p. 7 | Review and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 7. (2/15/1912)

Editorial

By Editor

Editorial Correspondence

COLLEGE VIEW, NEBR., JAN. 31, 1912.

Ten days of Bible study and seeking of God. This has been the experience of the three hundred gospel workers assembled here from the twelve State conferences composing the Northern and Central Union conferences. The meetings have been marked with a spirit of earnestness and devotion. The instruction has been timely and practical. It has been evident to all that God has led the minds of his servants; and as day by day precious truth has been imparted, or the word previously spoken enlarged upon and emphasized, the Spirit of truth has carried the messages to appreciative and receptive hearts. Many, if not all, have obtained more exalted ideas than ever before of the sacred character of the gospel message, and of the holy calling and dignified character of the gospel ministry. With these has come a sense of the unworthiness of the human agent to follow this high calling, and of the great need of the sanctifying, vivifying power of the Holy Spirit in order to meet the requirements of the gospel commission. The Spirit has convicted some of unconfessed sin; and joy of heart has been experienced as wrongs have been made right, and differences between brethren adjusted and forgiven.

Both Sabbaths of the institute were days of unusual blessing. The ministers met by themselves for special seeking of God. Hearty confessions were made by some, and many earnest prayers were offered. In consequence, hearts were made tender, and conviction and earnest purpose entered anew into every life. This spirit had its deepest and fullest expression in the afternoon of the last Sabbath, when after scores had spoken and much time had been consumed in testimonies of praise and thanksgiving, the entire congregation, numbering nearly two thousand persons, arose as one man in answer to the call for unreserved consecration to God for a life of service in the finishing of this work.

To the writer this seemed a supreme moment, the entering upon a new era, both in the personal experience of those taking part in the service and in the history of our denominational work. Before us were men like Elders J. H. Morrison, R. F. Andrews, and J. S. Hart, whose whitened hairs spoke of long years of service in this blessed cause. Long have these and other pioneer workers waited for the fulfilment of the blessed hope of Israel. Others were there, some strong in manhood’s vigor, others young and filled with zeal and energy and ambition,—all constituting the family of the Lord, the waiting army ready for service where the providence of God shall lead.

We have seen many consecration services, but this meant more to us than previous ones because more was involved to those who made the consecration,—a deeper conception of personal need, a higher appreciation of the call of the Master, a more complete surrender to the divine will.

We can not of course forecast all the results in a personal or general way which will come from this excellent meeting. We are confident, however, that it will bring to our ministry in the Middle West a new power in gospel labor. It will bring to our churches, through the ministry of these earnest men and women, a new uplift in spiritual life and blessing; and we believe that the results seen in soul-saving and in bringing to those in darkness a knowledge of the blessed gospel, will a thousand times compensate the effort and expense and time involved in this communion service of the last few days.

Such gatherings of our ministers have been held altogether too infrequently during the last few years; but the recognition of their need which is being felt by all, and the reaching out after more of the power of the Holy Spirit, are a significant omen in these eventful days upon which we have entered.

We are living in a time when we can expect God to do great things for his people; when, through the power of his Holy Spirit, we may attempt great things for God. Of this awakening, the spirit of prophecy in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. IX, page 126, speaks:—

In visions of the night representations passed before me of a great reformatory movement among God’s people. Many were praising God. The sick were healed, and other miracles were wrought. A spirit of intercession was seen, even as was manifested before the great day of Pentecost. Hundreds and thousands were seen visiting families, and opening before them the Word of God. Hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of genuine conversion was manifest. On every side doors were thrown open to the proclamation of the truth. The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence. Great blessings were received by the true and humble people of God. I heard voices of thanksgiving and praise, and there seemed to be a reformation such as we witnessed in 1844.

These are the times our eyes are soon to see in connection with the work of God in the earth. This spirit will soon take possession of his people. May all who read these words so consecrate themselves to God that they shall have a part in this blessed refreshing from the presence of the Lord. F. M. W.

