Earlier text: FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. No 3THE great brewery interests of the country are the most persistent advocates of the army canteen. And the plea of those who cater to these interests is that beer is a "light drink," and supplies to the soldiers a healthful, or at least a comparatively innocent, beverage as a substitute for the stronger liquors obtained in the outside drinking-places. But this plea is all a delusion. The Toledo Blade gives the testimony of several physicians who speak from experience on this point. One says: "Beer kills quicker than any other liquor. My attention was first called to its insidious effects when I began examining for life insurance. I passed as unusually good risks five Germans—young business men—who seemed in the best of health, and to have superb constitutions. In a few years I was amazed to see the whole five drop off, one after another, with mild and what ought to have been easily-curable diseases. On comparing my experience with that of other physicians I found they were all having similar luck with confirmed beer-drinkers, and my practise since has heaped confirmation on confirmation." Another physician of wide experience says: "Among the dreadful results of beer-drinking are lockjaw and erysipelas, and the beer-drinker seems incapable of recovering from mild disorders and injuries not usually regarded of a grave character. Pneumonia, pleurisy, fevers, etc., seem to have a first mortgage on him, which they foreclose remorselessly at an early opportunity." A further testimony is that "adulterants are not the worst feature in the composition of beer; it is the beer itself. It stupefies the intellect, because it is a narcotic, and cumulative in its effect." Again we are told that "beer-drinkers are absolutely the most dangerous class of subjects a surgeon can have to operate upon. Insignificant scratches are liable to develop a long train of dangerous troubles." Dr. T. D. Carothers, in a "Total Abstinence Leaflet" published in Chicago, says: A remarkable revelation of the most serious injuries occurring in beer-drinkers has come to light in the neighborhood of Manchester, England, in the past two years. As far back as 1884 attention was called to the numerous cases of alcoholic paralysis in this vicinity. A few years after, a noted expert described similar cases which seemed to be very numerous in that section. From that time on these peculiar cases have been increased, until last year an examination was made, and it was found that in the neighborhood of Manchester and the mill districts about, alcoholic paralysis was almost an epidemic. Three hundred cases were noticed at Manchester, and nearly five per cent. of all the cases seen in the hospitals in this region, and extending to Liverpool, and even to London, showed this kind of palsy. A careful inquiry revealed the fact that nearly all these victims were beer-drinkers. An analysis of the beer showed the presence of arsenic in sufficient quantity to account for this peculiar palsy. Experts visited breweries and obtained specimens of beer, finding arsenic in nearly every instance. More careful examination showed that sulphuric acid entered into the manufacture of glucose used in the beer. This acid was made from iron pyrites, and contained quantities of arsenic. It was used on account of its cheapness, and in large quantities by many of the leading brewers. "THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS OF STATE LICENSE."
[From Governor Folk's Message.] I HAVE heretofore spoken to you of the pernicious effects of the state's licensing the liquor traffic in any form. The high-license law should be amended so as to eliminate the licensing of the liquor traffic by the state. If the liquor business is an evil thing it should not be permitted at all. Certainly the law should not sanction such a business, and by licensing it make the state a partner in the iniquity. Stripped of all useless verbiage, this act levies tribute on all debauchery and crime; in this respect it is indefensible from any moral standpoint. If it be insisted that men will drink and sell liquor anyway, and the state may as well profit by their appetite and lust for gain, it could with equal force be argued that men kill, and therefore the states should license murder in certain forms and in certain places so as to profit by this weakness of mankind. If it be said that the licensing of the liquor traffic be justifiable when the proceeds of the license go to help maintain our worthy institutions, the answer should be: The state of Missouri is wealthy enough to support adequately its institutions without making them owe their existence to the licensing of a business that degrades the youth and pollutes the morals of men. If it be right to maintain our institutions in part by the licensing of the wrong, the same principle would justify the support of our institutions wholly and even the state government from the fruits of legalized crime. The government of Monte Carlo draws its sustenance from the licensing of the gambling table, but such an idea is abhorrent to every Missourian. It would be wrong to support the state government by putting a price on evil. It is wrong to license the liquor traffic at all. This is not the demand of frenzied morality, but of a sound and healthy public sentiment that will not tolerate the sharing in the profits of vicious practises. LIQUOR MANUFACTURE ON THE INCREASE.
