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Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 22.

Our Refuge and Guide

Review and Herald

May 31, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 31, 1906

Our Refuge and Guide

By M. C. Wilcox

M. C. WILCOX
Let war’s tumultuous hosts arise to slay; Let earth be reddened with her seas of gore; Let all the world join Armageddon’s fray, Till all the land be wasted o’er and o’er: Yet will I trust; Jehovah is my peace; To Him alone have I surrendered all: From sin’s dread bondage gives He sweet release, Defends me with His own truth’s mighty wall.
Let earthquake’s vibrant throbs sink cities low, O’erthrow their mighty towers in heaps of sand, Strike dumb the great with fell destruction’s blow, And on the fairest lands place death’s dark brand; My trust shall be in God, the Lord Most High, The Rock of Ages, everlasting, sure; He reigns above the wreck of worlds; my cry He hears; the riven Rock will aye endure.
Let storm and tempest rage, and wild winds blow; Let dire disaster cover sea and land; Let plague and pestilence and crime and woe And death and desolation me withstand; Yet will I ever trust; my God shall keep; I’ll hide me in the shadow of His hand; He’ll be my song and joy through shadows deep; He’ll lead me all the way to glory land.
Mountain View, Cal.

Our Publishing Work

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.
See last paragraph on this page for instructions where to order.
How easy it is now, while the whole nation is shocked over the great earthquake in California, to call attention to the meaning of such occasions, as explained in some of our publications. “Heralds of the Morning” and “Coming King,” or the small and inexpensive book, “His Glorious Appearing,” are good books to set before the people truths that the recent California earthquake will emphasize and indelibly impress upon the mind. “Coming King” and “Heralds of the Morning” are only $1 and $1.50 respectively in cloth bindings, and “His Glorious Appearing,” in cloth, is only 40 cents.
There is a little book, entitled “Making Home Happy,” in which some very practical lessons are given. It contains a very bright, wholesome story with a moral—a great subject treated sensibly and simply, revealing how an unhappy home was made happy through loving unselfishness, which is in the story shown to be the secret of happy homes and happy lives. We recommend this book to our readers. It will be highly beneficial to every home. Parents should secure this book for themselves and their children. Neatly and attractively bound and illustrated; in paper covers, 25 cents; cloth covers, 50 cents.
Are you not personally acquainted with some one person who is an officer or teacher in a Sunday-school? Have you thought of your favorable opportunity to interest him in “Desire of Ages” while the life of Christ is being studied during the present year? Send to your tract society for a free copy of a little booklet prepared especially to help the Sunday-school teachers find in “Desire of Ages” the vital truths of the topics composing the International Sunday-school Lessons for the present year. If every member would do as much as to interest one teacher in “Desire of Ages,” at this very favorable time, the results would be at once observable. The opportunity is present, the way is easy, the material is at hand; who will be released from personal responsibility under so favorable circumstances?
From Australia comes the cheering word: “With the help of the Sabbath School Worker, not only the children’s lessons, but also the senior lessons, are made clear and interesting. Our teachers find this good paper not only a help, but also a great spiritual blessing, for it gives the food that old and young require. I feel so thankful to the Lord for his great love and wisdom in bringing about such plans whereby we can study his holy Word. I trust you will have our club renewed at once, as we can not afford to miss one number.” From every section of the country, our Sabbath-school workers who are availing themselves of the Worker are writing us of the benefits derived from it. It costs only 35 cents a year, or 25 cents when two or more copies are sent to one address.
Have you sent 25 cents for a year’s subscription for Liberty? Do you know this magazine can be sold readily for 5 cents a copy, and that when 25 or more copies are ordered at one time by an agent, they can be secured for 2½ cents a copy, post-paid? Also that we give agents 40 per cent discount on annual subscriptions? Send for sample copy, order blanks, and circulars.
The children in our Sabbath-school should have the benefits of “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones,” prepared especially for the use of kindergarten teachers. This book is composed of fifty-two lessons, one for each Sabbath in the year, with suggestions accompanying each lesson; thirty-nine songs and hymns written especially for the lessons; thirty-six full-page pictures, six by eight half-tones, and colored plate; fifty-two pen drawings, showing how to use the illustrative material; one hundred and sixty pages filled with very practical information to all kindergarten and primary teachers. Bound in durable board, 7½ x 10 inches, $1.50; blue cloth, same size, $2.
The old and tried book, “Daniel and the Revelation,” by Elder U. Smith, is still popular with the people. Though many thousands of this book have been sold, the demand is still good. The people are interested in its prophetic teachings. It is a verse-by-verse study of the prophecies recorded in the books of Daniel and The Revelation, and reveals many of these prophecies fulfilled, while it cites others still future. It contains 557 pages, exclusive of 66 full-page illustrations. Substantially bound in cloth, library, and morocco bindings, ranging in price from $2.25 to $4.50, post-paid. It is also printed on thin paper without illustrations, plain edges, one volume, $1. In paper covers, two volumes, 25 cents each.
Every family without a complete set of “Testimonies for the Church” should at once plan to secure them for personal study. The more they are studied, the better prepared will be the individual to meet perplexing issues sure to come to every one connected with the work of the message. The full set comprises eight volumes. Volumes I-VI, bound in cloth, $1 a copy; Volumes VII and VIII, in cloth, 75 cents a copy; the full set, therefore, in uniform cloth, costing only $7.50, post-paid. The full set, Volumes I-IV bound in library, and Volumes V-VIII bound in flexible leather, can be had for $11.50. These bindings make a very attractive combination, and will be found to be very durable in a set of books used as frequently as the Testimonies should be.
Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society or to Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich.
Also Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