Deliverance of a Sabbath-Keeper in Olden Time

By W. A. S.

THERE were three generations of Sabbath-observers in the Stennett family, of England, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Edward Stennett was a non-conformist Sabbatarian preacher, who studied medicine in order to gain a livelihood in those troublous times. His son, Joseph Stennett, born in 1663, was well known in London as a writer and preacher. And Joseph’s son, Samuel Stennett, followed in the steps of his father, as pastor of the Sabbath-keeping congregation in London, and as a writer and poet. His pen it was that gave us the Sabbath hymn,— “Another six days’ work is done, Another Sabbath is begun;”— and also that other familiar hymn,— “Majestic sweetness sits enthroned Upon the Saviour’s brow.”

Edward Stennett kept the Sabbath in the olden days when non-conformity with the state church brought persecution. Of Joseph, his son, it was said that he had learned to love liberty as he “attended his father a considerable time in prison for the cause of conscience and religion,” in the reign of Charles II.

To the published “Works of Joseph Stennett” (London, 1732), some writer prefaces an account of Edward Stennett’s life. “While I speak of his sufferings,” says the writer, “it may not be amiss to preserve an account of one very extraordinary deliverance he met with, which I have heard his son relate in the following manner:” —

He dwelt in the castle of Wallingford, a place where no warrant could make forcible entrance, but that of a lord chief justice; and the house was so situated that assemblies could meet, and every part of religious worship be exercised in it, without any danger of a legal conviction, unless informers were admitted, which care was taken to prevent: so that for a long time he kept a constant and undisturbed meeting in his hall.

A gentleman who was in the commission of the peace, and his very near neighbor, being highly incensed at the continuance of an assembly of this kind so near him, after having made several fruitless attempts to get his emissaries

admitted into the house in order to a conviction, in the rage of disappointment, resolved, together with a neighboring clergyman, upon doing it by subornation of witnesses.

They accordingly hired some persons fit for their purpose, to swear they had been at those assemblies, and heard prayer and preaching there, though they had never been in the house on those occasions. The clergyman’s conduct in this affair was the more censured because he had professed a great friendship for Mr. Stennett, and was under considerable obligations to him, having often had his assistance in the way of his profession, as a physician for his family, without any reward.

Mr. Stennett, finding an indictment was laid against him on the Conventicle act, founded upon the oaths of several witnesses, and being well assured that nothing but perjury could support it, was resolved to traverse it, and accordingly did so.

The assizes were held at Newbury; and when the time drew near, there was great triumph in the success the gentlemen proposed to themselves: when on a sudden the scene was changed.

News came to the justice that his son, whom he had lately placed at Oxford, was gone off with a player: the concern whereof, and the riding in search of him, prevented his attendance in the court.

The clergyman, a few days before the assizes, boasted much of the service which would be done to the church and the neighborhood by his prosecution, and of his own determination to be at Newbury to help carry it on: but to the surprise of many his design was frustrated by sudden death.

One of the witnesses, who lived at Cromish, was also prevented by being seized with a violent and sad disease, of which he died. Another of them fell down and broke his leg, and so was hindered.

In short, of seven or eight persons engaged in this wicked design, there was but one left who was capable of appearing. He was a gardener, who had been frequently employed by Mr. Stennett at day labor, but never lodged in his house, nor was admitted to the religious assemblies held there. They thought to make him, as he was a servant to the family, a very natural evidence, and kept him in liquor for several days for that purpose.

But coming to his reason just as the assizes drew on, he went about the town exclaiming against himself for his ingratitude and perjury, as well as against those who had employed him; and absolutely refused to go. So that when Mr. Stennett came to Newbury, neither prosecutor nor witness appearing against him, he was discharged.