WHILE the territory covered by prohibition in the United States is on the increase, the manufacture of alcoholic beverages is also on the increase. An analysis of the reports of the commissioner of internal revenue, for the Associated Prohibition Press, shows some remarkable figures. Distilled spirits deposited in the United States bonded warehouses during the year 1905 amounted to an increase of one-ninth over the previous year. In spite of the enormous increase in the production of beer, the demands of the nation require the production of nearly three times as much distilled spirits as it did twenty years ago. About the only class of these spirits that has any extensive legitimate use is "pure" alcohol, and the statistics show that we are using about the same amount of alcohol that we did twenty years ago. As the cost of alcohol is less than 20 cents a gallon, and the tax thereon is $2.20, it is practically barred from legitimate uses. Whisky, which is almost wholly used for improper purposes, is produced in about five times the amount as twenty years ago. The market requires about six times as much gin as it did twenty years ago. This increased production of gin represents, in a large measure, the increased imminence of the negro problem. Gin is the drink of the negroes, and this two millions of gallons of the stuff annually poured down the throats of the ignorant negro represents a frightful burden of trouble. Fruit brandies, in these revenue reports, show an enormous increase. Rum is about stationary. High wines are rapidly decreasing, but their places are being taken by new-fangled decoctions of various sorts which are substantially the same thing. A STATISTICIAN, who has made an exhaustive examination of a work entitled "Richardson's Messages and State Papers of the Presidents," finds that "while almost every other topic of finance, business, and politics has been treated by our distinguished line of Executives, and while the wrongs of every nation on the globe have been more or less fully recognized by them during the past 125 years, yet absolutely no reference ever has been made by any President to the question of temperance, prohibition, or the evils of the liquor traffic, as they vitally concern millions of our own people. Under the subject head, 'Distilled Liquors,' are about a dozen references, but instead of comment upon this topic from the point of view of its peril or importance as a moral issue, or economic evil, every instance is simply a reference to the collection of government taxes on the product in question." President Roosevelt has come a little nearer the point in his last message to Congress, but it is a mere hint. He says: I would urgently press upon the attention of the Congress the question whether some amendment of the internal revenue laws might not be of aid in prosecuting those malefactors known in the Indian country as "bootleggers," who are engaged at once in defrauding the United States treasury of taxes and, what is far more important, in debauching the Indians by carrying liquors illicitly into territory still completely under federal jurisdiction. And, after all, the only difference between the "bootlegger" and other dealers who sell liquors in government territory is that one pays for the privilege, while the other does not. The government's label seems to be an antidote for alcoholic poison, in the estimation of the federal revenue laws. PROHIBITION IN PENNSYLVANIA.
PENNSYLVANIA is full of excitement just now over local campaigns in which Prohibitionists are taking a more active part than ever before. Complete town and city Prohibition party tickets are the rule, and scores of Prohibition candidates confidently expect to win, because the pace has already been set. More than three hundred straight prohibition candidates are now holding office in the state, and many more hope to be elected during the next thirty days. Among the interesting items of this campaign is the nomination of David B. McCalmot, Prohibition state chairman, for mayor of Franklin. Shippensburg, which is a prohibition city with a Prohibition party burgess and other officials of the same party, has set out to elect a straight Prohibition ticket next month. Famous Col. John Sobieski, the heir to Poland's throne, has been stirring up tremendous prohibition conviction in old Fayette County, and a big vote is sure.—Associated Prohibition Press. FUTILE ATTACKS.
By Mary M. Hunt
[By Mary M. Hunt, World and National Superintendent of the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction of the W. C. T. U.] WHEN the brewers in this country began to complain of a decline in profits, a certain class of critics, among them moderate drinkers, began through various channels to make the vague charge, industriously repeated to school superintendents and school boards, that the indorsed temperance physiologies used in our public schools are inaccurate in their teaching against alcoholic drinks. These critics were told by the friends and advocates of this study that the truths taught in those books were sustained by standard authorities and touched a vital question of private and public morals, namely, that of the sobriety or inebriety of coming generations, hence the charge of inaccuracy should be proved or be withdrawn. Thereupon a self-appointed committee of fifty organized a costly system of experiments conducted through a period of ten years "to ascertain," they said, "the effects of the occasional or habitual use of a moderate quantity of wine, beer, or spirits upon the health and working powers of man," and "to free our public school system from the incubus [scientific temperance instruction] which rests upon it." The report of the experiments made by this committee fills two volumes of 800 pages. The results of that report for evil would have been incalculable if only a surface consideration had been given to it, for it presents a seeming array of testimony in favor of that same moderate use of alcoholic drinks that through the centuries has eventuated in the alcoholic degeneracy that has destroyed individuals, families, and nations. The Committee of Fifty Self-Condemned.