Crime in America

THE following quotation presents a summary of American criminal statistics for 1905 as gathered by the Chicago Tribune: “Embezzlements, forgeries, defaultings, and bank wreckings in 1905, which amounted to a total of $9,613,172, show a large increase over 1904, and are the largest since 1879. The number of homicides and deaths by violence of any kind show a considerable increase over 1904, being 9,212 as compared with 8,432 in the latter year. Self-murder is steadily increasing, the suicides for 1905 being 9,982 as compared with 9,240 in 1904, 6,556 being men and 3,426 women. The annual average ratio of homicides to population is 13 per million in Germany, 19 per million in France, 27 per million in the United Kingdom, 105 per million in Italy, and 115 per million in the United States. There is a marked decrease in the number of lynchings, the total for 1905 being sixty-six, the smallest number in nineteen years.” Men have been so long taught that they do dishonor to Christianity if they do not claim that the world is growing better, and that the millennium of righteousness is near at hand, that they deliberately close their eyes to the meaning of such statistics as these. The real truth is that the spirit of peace is being withdrawn from the earth, and the spirit of violence is becoming rampant. This indicates that the coming of the Lord is near.

The Present Crisis

THE faith of Seventh-day Adventists is being tested. They are learning whether they are established in the present truth, or whether their confidence has been in men. It is necessary that this experience should come in one way or another. 'Only those are prepared for translation who have been perfected in trial. “These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his temple.”
With diabolical cunning Satan is using the defection from the truth on the part of some and the shocking inconsistency of others as arguments against the message itself, and is causing doubt and discouragement in some minds. All this may mean a brighter experience to those who hold fast to their confidence in God and his work. “The trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
The situation foretold many years ago through the spirit of prophecy is now here. “Every one must now search the Bible for himself upon his knees before God, with the humble, teachable heart of a child, if he would know what the Lord requires of him. However high any minister may have stood in the favor of God, if he neglects to follow out the light given him of God, if he refuses to be taught as a little child, he will go into darkness and satanic delusions, and will lead others in the same path. . . . O for living, active faith! We need it; we must have it, or we shall faint and fail in the day of trial. The darkness that will then rest upon our path must not discourage us, or drive us to despair. It is the veil with which God covers his glory when he comes to impart rich blessings. We should know this by our past experience. In that day when God has a controversy with his people, this experience will be a source of comfort and hope.” The present crisis will doubtless reveal some things now hidden which may come as a surprise, but it will not destroy the foundation of the truth. Those who build upon this foundation will pass safely through this crisis, and others yet to come.