Many a time in those days of oppression, witnesses for truth and liberty of soul were constrained to sing with the psalmist: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick.” Ps. 124:2, 3. But God was on the side of truth, and through dark days the torch of truth was kept burning in faithful hands. Now it falls to the last generation of believers to bear the light onward to the end of the way. And with forces of oppression gathering to repress and obscure the light, we gather courage and inspiration from the story of delivering mercies through the ages long past. The living God is still our God, and will be our guide unto the end. W. A. S.

The Third Angel's Message

By William Warren Prescott

In the threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-12 the everlasting gospel is proclaimed to all the world in the generation just preceding the second coming of Christ. This is the one gospel which has been the hope of all repentant sinners since the fall of man. It promises salvation from sin to all who believe on Jesus, who “taketh away the sin of the world.” But in this last preaching of the gospel there is the announcement of the fall of Babylon (Rev. 14: 8), and a warning against the worship of the beast and his image. Verses 9-11. The beast is the same one mentioned in Rev. 13: 1-8, one of whose seven-headed manifestations is the Papacy. The head of the Papacy is the Pope, who is officially designated as the vicar of the Son of God (Vicarius Filii Dei). This title contains “the number of the beast,” as given in Rev. 13: 18, as is shown by adding together the numerical values of the letters composing this expression: Thus: V, 5; I, 1; C, 100; A and R not used as numerals; I, 1; U, formerly the same as V, 5; S and F not used as numerals; I, 1; L, 50; I, 1; I, 1; D, 500; E not used as a numeral; I, 1. The sum of these figures is 666.

The Papacy, represented in this prophecy by the beast, is presented in Dan. 7: 7, 8, 21-25 under the symbol of the little horn; and in 2 Thess. 2: 3-10 it is called “the mystery of iniquity,” and its head is called “the man of sin.” In Daniel's prophecy it is foretold that this power would “think to change the times and the law” (Dan. 7: 25, A. R. V.), and any standard Roman Catholic catechism will show that the Papacy has omitted the second commandment, and has made the fourth read, “Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day,” and has divided the tenth commandment into two commandments to preserve the original number. In expounding the fourth commandment it enjoins the religious observance of Sunday, while admitting that there is no authority for this change in the Scriptures. Thus Cardinal Gibbons says: “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday.” —“Faith of Our Fathers,” page 3.

In Roman Catholic writings this change which the Papacy has made in the Sabbath is set forth as a mark, or sign, of its authority. Thus, on page 57 of the standard Catholic catechism entitled “Abridgment of Christian Doctrine,” we find the following question and answer:—

Question.—How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?

Answer.—By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.

In a book with the title “Plain Talk About the Protestantism of To-day,” translated from the French of Mgr. Segur, on page 213 appears this paragraph:—

It is worth its while to remember that this observance of the Sabbath—in which, after all, the only Protestant worship consists—not only has no foundation in the Bible, but it is in flagrant contradiction with its letter, which commands rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred the rest to Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the church.

Thus the call to worship the Maker of heaven and earth (Rev. 14: 7), and the warning against worshiping the beast (or yielding homage to the papal power), will raise a question of authority involving a test of obedience to the law of God as originally given, or of obedience to that law as changed by the Papacy, —the test of Sabbath-keeping or Sunday-keeping. When the threefold message has been fully proclaimed, and the issue has been squarely joined, then those who intelligently yield obedience to the command of the Papacy and disregard God's law, accept the mark of its authority and receive the mark of the beast. The third angel's message warns against this very thing.

Under the symbol of the beast with two horns like a lamb apostate Protestantism, in conjunction with the government of the United States, is represented as enforcing the worship of the beast with ten horns (the Papacy), calling upon the people to make an image to the beast, and enforcing the worship of this image under the penalty of death. The worship of the image of the beast involves the same test of obedience as the worship of the beast, and the warning of the third angel is directed against this worship just as much as against the other.

