THE WORLD’S GREATEST MESSAGES
Peace on earth, good will toward men. This gospel to all the world in this generation.
dE FIRST of these two great messages has been heralded to the world. THE SECOND will soon have gone to all the world. They apply to periods nearly two thousand years apart. The first message preceded the first most important event that has ever occurred in this world’s history. The second is heralding the approach of the most momentous event that can ever take place in this world—the second coming of our Ford.
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TThe Watchman
Vol. XXI	DECEMBER, 1912	No. 12
Published by the Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn.
Contents of this Number
Poetry —	Page
The Morning Cometh and also the Night, c. p. b....... 712
The Outlook —
Driving the Turk from Europe — Progress in Bolivia — An Alphabet for China ....................................713-715
Editorial —
The First Advent Compared with the Second — What is Armageddon? c. p. b. — Why has the Turk Remained in Europe?—
The Congress of Berlin, p. t. m.— Two Rival Kingdoms .....716-734
General Articles —
The Ten Commandments and the Twentieth Century, B. G. Wilkinson — God’s Eternal Purpose —II, H. C. Hartwell —
The Head of Christian Science, The Presbyterian — The Unpardonable Sin —II, J. S. Washburn — Taoism (Concluded), I. H.
Evans ........................................................7.35-751
Washington Correspondence —
The Religious Garb Decision, C. E. Holmes ....................752-755
The Mission Field —
Some Colporteur Experiences in Tokat, Turkey, M. N. Aska-bedian — A Visit to the Grecian Mission Field, E. Franchiger — The Mormon Menace — Panama, Its People, The Canal — III,
B. E. Connerly .......................................756-764
Home and Health —
Observations in England, G.	H. Heald, M. D............765-766
Advertisements—.........................................769-772
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EVEN KINGS TREMBLE
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THE EASTERN QUESTION
WHAT IS IT?
The “ Sick Man ' ’ of the East is the Sultan of Turkey, over whose disposition European statesmen have been much perplexed. Representing the most formidable rival to Christianity to-day, we find his empire crumbling to pieces and leaning heavily on the Christian powers of Europe. Is it not strange that while he has thus been protected in every crisis, Europe shows at present a disposition to leave him severely alone, and that too in the face of a better government in Constantinople? Surely an omnipotent Hand is holding the disintegrating elements together until the gospel shall have gone to all the world, and then "he shall come to his end and none shall help him. ” Dan. 11:45.
The WATCHMAN is now running a SPECIAL SERIES by Prof. P. T. Magan, on this vital subject.
Professor Magan has made a careful study of the TURK IN PROPHECY for many years. This question involves THE DESTINY OF THE WHOLE WORLD and every individual. Send in your subscription to-day to your nearest agency (list on opposite page) and get a wealth of valuable reading for twelve months for only ONE DOLLAR. No well informed person, who desires to keep pace with the fulfilment of Bible prophecy, should fail to read this SERIES ON THE TURK. It is vital to an intelligent understanding of transpiring events.
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“THE MORNING COMETH, AND ALSO THE NIGHT ”
C. P. B.
The morning cometh,” hail' the day!
The stars fade out in growing light As onward comes the Son of God To close forever sin’s dark night.
He comes, he comes to break the chains Long forged by Death to bind earth’s sons ; He comes, he comes to burst the tomb,
Take to himself his chosen ones!
But, ah, sad truth, the night draws on !
That time of retribution dire,
When men who have refused his grace Shall drink the cup of his just ire.
His coming brings to one glad joy, The morning of eternal, day,
But to another darkest night,
With no illuminating ray.
Oh, then be warned while yet there’s hope !
Accept of mercy while you may ;
Then, when he comes to call you hence,
To you his coming shall mean day.
Driving the Turk from Europe
The success of the Balkan allies in the war with Turkey was anticipated no doubt by many, but the suddenness and completeness of their victory over the Ottoman has been a surprise to all the world, and apparently, it needs but a little further continuance of that success to bring the long-anticipated spectacle of the Turk moving “bag and baggage” out of Europe, never to return. Though the military power of Turkey is, on paper at least, greater than the combined military strength of the Balkan allies, in the essential matters of preparedness for
war, equipment, and leadership, the allies have been far superior to the Turks. They have acted quickly and energetically, while Turkey has not; and the result under such circumstances has been only what might be expected. The Turk is a natural soldier and a strong fighter, but his empire is on a decline which nothing can stop. He may not — probably will not — leave Europe at this time, but he is left to look at closer range and with clearer vision into the face of the fact that he must eventually go; that the star of his empire in Europe is steadily sinking and that the hour of its setting
Photo by Paul Thompson, N. Y.
Types of Bulgarian Soldiers in the Balkan Mountains
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Photo by Paul Thompson, N. Y.	Servian Infantry on the March
can not be long postponed. It is the ambition of the Balkan Powers, meanwhile, to unite in a confederacy, form a new state in Europe, dispossess the Turk of his European territory and occupy it themselves, and 'thus settle the longstanding Eastern Question. That the Great Powers of Europe will allow the little Powers to settle so important a question however, is not to be expected. They have interests of their own to be served when that settlement takes place. Russia and Austria in particular are interested in the outcome of the present crisis. Russia has long been resolved to possess Constantinople and a seaport in ice-free waters; and Austria is reaching southward through the territory of Novibazar for a port on
the Adriatic. These two great Powers are closely watching each other, and apparently would be the first to be drawn into war should the conflict spread beyond its present political confines. And the “power behind the throne” in this struggle is for Austria the Roman Catholic, and for Russia and the Balkan States the Greek Catholic Church.
Photo by Paul Thompson, N. Y.
The War in the Balkans. Montenegro Soldiers in Camp
THE OUTLOOK
715
Progress in Bolivia
Until April n last, the Catholic Church possessed a monopoly of performing marriage ceremonies in Bolivia. “She could”— to quote the words of a missionary in that country —“dictate her own terms, and every one had to submit or live in public concubinage. One foreigner recently stated to me that when he, being a Protestant, wished to marry one of the young ladies of the country, the church authorities demanded of him $1,000 for the dispensation. As a revolt against such tyranny and extortion, Bolivia in her last Congress passed the civil marriage bill, declaring the only legal marriage to be that performed before the civil authorities, and allowing the religious ceremony to be performed by any church or sect as soon as the legal requirements had been complied with. This law came into effect April ii, without any disturbance.”
An Alphabet for China
The empire of China is said to be thousands of years old, yet all this time the Chinese have had no alphabet, signs having been used to designate words. The leaders of progressive China are now determined to abolish the old system of writing, which required the student to memorize no fewer than eight thousand ideographs as a preliminary to the pursuit of written knowledge. The national Educational Society has put itself on record as favoring universal education and a written language accessible to every citizen, and the following steps have been taken in the direction .of providing the required alphabet :—
The task was entrusted to a learned committee, composed of Chow-Hi-Chu, the Secretary of the Chinese Legation at Rome, the adjunct secretaries Wan and Chou, and Sol-
Photo by Boston Photo-News Co.
King Nicholas of Montenegro
onghello, professor of Chinese and Japanese at the School of Oriental Languages in Naples and one of the greatest polyglots in the world. These gentlemen have studied all known alphabets and combined them to form one which shall represent every sound in the Chinese tongue. The alphabet adopted by them consists of forty-two characters, of which twenty-three are vowels and nineteen are consonants.
Of the vowels, four are taken from the Greek, four from Russian, five from Latin, and one from Chinese. Of the nine remaining vowels, two are modified or elongated signs, and seven are reversed ideographs.
Of the consonants, fourteen are from Latin, three from Russian, and two from the Greek. With these it is possible to write all the words used in the vulgar tongue in any part of China.
“The innovation” we are informed “has been received with enthusiasm, especially in the southern provinces, and it is believed it will be in general official use by the end of the year/’
The First Advent Compared With
The Second
T this time the thoughts of many are turning to a coming event which commemorates the first advent of Christ. There is to be a second advent of Christ, and it would be well indeed if people everywhere would give as much attention to the subject of this second advent as they are now giving to the first.
The world is a long way removed from the time of Christ's first advent. It is very much nearer to the time of his second advent. Its approach is heralded to-day by many signs, in the physical world, in the political world, and in the spiritual world.
But how unlike the first advent of our Saviour will be his second coming. He “was once ofifered to bear the sins of many, but unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9:28. He comes the second time not as a sin-bearer, but as a sovereign, to reap the harvest of the earth. He comes not .quietly and as a babe, but in the clouds of heaven, in the glory of his Father, attended by all the holy angels, as King of kings and Lord of lords. Matt. 16: 27; 24: 26, 27; Rev. 19: 16. He descends from heaven with a shout. 1 Thess. 4: 13-18. The righteous dead are raised by his voice, the wicked are slain (2 Thess. 1:7-9; 2:8; Rev. 19:21), and the earth is reduced to a condition of utter desolation. Isa. 13:6-10; .24:1, 3; Jer. 4:23-27; 2 Pet. 3:7, 10.
We might multiply texts which show how tremendous will be the contrast between the coming of Christ which took (716)
place nineteen centuries ago and that coming which is impending to-day. We will however turn from this subject to speak of some points of similarity. There were certain conditions existing then which are paralleled in the world and in the church to-day.
The professed people of God were not expecting the Saviours coming at the time of the first advent; and professed followers of Christ are not expecting his coming to-day. The “wise men" from the East came to Jerusalem and inquired concerning the infant who was born king of the Jews; but the IJharisees and priests and scribes could tell them nothing, for they knew nothing about it. Only a manger was ready to receive the Son of God when he came as the babe of Bethlehem. And if we go into the Christian churches to-day we shall find the same ignorance and indifference with regard to his coming in glory. We shall find only a hazy belief in a coming of Christ at some future time, perhaps tomorrow, and perhaps not for ten thousand years. The wise men from the East had studied the Hebrew Scriptures and knew that the time had come which was prophesied in the book of Daniel, when the world might expect the coming of the Messiah. The end of the prophetic period had been reached which was to extend unto “the Messiah the prince." Dan. 9:25. The priests and scribes might have had at least as much knowledge concerning the coming of the Messiah as did these men from the East. The wise men evidently expected them to know all about it, and must have been amazed when they found that their in-
EDITORIAL
717
quiries elicited only expressions of ignorance and scornful indifference.
But if there was no excuse for the ignorance of rabbis and great men of the church then, much less is there any excuse for the general ignorance among Christians to-day concerning the return of their Lord. For many and plain are the prophecies of inspiration which herald the approach of that event. Of the day and hour of his coming no man knoweth, as the Saviour himself declared : but the same divine authority has pointed out certain events as being signs of his return, and has told us that when we see all these signs we are to know that he “is near, even at the door.” Matt. 24:33. And in the most solemn language he has warned us to watdh and be ready for his appearing, lest the day of God come upon us like a thief in the night.
In the books of Daniel and the Revelation are given several lines of prophecy, by comparing which with history we may know at what point we stand in earth's career, and the approximate nearness of the end. As before stated, the signs of the times are visible in the physical world, the political world, and the spiritual world. ' The sun and moon have been darkened, the stars have fallen from heaven, and there is upon the earth to-day “distress of 'nations, with perplexity." See Matt. 24:29; Luke 21:25. Earthquake and tidal wave, flood and fire, famine and pestilence, are everywhere sweeping away life and property. Within the last quarter century more and greater calamities of this nature have come upon mankind than have taken place in a whole century of time before. God is seeking by these judgments to arouse to its senses a world gone mad in the pursuit of money and pleasure, before the coming of the day
of God shall make repentance forever too late.
Among the conditions of to-day which are parallel with those existing at the time of the first advent, there is one which is especially worthy our attention, which arises from a wrong conception concerning the nature of Christ's kingdom. A misconception on this point caused the disciples to be unprepared for the crisis which came at the close of Christ’s earthly ministry, but such a misconception at the present time is preparing the way for a fatal calamity to overtake multitudes in the Christian churches.
It is recorded in the gospel records that as Jesus was on his last journey to Jerusalem with his disciples he told them that he was to be delivered into the hands of his enemies and that he should be put to death, and should rise again the third day; and although he told this in perfectly plain language, the disciples were unable to understand it. There was a cause for their strange blindness, which is stated in the record given by Mark. Beginning at verse 30 of chapter 9 we read:—
And they departed thence and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.
For he taught his disciples and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.
And he came to Capernaum, and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? And they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.
On more than one occasion the Saviour told his disciples about his approaching betrayal and crucifixion, as plainly as language could state it; yet they utterly failed to grasp the idea which
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his words conveyed to their minds. Why was it?
The cause of their blindness is perfectly plain. They were disputing among themselves, who should be the greatest. Their minds were full of the idea that Christ had come to set up his kingdom, and that it was to be set up immediately, among other kingdoms of the world, only it would be more glorious than any other kingdom and would absorb all the others into itself. It was a view prompted by their selfishness, for they expected to have high places in the kingdom and were even quarreling among themselves as to which of them should have the highest place.
The like idea as to the nature of the kingdom of Christ has permeated the churches to-day, and because of it the people of this day are equally blind to the most important and most plainly stated truths regarding Christ’s second coming.