The Right Use of the Scriptures

We are told that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” but we are nowhere told that the Word of God is profitable for argument. The purpose of the study of the Scriptures should be to learn the way of life, and not to find weapons of warfare. The gospel of the grace of God has been revealed to us in order that we may be prepared to dwell with him throughout eternity, and not that we may be prepared to maintain a theological dispute with men throughout time. We are to feed upon a living Word rather than to dissect or to embalm the dead form of the Word.
When there is a sincere desire to understand the Scriptures in order that the life may be in harmony with them, the Spirit of God gives discernment, and the truth is made clear to the mind. It is the spirit of rebellion which darkens the mind, and prevents even the talented reader from perceiving the beauty of holiness.
“Human theories and speculations will never lead to an understanding of God’s Word. Those who suppose that they understand philosophy think that their explanations are necessary to unlock the treasures of knowledge, and to prevent heresies from coming into the church. But it is these explanations that have brought in false theories and heresies. Men have made desperate efforts to explain what they thought to be intricate scriptures; but too often their efforts have only darkened that which they tried to make clear.
“The priests and Pharisees thought they were doing great things as teachers, by putting their own interpretation upon the Word of God; but Christ said of them, ‘Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God.’ He charged them with the guilt of ‘teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’ Though they were the teachers of the oracles of God, though they were supposed to understand his Word, they were not doers of the Word. Satan had blinded their eyes, that they should not see its true import.
“This is the work of many in our day. Many churches are guilty of this sin. There is danger, great danger, that the supposed wise men of to-day will repeat the experience of the Jewish teachers. They falsely interpret the divine oracles, and souls are brought into perplexity and shrouded in darkness because of their misconception of divine truth.
“The Scriptures need not to be read by the dim light of tradition or human speculation. As well might we try to give light to the sun with a torch as to explain the Scriptures by human tradition or imagination. God’s holy Word needs not the torchlight glimmer of earth to make its glories distinguishable. It is light in itself—the glory of God revealed; and beside it every other light is dim.
“But there must be earnest study and close investigation. Sharp, clear perceptions of truth will never be the reward of indolence. No earthly blessing can be obtained without earnest, patient, persevering effort. If men attain success in business, they must have a will to do, and a faith to look for results. And we can not expect to gain spiritual knowledge without earnest toil. Those who desire to find the treasures of truth must dig for them as the miner digs for the treasure hidden in the earth. No half-hearted, indifferent work will avail. It is essential for old and young, not only to read God’s Word, but to study it with whole-hearted earnestness, praying and searching for truth as for hidden treasure. Those who do this will be rewarded; for Christ will quicken the understanding.
“Our salvation depends on a knowledge of the truth contained in the Scriptures. It is God’s will that we should possess this. Search, O search the precious Bible with hungry hearts! Explore God’s Word as the miner explores the earth to find veins of gold. Never give up the search until you have ascertained your relation to God and his will in regard to you. Christ declared, ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.’”
“Men of piety and talent catch views of eternal realities, but often they fail of understanding, because the things that are seen eclipse the glory of the unseen. He who would seek successfully for the hidden treasure must rise to higher pursuits than the things of this world. His affections and capabilities must be consecrated to the search.
“Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Scriptures. Understanding means obedience to God’s commandments. The Scriptures are not to be adapted to meet the prejudice and jealousy of men. They can be understood only by those who are humbly seeking for a knowledge of the truth that they may obey it.
“Do you ask, What shall I do to be saved? You must lay your preconceived opinions, your hereditary and cultivated ideas, at the door of investigation. If you search the Scriptures to vindicate your own opinions, you will never reach the truth. Search in order to learn what the Lord says. If conviction comes as you search, if you see that your cherished opinions are not in harmony with the truth, do not misinterpret the truth in order to suit your own belief, but accept the light given. Open mind and heart, that you may behold wondrous things out of God’s Word.
“Faith in Christ as the world’s Redeemer calls for an acknowledgment of the enlightened intellect, controlled by a heart that can discern and appreciate the heavenly treasure. This faith is inseparable from repentance and transformation of character. To have faith means to find and accept the gospel treasure, with all the obligations which it imposes.
“‘Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.’ He may conjecture and imagine, but without the eye of faith he can not see the treasure. Christ gave his life to secure for us this inestimable treasure; but without regeneration through faith in his blood, there is no remission of sins, no treasure for any perishing soul.
“We need the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in order to discern the truths in God’s Word. The lovely things of the natural world are not seen until the sun, dispelling the darkness, floods them with its light. So the treasures in the Word of God are not appreciated until they are revealed by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.
“The Holy Spirit, sent from heaven by the benevolence of infinite love, takes the things of God, and reveals them to every soul that has an implicit faith in Christ. By his power the vital truths upon which the salvation of the soul depends are impressed upon the mind, and the way of life is made so plain that none need err therein. As we study the Scriptures, we should pray for the light of God’s Holy Spirit to shine upon the Word, that we may see and appreciate its treasures.”

