the world, was revealed to John in the Isle of Patmos. The scene presented to John is recorded in the tenth chapter of Revelation. It is deeply impressive. A mighty angel came down from heaven. He was clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was upon his head. His face shone as the sun, and his feet were as pillars of fire. He placed one foot upon the sea and the other upon the land. He held in one hand a little book open, and lifting the other hand, he sware by him that liveth forever and ever, “that there should be delay no longer.” The reason given why there shall be delay no longer is that “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” The mystery of God is the gospel. It is to be finished during the first part of the sounding of the seventh trumpet. When it is finished, Christ will come. When, therefore, the seventh trumpet begins to sound, the fact can be proclaimed to all the world that the return of Christ will not be long delayed. No more solemn declaration has ever been made to the human family than this. No more solemn time in the history of the church has ever been experienced. The responsibilities that now fall upon the people of God are the greatest ever placed upon them. The seventh trumpet began to sound in 1844. It is to continue to sound until Christ comes, and still on through the thousand years, until the wicked shall be finally destroyed, sin itself forever blotted out, the earth restored to its first glory, and the kingdom of Christ established under the whole heaven. Rev. 11:15-18. In the days of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, even in the beginning of those days, the mystery of God, the gospel, shall be finished. Rev. 10:7. This is the reason given why there shall be delay no longer. We have now been living in the days of the voice of the seventh angel fifty-eight years. It was at the very beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet that the great threefold message of Rev. 14:6-12, as a complete, last-day message, came to light. It was then that it began to be preached as the last gospel call to the world to prepare to meet God. Thus when the hour came for the gospel to be finished, a closing message was discovered in the Word. The time and the message came together. When this message shall have been preached in all the world, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, then the earth will be lightened with the glory of God, and then the gospel will be finished, and the end will come. What a mighty, world-wide movement is here revealed! Think of what will be required to do the work that will fully and accurately fulfill these prophecies. God’s people, under the leadership of Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, must be the living agencies by which this work will be done in the earth. All true Seventh-day Adventists believe that the day of the Lord’s preparation has come; that the signs of the end are all fast fulfilling, and that the advent message is to be given to all the world in this generation. They believe that the hour has struck for the mystery of God to be finished, and that to them is committed the solemn responsibility of giving the last warning message to the world that will finish the gospel work, and bring the end. This is our work. Let us take hold of it in earnest, and finish it. “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” Jonah 1:6. “The return of Christ to our earth will not be long delayed; let this be the keynote of every message.” This is indeed our keynote. It is the fundamental truth of our world-wide movement. It is the truth to which all we do must conform. It is the truth with which this movement began, and with which it will surely and speedily end. Praise God for the prospect. Endure and Hope
By Marianne Farningham
“Behold, we count them happy which endure.” James 5:11. STAND firmly. Do not yield or quail!
Force back the cry, let hope prevail;
Or brace thyself the worst to meet,
Even defeat. The victor is not always blest,
Thou canst lie down and take thy rest,
A nobleman, though dispossessed. Meet the fierce onslaught. See, it comes
With flashing swords and roll of drums;
Summon thy courage and thy faith
For life or death. This is no time to faint or fear,
See how the foemen hosts appear;
O knight of Christ, be valiant here! Lose not thy faith in mists of night,
Keep thy face forward to the light,
The soldier must not fearful be—
Christ is for thee! A little while be brave, stand fast;
Day breaks, the trouble soon is past;
Those who endure are crowned at last. A Neglected Work
By Ellen G. White
God’s people are neglecting a work that is close beside them. They do not realize the responsibility resting on them to proclaim the truth in the unwarned cities of America. There are many cities in which no effort has been made to give to the people the message for this time. I entreat those who know the truth to take up their neglected work, and no longer let the Master look on fields whose barrenness rebukes their neglect. Every one who believes the truth is responsible to give to those in darkness the light he has received. God says to his people, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Why, then, do they feel so little burden to plant the standard of truth in new places? Why do they not obey the word, “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not”? Why do they not return to the Lord his own, to be invested in heavenly merchandise? Why is there not a more earnest call for volunteers to enter the whitening harvest field? Unless more is done than has been done for the cities of America, ministers and people will have a heavy account to settle with the One who has appointed to every man his work. We repeat the prayer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Are we doing our part to answer this prayer? We claim to believe that the commission which Christ gave to his disciples just before his ascension is given also to us. Are we fulfilling it? May God forgive our terrible neglect in not doing the work that as yet we have scarcely touched with the tips of our fingers. When will this work be done? It makes my heart sick and sore to see such blindness on the part of the people