What is stated more plainly in the Bible than that the day of God is to come upon the world like a thief in the night (i Thess. 5:2, 4; Matt. 24:43, 44; 2 Peter 3: 10) ; that the inhabitants of the world will not be ready for it, and will be in trouble and dismay (Matt. 24: 30; Isa. 2: 12-21; Rev. 6: 15-17) ; that the world, instead of being ready to welcome Christ’s kingdom, will be in rebellion against him (Rev. 19: 19, 20) ; and that the kingdoms of this world are to be utterly swept away when the kingdom of Christ is set up (Dan. 2:35, 44, 45; Rev. 19: 19-21)? Yet the popular teaching concerning the setting up of Christ’s kingdom is altogether different from these plain Scripture statements. It is everywhere taught in the popular churches to-day that the world is either growing better or is soon to grow better, that intemperance and other evils of present-day society are to be put down, that the bad men in public office are to be
voted out and good men voted in, that the governments of the world are to become Christian, that war is to be suppressed and universal peace established, etc., and then the world will be so good that the millennium will begin and the kingdom of Christ will be ushered in almost without disturbing anything. This teaching, in whole or part is common in the churches, and such church organizations as the Christian Endeavor Society, the National Reform Association, and others that might be mentioned, are working upon that plan. They are going to convert the world to Christ.
Consequently they are not expecting the world to grow worse and worse in wickedness and be in the condition described in 2 Tim. 3: 1-5, and in a state of rebellion against Christ when he appears, as described in the texts before cited; and the popular teachers and leaders in the churches are paying no attention to the “more sure word of prophecy,” to which we are exhorted to “take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” 2 Peter 1: 19. The prophecies of the Bible are not made the subjects of discourse in the popular churches, and the study of the prophetic portions of the Bible is not encouraged on the part of the people.
As the crisis came upon the disciples for which they were not prepared, at the betrayal and death of him whom they had fondly expected to see ascend the throne as earth’s king, so a crisis is now stealing upon the churches for which they are all unprepared, and the consequences of which will be fatal, since there will be no opportunity left them to recover from their mistake. For while they are fondly looking for the conversion of the kingdoms of this world, and the coming of a better time when the kingdoms of earth shall be
EDITORIAL
719
merged into the kingdbm of Christ, the day of God is stealing upon them like the thief with muffled tread, and with the coming of that day human probation closes and the work of the gospel upon the earth is finished. Christ ceases to mediate between God and sinners, and the wrath of God falls immediately upon the earth, which is desolated by the seven last plagues. Immediately following these Christ comes in glory, to reap the harvest of the earth.
The kingdom of Christ has in it no element of earth. The earthly, sensual idea of Christ'a kingdom which is so prevalent in the church at this time, is a delusion fostered by the father of lies. Only as men get rid of this idea are they prepared to see the plain and solemn truths by which we know that the world is to-day upon the eve of the second advent. Only thus will they be able to rightly relate themselves to the gospel work which is going forward in the world to-day.
* «
What Is Armageddon?
This name appears several times in the Old Testament as “Megiddo,” but in the New Testament only once as “Armageddon.” Rev. 16: 16. The history of Megiddo is such as to give the name a peculiar significance, namely, “place of troops.” Dr. Smith in his Bible Dictionary speaks of it as “the scene of the struggle of good and evil.”
In Rev. 16: 16 “Armageddon” clearly refers to the last great conflict between earthly powers; doubtless embracing also that phase of the struggle suggested by Rev. 19: 19: “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.”
“He that is not with me is against
me,” says the Saviour; therefore while we can not suppose that the kings of the earth and their armies are assembled on this occasion for the known and avowed purpose of opposing themselves to the armies of heaven, it is none the less literally true that in their utterly selfish * and wicked warfare they are openly arrayed against Christ and his army of angels, before whom they will fall and die even as did Sennacherib's host before the angel of death in the days of good king Hezekiah.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the book of Revelation we are told of the pouring out of the seven last plagues, and by a careful reading of these scriptures we learn that immediately following the seventh plague, or indeed in close connection with it, Christ comes the second time.
The sixth plague is the drying up of the waters of “the great river Euphrates,” “that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.” The literal waters of the river Euphrates have never presented any great obstacle to military operations, but the power that occupies that territory, namely, the Turkish Empire, has been and still is a very serious barrier to such operations, and has long stood between many of the kings of the earth and the realization of their ambitions. According to the prophecy the final and utter destruction of this power, under the sixth plague, prepares the way for the battle of Armageddon, for the seventh plague, and for the second coming of our Lord in the clouds of heaven.
We have in the book of Daniel, beginning with the 8th chapter and continuing to the close of the book, a long line of prophecy in which the Turkish power is introduced under the designation, “The king of the North,” referring of course to the northern division of Alexander's empire, which as everybody
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knows was divided, after his death, into four parts, “toward the four winds of heaven,,, by four of his generals. Egypt, known in the prophecy as “the king of the South,” was the southern division of Alexander’s empire, while the Turkish power now occupies the northern portion and is therefore “the king of the North.”
We have neither time nor space to sketch even briefly this interesting prophecy, but will call attention in few words to the part that most intimately concerns us, namely, the predictions of the 45th verse of the nth chapter:—
And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
Everybody knows how often Turkey has been saved from utter extinction as a political. power by the intervention of other nations. But affairs have even now shaped themselves in such a way that Turkey finds herself entirely isolated, and left to face alone her record of national crime and misrule. Not only is the Turk to be driven from Europe, but planting his capital in Jerusalem he will there be destroyed by the combined armies of other nations, which in turn will themselves fight over the spoils and the division of territory.
The first three verses of the twelfth chapter of Daniel furnish the finale of the story: “At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stand-eth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the fir-
mament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”
All this and more is suggested to the student of prophecy by the name Armageddon.	c. p. B.
* *
Why Has the Turk Remained in Europe?
In the face of the general sentiment against the Turk, of the massacres laid at his door, and of the fact that since 1840 he could have been banished into Asia at any time by fiat of the Powers of Europe, why has he so long been allowed to remain on European soil? This is an interesting question, and it has a very interesting answer. The following from an English writer shows how the situation is viewed by some and perhaps by many minds at this time:—
London, November 3.— It is with a deep feeling of shame that the best part of the people of England look upon the war now raging in the Balkans. Recent events have brought forcibly home to the minds of all thinking Englishmen the fact that a great English statesman, Mr. Gladstone, year's ago clearly pointed out to his countrymen the path to follow in regard to Turkey. Englishmen realize that their failure to support him and back him up has led to a series of events which will forever remain a blot upon the escutcheon of Great Britain’s honor.
Had Mr. Gladstone had his way in the Berlin conference Turkey would have been removed from Europe then and there, and not only would the present war have been avoided, but thousands of lives taken by the Turks in cold blood butchery have been saved. Gladstone would have saved the thirty thousand Christian Armenians which the now deposed Abdul Hamid caused to be murdered and driven out of Constantinople sixteen years ago, a crime which civilized Europe has never seen fit to punish.
The years that have passed have taught Europe nothing, the Powers again hold their (Continued on p. 767.)
The Congress of Berlin
NDER the caption “Ar-B maments or Armageddon/’™ the London Fortnightly Review, in February, 1909, discussed the condition of Europe during those stormy days which marked the closing months of the year 1908. Concerning that time this writer makes the following remarkable statement :—
For three months, during the recent negotiations, the Powers kept an uncompromising countenance and tested each other’s purposes for the sake of seeing how far they could go without fighting. When the unmistakable choice between peace and war was urgently presented, Europe hardly hesitated a moment and shrank once more from the last arbitrament. We have no longer the situation of 1870 or of 1878 in Europe, of 1904 in the Far East. No nation is deliberately working for war because none is filled with the presumption of complete victory.
Into the week which began with Sunday, Oct. 4, 1908, there were probably packed as many important events as have ever been packed into a single week of international history. An interesting chronicle of that important week was given at the time by a noted diplomatic magazine, and in order to bring the principal events of that week which strained international relations in Europe almost to the bursting point clearly before the reader, I will insert this brief calendar in these columns just as it appeared when first printed, together with the author’s salient comments upon it:—
On the first Sunday in October, the 4th of that month (1908), the Treaty of Berlin was still in existence, a little torn at the edges but sufficiently intact. Within twenty-four hours it had perished as completely and as igno-miniously as if burnt by the hand of a common hangman.
On Monday, the 5th, the Principality of Bulgaria repudiated the Sultan’s suzerainty, and declared itself an independent kingdom. On Tuesday, “We Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, and Apostolic King of Hungary,” in the sixteenth year of his reign, extended the “rights of our suzerainty to Bosnia and Herzegovina” thus repudiating the sovereign rights of the Sultan as expressly reserved in the separate convention of 1879. On Wednesday Prince Nicholas repudiated the Berlin Treaty as respects clause 29, giving Austria the right to restrict the freedom of the Montenegrin seaboard. On Thursday was received the intelligence that Crete had proclaimed its union with Greece. On Friday British warships were ordered to the JEgean. On the Saturday M. Isvolsky and Sir Edward Grey held the first of their conversations in London.
No one week in many years may hereafter appear so memorable in its whole character and consequences. MEANWHILE OVER THE HEAD OF EUROPE THE SWORD SEEMED TO BE SUSPENDED BY A THREAD. While Sofia surged in triumph, Belgrade seethed in rage. It seemed for one tense moment as though the Serbs might throw themselves upon Austria in even a madder mood of recklessness than when they flung themselves against the Turks in 1876.
In Constantinople the Grand Vizier Kiamil and his colleagues conducted themselves throughout with admirable judgment and composure. There were not wanting voices for war. But the Young Turks, profound as was the injury inflicted by these events upon the prestige of their regime, never forgot for a moment that war would mean reaction and that even victory would be without fruit. Upon the northern frontier the Bulgarians, knowing that all would depend in a struggle upon their initial advantage in rapid mobilization, waited to spring at a sign. At a serious gesture of Turkish aggressiveness they would have struck first. WE HAVE APPARENTLY AGAIN ESCAPED THE GREAT WAR, BUT THIS GENERATION IN EUROPE NOW KNOWS PRECISELY HOW IT.FEELS TO BE ON THE BRINK OF IT.
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It may be difficult for the reader at first to realize how near to the great and final crisis Europe was during the days described above. But certain it is that this diplomat appreciated that the situation was one of the most tense that the world has ever seen. And as the facts which this article is designed to bring forth are unfolded the awful situation which confronted the Old World will, I trust, be more and more apparent.
It had been commonly supposed that Austria of all the Powers would be the last to act in any way which might bring about the dissolution of the Turkish Empire. Nevertheless she who was accounted the most pacific of all the Christian Powers, not only did act but acted with a vengeance. The Dual Monarchy was supposed to be of all the Powers the most anxiously concerned for the preservation of the status quo. Nevertheless it was Austria which destroyed the diplomatic basis upon which that status reposed. All of which goes to show "how easy it is for trouble to spring from quarters where it is least expected.
THE HEAD AND ERONT OE THE OEEENDING
Most Catholic Austria, a Christian Power, was the head and front of this whole offending. "Without the assurance of Austrian support Bulgaria would never have risked her daring coup. The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was in direct violation of the general engagement to Europe by the Berlin Treaty and also in direct violation of the special pledges which Austria had made to Turkey which were contained in the secret clause of 1878, and restated in the Convention of 1879. Again, Baron Aeh-renthal sinned politically and diplomatically when he took certain Powers, signatory to the Treaty of Berlin, into his con-
fidence and did not take others. Great Britain who had been the heart and soul, the founder and finisher, the Alpha and Omega of the Treaty of Berlin,— the one who had proposed the temporary occupation of the two Provinces bv Austria was conspicuously ignored.
WHEN PEACE HUNG ON A HAIR
Moreover the Austro-Hungarian Minister must have been perfectly well aware that the Servian race — already as effectually vivisected by the original occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as was Poland by the first partition—would be thrown into a dangerous agitation which might not soon subside; that Montenegro and Crete would repudiate such clauses of the Treaty of Berlin as referred to them; and “that in view of the relations between Turkey and Bulgaria THE PEACE OF EUROPE WOULD HANG UPON A HAIR.” All of this Baron von Aehrenthal knew well.
THE TREATY OE BERLIN
It will now be in order to go back in the tangled history of the Eastern Question to the days of 1878 and consider for a while the famous Treaty of Berlin from and under which Austria received her mandate to temporarily occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only by doing this can the treachery and perfidy of the Great Powers towards Turkey be fully appreciated and understood.
The Treaty of Berlin was signed July 13, 1878. In many respects from both moral and legal standpoints it was the most solemn and sacred document ever signed by the Great Powers of Europe. I will endeavor now to make this point very plain.
On the 24th day of April, 1877, Russia declared war against the Turkish Empire. England, of course, was immediately alive to the situation and fearful that the question of the Dardanelles and
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Constantinople would once more be at hazard. Her anxiety became so apparent even prior to the declaration of war — during the days when it seemed to be imminent, that the Tsar sought to quiet the situation and dispel the British fear by a frank declaration of his own views and intentions. On the 2nd of November, 1876 the Tsar held a conversation with Lord A. Loftus, the British Ambassador, and assured him upon his word of honor as a gentleman and a king that he did not have the slightest intention of occupying Constantinople or acquiring it in any way, and moreover that if it should be necessary for him to occupy part of Bulgaria his army would remain there only until peace was restored and the security of the Christian population established ; and in general that he desired nothing more earnestly than to be in complete accord with Great Britain in the matter of the maintenance of the European peace and the betterment of the condition of the Christian peoples who resided under the flag of . the Ottoman Empire. With great earnestness he disclaimed all desire for territorial aggrandizement, and protested against the suspicion with which his policy was regarded in England. He closed by desiring that his words might be made public in the British Empire as a message of peace.—Parliamentary Papers, 18//, Vol. XC. p. 642; i8?8, Vol. LXXXI, p. 679.