The fourth commandment sets forth God as the Creator of “heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,” and in this fact is found the basis of his authority as ruler of the universe, and the reason for rendering worship to him alone. Ps. 95: 3-6. In harmony with this, he has constituted the Sabbath a

sign through which his people may know him and his sanctifying power. Ex. 31: 13, 16, 17; Eze. 20: 20, 12. The spiritual observance of the true Sabbath is therefore an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the true God, and of the deity of his Son, through whom he made all things (John 1: 1-3), and a mark of the acceptance of his saving power in the gospel of Christ. The intelligent observance of another day is a virtual denial of these truths.

Although the power represented by the beast is first permitted to overcome the saints (Rev. 13: 7), yet those who sing the song of Moses and the Lamb are those who have gained “the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name.” Rev. 15: 2, 3.

While the worship of the beast and his image is required under the death penalty (Rev. 13: 12, 15), those who offer this worship are threatened with the wrath of God without mercy, and this is the final test of loyalty just before the mediation of Christ for sin ceases. Rev. 22: 11, 12. Those who, like the apostles, choose to obey God rather than man (Acts 5: 29), will sing the song of victory on the sea of glass (Rev. 15: 2, 3), while the beast and the false prophet and those who worship them will be utterly destroyed. Rev. 19: 20. The proclamation of the threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-12 leads those who accept it to the observance of the commandments of God just as they are written, and makes them ready for the coming of the Son of man. Verse 14. Blessed are they who walk in the law of the Lord. Ps. 119: 1. W. W. P.

Higher Criticism Confounds Itself

By C. M. S.

THE recently published religious statistics of this country are causing much wonderment and no little anxiety among both the laity and the clergy. They are asking why it is that the rate of increase in church-membership is so low. Some are denying that the figures are accurate. Others accept the figures, and declare that the reason for the small increase lies in the fact that the people are losing faith in the Bible as God’s infallible Word. For the latter class Dr. David Utter, of the Unity Church, Denver, Colo., speaks:—

The reason [for this decline in increase of church-membership] is that civilization is leaving behind it the old or orthodox belief. The Bible is no longer accepted by all people, as it once was, for a volume of unbroken truths. There is so much of myth about it, which the modern mind recognizes as myth, and the rejecting of these portions has led to a general and growing skepticism regarding its infallibility throughout. For instance, the story of creation. Now, that was doubtless written by a man who sincerely believed that he was penning the truth to hand down to coming ages. But to-day all well-informed people believe in evolution. We understand the laws of nature. We know that the world is millions and millions of years old, and that it is gradually developing by natural and necessary processes, and will go on and on.

This clergyman, who represents a large number of others in different denominations, has been reared in that school of infidelity popularly known as the higher criticism; and this class of clergyman, teaching their unbelief of the Word of God and making their attacks upon it in Sunday-school classes and to their congregations from the pulpit, have brought about in the minds of the masses the very conditions which now are deplored. The fault is not with the Old Testament nor with the New Testament. The trouble is that infidels are wearing the garb of the clergy, and in that garb are undermining, in the minds of men, the very foundations of religion. When we take into account that the higher criticism is being taught in the great schools of theology, and that its complement, that Siamese twin evolution-geology, is being taught in the universities, colleges, academies, and even the high schools, it is not to be wondered at that the people’s faith is wavering. When one has lost his faith in the Bible as the Word of God, he is not going to make much effort to convince himself of the genuineness and the worth of Christianity, which finds its only basis in that Word.

Destructive criticism has not made the Bible any less true, nor taken away the necessity of a divine Saviour for mankind. What it has done is so to misrepresent that Word and that Saviour and that Saviour’s work, that the people have been and are being deceived, and are turning away from their only true Guide, losing faith in the only Saviour there is or ever will be, and so are drifting into the rapids of eternal ruin. This makes the people harder to reach with the gospel. It makes the claims of both the law of God and the law of the land to sit lightly upon them. As a consequence of this, they are drifting more rapidly into the pleasures of this world, are seeking to grasp all they can of the things of this world,—the only one they ever expect to see,—and are therefore letting self and selfish aims drive them into all manner of excesses. This accounts not only for the decreasing rate of gain in church-membership, but also for the rising tide of criminality throughout every portion of the world where the destructive criticism is being inculcated. The responsibility for these conditions lies at the door of the destructive criticism of the Bible. It is so axiomatic that even the higher critic himself ought to be able to see it. It would be a genuine miracle if such results did not follow such teaching.