of God. There are thousands in America perishing in ignorance and sin. And looking afar off to some distant field, those who know the truth are indifferently passing by the most needy fields close by them. Christ says, “Go work to-day in my vineyard.” “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.” Wake up, wake up, my brethren and sisters, and enter the fields in America that have never been worked. After you have given something for foreign fields, do not think your duty done. There is work to be done in America. In New York City a few faithful laborers have been toiling for God. Have you shown a practical, unselfish interest in their efforts? Have you helped them by your sympathy and your gifts? I do not want any one to withhold help from foreign fields, but I do urge our people no longer to dishonor God by neglecting such fields as New York City. There is a work to be done in foreign fields, but there is a work to be done in America which is just as important. In the cities of America there are people of almost every language. These need the light that God has given to his church. In the Power of the Spirit
The Lord lives and reigns. Soon he will arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth. A special message is now to be borne,—a message that will pierce the spiritual darkness, and convict and convert souls. “Haste thee, flee for thy life,” is the call to be given to those dwelling in sin. We must now be terribly in earnest. We have not a moment to spend in criticism and accusation. Let those who have done this in the past fall on their knees in prayer; and let them beware how they place their words and their plans in the place of God’s words and his plans. Hundreds are waiting for the warning to escape for their life, and lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. Far less labor is to be given to those who know the truth, and far more to those who are without God and without hope in the world. In every part of the world a straightforward message is to be proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit. God says to his workers everywhere, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” We need to feel the importance of proclaiming the gospel message with earnestness and power. Not with tame, lifeless utterance is it to be given, but with clear, decided, stirring tones. The messengers themselves must know the power of salvation. We have no time for dwelling on matters that are of no importance. Our time should be given to proclaiming the last message of mercy to a guilty world. Men are needed who move under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. The sermons preached by some of our ministers will have to be much more powerful than they are now, or many backsliders will carry a tame, pointless message, which lulls people to sleep. Every discourse should be given under a sense of the awful judgments soon to fall on our world. The message of truth is to be proclaimed by lips touched with a live coal from the divine altar. Christ refers to the lifeless, purposeless messages given in our churches, when he says, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Night after night I get up at twelve or one o’clock, and walk the floor in intense anguish, because of the tame messages borne by some of our ministers, when they have a message of life and death to bear to the people. The ministers are asleep; the lay members are asleep; and a world is perishing in sin. May God help them to arouse, and walk and work as men on the borders of the eternal world! Soon an awful surprise is coming upon the inhabitants of the earth. Suddenly, with power and great glory, Christ will come. There will then be no time to prepare to meet him. Now is the time for us to give the warning message. We are stewards, intrusted by our absent Lord with the care of his household and his interests, which he came to the world to serve. He has returned to heaven, leaving us in charge, and he expects us to watch and wait for his second coming. Let us be faithful to our trust, lest coming suddenly, he finds us sleeping. Faithfulness to God
By C. H. Bates
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Acts 17:24. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Gen. 1:1. From these two texts of scripture we learn definitely how this earth came into existence; namely, by the hand of the Lord; and in Ps. 24:1 we read: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” From these texts the following facts are established: this earth was9 made by the Lord; it was made in the beginning; it belongs to him. Let us bear these facts in mind. In the Word of God some other things are mentioned as belonging especially to the Lord. In Ps. 50:10 we read, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine.” Hag. 2:8. “He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.” Deut. 10:18. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” Briefly stated, the following facts may be gleaned from the four texts quoted: our live stock, whatever it may be, belongs to the Lord; our gold and silver, or in other words, every dollar in our possession, is rightfully his; our clothing comes to us as a gift from him; and last, but not least in importance, our very bodies are his; for in Isa. 52:3 we read this startling declaration, “Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” “But,” says one, “does this silver dollar in my possession belong to the Lord?” or, “Does this fine horse belong to him?”—Yes, even our very life is his. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Before going further in the study, it might be asked, In what sense do these things belong to us? Let us read Matt. 25:14: “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.” According to this scripture, the goods were only delivered to the servants by the Master, to be used; for the text plainly says that they were his goods. In Luke 12:43 these servants are called stewards. Now a steward is one who has charge of another man’s goods. We have found that all that we have belongs to the Lord, and that we are only stewards or overseers of his goods. The Lord has set apart one tenth as especially belonging to him, and we are not to appropriate it to ourselves under any consideration. In Lev. 27:30 we read: “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.” By turning to Num. 18:24, we learn the use that was to be made of the tithe: “But the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave-offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit.” The Levites were God’s ministers appointed by him to do a special work. In the days of Nehemiah, the people became negligent in regard to this matter, and in Neh. 13:11 we read these words: “Then contended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? . . . Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.” In Malachi 3 we read, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. . . . Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Before closing, I wish to call attention to the reckoning time as spoken of in Matt. 25:19: “After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.” This reckoning time is surely coming, and we are rapidly nearing that day when every man must give an account of himself to God. Principles of Organization of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary Association
By Alonzo T. Jones
PRESIDENT OF BOARD: That is all. Now while the Board would not at all imply that this statement of principles should be adopted as now read, we do believe that the course indicated in it is the correct one. We are confirmed in this belief by this fact: after the consultation in which was developed these principles of organization, there was placed in our hands a collection of Testimonies on the medical missionary and sanitarium work. Upon reading these Testimonies through, we were gratified to find how exactly we had caught in our draft the principles which these Testimonies called upon us to adopt. One of these Testimonies was read to us this morning, by Sister White herself. And you can readily recall how its whole tenor carries everything back to the individual with God, and calls upon us to respect individual responsibility, individual talent, and individual effort. To illustrate, one passage runs as follows:— “To the leaders in the medical missionary work I must say that no one is to claim kingly power over God’s heritage. God’s people are to be under him, and him alone. There is one Shepherd, and he has one flock. The Lord knows the future. He is the one to be looked to and trusted in to guide and guard and direct in the future development of various branches of his work. For several years I have been warned that there is danger, constant danger, of men looking to men for permission to do this or that, instead of looking to God for themselves. Thus they become weaklings, bound about with human ties that God has not ordained. The Lord can impress minds and consciences to do his work under bonds to God, and in a brotherly fraternity that will be in accordance with his law.” Another statement runs thus: “Each institution is to stand in its own responsibility. They will increase in strength and influence if they follow the light God has given,—if they begin small and work carefully, not spending more than they make. . . . It is best for every sanitarium to stand in its own responsibility.” Yet another, which tells much in little, runs as follows: “The kingly power formerly exhibited in General Conference is not to be perpetuated. The publishing work is not to be a kingdom in itself. It is essential that the principles that govern in General Conference affairs should be maintained in the management of the publishing work and the sanitarium work. No one is to think that the branch of work with which he is connected is of vastly more importance than other branches. The division of the General Conference into district union conferences was God’s arrangement. In the work of the Lord for these last days there are to be no Jerusalem centers, no kingly power.” Surely here is an outline sufficiently clear,—individual freedom and individual self-government from God alone, the one Shepherd of his flock; institutional freedom and institutional self-government under bonds to God alone as the head and guide, yet in a brotherly fraternity that is in accordance with his law; the division of the General Conference into union conferences, God’s arrangement; and the principles that govern in General Conference affairs to govern in the sanitarium work. And this is exactly the conception of the principles of organization of the medical missionary work here presented. One great principle that now governs in General Conference affairs is self-government, beginning in the individual united with God. ELDER WILCOX: I am glad to see our organization finding its source in God’s unit. PRESIDENT OF BOARD: Yes, Brother Wilcox, and when it shall be indeed that throughout our organization, its source shall be found in God’s unit, then throughout our organization there will be seen God’s unity,—that unity for which Jesus has all these years been praying. Individual self-government necessarily expands to local self-government of the collection of individuals in a locality, as in the affairs of the church organization or of medical missionary work. From the many localities local self-government expands to State or conference self-government. From the several State or conference organizations self-government expands to union conference self-government. And from union conferences, self-government expands to General Conference self-government: each organization governing itself only, in the field of its own activities, and not attempting to govern any other; yet all working in a brotherly fraternity that is according to God’s law. In the nature of things, self-government means self-support. Local self-government means local self-support. Therefore the principle that “the weight of endeavor should be always, as a principle, to have every work start and develop as self-supporting, by local resources, local energy, and local control.” And this according to the instruction that each institution is to stand in its own responsibility, beginning small,10 working carefully, not spending more than it makes, and so growing, but keeping out of debt. This also inevitably brings into active co-operation in the medical missionary