Lord Derby, who was at that time Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of her Britannic Majesty believed that the Tsar meant what he said, and so accepted his assurances. But Lord Beacons-field did not. He distrusted Russia, and if he could have had his way he would have informed Russia categorically that England was determined to support the Sultan should he be attacked. At the time Lord Beaconsfield was Premier of Eng-
Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield)
land, and he was only stopped from the above course by the mandate of the Cabinet which by a large majority was opposed to his policy in the matter. But being Premier he had other ways open by means of which to give voice to his sentiments. One of these came at his annual speech at the Guildhall Banquet on November 9th, six days after the Foreign Secretary had acknowledged the Tsar’s message of friendship, and before the message had been made known to the English people. This famous speech, which has since been dubbed “the jingo speech,” was designed to serve notice on Russia that England would fight with all the resources of men, money, and ships at her command before she would permit the Turks to be unduly despoiled or humiliated :—■
Though the policy of England is peace, there is no country so well prepared for war as our own. If England enters into war in a righteous cause, her resources are inexhaustible. She is not a country that when
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she enters into a campaign has to ask herself whether she can support a second or third campaign. She enters into a campaign which she will not terminate till right is done.
But nevertheless, as afore stated, Russia went to war with the Turk. The event of the war was disastrous to Turkey. Though making a brave fight she was in the end beaten to her knees and forced to sue for peace and for the mediation of the Powers. Finally an armistice was declared, so that terms of peace could be arranged, and an agreement to this effect was signed at Adri-anople. Right on the heels of this an-nouncment, came the word that the Russians, in spite of the armistice, were about to occupy Tchataldja, an outpost of the last line of defense of Constantinople. The writer well remembers the memorable night when the news reached London and the House of Commons. To say that the House lost its head is to put it mildly. The lobbies, the corridors, St. Stephen's Hall, the great and historic Westminister Hall itself, and the palace yard beyond it became packed with wildly excited and tumultuous crowds. For a while it looked as if nothing could prevent a declaration of war against Russia. The report of the Russian advance, however, proved unfounded; nevertheless the British fleet in the Mediterranean was sent through the Dardanelles, and ordered to come to anchor a few miles below Constantinople. Russia protested, but so thoroughly aroused was the British government that it would not recede from its position, and it was finally agreed that English troops would not be disembarked as long as the Russian legions made no further advance. Clearly Russia and Great Britain were within a hair's breadth of war.
THE TREATY OE SAN STEEANO
Immediately after this Russia entered into a treaty with Turkey — the famous
treaty of San Stefano,— signed by the great Ignatief and Nelidof on the part of Russia and Sayfet and Sadullah on the part %of Turkey. This treaty was signed March 3rd, 1878. It will not be necessary here to go into the details of this treaty beyond some of the most important provisions,— important as far as the subject of this article is concerned. To get this before the reader in concise form I append the summary of this part of the document as made by Fyflfe and I underscore some points which will need further treatment later:—
By this Treaty the Porte recognized the independence of Servia, Montenegro, and Rumania, and made considerable cessions of territory to the two former States. Bulgaria was constituted an autonomous tributary principality, with a Christian government and a national militia. Its frontier, which was made so extensive as to include the greater part of European Turkey, was defined as beginning near Midia on the Black Sea, not sixty miles from the Bosphorus: passing thence westward just to the north of Adrianople; descending to the JEgean Sea, and following the coast as far as the Thracian Chersonese; then passing inland westward, so as barely to exclude Salonika; running on to the border of Albania ivithin fifty miles of the Adriatic, and from this point following the Albanian border up to the new Servian frontier.—Fyffe, History of Modern Europe, Vol. 3, pp. 510, $11.
It will be noted that in brief this treaty created a great new Bulgarian State WITH A SEAPORT ON THE AEGEAN SEA. It will further be noted that at Midia its frontier was only sixty miles from the Bosphorus, and that the line barely excluded Salonika, and ran within fifty miles of the Adriatic. Now the Bulgarians are Slavic in origin like the Russians, and for the most part of the same religious creed, and Russia in this case was clearly their liberator. It is easy enough to understand from all of this how that Russia through the creation of this great Bulgaria was about to
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accomplish indirectly what Great Britain had for a hundred years been striving to prevent her from doing directly. With a great Bulgarian State created by her power, owing its very existence to her arms, peopled by men and women of the same religion, with a frontier running within sixty miles of the Bosphorus, and an ice free port on the Tjgean Sea,— with all of this under the name of Bulgaria, Constantinople, long desired, coveted and fought for, and free access to the warm waters of the ocean were clearly within the Muscovite grasp, and European Turkey would have been practically wiped off the face of the map.
the: undoing oi? stefano
Now it was because of all of the above that England protested and declared that the treaty of San Stefano should not stand, and must be submitted to a Congress of the Great Powers of Europe, who by their signatures to the Treaty of Paris had fixed the status of the Turk. Lord Beaconsfield at once took the position that the San Stefano agreement would put the whole of southeastern Europe directly under Russian influence and would mean that Russian ships of war would menace the Suez Canal and England's highway to India and the Orient.
Russia began to parry. She offered to submit the treaty to the perusal, if I may use the expression, of a Congress, but at the same time she argued that the stipulations which merely concerned Turkey and herself were for they twain to settle between themselves. But England was not to be put off by any such ruse as this. She held that it was out of the question to suppose that the Powers could allow Rpssia to force on Turkey any terms she might deem to her own interest, especially when the Porte kept slyly moaning that she had been
coerced into signing the instrument of peace.
THE SAVING OF the TURK
There can be no question but that Great Britain was deeply in earnest. The London War Office at once began to make extensive military preparations, the Reserves were called out, and a contingent of Indian troops were summoned to Europe with orders to occupy Cyprus, and to make an armed landing on the coast of Syria. In addition to these moves Greece, which in February had declared war, was ordered by England to withdraw her troops from the Turkish Provinces. The majority of these precautions were taken with the greatest secrecy, yet every one felt that something most important was in progress and expectancy was perched on every brow. In the midst of all these stirring events Lord Derby resigned the portfolio of the British Foreign office. His policy had ever been peace, and he was opposed to the bellicose maneuvers of the great Disraeli. His place was immediately filled by the late Lord Salisbury who entertained the same views as the Prime Minister. His very first official act was to issue a circular to all the Powers stating that it would be impossible for England to enter a Congress which was not free to consider the whole of the Treaty of San Stefano. It was clear to Russia that once again England held the whip hand and seeing nothing else to do she agreed to have the whole of the San Stefano Treaty laid before the Congress which was called to meet at Berlin, June 13, 1878.
The above will show, and show beyond the shade of a shadow of a doubt, that the supreme object of the Congress of Berlin was the preservation of the Turkish Empire and the limiting of the designs of those Powers which sought the Ottoman overthrow. The Congress
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Lord Salisbury
was a herculean effort, especially upon the part of Great Britain, to prevent the undoing of the “Sick man of the East.” Consequently any violation of the terms and provisions of that Congress, any repudiation of its principles can only have for their underlying base — the DESTRUCTION OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. And in all the statements made above in regard to the parts played by the courts of Saint James and Saint Petersburg the author has absolutely no intention of upholding the one or denouncing the other. Both England and Russia were acting for their own interests ; charity or philanthropy had nothing to do with the actions of either.
Next I desire to call attention to the fact that this meeting of the Powers at Berlin was a CONGRESS, not a Convention. In international law there is a vast difference between the two. In
a Conference the different nations participating therein are represented by one or two ambassadors or plenipotentiaries, but in a Congress, in addition to these, each nation is represented by its principal Ministers of State. Consequently a Congress is an international assembly of the most solemn form. Lord Beaconsfield, the Prime Minister of England, announced that he personally would attend the Congress. “Never before had an English Prime Minister left the country while parliament was sitting to act as the representative of England in a foreign capital. But so important was this Congress of Berlin that all England approved his intention and act. He was accompanied by the late Lord Salisbury, who as previously stated was Minister of Foreign Affairs.
So out of the ordinary was the whole proceeding, so filled with importance and with the issues of peace or war for the entire world, that the journey of Beaconsfield to Berlin was more nearly like a Roman triumph than anything else in the world. Prince Bismarck represented Germany, and the Congress was held in the historic Radzivill Palace, which at that time was occupied by Bismarck himself. Out of deference to Lord Beaconsfield who was considered far and away the most important figure in that great galaxy of statesmen, the proceedings were opened in the English language.
The Congress of Berlin was undoubtedly the greatest and most solemn gathering ever convened having for its end and object the settlement of the Eastern Question. The greatest statesmen which the world possessed were gathered there, their minds and hearts freighted with the impressive thought that the peace of the world hung upon their words and actions. There was the brilliant and picturesque Beaconsfield. It seemed a fitting cul-
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The Congress of Berlin
mination to his magnificent and spectacular career that he should be present as a commanding, aye dominating figure “dictating terms of peace to Europe/' There was the deeply learned and somber Salisbury, just rising to the heyday of his power, and soon to become the greatest statesman of his day in England. There was the astute German empire-builder, Bismarck the Iron Chancellor, to whose policies and power modern Germany owes her present greatness. There was Count Julius Andrassy, the Austro-Hungarian statesman, who had suffered exile from his native land in the cause of better government, but who had now returned and become Minister of Foreign Affairs for Austria. There was Haymerle, the Austrian who had spent his entire life in the diplomatic service of his country. But enough relative to the men; now to their work.
The Congress of Berlin had to deal with four or five distinct phases of the Eastern Question.
I.	The condition of the provinces or
States nominally under the suzerainty of Turkey.
2.	The populations of alien race and creed beneath the Turkish flag.
Prince Bismarck
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3.	The claims of the Greeks.
4.	The Turkish possessions in Asia.
One exceedingly knotty problem was
to devise some way whereby the Christian populations could have gradual selfdevelopment and independence. Matters were further complicated by the fact which must always be borne in mind in any review of the Eastern Question that the object of some of the Powers was rather to maintain the Ottoman government than to care for the welfare of the Christian races.
The Treaty recognized the complete independence of Rumania, of Servia, of Montenegro, subject only to certain stipulations with regard to religious equality in each of these States. It gave to Montenegro a seaport and a strip of territory attaching to it. This meant much to these mountaineers, who could now get to the sea. It decreed that Eastern Rumelia was to be ruled by a Christian Governor, and there was a statement that the Sultan be not allowed to employ any irregular troops, such as the Circassians and the Bashi-Bazouks, in the garrisons of the frontier. The Greek frontier was rectified. Such were some of the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin.
The two main points with which this article needs to dwell, however, were the arrangements relative to Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina. North of the Balkans a State of Bulgaria was created; but it was a vastly smaller Bulgaria than that which had been sketched in the San Stefano Treaty. It was to be a self-governing State, not entirely free and independent, however, but under the suzerain power of the Sultan. Its territorial boundaries were so arranged that the objects which Russia had had in view in her manner of creating it as outlined in the San Stefano treaty were completely emasculated. South of the
Balkans the State was not to be Bulgaria but Eastern Rumelia,— a different kind of a state altogether, and one which could in no way be used as a catspaw by Russia. Eastern Rumelia was to remain under the direct political and military authority of the Sultan. In his despatch which accompanied the publication of the Treaty of Berlin and which was sent to the British Ambassadors, Lord Beaconsfield wrote of Bulgaria as follows:—
Bulgaria is now confined to the river barrier of the Danube, and consequently has not only ceased to possess any harbor on the Archipelago, but is removed by more than a hundred miles from the neighborhood of that sea. O11 the Euxine the important port of Bourgas has been restored to Turkey, and Bulgaria retains less than half the seaboard originally assigned to it, and possesses no other port except the roadstead of Varna, which can hardly be used for any but commercial purposes. The replacement under Turkish rule of Bourgas and the southern half of the seaboard of the Euxine, and the strictly commercial character assigned to Batoum, have largely obviated the menace to the liberty of the Black Sea. The political outposts of Russia have been pushed back to the regions beyond the Balkans; the Sultan’s dominions have been provided with a defensible frontier.
From this resume of the situation by the British Prime Minister it will be easy enough to see what England had been working for and what she had obtained in regard to Bulgaria. The “port” and the “large seaboard” had been eliminated, and the Russian “political outposts had been pushed back beyond the Balkans.” These were the things which England desired in regard to the settlement of the Bulgarian question, and these were the things which she got.
Again I desire to call attention to the fact that opinion was greatly divided in Europe over the question of the motive which actuated or should have actuated the Powers relative to Turkey. As usual there were many conflicting
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ideas. Lord Beaconsfield frankly affirmed that he believed in England’s duty to uphold Turkey at all risks as a barrier against Russia. On the other hand Mr. Gladstone was for renouncing all responsibility for Turkey, and taking whatever consequences might come. Those men who prided themselves on being practical politicians naturally arranged themselves beneath the banner of Beaconsfield. Men who held to the idea that sound politics could only be based on sound morals flocked to the Gladstone standard. The one group of men said: It is our business to secure the interest of England, and if Turkey is of value to us as a barrier against Russia, we are bound to hold her on the Bosphorus for our own sake, and with her private morals and character we have nothing to do. The other group argued that it was the privilege of England to release herself from all responsibility for the crimes of Turkey, and to refuse to stand in the way of the developing freedom of the Christian peoples under the Turkish flag. Cried one—“The public conscience of England;” “The interests of the British Empire,” shouted the jingoes. “Be just and fear not/’ quoth Gladstone. “No sentiment,” rejoined 3eaconsfield. “The crimes of Turkey,” was the slogan of one party; “The ambitious designs of Russia,” was the battle cry of the other. The Duke of Argyll, who was a member of the Cabinet of the Crimean War days, characterized the role of England in her relation to this whole business as disgraceful; others viewed it as “masterly statesmanship.” Those who stood with Disraeli proclaimed that their party had once more saved the British Empire and thwarted the cunning designs of Russia which would not only end in driving the Turk out of Constantinople, but would also effectually close England’s highway to the Orient and make the
eastern end of the Mediterranean a Russian lake.