Again we quote the words of our Saviour: “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Was it not a genuine miracle that he should look down over a space of two thousand years, and see the conditions which we see? He saw them, and he asked the question which shows that he saw them; and higher criticism, which denies him and his miracles and the bulk of the Old Testament, is itself doing the work which is bringing about the conditions that we see now, and that he saw then. Truly this is a miracle, a fulfilment of prophecy, in which the higher critic plays a conspicuous rôle; and by doing the work which brings about this divinely foreseen condition, he unintentionally proves the existence of miracles, and confounds himself because of his denial of them.

C. M. S.

Driving the Turk From Europe

By W. W. P.

Other topics, such as the spectacular celebrations attending the return from Rome of the new cardinals, the McNamara trial with its startling conclusion, the titanic struggle between labor and capital, the numerous investigations, and not least the several-cornered contest for the presidential nomination, have crowded into the background the Turk-Italian war, and we have heard comparatively little of late concerning the progress of hostilities between these two nations. The significance of this latest effort to take from Turkey even a somewhat obscure portion of its territory, has been noted by a Polish writer in the Warsaw Tygodnik Illustrowany (Illustrated Weekly). According to his interpretation, the present war is simply another development in the “Eastern question,” and is one more step toward the expulsion of the Turks from Europe. We quote from his article as printed in the February issue of the American Review of Reviews:—

The attack of Italy on Turkey is an indirect but most recent stage of the contest for Stamboul. We know how long this struggle has lasted—from the very moment when the Turks installed themselves on the magnificent “key” promontory of Europe, after they had routed and obliterated from the face of the earth the mighty power of the Byzantine Cæsars. At first the European powers, even with their united forces, were afraid to drive the Turks back to Asia; later they harassed and pressed them from time to time. But the Turks held their ground stoutly. Even after the blow dealt to the “infidel” power by Sobieski at Vienna, there was charmed away only the menace of a Turkish inundation of central and eastern Europe. The testament—legendary or genuine—of Peter the Great; the

Turkish wars of Catherine II; the seizure by Russia of the Crimea; the checking at Sebastopol of the march of Russia upon Stamboul; the bloody contests of relatively fresh date in Shipka Pass and at Plevna; the halting anew of Russia at the gates of Constantinople; the assent of the powers to the breaking from Turkey, at first of Greece, then of Servia and Bulgaria, and finally of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the dire troubles of the powers with the seething of Albania and Macedonia, as the game is already beginning to be almost the last, or the next to the last shred of Turkish land on the continent of Europe,—all this constitutes an uninterrupted series of slow drivings of the Turk beyond the Bosporus, to the Arabian deserts whence he came, whence years ago he invaded the territories of the Christian, Aryan peoples of Europe.