An exhaustive investigation was made of every one of these experiments to find what they really did prove, and of all the so-called evidence gathered by this committee of fifty from innumerable sources. This investigation shows that, when honestly interpreted, their experiments furnish experimental demonstration, not of the inaccuracy, but of the truth, of the testimony of science as presented in the indorsed public school text-books against even the moderate use of alcoholic drinks; and furthermore, that this committee has furnished nothing whatsoever to prove their accusation that the temperance instruction in our schools is unscientific or undesirable, but the reverse, that it is both accurate and desirable. Now note how God takes care of truth that is essential to the salvation of the people. The reply to this report of the committee of fifty, a pamphlet of twenty-eight pages, which proves the falsity of their charges, was all unsolicited by the advocates of this study, on motion of Senator Gallinger, a distinguished physician, made a government document, "Senate Document No. 171," by the unanimous vote of the United States Senate, February 27, 1904. Thus a staggering blow was dealt to this effort to overthrow the public-school study of the laws of health, including those that teach abstinence from alcoholic drinks and other narcotics, a study upon which this nation depends as a means of securing a sound national physique. When truths essential to human progress need defense, Omnipotence is not limited in instrumentalities that can sweep futile objections into oblivion. A RAILWAY ACROSS FIVE CONTINENTS.
MR. ALEXANDER HUME FORD tells us, in the Independent of February 1, that the great giants of finance have as their latest project the building of a round-the-world trunk line of twenty-five thousand miles in length, beginning at Cape Horn, the lowest point in South America, running along the backbone of the continent up the Andes, winding across the Isthmus of Panama, through Mexico, the United States and Canada, diving under the Bering Sea, emerging in Siberia, crossing that frigid region and torrid Central Asia, through the Holy Land and Egypt, connecting with the Rhodes trans-African railway, now in course of construction from Cairo to Capetown. This is a colossal undertaking, yet not so big as it seems, for there is but ten thousand miles of additional railroad to be built to fill the gaps and make the railway complete. It was the joint idea of an American, an Englishman, and a Frenchman. Mr. Carnegie offers to finance the New York to Buenos Ayres project and has subscribed fifty thousand dollars for the preliminary survey; and M. Loing de Lobel is looking after the European and Cairo to Capetown affair. Within five years is the promise of the Frenchman, and about a decade is the prediction of the Scotch-American. There seems to be co-operation on the part of the various countries all along the line. In connection with this the old idea of tunnelling under the Straits of Dover is again revived in order to connect London with the great world by rail. Time and money are all that is needed. The new House of Commons in England will stand about as follows: 381 Liberals, 159 Unionists, 84 Nationalists, and 40 Laborites, giving the Liberals a clear majority of 93 over all other parties. The vote was the heaviest ever known in Great Britain. The most numerous class are barristers, next manufacturers, and next merchants. There are thirteen Jews in the House, a larger number than ever before. "Current Literature" tells us, and seems to give considerable evidence to support its statements, that China is furnishing material for dark forebodings. Imminent revolution is the prospect. Over one million of the very best rifles have been ordered from European firms, and some Chinese educated in the German army are training the men. How long will it be before China becomes one of the mighty giants with which the world will have to deal? EVERYBODY is beginning to see it now. It is manifest in all the great countries of the world, indicated in the elections in England and in the various parliaments of the Old World. The New York Independent remarks, in its issue of February 1: But that things are changing we are reminded almost every day. The sort of political struggle that has been going on in the little state of Belgium for a quarter of a century, between a socialistic working class and a rich employing class, is making its way into the larger countries. Notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the kaiser and the privileged orders in Germany to bring international questions to the fore, the real issues in every part of Germany are