As far as Russia’s motives are concerned opinions differ about as much as in regard to England. It was comparatively easy for the Tsar to make a showing of great sincerity. Her case, on the face of it at least, was a most plausible one. There were many millions of Christians of her own creed within the confines of the Turkish Empire. She posed as a religious State which felt it her bounden* duty before God to protect these poor souls who were being abused by the unholy Musselman. It was on this plea that the Tsar entered upon the war with Turkey of j877-78. His call to arms made that perfectly clear:—
Our faithful subjects know the lively interest which we have always felt in the destinies of the oppressed population of Turkey. Our desire to improve and render their lot secure is shared by the whole Russian people, which now shows itself ready to offer fresh sacrifices in order to alleviate the positions of the Christians of the Balkan Peninsula. The life and property of our faithful subjects have always been dear to us, and our whole reign attests our constant solicitude to preserve to Russia the benefits of peace. This solicitude has never ceased to actuate us since the beginning of the deplorable events which took place in Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Herzegovina. Our object has been above all to effect an improvement in the position of the Christians of the East by means of pacific negotiations in concert with the great European Powers, our allies and friends. For two years we have made unceasing effort to induce the Porte to grant such reforms as would assure the Christians of the provinces against the arbitrary use of authority by the local magistrates, but the Porte has remained unshaken in its categorical refusal of any guarantee for the safety of the Christians. Having thus exhausted all pacific endeavors, we are compelled by the haughty obstinacy of the Porte to proceed to more decisive action. The sentiment of justice, the sense of our own dignity, imperatively demands it. By its refusal the Porte places us under the necessity of having recourse to
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Tsar Alexander II ol Russia
arms. Profoundly convinced of the righteousness of our cause, and humbly trusting ourselves to the grace and help of God, we hereby make known to our faithful subjects that the moment foreseen when we pronounced these words, to which all Russia responded with such unanimity, is at last come. We expressed the intention to act independently whenever we should deem it necessary, and Russia’s honor demanded it. We now invoke the blessing of God on our valiant armies, and give the order to cross the Turkish frontier.—Rambaud, History of Russia, Vol. 3, chap. 14, par. j.
Such was the verbose and pietistic utterance of the Tsar. Whether it was sincere in whole or in part, or only a cunningly designed diplomatic mask to hide ambitious purposes of territorial aggrandizment, the reader must judge for himself. Current comment of that day and public opinion since those times has viewed it in both aspects. A noted
and brilliant writer, A. A. Schu-makr, wrote a work entitled “The Tsar Liberator,” in which he lauds Russia and the Tsar to the skies for their work in the 1877-78 war:—
Thus terminated the Russo-Turk-ish war of 1877-78 — that decisive struggle for the liberation of the Slavonians of the Balkan Peninsula, and although in consequence of the interference of Europe Russia was far from attaining what she had a right to expect after the enormous sacrifices she had made, and the glorious victories she had gained, nevertheless the great and sacred object of the war was attained; on the memorable day of the emancipation of the peasants of Russia, also the Slavonian nations of the Balkan were liberated, by the help of Russia and her monarch from the Turkish yoke which had oppressed them for ages. To the emperor, Alexander II, who gave freedom to many millions of his own subjects, was allotted also the glorious role of liberator of the Balkan Christians, by whom he was a second time named Tsar Liberator.—Schumakr.
On the other hand the Duke of Argyll while rating his own country roundly for her material selfishness, and in the same breath declaring that “Turkey could not stand before Russia, and could not exist a single year if England had not been her patron and protector,” also declares that the Treaty of San Stefano was ‘ ‘nothing short of a new dismemberment of Turkey” “dictated before the open and undefended capital of the Eastand he closes with this significant sentence:—
Last, and in some respects not least, Turkey was to be deprived forever of those great frontier fortresses which had so long enabled her — sometimes with our assistance—■ to hold the passages of the Danube against all invasion from the North. Thus both of her chief lines of defense were abolished. Neither the great river, nor the mountain chain, remained to her as military barriers. She was
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left open and undefended for all future time, so that the continual pressure of the conquering power could at arry time be brought to bear upon her.—Argyllt “Our Responsibilities for Turkey,” p. 60.
Now it is manifest that at the time of the Treaty of Berlin the so-called “war party” in England, the faction which were willing to fight if they could not have their way, were in the ascendency in the councils of their country, and were able to carry out their policy that the Turk was to be maintained in Constantinople at any price and his' empire to be held fairly intact. . Leaving motives out of the question one point stands clear — that the Congress and Treaty of Berlin were a titanic effort on the part of England and some of the other Great Powers to keep the Turkish Empire from being dismembered. All Europe and all the world understood this. It was a herculean attempt to bolster up the Turk’s government when all the world knew that that government was notoriously corrupt, vicious, and depraved.
And when in 1908 the Turk reformed and demonstrated to 3II the world that his reforms were genuine and to be trusted and relied upon — when he did all of this it is passing strange that those same Powers who bolstered him up in the days of his corruption should so ruthlessly dismember him or permit some of their number to do it. Nevertheless this was the state of affairs in 1908 and has been the state of affairs ever since. The Powers clearly held the Turk in position then for their own interests and they are helping him out of his position and his provinces now for their own interests. If it was right to show a helping hand and leniency to the Turk then when he was vicious and corrupt in his government to an unbearable degree, it is ten thousand times more right and just to extend the right hand of fellow-
ship to him now when he is doing his best to govern in accordance with the principles of civil and religious liberty. But on the whole it has never been principle but self-interest which has governed in the case of the Turk.
Again it must be remembered and deeply considered that the matters which were considered by the Congress of Berlin were not matters of the foreign policy of Turkey at all. Turkey had not been committing any acts of aggression against the Great Powers in any sense of the term. The matters which were under consideration were altogether matters of internal policy and governmental housekeeping of the Ottoman Porte. And the very fact that the Powers did interfere in the matters of the internal administration of Turkey shows beyond a doubt that those Powers did not regard Turkey as anything more than a puppet, a makeshift, a thing whose affairs were to be handled as they pleased, not at all as she pleased. It must be evident to all mankind that in no sense did they regard her as an independent Power. To them she was only a something to be kept where she was as long as it suited her friends who were trying to keep her there. And in fact the Beaconsfield wing of the British public freely and blandly admitted this. Perhaps the remarks of the Duke of Argyll, a statesman of the British Empire during all these troubled days, will elucidate this point more clearly than anything which the author can say:—
The effects of the Treaty of San Stefano can not be fully appreciated unless we look at it as a whole, and in connection with the previous political events of which it was the issue. Turkey had been arraigned as a culprit before the bar of Europe at the Congress of Constantinople. In that Congress nobody defended her. England was her only friend, and England joined the other Powers in condemning her government as “profoundly
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vicious.” England had ridiculed her pretended constitutional reforms, and pronounced her promissory notes as nothing but inconvertible paper. Finally, England had threatened her with the invasion of her hereditary enemy, and had emphatically warned her that she would not be defended in the impending struggle. And all this was said and done by us on no other ground whatever than the internal government of Turkey. She had committed no external aggression on the other Powers of Europe. But that government had proved itself to be so incorrigibly bad that it could no longer be endured. The Treaty of San Stefano must be read in the light of all of those transactions. It set the seal of a great international engagement upon this ignominious condemnation. No man could henceforward pretend that Turkey zuas really an independent Power, or that she could be safely left to deal with her subject populations, on the same footing as the civilized States of Europe were, in like matters, independent of external control.—Argyll, ibid, pp. 61-2.
We have now learned what the Treaty of Berlin was, what it was about, and what it was designed to accomplish. Now note again a sentence already cited:—
On the first Sunday in October, 1908, the 4th of that month, the Treaty of Berlin was still in existence, a little torn at the edges, but sufficiently intact. Within twenty-four hours it had perished as completely and igno-miniously as if burnt by the hand of the common hangman.—London fortnightly Review, November, igo8.
The Treaty of Berlin perished in 1908 as completely and ignominiously as if by the common hangman ! Not the literal ink and parchment, for that exists and is as sedulously guarded as it ever was. But it was the provisos, the objects, the ends sought to be attained by that instrument, which came to such an untimely end. It was the historic policy of maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman Empire which met its death in the autumn days of 1908. That policy of over a hundred years was at that time torn to shreads and tossed to the tempests of
time. The announcement of her independence by Bulgaria, sanctioned as it ultimately was by the Powers, and the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria, were both flagrant violations of the mighty Treaty which was once supposed to have laid the dire specter of the Eastern Question in an eternal grave. The events of the fall of 1908 marked the turning of the tide and the dawning of a new and a darker day — a day in which the powers plan to dismember that which they once sought to preserve; a day which will surely end, not only in the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, and the driving of the Turk out of Europe, but also in the long looked for “last war,” the “final catastrophe,” in which all those great nations, in the flower of their pride and pomp and power will perish in the ruin and the wreck when ARMAMENTS END AT ARMAGEDDON.	p. t. m.
Two Rival Kingdoms
VER since the fall in Eden, there have existed in the earth two great spiritual kingdoms, antagonistic to each other, each seeking to secure the allegiance of the human family. The one is the kingdom of Christ; the other the kingdom of Satan.
Satan was once known as Lucifer (light-bearer), and as such he was a covering cherub standing by the throne of God. Pride entered his heart and he became jealous of the Son of God. This led him into rebellion against the government of heaven. He was cast out of heaven, together with his followers, and having come down to this earth and seduced the human pair in Eden, he set up his kingdom here. God put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, thus providing that
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there should be opposition on the earth to Satan's kingdom. By the provisions of the plan of salvation he reestablished his own kingdom, notwithstanding the fact that rebellion against the government of heaven had been communicated to the human family.
Satan sought the most effective means of warring against the government of God. All government is based upon law, and by striking at the law of God Satan sought to overthrow the very foundation upon which the divine government rested. How could he most effectively attack the law?
There is one place in the great moral code of Jehovah, the Decalogue, where are set forth the name and authority of the lawgiver. Here, then, was the point at which to aim his blow. If he could take away from the law the name and authority of its author, he could destroy its force, and in fact bring the law into harmony with a false system of worship.
Let us suppose a Christian to be talking on the subject of the moral law with a worshiper of the sun. He points the sun-worshiper to the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The latter can reply, I agree to that; I have no other gods before my god. He mentions the second commandment, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” etc. To this also the sun-worshiper assents; that is in harmony with his system of worship. Likewise, he consents to the command against taking God's name in vain, also those against killing, stealing, committing adultery, bearing false witness, and coveting. All these, he affirms, are in perfect harmony with his religion. But when he comes to the fourth commandment, he finds a vastly different situation. “Remember the Sabbath day,” it says, “to keep it holy; ... for in
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
“Ah,” the sun-worshiper exclaims, “that does not fit my religion at all. My god did not make the heavens and the earth.” And he must admit that the Decalogue is not the law of his god. No false system of worship can lay claim to the Decalogue in the form in which it was spoken from Sinai.
It was the fourth commandment, therefore, that Satan selected as the point of his attack. If the world had kept this precept of the moral code, idolatry could never have come in. If on every seventh day the minds of men had been called to the true God, the Creator, by the observance of the Sabbath, they could not have been turned to the worship of false gods. But man turned away from the observance of the Sabbath and thus idolatry came in, and through false systems of worship men were led to the lowest depths of physical, mental, and moral degradation.
Satan led the chosen people of God, the Israelites, to forget the Sabbath and worship other gods. Throughout their whole history, from the exodus from Egypt to their captivity in Babylon and Assyria, this apostasy marked their course. If they had been faithful in observing God's Sabbath, the great calamity which destroyed Jerusalem and swept them out of their land into captivity, would never have come. This is stated in the prophecy of Jeremiah. Here are the words:—
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David,
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riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever. .	.	. But if ye will not
hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
Had the Jews not turned away from the Sabbath and thus been led to forget God and serve idols, the magnificent temple of Solomon, the most wonderful building ever erected on the earth, would have been standing to-day, and Jerusalem would have remained the center of the worship of Jehovah.
After the resurrection of Christ, Satan continued warring along the same line against the kingdom of Christ. He turned the Christian church away from the Sabbath of the Lord by bringing in another day, the first day of the week, to be kept in honor of Christ’s resurrection; a man-appointed day to be observed for a man-appointed reason. Thus the church was led to trample under foot God’s Sabbath, making it a common working day, as it is at the present time.
Thus Satan led men to change the law of Jehovah, to alter the standard of righteousness, to destroy the only means of detecting sin. To change the moral law is to turn righteousness into sin and sin into righteousness, in the minds of men. This would bring worse confusion into the government of God on the earth than would the extensive coining of counterfeit money bring into a government of men.