What to-day constitutes the kernel and essence of the Eastern question, is: Who is to seize Stamboul after the Turks have been driven out of their capital? Russia? Austria? England? Germany? There is no lack of claimants. Albania and Macedonia are, most evidently, being reserved by Austria for herself. When? The day and hour can not be set; at all events, only after the final driving out of Turkish dominion from Europe. And—after the precipitation of the crescent from the Sublime Porte?—Obviously. In that case, however, why should not the capital at Vienna be wound up and removed to Constantinople? But how is Russia to abandon her historic mission, the political injunctions of Peter the Great and Catherine II,—Russia, who “has shed her blood for the liberation of the Balkan Slavonians from the Turkish yoke”? What would become—in every case—of the worshipful “political equilibrium” in Europe, which has been guarded like the apple of the eye for so many years? The principle of legitimacy counts no more: that has somehow been mislaid, and, forsooth, gone out of fashion. But—equilibrium! equilibrium! Certainly, the Vienna, Paris, and Berlin congresses did not build their “eternal” works on the basis of equilibrium in order suddenly to permit a more adventurous and clever conqueror to rove at large. . . . The liquidation of the Eastern question had been deferred, put off to the future,—and this frequently with much pains and trouble. The maintaining at any cost of the status quo—precious for “the peace of Europe”—on the Balkan Peninsula had become a diplomatic tradition. And, lo! we have the sudden roar of the Italian guns at Prevesa. Who knows whether it has not given the signal for the starting of the general and final liquidation of a business so “ripe” that with this liquidation even Metternich himself would not have been able to delay any longer?

While it is not yet altogether clear what direct bearing this attack of Italy upon Turkey may have upon the final solution of the Eastern question, yet it is of interest to note that a writer in a paper printed so near the Turkish capital should see so much in this struggle, and should foresee so plainly that the Ottoman power will finally be compelled to abandon all its European territory.

W. W. P.

Atlantic Union Conference

By W. T. KNOX

Statement of the $300,000 Fund Feb. 1, 1912

Atlantic Union Conference

	Amount
Central New England	$3678.05
Greater New York	3318.85
Maine	483.61
New York	1885.93
Northern New England	1121.03
Southern New England	635.69
Western New York	1994.00
Total	13117.16

Canadian Union Conference

	Amount
Maritime	329.41
Ontario	1780.23
Quebec	599.60
Newfoundland	...
Total	2709.24

Central Union Conference

	Amount
Colorado	2189.04
East Kansas	1653.15
¹ Nebraska	12080.00
North Missouri	1117.82
South Missouri	549.45
Western Colorado	841.26
West Kansas	2150.61
Wyoming	1632.70
St. Louis Mission	118.50
Total	22332.53

Columbia Union Conference

	Amount
Chesapeake	1089.99
District of Columbia	1475.67
Eastern Pennsylvania	2231.40
New Jersey	1892.19
Ohio	4607.86
Virginia	445.35
West Pennsylvania	1161.41
West Virginia	474.50
Total	13378.37

Lake Union Conference

	Amount
East Michigan	5119.56
Indiana	4446.85
Northern Illinois	2681.56
North Michigan	794.61
Southern Illinois	2186.84
West Michigan	6264.27
Wisconsin	2363.74
Total	23857.43

Northern Union Conference

	Amount
Iowa	6261.78
Minnesota	4286.94
North Dakota	2397.37
South Dakota	3194.27
Total	16140.36

North Pacific Union Conference

	Amount
Montana	1590.28
Southern Idaho	$2026.16
Southern Oregon	1040.38
Upper Columbia	3472.56
Western Oregon	4195.95
Western Washington	3791.27
Alaska	7.15
Total	16123.75

Pacific Union Conference

	Amount
Arizona	761.61
California	8938.58
Southern California	6662.00
Utah	217.65
Central California	2580.14
N. California-Nevada	2776.96
Total	21936.94

Southeastern Union Conference

	Amount
Cumberland	1626.26
Florida	1914.40
Georgia	862.32
North Carolina	508.55
South Carolina	394.75
Asheville	1.00
Total	5297.28

Southern Union Conference

	Amount
Southern Union Conference	70.86
Alabama	205.31
Kentucky	289.20
Louisiana	505.97
Mississippi	697.03
Tennessee River	798.81
Southern Union Mission	6.15
Total	2573.13

Southwestern Union Conference

	Amount
Arkansas	361.46
New Mexico	248.85
North Texas	1196.27
Oklahoma	2415.31
South Texas	275.86
West Texas	184.20
Southwestern Union Mission	3.05
Total	4685.00

Western Canadian Union Conference

	Amount
Alberta	760.20
British Columbia	857.98
Manitoba	935.60
¹ Saskatchewan	1023.50
Total	3577.28

Miscellaneous ........................................ 15754.19

Grand total .......................... $161482.66

: * Conference quota completed.