Opposite Methods

By Editor

Editorial

Opposite Methods

CHRISTIANITY tells us to look to Jesus, and that by beholding we shall be changed into the same image. Heathenism tells us to forget all outside ourselves, and to turn our thoughts within in a life of contemplation. Christianity teaches us to trust in the merits of Christ. Heathenism urges us to recognize the divinity within ourselves. Christianity instructs us to forget ourselves, and to love the Lord with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Heathenism instructs us to forget others, and to center our thoughts upon ourselves. The Christian method means everlasting salvation. The heathen method means everlasting perdition. Make your choice wisely.

Faith and the Law

By L. A. S.

In an argument to prove that Christians are not under obligation to keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, Zion’s Watch Tower says:—
Their faith in God [the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] constituted an obligation to do the divine will to the extent of their knowledge and ability; and the same is true of us; . . . to us love is the fulfilling of the law. . . . Such a love permits us to be and to do in harmony with the divine will to the extent of our ability; and the Lord, who is dealing with us according to our intentions and endeavors, and who is covering our unwilling weaknesses and imperfections, counts this service of the heart and intention as a perfect keeping of the divine law.
The Bible assures us that the law of God is not made void through faith. Rom. 3:31. He who has true faith does not seek to evade the claims of the law; and it must follow from this that he who does seek to make void the law, or any part of it, is not actuated by true faith. Of this class are those who argue against the binding claims of the fourth commandment.
True faith looks to Jesus Christ as the one who keeps the law of God, and keeps it perfectly, and trusts in his fulfilling of the law for salvation. The working of true, saving faith is expressed by Paul in the statement: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. But the doctrine which makes void the law says that our service of “weaknesses and imperfections” is counted “as a perfect keeping of the divine law.” What could be further from the truth?
No man of intelligence counts his failures as a perfect keeping of God’s law; and much less does God count them as such. God does not count a thing to be true unless it is true. Our doing “to the best of our ability,” which is full of “weaknesses and imperfections,” is verily not the keeping of the law which God requires, and for which Christianity provides. There must be, and is, a perfect keeping of the law, but it is Christ’s keeping of the law, in us. Christ is perfect; his keeping of the law is perfect. It has been so from the first, and must ever continue to be so.
And since it is Christ who keeps the law in us, we need find no fault with the requirements of the law, nor seek to be freed from any of them; for Christ will do all things that the law of God requires. True faith has no controversy with the law. And wherever there is a controversy with the law, a seeking to be freed from any of its requirements, or a rejoicing in the assumption that the law has been done away, either in whole or in part, the fact is conclusive evidence that true faith is not operating in the mind of that individual. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
L. A. S.

The Holy Scriptures and Salvation

“THE holy Scriptures . . . are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