It is from the arch-enemy of God and man that all belief in the mutability of God’s law has come. The change that has been made in that law by the church of Rome, as shown in Catholic catechisms, and the change made by the substitution of a different sabbath than
that instituted by Jehovah at creation, which has caused the Sabbath of the fourth commandment of the Decalogue to be trampled under foot, are manifestations of the warring of the kingdom of Satan against the kingdom of Christ.
This warfare will continue until Christ comes in the clouds as King of kings to reap the harvest of the earth; and an understanding of this fact, and of the fact that Satan constantly seeks to undermine the law of God, as the most effective way of warring against the kingdom of heaven, is of vital importance. “We are not ignorant of his [Satan’s] devices,” wrote the apostle Paul to the church at Corinth. 2 Cor. 2:11. By the study of God’s Word we may learn the methods by which Satan works for the deception of mankind and the advancement of his kingdom. We must not neglect this study; for the snares of the evil one are discerned only in the light that comes from Heaven, not in the light of the wisdom of men.
Over the camp of those who represent the kingdom of Christ, there floats the banner bearing the inscription, “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.
* ^
Watch the Moments
It is the little things which cause the Christian to stumble. It is the yielding to the momentary impatience which results in a hasty word that one would give years to recall. It is yielding to the first temptation to drink which makes the drunkard. It is cherishing the lustful, illegitimate thought which leads to adultery. It is coveting which leads to theft. It is envying our neighbor some good thing which leads to hatred and perhaps murder. Watch the moments. We pass this way but once. We can never recall to-day.—Selected.
The Ten Commandments and the Twentieth Century
B. G. Wilkinson
HERE is a tendency to-day to regard the ten commandments as belonging to the past history of the Jews. Some would teach that we have finished our examinations in that grade and that the world is now going to a higher school. “The law was our schoolmaster/’ they say, “to bring us unto Christ'.” And then they carry themselves as if Christ has dismissed the schoolmaster to show that to-day there were no other people who needed to be led to Christ or that they themselves would no further need the schoolmaster either to lead them back again when they had strayed or to keep them close to him to whom the law had led them. In teaching this doctrine they forget that the Bible describes the law under other figures than that of a schoolmaster; that the position and office work of the law covers a broader field than they gather from that one statement above.
We would do better if we knew better. We need light sent down from Heaven; we need uplifting instruction. Yet that very light so needed we may have in our midst. As the oak is contained in the acorn, and mighty fleets which sail the oceans are contained in the oak, so may eternity with its mighty possibilities, be embedded in some word of divine instruction given us by God. Such is the law of the ten commandments. We may
extend the bounds of civilization to the ends of the earth, but we can never outrun the unfolding light of that law written by the finger of God. We may cross the grave and live long in the land which the Lord our God gives us, but the relationships so fundamentally defined and duties so divinely prescribed in the ten words, will journey with us unceasingly to sweeten the joys of a holy existence.
Law, in its truest sense, is a declaration of rights and of the penalties consequent upon the violation of those rights. So the ten commandments is the declaration of rights commanded and duties violated. The first four of these declare the rights of God. The first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me,” makes known the right of Goc^ to divinity and to supremacy in divinity. As such, God is to be worshiped and men are violating the rights of God when they refuse to recognize him as supreme over all, and to give him the ownership which belongs to Divinity. The right of God did not pass away with the coming of Jesus, and in this respect the ten commandments are as much alive as they ever were. To neglect God as divine and to substitute as supreme in our thought and affections some other god is a sin of the twentieth century. It is a sin from which this generation of men need to be saved. The penalty of sin is death. And as there can be no great salvation unless there be
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great causes of destruction, the ten commandments need to be preached. Men need to be shown their possible destruction, the sin which causes it and the saving Christ to whom the law leads us.
The second commandment, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, etc.," proclaims the right of God to be worshiped as Creator, not as the created. He is not the work of mens' hands; men are the works of his hand. Yet if there is any sin of which the twentieth century is guilty it is that men worship the things which they have made unto themselves. Some worship their colossal fortunes; some bow down to their idols of castles and palaces; others are vain over varied productions of their skill. Yet of this great sin God says “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.'’ The second commandment declares the penalty while announcing the right of God to be worshiped not as a thing created, but as a Creator. Not so long as God shall exist, will this right be extinct or will the knowledge of it, expressed or implied cease to exist. The life of Jesus upon earth, is what will be our life in heaven. And as Christ refused to fall down and worship Satan, though offered all the kingdoms of this world, so must this generation be told far and near that salvation is for those only who can rise to the high duty of giving God what belongs to him as Creator, even if they must do so by parting
with the idols of their own creation.
✓
There is no property of ours we guard so jealously as our reputation. We demand and pronounce our right to that. But are we as careful and as jealous of God's right to reputation? Yet the right to reputation he has, and that right is proclaimed by the third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." The name of God is abroad in the earth; there is a history of deeds and acts connected with that great fearful name. It is not the name of a great leader who was once one of the children of men and who is now dead; but it is the name of One who proclaims himself as living. It behooves us then to consider his right to reputation; to express our opinions in a way that will not hold him up to ridicule, contempt, or hatred. And if we have doubts of our competency to walk worthily in respect to his reputation, we should seek, by prayer, divine help to discharge aright this duty. Of one thing let us be sure, that we neither doubt nor cause others to doubt his competency. This is faith. Should we injure faith in the competency of God, we are injuring him in his power to save. Of the acts which violate the third commandment there is no dearth to-day. As surely as there is a God, so surely should be proclaimed the third commandment, the right therein declared, and the penalty announced for the violation of that right. For God himself says, “The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."
And what shall we say when we take up the fourth commandment, the last of the first table proclaiming the rights of God ? This commandment seems to contain all that was begun in the former three, as well as enunciating a new right. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." This commandment proclaims the right of God to a stated day of worship. Five propositions substantiate this right. First: the living God is divine. Second: As Divinity he has a right to worship. Third: He has a right to collective worship. By that .1 mean he should be wor-
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shiped not alone by the individual, but by groups of individuals, yea, the whole world should come together collectively, in congregations to worship him. To do that, there must be an appointed time, a stated day of worship; therefore, Fourth: God has a right to a stated day of worship ; and, Fifth: God has a right to state his own day.
Here, perhaps, is one of the greatest sins of the twentieth century. Men take it upon themselves to state the day most convenient, or to have no day at all. This is a violation of God's divine right, and the fourth commandment should be proclaimed everywhere, exposing so great a cause of destruction and leading men to God's great salvation. In this respect, no less than in the item of the first three commandments, the law of God has not been carpeted over by a new woof of teachings, but it has-been restored, repolished, and set with the electric lamps of Christ’s own lighting. You say you want to do right. Then why do you deny to God his just rights? You become angry and vindictive when some one seeks to deprive you of your rights. Then why do you refuse to God his right to state his own day of worship and to receive from you the worship which is due him?
Such are the rights of God, and the first four commandments are the table which proclaims them. What are the rights of man and where are they declared. Before the Declaration of Independence was written or the English Bill of Rights was drawn up, God had bestowed and defined to man rights which were his from his fellow man everywhere, at all times, and under all governments. The fifth command proclaimed the right of man to have, as a parent, honor and respect from his children. The twentieth century has not invented something which can take the
place of man's right as a parent. On this point also this generation is sinking in sm, and the penalty thereof is the complete lack of assurance that their “days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth." No assurance for the long continuance of this nation, of any or all nations; no, not of the whole world, as long as fatherhood and motherhood are disregarded.
The sixth commandment is a declaration of man's right to life. The seventh declares his right to a wife not violated by his fellow men. The eighth proclaims man's property right; the ninth his right to reputation; while the tenth declares his right to security from envy and jealousy. These rights belong to man not because they are granted by some constitution, but because they are bestowed upon him by God. They can not be taken away by armies, princes, or legislatures. Man may forfeit his use or exercise of them by his own crimes or misdeeds; but as long as he observes them toward his neighbor, no earthly power can rightfully deprive him of them. To secure these rights just governments were instituted among men. Of these the Apostle Paul said that “the powers that be are ordained of God. .
. . For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil." It was to secure to men the rights of life, liberty, and property that God sanctioned the institution of the state. Rulers were ordained to prevent and to punish the violation and the violators of these rights. They were not however to be a terror to good works. And whenever a government becomes an obstacle to workers of the good it is no longer a ruler ordained of God. It has stepped aside from the contract upon which it was called into existence, and it becomes the privilege of man to take up the defense of his own rights.
The moral law then is the source and
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sanction of all human rights. Any attempt to legislate without regard to this great fact, would only result in the subversion of all society. It would well become all reformers and all advocates of new forms of government to study the divine law instead of creating some new twentieth century doctrine.
Moreover, by accepting life we enter into a contract with God. We are not forced to live; we have it within our power to commit suicide. When, however, we do not refuse the right to life, we virtually pledge to the Divine Giver, in return, to conduct ourselves towards him and towards our fellow men according to the rules of life. Otherwise we must forfeit our right to life, for the transgression of the law is sin, and the wages of sin is death. If we transgress the rights of man, protected by the state, the government promptly steps in and punishes us. Is it simply because the Lord - defers inflicting the penalty that men go on violating the rights of God? Have they no respect for their contract? God gives life; they accept it and in return give the promise, expressed or implied, to live right. A duty is always a promise to perform based upon some benefit previously conferred. Whenever we have something which we ought to do, the obligation to discharge that duty toward some person or persons shows a relation toward him arising from some benefit previously conferred. We may not always be keenly awake to the fact that God is bestowing on us light, food, and happiness. Yet the power and love he exerts to enrich our days demands, in return, expressions of love and duty. By the gift of life we are obligated to him; we contract to recognize his rights and the rights of our fellow men. And as every contract contains from each side a promise expressed or implied, every man by birth and at coming to the age
of understanding contracts with God to recognize the rights and perform the duties contained in the law declaring the eternal rights of God and of man. This is no less true in the twentieth century than it was in the garden of Eden. Never on tables of stone, but always in the heart should the law exist. That was the trouble with the old Covenant. The new one is for the twentieth century and runs as follows: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ; after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”
The great need which the twentieth century has of the moral law, may be seen in the loose way civilization protects the rights of this generation. Says the "New York World, June n, 1912:—
Three American rulers have been assassinated in a little more than a generation — a record only to be paralleled in the Renaissance history of the Italian republic. From 1885 to the end of 1911 there were 3,361 lynch-ings in this country. Last year there were more of these here than of legal executions. In the twenty years between 1885, and 1904 the average number of murders in this country was 6,597. Homicide’s high-water mark, reached in 1896 was 10,662. More men are killed here every year than in Italy, Spain, England, and Germany combined — these the two most violent and the two most populous European countries from which figures are obtainable. Where Germany convicts ninety-five per cent of its murderers, we convict one and three-tenths per cent.
Figures just returned from the Board of Magistrates show that last year there were 107,225 arrests without warrants in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, which is more than the usual Republican vote. The American propensity to defy the law is shown in the city by repeated strikes of municipal employees and in the nation by the record of desertions from the army worse than that of other modern powers. Tax returns in certain Southern States, have disclosed a greater in-
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vestment in pocket hardware than in plows and other farm implements.
The standard of every man should be: not what he wants to do but what he ought to do. For a man or a nation of men to do what they want to do instead of doing what they ought to do, always throws order into disorder, stability into confusion and perplexity. Such was the case of Herod when John the Baptist exposed to him the sins of his courtly society. “For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias his brother Philip’s wife; for he had married her. For John said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brothers wife. And Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him; and she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous man, and an holy, and kept him safe; and when he heard him he was much perplexed” Mark 6: 17-20. University Edition. Here is a case where the lawgiver was being instructed in the law. The state in.its neglect of God’s law, was compelled to step aside and hear another lay down the rights of God and man. The head of society was in confusion. The reformer fearless in denouncing the sins of his age, had become the real upholder of society. The prisoner in chains was more truly the central governing committee than the king upon his throne. The doer of the commandments was clear-headed, while the ruler, following his desires -more than his duty, was in perplexity.
The loose administration of and obedience to human law in this twentieth century and in this most civilized of nations, all due to the loose recognition of the divine law, may be seen from the following article taken from the Washington (D. C.) Times, Dec. 29, 191151—
Out in Chicago, in Cook County Jail, no
less than seventy-seven murderers sat down together to eat a feast in honor of the King of Pea e. . . . Considering only the immediate and superficial causes bringing these seventy-seven to death, or to face a capital charge, it is probably true that, in the great majority of cases, the phrase “We had too much liquor in us,” is explanation in full. But the real cause lies deeper; is far more serious. It consists of the seventy-seven murderers feasting on Christmas day, who have not been convicted, and many of whom stand an excellent chance of never being convicted. It lies in the ten times seventy-seven murderers in Cook County who have taken human life, and gone free with the privilege and impulse of adding another notch to their guns. It lies in the sloppy sentiment so quick to forget innocent blood in the horror at the sufferings of the guilty in chains; in the flowers and notoriety, and “sob stories” and Christmas dinners, and applauding shiverings which go to make the last hearty breakfast heroic; in the taste which dotes to see a heroine who has shot her victim from behind, conspicuous in the spot light of the theater and in all the clap-trap and maudlin intoxication with which society invests the performance of a duty that should be as automatic as a shadow following a cloud. The cause of murder, in short, lies in the opportunity to kill in safety, which the highly technical American trial affords, and in the incentive to risk, with every advantage, a contest with the law in which the state, heavily handicapped is not given the barest sporting chance. That the United States leads all the world in murder, that there are nine slayers at large for every one who is undergoing punishment, and that not more than one in twenty convictions results vn execution— these are the causes of murder of which “too much liquor” is merely the transient excitement and superficial precipitant.