Standing of the Union Conferences

UNION		AMT. AT $4.80 A MEMBER	AMOUNT RAISED	AMOUNT SHORT	AMOUNT OVER
Atlantic	5186	$24892.80	$13117.16	$11775.64	.....
Canadian	882	4233.60	2709.24	1524.36	.....
Central	9187	44097.60	22332.53	21765.07	.....
Columbia	6570	31536.00	13378.37	18157.63	.....
Lake	12750	61200.00	23857.43	37342.57	.....
Northern	5980	28704.00	16140.36	12563.64	.....
North Pacific	6057	29073.60	16123.75	12949.85	.....
Pacific	7621	36580.80	21936.94	14643.86	.....
Southeastern	1439	6907.20	5297.28	1609.92	.....
Southern	1337	6417.60	2573.13	3844.47	.....
Southwestern	4591	22036.80	4685.00	17351.80	.....
Western Canadian	839	4027.20	3577.28	449.92	.....
Miscellaneous	...	....	....	....	$15754.19
Totals	62439	299707.20	161482.66	153978.73	15754.19
Net amount short	..	...	138224.54	.....	138224.54
		$299707.20	$299707.20	$153978.73	$153978.73

W. T. KNOX, Treasurer.

Note and Comment

By Editor

Indictment of the Saloon

ONE of the strongest indictments of the saloon business that has come to our attention appeared in a recent issue of the Religious Weekly, of Philadelphia, over the signature of Dr. P. A. Baker, the general superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League. It reads:—

We must not overlook the fact that we confront a foe that has ill-gotten wealth without limit, and no conscience in the spending of it. Love for country, human character, domestic happiness, personal reputation, have no place in its code of warfare. Bribery is one of its mildest methods for accomplishing its purpose. It laughs at virtue, it mocks religion, it scoffs at common honesty, it defies every appeal of outraged womanhood, and robs helpless childhood of a fair chance. It is drunk with the blood of the millions it has slain. It lowers public intelligence; it destroys public conscience; it forbids, wherever possible, right representation of public intelligence and public conscience in our law-making bodies, and in the executive department of government as well. And, when laws are enacted, this treasonable institution tramples upon them with impunity; it refuses to be regulated; it is incapable of reformation; “it would rather die than obey law.” There is nothing left but to abolish it from every foot of territory everywhere as speedily as an advancing civilization and a developing conscience will permit.

Poverty and Extravagance

As in the days of ancient Babylon and of ancient Rome, so now in our day, the gulf between the rich and the poor is growing wider and the spirit of resentment deeper. And that gulf is widened and that spirit accentuated by displays of extravagance on the part of the wealthy. More money is squandered by certain individuals on a dog than would be necessary to keep a small family in reasonable circumstances. While the bitterly cold winds are driving through the streets of some of our larger cities, and shivering and starving human beings are huddled in wretched tenements, we read of expensive parties given in honor of some pet dog, or of the funeral of some dog, the expense of which would give decent burial to more than one human being, or might even have prevented his death. In Paris, for instance, there is a dogs’ cemetery in which are 8,470 graves of dogs. A considerable number of other domestic animals also are interred here. On All Saints’ day, although flowers were scarce, every grave in this “Canipolis,” as it is termed,—8,914 in all,—was decorated with bunches of violets. At Waterbury, Conn., recently a dog was buried in a gorgeous coffin with a profusion of flowers, and a private service was conducted at the home prior to the interment.

It was reported that “many tears were shed by the friends of this dog as he was laid to rest.” Such expenditures for such purposes are putting a spirit of bitterness into the hearts of the people which is making more certain the dreaded clash between capital and labor, and hastening the time when it shall take place.