those of agrarianism and socialism, and the Socialists have all but obtained complete control in the Reichstag. Throughout France the working-man's movement plays an increasingly-important part in national politics, and the Socialists have a strong representation in the Chamber of Deputies. The above journal questions the way in which it may come in with those in power who will not yield to it without blood-letting and disruption, and thus concludes: We ought not in this land to drift blindly on into a regime of purely proletarian socialism. Such socialistic measures as we adopt should be a civic socialism, adopted and supported by a broad-minded citizenship, embracing public-spirited men of every economic class, of every profession, of every grade of educational attainment. Certainly the great struggle is on between Roman Catholicism and Socialism. The outcome is certainly predicted in the Word of God. The Business Value of No-Saloon Policies
By Edwin F. Hahn
From a business and financial standpoint, to say nothing of the moral benefit, the "no-saloon" policy is not only not detrimental to the business interests, but is of incalculable value in securing business and financial activity. He who will read the signs of the times can not fail to see that the saloon is doomed because of its injury to the business and financial interests as well as the moral interests of a community.—Edwin F. Hahn, a leading attorney of Southern California. Moral Sanitation and Community Health
By David Starr Jordan
To clean up a town, to free it from corrosion, saves men and boys and girls, too, from vice, and who shall say that moral sanitation is not as much the duty of the community as physical sanitation? The city of the future will not permit the existence of slums and dives and tippling houses. It will prohibit their being, for the same reason that it now prohibits pig-pens and cesspools. For where all of these things are, slums and cesspools, saloons and pig-pens, there the people grow weak and die.—David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University. A WORD TO SALOON MEN.
By Editor
No CLASS of people are so much injured by the saloon business as you and your families. Every man who buys a drink over your bar puts a nail in your coffin. You know that your business is not deemed respectable. You know that it is a stigma not only upon yourself but upon your wife and children. Even if you do make money (and many of you do not), there is a blot upon the name and often upon the feelings of your families which they are powerless to erase. Let them conduct themselves never so well, they are often made to feel the implied if not the expressed slur, that they are the wives or the daughters or the sons of saloon-keepers. Then the business builds up a system of caste that is a curse to any community. It establishes not only the saloon-keeper caste, but the gambler caste, and the drunkard caste. And as the drunkards become more and more confirmed and die off, there is produced the beggar caste, the thieving caste, the dependent charity caste. All these and more, too, are the product of your business. Another thing: nearly all saloon-keepers become poor in old age. They seem to flourish while in the prime of life; but they are generally extravagant, fond of good living, and seldom save anything. They become victims of their surroundings, and sooner or later go downhill. The business utterly takes away the recuperative powers. Sooner or later they find that they are, and have been, simply the servants of the wholesale dealers and brewers. So far as profits go, the saloons are feeders to the coffers of the wholesale dealers and brewers. Take warning; get out of the business at once. You say you can not, but you can. If all the saloon-keepers would quit the business, the money that is squandered in their iniquitous places would be spent in ways that would open up more legitimate lines of business. Think of it, and make an effort to free yourselves from the degrading lives which you are living and entailing upon your families and others. Eradicate the Liquor Traffic
The liquor traffic is a cancer in society, eating out the vitals and threatening destruction, and all attempts to regulate it will not only prove abortive, but will aggravate the evil. There must be no more attempts to regulate the cancer; it must be eradicated.—Abraham Lincoln. The Liquor Business Breeds Crime
The liquor business does not stand on the same footing with other occupations. It always tends to produce criminality in the population at large, and law-breaking among the saloon-keepers themselves. —President Roosevelt. THE WILL OF GOD
By W. A. Sweany
The Antinomian Sophistry.