When a nation, a civilization, a century, can not see its weaknesses, only its pleasures, then there is more need than ever of putting to the front the claims of God’s Bill of Rights. Those who can not see should be shown, and unhappy is the man who would destroy or even neglect the mirror which shows him his weaknesses. Those who expose to us the defective material in our make-up are our best friends. A respect for human
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laws can not be engendered where there is not respect for the divine law. Every day the newspapers swarm with the exposures of the sins of the twentieth century : robbery through high finance, fraudulent use of the nation’s mail; corrupt politics both in party life and in balloting ; alarming increase of pro rata consumption of intoxicating liquor; disheartening spread of the use of tobacco, especially cigarettes * among women: all these and other flagrant sins of present-day society are continuously being told us. We have before us the empires of the past — Babylon which went down in a night of drunken debauchery; Greece which expired with the drunken death of its great emperor; and Rome whose wealth, laws, and armies fell before the disorganized hordes of rude barbarians. Yet in the face of these warnings, past and present, the twentieth century is plunging forward at a rate which forebodes disaster. Like Herod, men reed to-day another John the Baptist who can fearlessly expose the sins of society and uplift the binding claims of the ten commandments. These will constitute the standard by which will be measured all those who shall inherit the new era to come. “Nevertheless we” says Peter, “according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwell-eth righteousness”
K *
If you wish to be miserable, you must think about yourself; about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay to you, what people think of you; and then to you nothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch; you will make sin and misery out of everything God sends you; you can be as wretched as you choose.— Kingsley.
Gods Eternal Purpose.— II
H. C. Hartwell
THE DIVINE STANDARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS N order that we may more fully comprehend the enormity of Adam’s transgression of the law of Jehovah, let us briefly consider its character. The Psalmist exclaims “The law of the Lord is perfect.” Paul states by inspiration, “The law is spiritual, holy, just, and good.” We need not speculate as to what law is referred to, for the apostle further says, speaking of the ten commandments, “I had not known lust, except the law had said, 'thou shalt not covet.’ ” John, the disciple who discourses so fully on love, does not lead us to think that wilful disobedience will be overlooked, but says, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” James is not less definite, but makes the solemn statement that “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” The Saviour himself, declared, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
. . . whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” This law enjoys special distinction, for it is written that “God spake all these words.” No other portion of Holy Writ was given with such a manifestation of divine power and •majesty. While it is true that all Scripture was given by inspiration of God, the record says that “these words the Lord spake . . . out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice.” Not only did Jehovah utter audibly these eternal precepts, but that there should be no mistake in recording them, “he wrote them on two tables of stone,” “the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the
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tables.” This law “written with the finger of God,” is an expression of the divine will and character; like a perfect mirror, it reflects the slightest imperfection of all who look into it. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” As a standard of character it requires righteousness of unfallen beings, but its divine justice demands the death of the transgressor, “for the wages of sin is death.”
the; purpose: as seen in the
GOSPEL PLAN
This was the situation in which Adam found himself. A fugitive from divine justice, his own wilful act had disrupted the sweet harmony and union which had existed between himself and his Maker.
Like Lucifer the great arch rebel, who because of an unholy ambition to exalt himself to be like the most High had been cast out of heaven with the fallen angels and given an opportunity to demonstrate to the universe the terrible consequences of anarchy, Adam found himself outside of God’s eternal purpose. But in spite of this base ingratitude, our heavenly Father, who is not willing that any should perish,loved the beautiful world that he had made; he loved his wayward children, and before they were sent out from their lovely Eden home, the great Creator made known to them a way to escape the death sentence; a way whereby they might be reinstated as members of the great family of God. True, this way would necessitate the bearing of a heavy cross o’er a path surrounded and strewn with trials and obstacles, and beset on every hand with the temptations of Satan, who would seek to destroy their souls if possible.
Now God endeavors to show the exalted standard of the law which they had violated. To alter it and thus free them from its penalty would be impossible, for “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the law to fail,” but there was One who, in human flesh, beset by the temptations of Satan, was able to fulfil its requirements by a righteous life, and by his death, he
was able in their behalf to satisfy its righteous demands for justice. His only begotten Son “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:” and “being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,” must divest himself of his royal surroundings, must forsake the homage and adoration of the angelic hosts, must be separated from his Holy Father, must leave heaven and come
Christ, the “Man of Sorrows and Acquainted with Grief
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to earth, not as a king, but in the form of a servant, to become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same/’ “and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” “that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” If Adam and his posterity would surrender their perverted will and render allegiance to the King of the universe, through faith in the coming One, they would secure pardon and reconciliation, and power to overcome their sinful natures; in Christ they would find the atonement; though through sin they “were far off” from God they might be “made nigh by the blood of the cross.” Thus God's eternal purpose to gather together in one all things in Christ was unfolded to man through the gospel plan.
TYPES AND SHADOWS
But until the fullness of the time should come when God would send forth his Son to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, Adam was instructed how that he and his children might manifest their faith in the coming One through types and shadows which would fittingly symbolize the great sacrifice of the world's Redeemer.
The carrying out of these instructions is illustrated in the experience of Abel, the second son of Adam, who “brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof” an offering to the Lord. Thus we find all the ancient patriarchs, including Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others, frequently erecting an altar and offering sacrifices to God; not
as the heathen, superstitiously hoping to appease the divine wrath, but in recognition of the justice of God in imposing a penalty upon the transgressor of his righteous law, and by faith laying hold of the One appointed in love by him to meet the penalty in their stead. This form of worship was observed by the faithful of God for about twenty-five hundred years, till the time of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage to the land of Canaan, at which time God instituted the earthly sanctuary and its services in which were multiplied and elaborated the sacrifices and ceremonies previously used by the patriarchs, but all of which were types and shadows prefiguring some phase of the work of Christ in making himself an offering for sin.
But there are many to-day who regard this period of Israel’s wandering as exceedingly barbaric; many who consider the Old Testament history of these times as very unreliable, largely the product of a race bound by tradition and a sort of national pride; many who consider this portion of the Scriptures as of practically no worth to the world to-day; many in fact who think that he who believes and professes to receive any enlightenment from these records is either extremely credulous or else sadly lacking in his education. But it is written that “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Many today pride themselves in the fact that they are Gentiles, and regard everything that occurred before the cross as out of date, old, Jewish, and that we have no part in these things. It would be well before coming too strongly to such conclusions to consider that the Master himself was a Jew, that every writer of the sacred Scriptures was a Jew, and that the world
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is indebted to the Jews for its whole Christian economy. It would be well to consider that there is not one promise in the Bible to a Gentile as a Gentile. The Scriptures give us a definition of a Gentile as follows: “Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, . . . that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world/’ As Christians we become Israelites indeed, as it is written, “If ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed.”
As we therefore observe with holy awe the stately steppings of Jehovah in the midst of his ancient people, working in ways unspeakably grand, with an outstretched arm and a mighty hand, revealing himself more personally, and perhaps more closely than during any similar period later, and as we remember the mistakes of this once so highly favored nation, shall we not remember that “all these things happened unto them for en-samples: and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
* *
The Head of Christian Science
Many people have been interested to know who would be the successor of Mrs. Eddy as the head of Christian Science. According to Mr. Hendricks, in the September number of McClure’s Magazine, a board of directors is now the autocratic power. Mr. Archibald Mc-Clean, chairman of the board, and editor in chief of the Christian Science publications, furnishes the greater part of the brains needed. This board, through the rules given by Mrs. Eddy is constituted a permanent hierarchy, with powers more absolute than those of the pope.—The Presbyterian.
The Unpardonable Sin.—II
J. S. Washburn
HERE is a limit to the mercy and the forgiveness of God. Many to-day have passed that limit. Many others are hastening with swift steps toward that great precipice over which when they have passed they shall never, never return.
But does not God say, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” ? Does he not send out the unlimited invitation, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” ? Isa. 45: 22.
Then how can it be said there is a sin that shall never be forgiven? and again the question is sometimes asked, “If an individual who has committed the unpardonable sin should come to God and ask forgiveness, would God
REFUSE TO FORGIVE
him? Would he break his promise, would he “cast him out”?
These questions are parallel with the question, “If an irresistible force should come against an immovable object, what would happen?”
The question is easily answered: No irresistible force will ever come against an immovable object. For if the force were irresistible the object would move, and therefore would not be immovable.
Or conversely: If the object were really immovable, then the force coming against it would be resisted and would therefore not be irresistible. Therefore no
irristibee force
can, or ever will come against an immovable object.
God will never refuse forgiveness to any man who truly comes to him confessing his sin. Therefore it must be true that he who has committed the unpardonable
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sin will never come to God for forgiveness.
This is true. He who has committed the unpardonable sin is hardened, impenitent and either indifferent to the mercy and love of Christ and his tender pleadings, or filled with malice and hate toward God and his truth.
For the unpardonable sin is the sin
AGAINST the; HOLY GHOST.
Note the following Scripture, Matt. 12: 22-32. “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David ?
“But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub
CAST OUT DEVILS,
by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
“But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
“He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattered abroad.
“Wherefore I say unto you,
ALL MANNER OF SIN and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”
Note (1), Jesus had performed the miracle of casting out a devil by the Spirit of God. Verse 28.	(2), The
Pharisees called the Spirit of God the spirit of the devil; and this they did knowing perfectly well that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he fulfilled the prophecies of the Scripture in every way. For the Pharisees knew their Scriptures thoroughly. Many could repeat every word of the Old Testament.
And when the religious leaders and teachers of the Jews had thus
wilfully and knowingly
called the Spirit of God the Spirit of the devil then Jesus uttered these most terrible .words ever spoken to man: “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
SHALL NOT BE FORGIVEN
him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”
The key text to this great and solemn question is found in Mark 3:28-30. “Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of
ETERNAL DAMNATION: because they said, He hath an unclean
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spirit.” Note that Jesus stated to them that they had blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, “Because they said, He hath an tmclean spirit.”
Then for a man to say that the Spirit of God is the spirit of the devil — thus to call the truth a lie and a lie the truth — and to do this after knowing the truth, is to commit
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN.
The philosophy of the unpardonable sin is perfectly simple and plain.
The Spirit of God is the only means by which we may know sin. It is true that by the law is the knowledge of sin. But the law is spiritual, the law is empty and powerless without the spirit, and the Holy Spirit brings the law before the heart and conscience and reprdves (convinces) every man of sin, and also of righteousness. John 16:8-10. “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.”
Then he who has persistently resisted the Holy Spirit until he comes no more, until his
VOICE IS NO LONGER HEARD
speaking to soul and conscience can not know what sin is or repent of it, and of course for that reason can never be forgiven. For the Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative on earth, the connecting link between God and man. He who drives away from him the Holy Spirit, cuts off the connection between himself and God.
If a man were suspended by a cord, and should himself
CUT THE CORD
that bound him to life and safety, we should describe his act .as suicide. He
who has finally grieved away the Spirit of God has committed spiritual suicide.
We quote the words of a well-known writer:—
Christ told them plainly that in attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, they were cutting themselves off from the fountain of blessing. Those who had spoken against Jesus himself, not discerning his divine character, might receive forgiveness; for through the Holy Spirit they might be brought to see their errors and repent. Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away in the blood of Christ; but he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit is placing himself where repentance and faith can not come to him.
IT IS BY THE SPIRIT
that God works upon the heart; when men wilfully reject the Spirit, and declare it to be from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate with them. When the Spirit is finally rejected, there is no more that God can do for the soul.
The Pharisees to whom Jesus spoke this warning did not themselves believe the charge they brought against him. There was not one of those dignitaries but had felt drawn toward the Saviour. They had heard the
spirit's voice
in their own hearts urging them to confess themselves his disciples. In the light of his presence they had realized their unholiness, and had longed for a righteousness which they could not create. But after their rejection of him it would be too humiliating to receive him as the Messiah. Having set their feet in the path of unbelief, they were too proud to confess their error. And in order to avoid acknowledging the truth, they tried with desperate violence to dispute the Saviour's teaching. The evidence of his
POWER AND MERCY
exasperated them. They could not prevent the Saviour from working miracles, they could not silence his teaching; but they did everything in their power to misrepresent him and to falsify his words. Still the convicting Spirit of God followed them, and they had to build up mighty barriers in order to withstand its power. The mightiest agency that can be brought to bear upon the human heart
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was striving with them, but they would not yield.
It is not God that
blinds the Eyes
of men or hardens their hearts. He sends them light to correct their errors, and to lead them in safe paths; it is by the rejection of this light that the eyes are blinded and the heart hardened. Often the process is gradual, and almost imperceptible. Light comes to the soul through God’s Word, through his servants, or by the direct agency of his Spirit; but when one ray of light is disregarded, there is a partial benumbing of the spiritual perceptions, and the second revealing of light is less clearly discerned. .So
THE DARKNESS INCREASES,
until it is night in the soul. Thus it had been with these Jewish leaders. They were convinced that a divine power attended Christ, but in order to resist the truth, they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. In doing this they deliberately chose deception; they yielded themselves to Satan, and henceforth they were controlled by his power.
Closely connected with Christ’s warning in regard to the sin against the Holy Spirit is a warning against idle and evil words. The words are an indication of that which is in the heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” But the words are more than an indication of character; they have power to
REACT ON THE CHARACTER.