A Question Answered

THERE has been a question in the minds of many Americans as to the reason why Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, was not among the American prelates of the Catholic Church who received the red hat of a cardinal. The question is answered by F. Cunliffe Owen in the February issue of the Metropolitan. He says:—

The public has a short memory. Otherwise it would recall that in the spring of 1898 the pontiff was prompted by Archbishop Ireland to offer his mediation between the United States and Spain, on the understanding that the action would be welcomed at Washington. Leo XIII’s services as an arbitrator had been employed on several previous occasions, notably by Prince Bismarck, in the bitter controversy between Germany and Spain over the Caroline Islands. In each instance the papal award gave much satisfaction; Catholics became rather proud of the new rôle of the Vatican as arbitrator among nations; and Leo XIII and his cardinals were led to believe that the Papacy, though bereft of its temporal possessions, might in some such way recover its preeminence among sovereign states. Therefore, it was a blow when, contrary to what Leo XIII had been led to believe by Archbishop Ireland, his offer of mediation was curtly rejected at Washington. The Papacy has never forgotten that this humiliation was due entirely to the error of the archbishop of St. Paul.

The Peace and Safety Cry

THE Minneapolis Journal of Jan. 7, 1912, has the following to say editorially in reference to the peace movement which is being promulgated so zealously by many influential individuals in the great nations of the world:—

The peace gospel is preached. Every nation counsels peace for other nations, but relies on force to push its own interests ahead. The stronger the peace propaganda grows, the more wars and near wars multiply. No one invokes The Hague, or thinks of invoking The Hague in vital complications, such as Morocco, Tripoli, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Persia, Manchuria, the Transvaal, Cuba, and other such.

Why?—Because legal settlement in such cases is not adequate. The disputants in such cases are not seeking their rights. They are out after advantages. They want new conditions, not confirmation of old ones.

What legal rights that The Hague could sustain had Russia and Japan in many Manchuria, or France and Germany in Morocco? has Italy in Tripoli, or have Russia and England in Persia?—Not a figment of legal right.

Therefore the inadequacy of The Hague or any other tribunal dispensing international justice, to deal with these contentions between nations. Until some method is devised to restrain the nations’ desires to limit national aspirations after wealth, territory, power, and advantage, tribunals can not be adequate substitutes for war.

At the same time it is a significant fact that while these violations of international peace are becoming more frequent and more pronounced, the clamor for universal peace, for the signing of arbitration treaties, and for the establishment of a supreme court of the nations is growing in power and intensity. It is reported that 282 churches have joined with other bodies in asking Congress to ratify the arbitration treaties now before that body. There has been a total of 1,019 resolutions, memorials, and petitions indorsing the pending arbitration treaties since the beginning of the new Congress. Thirty-three of these were from commercial organizations, 21 from women’s clubs, and 683 were petitions from various organizations and civic associations; but the churches of the country stood at the head of the list as to the number coming from any one class or organization. This is a curious fact when we consider that Jesus himself warned the world that when the great cry of peace and safety should be heard throughout the world, then should come sudden destruction. The peace and safety cry at the present time is one of the most striking fulfillments of our Saviour’s words, and the paradox of the situation lies in the fact that it is they who profess to be leaders of Christ’s followers who are giving most conspicuous indorsement to the cry of peace and safety.

The Tipping Practise

IT is gratifying to see a movement started in this country against the slavery of tip-giving. At a mass-meeting of the International Hotel Workers’ Union in New York recently, the practise was heartily scored, and steps were taken to create a general public sentiment against it. Other unions have likewise declared themselves as opposed to this practise.

It is charged that employers are in a large measure responsible for this custom, in that the wage scale of the employees is placed low with the distinct understanding that revenue is to be drawn from the public by tips. The abolition of the practise would necessitate, no doubt, an increase of the wage scale, but we believe that the increased patronage of a grateful public would more than compensate for the revenue derived from this nuisance.

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