New Union Conference in the Field

By William Ambrose Spicer

The cause of truth is stronger for the organization of the South American Union Conference. The organizing of the union added no new believers to the ranks, it is true. But it brought new courage and inspiration into the hearts of workers and believers, and this means stronger work and more rapid progress.
The new time has dawned in South America also. All the workers at our general meeting bore testimony that during the last two years a new interest has been awakened, particularly among the Spanish-speaking peoples. Once the openings were few, and depressing indifference abounded among the native peoples. Now a spirit of inquiry has sprung up, and calls come in for help. This greatly cheers our brethren. With the vast and varied field before them, and the duty of quickly evangelizing it, the workers felt that the time was fully come for a more thorough organization of their forces.
The union conference organization was effected at a general meeting held in Parana, the capital of the State of Entre Rios, about four hundred miles northwest of Buenos Ayres.
Brethren Graf and Spies were delegates from Brazil, Brethren F. H. Westphal and E. W. Thomann came from Chile, Brethren J. McCarthy and J. Ernst came from Uruguay, practically the whole force of the Argentine workers was present, and Paraguay was represented by Elder Louis Ernst. Altogether about one hundred and fifty believers were in attendance.
The Lord greatly blessed the brethren as they studied their field and work, and considered the meaning of the union conference organization. Among the first resolutions discussed was one thanking the brethren in North America for the help already sent in men and means, and assuring them that those who have received the truth here will endeavor to show the same earnest consecration in sending the message to others.
Formerly their field was operated in three divisions, but these were so vast that the growing work in each could no longer be properly administered together. For instance, the West Coast Mission stretched its length along nearly five thousand miles of coast, and included four countries.
Now Chile and Bolivia are made an organized mission field under a director (F. H. Westphal) and an advisory committee, while Peru (F. L. Perry, director) and Ecuador (Geo. Casebeer, director) constitute two unorganized mission fields.
Formerly the River Plate Conference included Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Now the conference is restricted to Argentina (J. W. Westphal, president), while Uruguay becomes an organized mission field (J. McCarthy, director), and Paraguay becomes a mission field under the direction of Louis Ernst.
The Brazilian Conference covered the whole country, nearly as large in area as all the United States, with a population of twenty-two millions. Yet nearly all the believers were in the two States at the extreme southern part of the country.
It was decided to organize in this southern strip the two conferences of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catharina (Elders Graf and Ehlers doubtless to act as presidents) while the vast territory northward along the coast will constitute two unorganized mission fields under Brethren Spies and Hoelzle, the division to be made as may be decided in the Brazilian general meeting to follow.
It was interesting to watch the earnest spirit of the conference as the believers here studied their territory and planned its division, realizing that the time and the work called upon them to get more thoroughly under the burden. They have a vast field to warn, and these two thousand Sabbath-keepers here still need our help in their task. We are a long way behind in taking up the work for this great Catholic field. We all must help now to make up for the late beginning in South America. But nothing stirred the hearts of these believers more than the knowledge that they were assuming heavier responsibilities which involved a deeper consecration and a call to greater faithfulness in tithes and offerings.
The union conference voted recommending four of its fields to plan their work from this organization on a self-supporting basis; namely, Argentina, Uruguay, and the two Brazilian conferences of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catharina. These will do their utmost to reach the point aimed at, although it is a hard year on our farming brethren, the crops having been eaten up by locusts, and now the long-continued drought is endangering the lives of their stock.
However, the South American Union swings into line with our other union organizations, and means to do its duty as God helps. No one can go through a camp-meeting with these believers without recognizing that the truth is doing for them what it does for us all. They are true brothers of ours, in the faith of the third angel's message.
The union conference office is in Buenos Ayres, where Elder N. Z. Town acts as secretary and treasurer. Elder J. W. Westphal, the president, has the confidence and loyal co-operation of workers and people.
The German-speaking brethren and sisters formed the larger proportion of the believers present. Therefore the proceedings were carried forward in two languages. The forty-foot tent was pitched in a spacious enclosure, surrounded by buildings and a wall, located within two squares of the central plaza of the city.
A vast open shed along one side sheltered five or six family tents, and made it easy for the rest of the people to curtain off living-rooms under shelter. Brother and Sister Lude successfully conducted a camp-meeting restaurant at one end of the shed also.
The evening services were in Spanish, and were attended by a goodly number of people from the city. These Catholic hearers developed more than one earnest seeker after truth, and the interest aroused must yet be followed up. Earnest requests were made at the close for more help and instruction. Brethren McCarthy, Thomann, Habenicht, and Town conducted the evening services.
Dr. Habenicht hopes soon to take his examinations and secure a right to practise medicine on the usual professional basis anywhere in the Argentine republic. But in the meantime he is just as much at home preaching the doctrines of the third angel's message and raising up Sabbath-keepers as he is in ministering to the sick.
I have mentioned the names of most of the laborers present who are known in North America, save Elder J. Maas, who is a vigorous laborer in German and Spanish, and Brother Fulton, who is in charge of the training-school in Camarera. This school has sent into the field a fine little band of workers, whose labors are bringing souls into the truth. It is a great encouragement to a field when it can see its own young people growing into successful workers in the field.
One great and crying need now is a better supply of Spanish literature so that the canvassing work may be developed. But this must quickly come. The Lord is blessing our brethren in South America, and all feel that the organization of the new union marks a new era in their work.
W. A. S.
Rosario Oriental, Uruguay.