"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 2:11-16. And so carnal professors seek to excuse or justify their disregard of Jehovah's law by the specious argument that the law to which obedience is required is not the Ten Commandments spoken from Sinai and written on stone by Jehovah Himself, but another so-called "higher," "better" law. It requires a large fund of the "charity" which "covereth a multitude of sins" to enable one to believe that any honest, intelligent person who has read the Bible can believe such a monstrous doctrine, opposing and contradicting, as it does, every principle of truth and consistency. But, lest some honest soul may have become subverted by the subtle sophistry of this satanic system of Scriptural interpretation, let us again briefly, but carefully and candidly, consider the subject of law in the divine economy. Everything in the universe, from the smallest molecule to the greatest world, is subject to the operation and influence of law. The movements of the heavenly bodies and the so-called functions of nature in the objects and creatures of earth, sea, and sky, are but the operation and outworking in them of the laws which govern their existence. Since He upholds "all things by the word of His power," and "by Him all things consist" (Heb. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16, 17; Ps. 33:6, 9; Isa. 40:26), the abolition or withdrawal of His law or mandate concerning the existence or experience of anything in creation, would immediately result in its extinction. And the same fate must ultimately overtake responsible beings who misuse the power of choice conferred upon them by rebellion against the revealed will of their Creator. Satan persuaded the parents of the human race that obedience to Jehovah's requirements was derogatory to their best interests, and that disregard and independence of all prohibitions and restraints was necessary for their well-being and advancement. And despite the awful results that followed their adoption of Satan's counsels, multitudes still continue to espouse the same destructive doctrine against which reason, revelation, and history combine to furnish such a solemn warning. The Law in the Patriarchal Age.
The existence of sin and death "from Adam to Moses," proves that the people possessed a knowledge of the law, "for by the law is the knowledge of sin" and "sin is not imputed when there is no law," for "where no law is, there is no transgression," for "sin is the transgression of the law." Rom. 3:19, 20; 5:13; 4:15; 1 John 3:4. The fearful fate that befell the antediluvians and the people of the plain, was the direct result of their "wickedness" and "unlawful deeds," committed in defiance of the plain precepts of Jehovah's will as expressed in the lives and labors, the words and works, of Noah and Lot. Gen. 6:1 to 7:1; 19:1-29; 2 Peter 2. Abraham's obedience to God's law constituted him "the father of the faithful," and "the friend of God;" and the mission of Moses, the man of meekness, was to make known to the people "the statutes of God, and His laws." Gen. 26:1-5; Ex. 18:13-16; Num. 12:1-9. "Enoch walked with God," and was thus qualified and authorized to expound the will of God and warn sinners of the inevitable result of their ungodly deeds and words. Gen. 5:21-24; Jude 14, 15. And so, throughout the patriarchal period, these, and other "holy men of God," instructed by angel messengers in visions and dreams, "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," proclaiming orally the provisions of the divine law, with the rewards of obedience and the consequences of transgression thereof. Gen. 15:1; 19:1; 28:10-22; Num. 12:5, 6; 2 Peter 1:21. Surely the doctrine of patriarchal antinomianism must surrender whenever brought into contact with the foregoing facts. Furthermore, the erstwhile antinomian must acknowledge that patriarchal law was composed of precepts defining man's relation to God and to his fellow man, transgression of which constituted polytheism, idolatry, blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, filial disobedience, murder, adultery, theft, falsehood, and covetousness, all of which sins prevailed to a fearful extent throughout the patriarchal age, as well as in later times. Even among the chosen people of God, disobedience and transgression were manifested again and again, as witness the drunkenness and filial disrespect in the household of Noah (Gen. 9:20-27); incest in the family of Lot (Gen. 19:30-38); Abram's concubinage (Gen. 16:1-6); and the trickery and fraud, duplicity and deception of Jacob and his mother. Gen. 25:29-34, and chapter 27. During Israel's long sojourn in Egypt, surrounded on all sides by polytheism, idolatry, and licentiousness, Israel well-nigh lost the knowledge of God and His laws. Especially was Sabbath observance difficult, if not entirely impossible, for a people sunken in slavery. And so "when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham," and Moses, qualified and commissioned by Jehovah, began his Heaven-appointed work of making the people to know "the statutes of God and His laws." Pharaoh at once reprimanded him because he made the people rest from their work, and stringent measures were at once enforced to crush out this attempt at Sabbath observance. Acts 7:17-36; Ex. 2:23 to 5:19. It being impossible for them to serve God satisfactorily in Egypt, He delivered them from their oppressors and brought them forth "that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws." Ps. 105:42-45. The necessity and propriety of obedience to all God's commandments in general, and of Sabbath observance in particular, was emphasized by their deliverance from Egypt, previous to which such observance on their part seems to have been impossible. It should be noted that their deliverance from Egypt had nothing to do with the making of the Sabbath or the precept concerning its observance, but it did furnish the strongest possible additional reason why they should keep the Sabbath and obey all of God's commandments. Lev. 19:33-37; Deut. 5:12-15. The Sabbath is a sign or token of God's power to create and redeem, and a memorial of Creation. Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11; 31:12-18; Eze. 20:12, 20. Fear of inevitable and natural consequences, public opinion, civil and temporal punishment, pains and penalties, a desire to be genteel, polished and refined, and many other reasons aside from the fear and love of God, may, and often do, produce outward conformity, at least, to those precepts of the Decalogue which forbid polytheism, idolatry, blasphemy, filial disrespect, murder, adultery, theft, falsehood, and selfishness, as all these things manifestly tend toward degradation. But no reason can be adduced or conceived for the observance of the seventh day, save the command of God. Observance of the Sabbath, therefore, constitutes a test of loyalty and a sign of submission to Jehovah's authority. As already shown, conformity to any other precept may be the product of ulterior motives, but such conformity is no proof of continued obedience to the same or other requirements, for men's motives are as changeable as the conditions and circumstances that surround and influence them. But obedience to a mandate for which no reason exists save the power and authority of the Author, is proof that obedience will be rendered to all other commands from the same source, especially when reasons for obedience thereto are plainly discernible. It is for this reason that the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath has always been, and still is, a sign, seal, mark, token, test, assurance, and pledge of complete consecration to God, and submission to His will in all things. TRUSTING CHRIST.
By Ellen G. White
OUR last thought at night and our first thought in the morning should be of Him in whom are centered our hopes of eternal life. He died for us. He saw us in peril, exposed to destruction, and He poured out His life to save us. He is our Advocate. He has placed a treasure-house of blessing at our command. Men can not remove one stain of sin. Christ's merits alone will avail, and they have been placed at our disposal in rich fulness. Every moment we may draw upon Christ for help. As we turn to Him, He answers, "Here am I." Christ is our Intercessor. He places the incense of His righteousness in the golden censer, to offer up with the prayers of His disciples. The Father hears every prayer offered in contrition and sincerity. Our supplications blend with the supplications of our Intercessor, whose voice the Father always hears. Let us, then, pray without ceasing, not in the name of any human being, but in the name of Him who is our substitute and surety. He has given us His name to use. "Ask in My name," He says. Then let us pray in faith. Let us not falter, but go forward from strength to strength, from victory to victory. Jesus receives and welcomes you as His9 friend. He loves you. He has pledged Himself to open before you all the treasures of His grace. He says, Make use of My name, and it will be your passport to the heart of My Father, and to all the riches of His grace. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." Unworthy as we are, God has granted to us His forgiving mercy; undeserving as we are of the least of His favors, He has poured rich blessings upon us. The more unworthy the receiver, the more glorious the mercy of God, and the more earnestly we should show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. To him who is content to receive without deserving, who feels that he can never recompense such love, who lays all doubt and unbelief aside, and comes as a little child to the feet of Jesus, all the treasures of eternal love are a free, everlasting gift. The more you trust your Redeemer, the more you will love Him. He is your Friend in life or death. He is the Crown of your rejoicing. He is worthy of your fullest faith. All the sorrows and afflictions that we suffer here only constitute our discipline for the higher life. God designs that thus we shall be fitted for heaven. Wait upon God. Lean upon Him in entire dependence; for His everlasting arms will sustain you. He who says that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the notice of the heavenly Father will care for those who love and trust Him. Jesus knows every throb of pain, every throe of anguish and distress, and He will give His children grace to endure the afflictions that He permits to come upon them. His heart beats in sympathy with suffering humanity and those who suffer most have most of His pity and sympathy. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable." "Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is Thy hand; and high is Thy right hand." "Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." If He is for you, who can be against you. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" "Yea, tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." Let us trust Him who sees the end from the beginning, and who will make all things work together for good to those that love the Lord. FEDERATION OF CHURCHES
By Alonzo T. Jones
PRESENT OPPORTUNITY AND PRESENT DUTY.