work the whole membership of the local church, especially wherever there is to be carried on in any degree sanitarium work. Surely we have had instruction enough, and for years, that each and every church should be a medical missionary working church. Indeed, we have had enough instruction on that subject to justify putting the question this way: What are our churches worth if they are not medical missionary working churches? How much true gospel have they, and what are they doing in the message for to-day, as that message is to-day, unless they are medical missionary working churches? Since the medical missionary work is “God’s helping hand” of the church, if a church is not only not using that hand, but is not in any spirit or condition to use it, then what is the church worth to the world in the great gospel necessities of to-day? To me it seems sorely akin to an abomination to see a sanitarium work started in a city where there is a Seventh-day Adventist church, and find scarcely a single member of that church taking any more part or interest in it than if it were not there at all. The physicians and nurses are obliged to work and pinch and make their way by the hardest efforts to get a start and make the work self-supporting, when the intelligent and hearty co-operation of the whole membership of the church in that place would easily make the work flourish from the beginning, and cause it to be a blessing to the church, and to the whole place besides. Therefore the principle that “the constituency of a local enterprise shall be the church well instructed and in active co-operation in the principles of health and medical missionary work.” This principle carried out, inseparably unites them. It makes the medical missionary work, the sanitarium work, the very work of the church itself as such. And this is right. Indeed, this only is right in this connection; for this is precisely the church’s calling. The church is the pillar and stay, the ground and support, of the truth in the world. To the church God commits his truth for the world. And the church is recreant to her Lord, to her call, and to her trust when she does not, as the church, give to the world that truth as from the church. Now this glorious and mighty truth of God’s saving health, the medical gospel, is made known and committed by God to his church to-day for the afflicted and perishing world of to-day. And every Seventh-day Adventist church is recreant to her Lord, to her call, and to her trust when she allows the health work, the medical missionary work, the sanitarium work, to be carried on apart from the church, and to stand before the world as not of the church. It is a proper part of church work. Let all the churches be intelligently and actively engaged in medical missionary work. Let these choose delegates to a State or conference meeting. Such delegates would be capable of having a voice in the election of a State or conference medical missionary board, and of considering the medical missionary interests of the State or conference, as well as of considering the strictly conference business, or the tract and missionary business. Such a delegation in conference assembled could do the medical missionary business precisely as they would do the conference business and the tract and missionary business. There would not need to be different delegations for different phases of the one great work; but the same delegation would altogether consider the different phases of the one great work; for it would then be seen to be indeed only one work. At the Portland conference the one delegation was the delegation for all the business. And all who were there have witnessed that we never had a better conference anywhere. When we recognize that the church is God’s only recognized constituency, and then educate, educate, educate, till the church everywhere becomes an all-round church in the work of God, we shall find God’s unity and God’s power in the work as never can be otherwise. That will be the logical outcome of this principle and course of reorganization,—all the people, all God’s church, at work in all his work, as his church, representing and manifesting all his truth, and so, as his church, being the pillar and stay, the ground and support, of the truth in the world. At this point, on motion, recess was taken till 5 P. M. Upon reconvening at the hour of 5 P. M., the study of the proposed principles of organization was resumed, in joint meeting with the members of the California Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. The study took no wider range than simple question and answer as to the operation of the principles. ELDER KNOX: I would like to make this motion:— That the constituency of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association be composed of the members of the Executive Committee of the Pacific Union Conference; the presidents of the local conference Medical Missionary and Benevolent Associations; medical superintendents of all sanitariums in the territory; one representative from every five hundred members in every local conference; the managers of the food factories in the territory; and such delegates as may be present from the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, not to exceed ten. Thereupon, without any further modification or amendment of the proposed principles, it was moved, seconded, and carried— That we approve of this plan as presented by the chairman and Elder Knox, and request the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Committee to proceed with the work of organization upon these lines. The principles of organization of the medical missionary work, as adopted, stand as follows:— 1. Where the burden of labor rests, there rests the weight of control. 2. The weight of endeavor should be always, as a principle, to have every work started and developed as self-supporting, by local resources, local energy, and local control. 3. Under present circumstances general control of local enterprises is in operation, but whenever an enterprise becomes strong enough under general control to go alone, it should be turned over by the general to the local control. 