A Most Important Meeting

By Arthur G. Daniells

ANNOUNCEMENTS are out for an educational convention of Seventh-day Adventist teachers, to be held in College View, Neb., June 29 to July 10. It has been three years since the last convention of our Educational Department was held. That was a most helpful and encouraging meeting, and it was the opinion of many at that gathering that such conventions should be held frequently until our educational work should be developed into a strong, harmonious, efficient system based upon true principles of Christian education.
Our educational work must ever hold a place of first rank in the various departments of our cause; and it is growing more important, or rather it is demanding more attention each year. When we had but one school and only one hundred students, this phase of our work could be easily cared for; but now that we have six hundred schools, seven hundred and fifty teachers, and fourteen thousand students, the situation is vastly different, and calls for altogether different action on our part.
It is to meet the growing interests of this important work that the Educational Department of the General Conference has been organized. And it is for the benefit of this branch of our work that arrangements have been made by the department committee to hold an educational convention this summer.
It is essential that our teachers—those who are giving their lives to the education and training of our children, youth, and young people—should get together for earnest, extended counsel regarding their work. This is recognized by the educators the world over. It is recognized by all other departments of the world's work. It is keenly felt by our teachers, and it should be fully appreciated by our conference officers and school boards. No other phase of our work is so many-sided, so far-reaching, and so full of perplexities as the educational work. We should give our teachers the privilege of meeting to exchange views, to agree on methods, and to unify and systematize plans.
In view of the tremendous interests that center in this work, I appeal to teachers, school boards, conference committees, and to our brethren of means to do all in their power to aid teachers to attend the coming convention. Everything is ready now for a most profitable meeting. Every one interested in the education of our youth is serious over this question. If I have taken correct observations during the last two or three years, now is the golden opportunity for this denomination to greatly improve and advance the Educational Department of our cause. A. G. DANIELLS.

The Only Remedy for Human Ills

Confronted by the alarming conditions which prevail in the world to-day, men are impelled to propose remedies of various kinds with the hope of bettering the situation. All such reform movements are efforts to alleviate results rather than to remove the causes of the trouble. There is only one Physician for human ills. There is only one remedy for the mortal disease which has fastened itself upon the human family. This is well stated by the late Dr. James Stewart, who devoted his life to the education of the natives of Africa. We quote his words:—
The hope of a better and happier day does not lie in the socialistic panaceas, or in dreams about equality in a world where no two men are or remain equal for a single day, or in the wholesale distribution of the hard-won fruits of honest industry among the lazy and dishonest. These are the remedies of a well-intentioned but badly instructed and sometimes slightly crazy benevolence. These ill-regulated remedies only make matters worse. They are the falsehood of extremes, and the exaggerations of human thinking applied to those everlasting truths which fell from the lips of the greatest human Teacher. The little grain of truth they contain has been stolen from Christianity itself. A saner spirit and a more robust common sense and a sounder interpretation of what Christ has taught, and, above all, the practise and the spirit of those teachings, must come first.
Although there are more Bibles and more churches and more nominal ministers than ever before in the history of the world, yet the present generation is perishing for the lack of the real gospel of Christ. Human philosophy can not take the place of a divine revelation.