Men are influenced by their own words. Often under a momentary impulse prompted by Satan, they give utterance to jealousy and evil surmising, expressing that which they do not really believe; but the expression reacts on the thoughts. They are deceived by their words, and come to believe that true which was spoken at Satan’s instigation. Having once expressed an opinion or decision, they are often
TOO PROUD TO RETRACT IT,
and try to prove themselves in the right, until they come to believe that they are. It is dangerous to. utter a word of doubt, dangerous to question and to criticize divine light. The habit of careless and
irreverent criticism
reacts upon the character, in fostering irrev-
erence and unbelief. Many a man indulging this habit has gone on unconscious of danger, until he was ready to criticize and reject the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
Then he added a warning to those who had been impressed by his words, who had heard him gladly, but who had not surrendered themselves for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is not only by resistance but by neglect that the soul is destroyed. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man,” said Jesus, “he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it
EMPTY, SWEPT, AND GARNISHED.
Then goeth he, and .taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there.”
There were many in Christ’s day, as there are to-day, over whom the control of Satan for the time seemed broken; through the grace of God they were set free from the evil spirits that had held dominion over the soul. They rejoiced in the love of God; but, like the
stony-ground hearers
of the parable they did not abide in his love. They did not surrender themselves to God daily, that Christ might dwell in the heart; and when the wicked spirit returned, with seven other spirits more wicked than himself,” they were wholly dominated by the powers of evil.
When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ, becomes
his own portress,
which he holds in a revolted world, and he intends that no authority shall be known in it but his own. A soul thus kept in possession of heavenly agencies, is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. We must inevitably be under the control of the one or
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the other of the two great powers that are contending for the supremacy of the world. It is not necessary for us deliberately to choose to come under its dominion. We have only to neglect to ally ourselves with the
KINGDOM OF LIGHT.
If we do not co-operate with the heavenly agencies, Satan will take possession of the heart, and will make it his abiding place. The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in his righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of‘self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation, to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for a time we may part company with Satan; but without a
VITAL CONNECTION WITH GOD,
through the surrender of ourselves to him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end.
“The last -state of that man is worse than the first. Even so” said Jesus, “shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” There are none so hardened as those who have
SLIGHTED THE INVITATION
of mercy, and done despite to the Spirit of grace. The most common manifestation of the sin against the Holy Ghost, is in persistently slighting Heaven’s invitation to repent. Every step in the rejection of Christ is a step toward the rejection of salvation, and toward the sin against the Holy Spirit.
In rejecting Christ the Jewish people committed the unpardonable sin; and by refusing the invitation of mercy, we may commit the same error. We offer insult to the Prince of Life, and put Him to shame before the synagogue of Satan, and before the heavenly universe, when we refuse to listen to His delegated messengers, and instead listen to the agents of Satan, who would draw the soul away from Christ. So long as one does this, he can find
NO HOPE OR PARDON,
and he will finally lose all desire to be reconciled to God.”
* *
“Pray without ceasing.”
Taoism
I. H. Evans
(Concluded)
Lao-TSz's teachings seem to dwell largely upon the qualities of humility, conformity to nature, passionlessness, contentment, etc. Writing on contentment, he said: “There is no greater sin than looking upon the covetable; there is no greater evil than discontent; there is no greater disaster than acquisitiveness. Hence, the enough of contentment is always enough.” “He who knows content is rich.” On humility, he said: “Concentrate your efforts upon gentleness, and see how far you can be like an infant. Take disinterested and dispassionate views of things, and see how far you can be without blemish.” “When your meritorious work is done, and fame is thereby gained, to retire to the background is the Tao of heaven.” Again “water,” says Lao-tsz, “benefits all things, and yet humbly occupies the lowest places, which all men dislike. The reason why the large rivers and the seas are able to act as kings of the streams which flow down into the valley, receiving tribute from them all, is their skill in taking a lower level than they.”
“Tao Teh King” is full of exhortations to disinterestedness, inaction. “Those who try their hand at action are apt to come to grief. Those who grasp at a thing are apt to see it slip away. But the highest form of man, by not making work escapes coming to grief; and by not grasping at a thing, does not see it slip away.” “Aim at extreme disinterestedness, and maintain the utmost possible calm.” On this point De Groot says: “This absence of passion is expressed by the word 'emptiness/ It implies placidity, contentedness, freedom from care, and means in particular purity
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of mind and character — a purity like that of heaven itself. The pure shen, or soul of heaven and the universe, pervades the man who has no passions; he becomes a shen, or god, himself, a celestial being, a man of perfection.
“Emptiness is the mother of inactivity, or stillness,— two virtues of which again heaven and earth are the prototypes. In fact, the Tao of heaven and earth is not the active cause of all movement in the universe, but that movement itself; it is not action, but law. Is it not clear therefrom that man must live a life moved by inward spontaneity only? He may not allow himself to be guided by self-determination or a strong will, nor may he be dominated by desire or spirit of initiative; he should never act a part, least of all force the nature of things. This is the famous doctrine of inactivity, or wu-zvei, preached by Lao-tsz, warmly recommended by Confucius. Like heaven and earth, which do not exert themselves, yet produce and create everything, so man who is, inactive can do everything; he is almighty. If he is a ruler, he is irresistible, and reigns most successfully, without any exertion, simply because he possesses that great Tao of heaven and earth. Confucius exclaimed: The man who reigned without exertion, was he not Shun? What did he? He made himself venerable, and sat on his throne facing due south; that was all he did/ The Taoist may not even teach his doctrines; they must emerge from him spontaneously. Confucius, in a mood of wu-wei-ism, once said: T would rather not talk/ ‘Buc if thou sayest nothing, master/ his disciples replied, "what shall we have to record?' ‘Does heaven say aught?' retorted the sage; ‘and yet the seasons pursue their course, and yet all things are produced; does heaven say aught ?' " In order to attain this high standard
of inaction, or oneness with nature, it was necessary that man leave the marts of trade and the realms of politics, and seek to gain, through meditation and spiritual devotion, this high ideal of Taoism. Monks and anchorites thus became common, and their mode of life was esteemed praiseworthy by the laity. Cottages for refinement, secret places of isolation, were provided, so that those who desired to attain this higher life of complete indifference to the world might, through seclusion and by physical castigations, reach a state of perfect harmony with the Tao.
Since the beginning af our era such divine beings are mentioned and described in very great numbers as having lived from the commencement of China’s mythical time, and though they are, no doubt, all or nearly all products of fancy, many of them are worshiped as gods to this day. Most of them, retiring into mountains, and acquiring by the cultivation of sanctity and perfection the magical powers of the god-man, became immortal like the Tao itself. They are the so-called sien, generally reputed to have lived to an extreme old age, even forever — a class of terrestrial genii, becoming celestial genii as soon as the process of perfection enabled them to soar on high to the heavenly gods in their Olympian paradise.
Such perfect worthies attracted, of course, disciples, who gathered round them to learn the discipline of perfection and salvation. Since the Han dynasty their so-called “cottages for refinement” are found frequently mentioned in literature; many of these abodes were grottoes and rock-caves. Ancient doctrine taught that the god-man might live without food. These votaries in retirement explained this in this sense, that, could they only succeed in living without food, they would be gods. To this end they fasted and emaciated themselves. Besides, they ransacked the mountains for drugs, which, when eaten, might silence the craving of their stomachs, and, by bestowing vitality, might invigorate them and prolong their lives. Thus they tried to shed their material body, their mortal coil, and to become ethereal gods.
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THE ELIXIR OE LI EE
The Taoists fell into the belief that somewhere on earth could be discovered hidden islands whose inhabitants possessed immortality. In the third century before Christ, a Taoist monarch, Shih Huang, despatched a naval expedition to discover the “golden isles of the blest, where dwelt genii, whose business and delight it was to dispense to all visitors to their shores a draught of immortality, compounded of the fragrant herbs which grew in profusion around them.,, The expedition, however, was lost, and nothing was ever heard from it. Still men sought to make themselves immortal. All sorts of foods and herbs were experimented upon, in the hope of finding one that would confer endless life. “In the list of those sovereign plants of the sein we find, for example, the pine and the cypress, especially the seeds and their resin, or blood, which are concentrations of the vitality of the tree. Further, we find among such the plum, pear, and peach, the cassia, and also various kinds of mushrooms; furthermore, so-called shuh, calamus or sweet-flag, asters or chrysanthemums, etc. To account for the capacities of each of these plants in prolonging life and conferring immortality, Taoism had its reasons and deductions, derived from cosmological-animistic philosophy. Of the other substances bestowing immortality we merely mention gold, jade, pearls, mother-of-pearl, cinnabar. All these things, and a great many more, have, of course, occupied a place in the pharmacopoeia for all ages.”
Then, too, the Taoists by a process of reasoning demonstrated that the atmosphere possessed the germs of immortality, and was a portion of the deity. Since “the absorption of these life-bestowing substances by the body* might be advantageously connected with the inhala-
tion of shen directly from the atmosphere,” and since the atmosphere was indeed the very Shen of the universe, they taught various respiratory exercises, hoping to obtain endless life by deep breathing. “Inhalations, deep and long, exhalation^, slow and short, periodically and in a proper cadence, according to prescribed rules of the sages, could not but highly promote assimilation with the Tao, and produce deathlessness. This discipline was connected with movements of the limbs, it having been correctly discovered that such motion exercises an influence upon respiration. Hence there was developed a system of indoor gymnastics, preached and practised to this day as highly beneficial in promoting health and longevity. Slow dances, or rather marches, and combinations of paces forming figures, completed the system. 'The perfect man/ wrote Chwang-tsze, 'is he who respires even to his heels/ so that his body to its farthest extremities is imbued with the vital ether of the universe. Thus the same author goes on to say: 'Blowing and gasping, sighing and panting, expelling the old breath and taking in new, passing the time like a hibernating bear, and stretching and twisting the neck like a bird — all this merely shows the desire for long-gevity.’ ”
Another writer speaks of these vagaries as follows:-—
The mass of Chinese have cast aside the philosophical and metaphysical speculations of the old philosopher and his immediate followers, and on the small foundations of the ‘Tao Teh King’ a super-structure of hay, stubble, rubbish, and rottenness has been raised. They appear to have started off at a tangent from his ideas, and evolved some elaborate systems, wandering off into empty space. The craving of man for immortality degenerated into a fruitless search for plants, which, when eaten would confer it; for charms which would bestow it; for elixirs, the quaffing of which would send it coursing
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through one’s veins. So strong were these beliefs that Taoist books were spared in the general destruction by the hated Ts’in Shih Huang-ti (b. c. 200).
However exalted the original teachings of Taoism in regard to morality and a better method of living than the Chinese were accustomed to, this religion rapidly degenerated into a system of exorcism, magic, demon-worship, and all that these involve. On this point, we read: “Magicians arose under the aegis of Taoism who professed to have mastered the powers of nature. They threw themselves into fire without being burned, and into water without being drowned. They held the secret of the philosopher's stone, and raised tempests' at their will.,,
Speaking of the degeneracy of Taoism, also, De Groot says:—
But the principal work of the Taoist priesthood is the performance of magical religious ceremonies. The great Taoist and Confu-cian prophets have stated that men who possess the Tao by having assimilated themselves with nature, also possess miraculous powers, the same as those which nature herself displays; they are, indeed, gods, or shen, of the same kind as those who constitute the Tao. Among these powers the most useful is that of destroying and casting out evil spirits, and thus saving mankind from disease, plague, and drought. Even the man who, by practising Taoist discipline, is on the way to assimilation with the Tao, that is to say, the Taoist doctor or priest, is a magician of this kind, of lower or higher order according to his attainments in the Tao. He is a physician and an exorcist; he may quench conflagrations in the distance, stop swollen rivers and inundations, produce fogs and rains; to these and other ends he may command the gods. Magic has always been the central nerve of the Taoist religion, and always determined the functions of its priesthood. It runs as a main artery through a most extensive ritualism and ceremonial, aiming at the promotion of human felicity mainly by destruction of evil spirits, combined with propitiation of gods. It works especially with charms and spells, the power of which is un-
limited faith. By means of charms and spells, gods are ordered to do whatever the priests desire, and demons and their work are dispelled and destroyed. . . . Wherever calamities are to be averted or felicity is to be established, a temporary altar is erected by the priests, adorned with portraits of a great number of gods, with flowers and incense burners, and sacrificial food and drink is set thereon. The gods, attracted by the savory smoke and smell, are called down by means of charms, which, being burned, reach them through the flames and the smoke; and by the same magic, connected with invocations and prayers, they are prevailed upon to remove the calamity. Thus it is that the gods of rain and thunder send down fructifying water wanted for agriculture; that they stop their rains and showers in seasons of excessive wetness. Thus river gods are forced to withdraw their destructive floods, gods of fire prevailed upon to quench conflagrations. Thus, again, in times of epidemic or drought, the devils which cause these calamities are routed with the help of gods.
That magical cult of the universe, that is to say, of gods who are parts of the manifestations of the universal Yang-Athmos — that religion, sacrificial, exorcising, ritualistic— is exercised in the temples erected everywhere by thousands throughout the empire, nominally consecrating each to one god, but filling it up with images and altars of many more. Myriads of images thus stud the Chinese soil, characterizing it as the principal idolatrous country in the world. Those idols, deemed to be actually animated and therefore miracle-working if properly worked on by magical worship, at the same time characterize China as the principal country in the world for fetishism. . . .