FEDERATION of the churches stands accomplished. In the preceding articles of this series, we have studied the principles and the chief errors involved, and the certain meaning of the thing. What now is the present duty of all who understand the situation? The next meeting of the Federation is to be in December 1908. This gives a space of three years in which to work. And, surely the principles and the errors which characterize the Federation as accomplished, and the certain mischievous meaning of it to the nation, the people, and the world,—surely these things are sufficient to incite to utmost endeavor every soul who understands the movement or who cares for the welfare of nation or people, and above all who cares for the purity and true power of the church, of Protestantism, of Christianity. When the Federation shall meet in 1908, it is to meet as "the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America." And to those who attended the late "Conference on Federation" and were observant of the currents and under-currents, there can be no doubt that when the "Federal Council" shall meet it will be a church council in every sense of the word, fully up to the manner of the church councils through which was perfected the meaning of federation at the first in the early centuries of the Christian era. And this makes it certain that in that "Federal Council" in 1908 there will be developments as far in advance of the present situation, as the present situation created by the late "Conference on Federation" is in advance of what was before that conference was held. And this makes it especially urgent that all who understand shall do all that is possible to show to all others that they may understand the present situation, as a preparation for the developments that will certainly appear in the "Federal Council" in 1908. Those who do not understand the present situation as created by the "Conference on Federation," and who do not live intelligently, and work industriously, in view of it, will be totally unprepared to understand, and to live and work in view of, the new and advanced situation that will be created in the "Federal Council" in 1908. As already stated, this "Federal Council," when met, will surely be a church council in just what that term signifies. And to know what that term does signify, read up on the Councils of Nice, Sardica, Milan, Rimini, Constantinople, Ephesus, etc.; and while reading, remember that among the denominations composing this Federation there are doctrinal differences as distinct, and issues as pronounced, as any among the denominations of those times. In addition there are new distinctions and issues among these—issues and distinctions of to-day, springing from evolution, "higher criticism," and other "scientific" speculations. When now that "Federal Council" shall meet, these denominational preferences will inevitably appear for recognition in the actions of the council. As an inevitable consequence "old controversies will be revived, and new controversies will spring up; new and old will co-mingle," and the same old tide will be set anew flowing rapidly to the same old consequences in a new form—as the original produced the beast, the new must produce the image of the beast. It is therefore perfectly plain that every person who knows even only as much as the A B C of this matter must be awake and alive to do all that he possibly can just now to enlighten all the people on this subject. The three years until December, 1908, is time graciously granted us by Providence in which to do this essential thing. And this is really essential. It is essential in order that nation and people may know what is certainly coming, that they may avoid it. And even more than this, it is essential to those who know what is coming, and the meaning both of what is and what is coming. To these it is essential that they be all life and industry in this matter that is now before them, lest they themselves lose the light and knowledge both as to what is, and what is coming. Only in the right use of the opportunity with respect to the situation as it is to-day can there be retained the light and knowledge to discern the truth with respect to the situation that will be developed in December 1908. How shall this thing be done, that is the essential thing just now?—Read, read, read! Study, study, study! Educate, educate, educate! The literature on the subject is ample and easily accessible. Many of the people have it in their own houses now, and have had it there for years. It is there for just this time and for the work that must be done in this time. Will the people who know the meaning of these things, now and to come; the people who for years have been looking for just these present developments—will these people now really awake to this for which they have been looking and that is now here? Will these now put away every other issue, every other thing, and give their attention and energy to this one great and all-important issue, to this one essential thing, of giving the Third Angel's Message as that message is in very words and intent? If not, then what can possibly recompense for the lack? and what can possibly redeem the loss? May the Lord in His infinite mercy save His people from that infinite mistake. The Heroism of Self-Control
"He who amid the tests can conquer his fleshly clamor for gratification, strangle his appetite for pleasure, and, with set teeth and pale countenance, determinedly face an uncongenial duty without a murmur—this man is a hero, a sublime and God-like character." LOVE can sweeten the bitter spirit, thwart the lightning's shaft, tame the tiger, put a bridle in the lion's mouth and lead him harmless as a pet lamb.—T. H. Nelson. Individual Responsibility Amid Church Indifference
Because of the church's general prayerlessness, carelessness, and consequent lack of revival power, sin may continue to blast homes, break hearts, and curse souls; but as an individual I can keep from fostering the indifference that produces these results and thereby escape the loss and punishment that must surely and eternally come to those who live thus.—Herald of Life. Be Bible Readers and Searchers
THERE is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write "Damnation" with your fingers. O! may it not be so with you! Be Bible readers! Be Bible searchers!—Spurgeon.