4. It is possible that circumstances may occur in which the great importance of establishing the work at some pivotal or strategic point may require the establishment of an institution before there is a sufficient local constituency for efficient control. In such cases there should be general effort and general control until there is developed local constituency sufficient for local control. 5. The constituency of a local enterprise shall be the church well instructed and in active co-operation in principles of health and medical missionary work. 6. This church constituency of local enterprise shall elect, or choose an electorate to elect, its own medical missionary board of management, including at least one member of the State Board. 7. The whole number of local constituencies, in annual conference, compose the State constituencies, and elect, or choose an electorate to elect, the State Board, including at least two members of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Board. 8. Delegates from the State constituencies, in union conference assembled, compose the union constituency, and elect, or choose an electorate to elect, a Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Board, including a member or members of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association Board. 9. The bond of union and co-operation is loyalty to Christian principle in morals, in discipline, and in health and the treatment of disease. 10. In short, the Medical Missionary Association shall be essentially the church—simply the church itself—at work in medical missionary lines, just as the schools and colleges represent the church at work in intellectual lines, and the churches and conference the church at work in evangelical lines. The sanitariums shall be instrumentalities of the church, just as are schools, tract societies, etc. The physicians, nurses, etc., shall be regularly licensed by the conference as church workers, the same as others. 11. The funds of State organizations, at least for the present, shall be from the tithe of the income of local enterprises, and from donations; the funds of the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association shall be tithe from the income of State organizations, and from donations. Its Effects on Respiration
Among civilized races there is a marked difference between the respiration of man and of woman; the breathing of man being principally with the lower part of the chest,—the diaphragmatic, or abdominal, type,—while that of the woman is almost entirely with the upper part of the chest, commonly known as the costal type. So general are these two forms of breathing in civilized nations that physiologists have come to look upon them as being normal. The difference in the two methods of breathing is quite perceptible to the eye. In man there is with every respiration a free movement of the abdomen or lower part of the chest, while in woman no movement is observed at the lower portion of the chest, but a rapid, heaving movement of the upper part of the chest, and often the muscles of the neck stand out prominently with every respiration. A more thorough investigation would also reveal the fact that it is impossible for a woman in the conventional dress to expand the waist for even a quarter of an inch, so the breathing must be done with the upper part of the chest. Physiologists in forming their conclusions on these methods of respiration have, doubtless, made studies only of civilized races, as more recent investigations of the subject with uncivilized as well as civilized races have revealed the fact that under similar conditions man and woman breathe the same, both expanding the upper and the lower part of the chest. The respiration of children, both boys and girls, is of the same character as that of man until they reach the age of thirteen or fourteen years. The laboring woman, or one who has never been hampered by her clothing, breathes the same as man. It has also been observed that during the sleeping hours, when there is no constriction of the body, woman breathes with the lower as well as with the upper part of the chest. That there is a change in the manner of breathing of girls at about the age of thirteen or fourteen no one will deny; but the reason is also apparent, as it is12 about this time that fond mothers begin to adjust the clothing in such a way as to make a “fine form.” The child who has formerly been free, with her clothing loose and suspended from the shoulders, now adopts the corset, and that portion of the body known as the waist must be laced in, to bring it in proper proportion with the bust, to meet the conventional idea. The soft, pliable structures are compressed, the lower part of the chest is held firm, and the action of the diaphragm greatly hindered. At first there is a feeling of constriction, and oftentimes an effort to take a deep inspiration, but the body soon yields to this constriction, and the child ceases its efforts to use the entire chest, and nature adapts herself as best she can to the new order, and by the more rapid breathing of the upper part of the chest endeavors to obtain the necessary oxygen for the system. The nourishment and development of every organ, muscle, or tissue of the body are dependent to a large degree upon the supply of oxygen received through the lungs. Anything that interferes with this supply hinders the growth and work of the entire body. Many of the diseases so prevalent at the present time are due to deficient oxygenation of the blood. Throat troubles are said to be much more common with women than with men. Weakness of the whole body follows the constriction of the waist and hindrance to full expansion of the chest. The inability to expand the lower part of the chest tends also to cause weakness and atrophy of the muscles which form the abdominal wall, which is another cause of weakness and disease among women. Correct breathing is as necessary for the strength and health of the abdominal viscera as it is for the lungs. The conventional mode of dress is undoubtedly responsible for the artificial method of breathing which is so common among civilized women, and is thus responsible for a large part of the diseases which are to-day undermining the strength and health of the race.