Our Midsummer Offering for Missions

By Arthur G. Daniells

This offering is to be taken in all our churches, Sabbath, June 30. No stronger reasons have ever appealed to us for a large midsummer offering than we can see at this time. What we have said before, regarding our time and responsibilities, applies with much greater force to-day.
We are living in the midst of perils. The judgments of God are falling upon the land. Disasters follow one another in quick succession. Floods, fires, droughts, cyclones, and volcanic eruptions are doing a terrible work in the destruction of life and property. At the same time murders, suicides, massacres, and riots of the most revolting character are taking place in all parts of the world. And with all these there are the most shocking revelations of bribery, swindling, and all other forms of corruption in high business and official circles.
In the face of this alarming situation, millions of people will give themselves up to mirth and revelry on the coming fourth of July. Shows, races, theaters, dances, and various other amusements will receive a large patronage. Millions of dollars will be thoughtlessly and uselessly spent for that which will do harm. Thus God’s money will be squandered.
Brethren and sisters, what ought to be the course and example of those who have the light of the third angel’s message at such a time, and in the midst of such conditions? Should not our course be as opposite to that of the world as our light is opposed to the darkness of the world? If not, what is the object of our light? None of us will think that we can consistently attend the dances, theaters, shows, and races. We certainly can not spend our money for liquor, tobacco, and similar articles.
There are thousands of men and women dying without hope of a future life because they do not know the truth of the gospel as it has been made known to Seventh-day Adventists in the third angel’s message. They never can know this truth until it has been proclaimed to them, and this can not be done without money. Therefore it is plain and consistent that we should contribute our means to the cause of missions instead of wasting it in the festivities of the fourth-of-July celebration.
The third angel’s message lights up the past, present, and future. Those who know this message look at the affairs of this world in an altogether different light from those who do not know the message. The object of life, the meaning of all that is taking place,—everything has a different and a deeper significance under the light of this message.
How glad we are that the light of this message has come to us. There is nothing fanciful nor fanatical about it. We have not followed cunningly devised fables. If there is anything in the realm of the spiritual of which men and women may be certain, it is the truth as revealed in the third angel’s message. If we do not know these truths, we do not know anything about spiritual matters.
We believe every intelligent, true-hearted Seventh-day Adventist will be glad that an arrangement is made by the General Conference Committee to take a Sabbath offering for missions at a time when the masses will be spending their money so foolishly.
Shall we not decide now, before Sabbath, June 30, the day appointed for the offering, to make our gift at this time in harmony with the greatness of the needs? A. G. DANIELLS.

Note and Comment

COMMENTING on the collapse of Dowieism, the Missionary Review of the World says:—
One lesson is very especially to be learned, namely, that any work or scheme, however laudable in itself, that crystallizes about one man or woman, is always fraught with peril. There are at least three other enterprises, that are nominally Christian and missionary, that to-day run a similar risk. They are unduly dependent for direction and control upon a single individual, and already we have sad proofs of maladministration and hints of possible corruption in their management. We feel with increasing depth of conviction that mankind is not yet sufficiently infallible to put any man into a position of absolute power, either in church or in state. Only the Perfect Man can be trusted with such a scepter, and for his coming the world unconsciously waits.
The application of this lesson in our own experience is so clear that it does not need to be pointed out.

Vesuvius and Roman Catholic Superstition

The Roman Catholic religion as a system of superstition and salvation by works, was made manifest by the recent eruption of Vesuvius. As on former occasions when scourged by some destroying visitation, the inhabitants of the stricken territory sought to stay the catastrophe by processions bearing images or crucifixes. The statue of St. Anna was brought out to stop the flow of lava which was descending upon Boscotrecase. Religious processions marched through the streets of Naples. A photograph in Collier’s Weekly shows one of them bearing a cross with the implements of the crucifixion (saw, hammer, etc.), and an image of the Madonna, draped to protect it against falling ashes. Another view in the same publication shows the church of St. Anna at Boscotrecase surrounded and filled with lava. The description of the eruption states:—
The lava came on in a stream five meters high and from forty to three hundred meters wide. On reaching the town it split and encircled it, entering from either side. . . . It would sullenly encircle a house, burn all the woodwork, and finally, by its own tremendous weight, push it into a crumbling heap. It would rush into a well with a sharp report, and shoot a geyser of water thirty meters high over the bystanders. With a grim irony one of the streams took its way into the very church of the futile St. Anna herself.
If Rome had her way in the United States, these superstitious exhibitions would be seen in American cities. Instead of the sensible, decisive measures taken at San Francisco to prevent anarchy and save property and life, there would have been, under Rome’s rule, processions of hysterical people carrying images and calling upon the “saints” to stay the earthquake and the fire. The papal authorities might stop such foolish and useless exhibitions by a word if they chose to do so; but they do not choose.
Continue reading: Mr. Baxter’s False Predictions