For the exercise of magical religion, learned Taoists have in course of ages invented numerous s> stems. Only a limited number of these are practically in vogue. Those systems differ from each other in the first place according to the gods employed; but among these gods those of thunder and lightning, the devil-destroying instruments of heaven, are prominent. These gods generally fight the host of devils in close alliance with thirty-six generals of an army of celestial warriors, many of whom have an astrological origin.
Those systems have been carefully printed and published for the benefit of the human race. They have been inserted in the great
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Taoist canon, published under imperial patronage in 1598, and containing probably between three and four thousand volumes. A copy of this enormous compendium — the only one probably outside of China — is in the Bib-liotheque Nationale at Paris, but only in a fragmentary state, which is the more deplorable, seeing that it is highly doubtful whether it will ever be possible to find a complete copy.
The conclusion to be drawn from the history of Taoism is that ... it has, practically, not been able to rise above the level of idolatry, polytheism, and polydemonism, but even has systematically developed all these branches of the great tree of Asiatic paganism.—“The Religion of the Chinese,” pages 159-163.
GEOMANCY OR FENG-SHUI
Taoism is everywhere in China to-day. The educated classes pretend to be agnostics or atheists; but when death comes, or when great calamities visit them, they at once resort to the Taoist priests for divination and advice. Nowhere in China can the dead be buried, or a suitable building site selected, without the assistance of the priesthood. The “lucky days” for marriage, and for entering upon new enterprises,— in fact, for the performance of all the duties and affairs of life — are fixed, and most jealously adhered to by the Chinese. Annually, the government publishes an almanac, announcing all these “lucky days but the common people, the great mass of whom are unable to read, must resort to the priests to have these calendars interpreted. Hence there has developed in China, largely through Tao-ism, a class of priests who gain their livelihood by preying upon the credulity of the people.
Concerning this great delusion which permeates all the religions of China, and is universally accepted by the Chinese people, Harlan P. Beach says: “Chinese geomancy . . . known as feng-shui,— literally wind and water,— is everywhere a powerful factor in Chinese life. While it may owe most to the Taoists for its
development, it is the product of super-sti! ion-mongers of all the sects. Though founded on one of the most ancient classics, the Yi Ching, it became systematized only in the twelfth century; yet in seven hundred years it has become 'one of the most gigantic systems of delusion that ever gained prevalence among men/
“Spirits of the dead are but media through whom survivors can influence the real power, which is nature. Nature is regarded as a living organism, over which hover invisible hosts of malignant beings that need to be propitiated. 'If a tomb is placed so that the spirit dwelling therein is comfortable, the inference is that the deceased will grant those who supply its wants all that the spirit-world can grant. A tomb located where no star on high or dragon below, no breath of nature or malign configuration of hills, can disturb the peace of the dead, must therefore be lucky, and worth great effort to secure/
“Evidences of the power of this system are seen almost everywhere. Graves with their armchair configuration in the south, crooked streets, blank walls and screens to prevent spirits from gaining impetus through rectilinear motion, pagodas and temples erected to improve feng-shui, the location of Peking and of the mausolea of grandees and emperors, theories about the height of new buildings near older ones, hostility to two-storied houses of foreigners and spires of Christian churches, and the prevalent dread of telegraphs, railroads and mines, so fearfully inimical to good luck—these are a few samples of many. . . . And the key to this most enthralling system of superstition is held in the itching palm of the crafty geomancer, usually of Buddhistic or Taoist faith.”
china's need to-day
It will thus be seen under what bond-(Continned on p. 768.)
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Washington Correspondence
The Religious Garb Decision
January 27, 1912, Robert G. Valentine, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, issued his now famous Circular No. 601, on Religious Insignia. The effect of this order was to remove from the government Indian schools all teachers wearing distinctive religious garb. Those coming under this ruling are all Roman Catholics. A strong protest to President Taft was immediately entered by the Catholics, and on February 3, the President directed that Mr. Valentine's order “be revoked and that action by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in respect thereto be suspended until such time as will permit a full hearing to be given to all parties in interest.”
The hearing suggested by President Taft was held before Hon. Walter L. Fisher, Secretary of the Interior, on
April 8, 1912. After a discussion of several hours' duration, in which practically all the Protestant denominations were lined up against the Catholics, it was left to the secretary to decide whether or not Mr. Valentine’s order was to stand. August 24, Mr. Fisher directed a letter to Mr. Valentine stating his position, which was approved by President Taft, Sept. 23, 1912. So far as the government is concerned the question at issue is settled. As Secretary Fisher's letter is a document of some twenty-six pages, it is impossible to give it entire; but the following are his conclusions, which he reached after “much deliberation”:—
MR. FISHER’S CONCLUSIONS
That the questions at issue are questions of administrative policy and not of statutory or constitutional law.
That as a matter of wise and far-seeing administrative policy the wearing of a distinctive religious garb by teachers in government schools
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for the Indians should not be permitted; that the extension of the practise should be definitely prohibited; that the only real question open to discussion is the treatment which should be accorded to the teachers who are now in the government service and who have been officially given a civil-service status.
That any rule which is now adopted with regard to these teachers must recognize the fact that the government not only permitted but originally encouraged the churches and various religious and charitable organizations to establish schools among the Indians; that many of these schools have been taken over by the government under an arrangement, express or implied, by which the teaching force was covered into the public service without discrimination as to religious beliefs and without discrimination as to whether the teachers did or did not wear a distinctive garb indicative of such beliefs, and that as a result a number of teachers are now, and some of them for many years have been, members in Catholic orders whose vows are for life and which require the wearing of a garb distinctive of such membership.
That both Congress and the department have heretofore adopted the policy of proceeding by definite but gradual steps to terminate the practise of recognizing sectarian religious organizations as governmental agencies in the education of the Indians, but that while applying this policy to the gradual and now complete elimination of the contract schools the Indian Office has mistakenly continued to take into the classified service additional teachers wearing a distinctive garb, permitting these teachers to carry on the schools in a manner almost as distinctly sectarian as before they were taken over by the government.
That it is this mistake (about the existence of which we agree) which should now be corrected, not by abruptly dismissing from the service those whom we have taken into it and given the protection of the civil-service law, but by ceasing to introduce into the service the teachers of any sectarian religious schools; by filling all new positions and all vacancies in the teaching force from the eligible registers of the Civil Service Commission : and by requiring all teachers, whether now in the service or hereafter admitted, whether wearing a religious garb or not wearing such a garb, whether Protestant or Catholic, to refrain from all sectarian instruction
or the use of their positions for sectarian ends.
With almost one accord the Catholic periodicals expressed their joy over the fact that the nuns and priests now employed in the Indian service are to continue to wear their garbs and teach, until they drop out by reason of death or other cause. However, in the light of Mr. Fisher's order, these Catholic teachers stand in no enviable position before the American public, in spite of their apparent victory. It is freely stated by the secretary that they are in the schools because of a mistake on the part of the Indian Department in failing to carry out the policy adopted by Congress years ago, which should “now be corrected." More than that, Mr. Fisher says that the wearing of religious garbs should be definitely prohibited as a matter of “wise and far-seeing1 administrative policy;" and that this regulation should be “kindly but firmly enforced."
Mr. Fisher’s decision is worthy ;of study; he suggests some conditions existing in this country that should provoke serious thought. He states that the question as to whether or not distinctive religious apparel may be worn in our Indian schools is merely a
MATTER OF ADMINISTRATIVE POUCY.
Should a matter of such importance be left to the varying moods of diverse administrations ? There is a possibility if not a probability that when our government becomes a little more Romanized, an official will arise and affirm that in his judgment it is proper to continue the wearing of these garbs. In the liberty granted to him in carrying out his “administrative policy" he would no doubt* carry his point.
There are many citizens in this country who believe that the wearing of religious garbs by teachers amounts to
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nothing less than the teaching of the religion held by those teachers. Mr. Fisher himself expresses the opinion that “the wearing of the garb exerts an influence upon the pupils which is favorable to the particular religious creed or system of its wearers,,, and “that the natural tendency to take advantage of the influence thus acquired in a distinctly sectarian fashion and for distinctly sectarian ends is a sufficient reason for providing against the extension of the practise and for its gradual but certain elimination.” As conclusive evidence on this point we give a pronouncement of the Roman Catholic Church, which affirms that the wearing of a distinctive religious garb is equivalent to a public profession of religion:—
The church insists on the use of a habit, by which the religious are distinguished from the secular persons. A distinctive habit is always required for nuns; the clerical habit is sufficient for men. Those approved institutes whose members may be taken for seculars out of doors, lack that public profession which characterizes the religious state, in the sight of the church according to the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, August n, 1889.—Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 12, p. 753.
PUBUC MONEYS FOR REUGIOUS PURPOSES
Secretary Fisher further states that “the Constitution does not provide that Congress may not expend the public moneys for religious purposes/’ From the program being carried on by the Catholics, it would seem that they well understand this weakness in the letter of our fundamental law and have taken advantage of it to secure thousands of dollars and large grants of land from our municipal and state treasuries. Mr. Dexter A. Hawkins, A. M., of the New York bar, writing about thirty years ago, said that from 1869-72 the Catholics succeeded in looting the city of New York
of the tremendous amount of $9,543,626 in money and city lots.
This plundering of public funds by a religious denomination, and other movements tending to undermine the spirit of our Constitution aroused the people of this country at that time to decisive action. On Dec. 14, 1875, Hon. James G. Blaine proposed in the House of Representatives the following amendment to the Constitution, as Article XVI:—
No State shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no money raised by school taxation in any State, for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund thereof, nor any public lands devoted thereto, shall ever be under the control of any religious sect; nor shall any money so raised, or lands so devoted, be divided between religious sects or denominations.
The same year both the Democratic and Republican parties approved the principles of this amendment in their national conventions. When the amendment came up for action in the House of Representatives, it was passed by the almost unanimous vote of 180 to 7. In the Senate the article was made even stronger by the Judiciary Committee, as the following testifies:—
No State shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under any State. No public property and no public revenue, nor any loan of credit by or under the authority of the United States or any State, Territory, district, or municipal corporation, shall be appropriated to or made or used for the support of any school, educational or other institution under the control of any religious or anti-religious sect, organization or denomination, or wherein the particular creed or tenets shall be read or taught in any school or institution supported in whole or in part by such revenue or loan of credit, and no such appropriation or loan of credit shall be made
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to any religious or anti-religious sect, organization, or denomination, or to promote its interests or tenets.
While this amendment passed the Senate by a large majority — 28 to 16 — it failed to secure the necessary two-thirds vote to carry it as an amendment to the Constitution. Had this amendment became a part of the Federal Constitution at that time, all his difficulty regarding the wearing of religious garbs in public schools conducted in a sectarian manner would no doubt have been obviated. The real reason for the defeat of this article was given by Senator Blair on the floor of the Senate, Feb. 15, 1888:—
Twelve years ago, when I was a member of the House of Representatives, and when we were undertaking to enact a Constitutional amendment which was to prevent the appropriation of the public money to the support of sectarian schools in this country, a friend of mine pointed out to me upon that floor nine Jesuits, who were there log-rolling against the proposed amendment of the Constitution. I did not know. He claimed to know them, and pointed them out, nine at one time.— Congressional Record, Feb. 16, 1888. p. 1264.
No action on the part of any government official for years has stirred up the religious feelings of the American people as did the revoking of Commissioner Valentine’s order by President Taft. Thousands have waited and watched with great interest the outcome of this case. Now that the existing condition of fifty-one Roman Catholic teachers wearing their religious garbs in our Indian public schools is to continue indefinitely by virtue of President Taft’s acceptance of Secretary Fisher’s order, there is again a demand for a Constitutional amendment which shall make secure the proper use of public funds; and a law to prohibit the wearing of religious garbs in public schools. No doubt the same influence will be found working
against these movements as was manifested in 1875, except it will now be much stronger. The effort to secure these measures is explained by the following, taken from the magazine Church and State of September, 1912:—
The Minutemen are now drafting a bill to absolutely prohibit the wearing of any religious garb by teachers in government schools during school hours. This bill will be presented in Congress next December.
By far the most important matter to be presented by the Minutemen is a Constitutional amendment to prohibit sectarian appropriations. In other words, an attempt is to be made so to amend the Constitution of the United States as to prohibit forever the national government as well as any State or local government, from making any appropriations of money or property for any institution wholly or in part under ecclesiastical control.
The introduction into Congress of the measures proposed by the Minutemen will no doubt precipitate a general discussion of the principle involved, and will thus aid in educating the public regarding the dangers of Romanism.
While Secretary Fisher and President Taft may not be able to discover a definite prohibition in the Constitution against the appropriation of public funds for religious purposes, we believe that the following from the annual report of the commissioner (1891), properly expresses the real status of the question :—
I can not refrain from the expression of the earnest conviction that it is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution of the United States, and utterly repugnant to our American institutions, and our American history, to take from the public moneys funds for the support of Sectarian institutions.
C. E. Holmes.
* *
We become largely what we think we want to be. High thinking leads to high aiming. If we think great things long enough and hard enough, some day we are likely to do them.—Selected.
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in ell the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.” Matt 24:14
Some Colporteur Experiences in Tokat, Turkey
Thanks be to God who overturns the plans of a man as well as of a king. This was the case with me. As I was becoming wrapped up in business, God in his mercy took me away from it. For about six months I have been canvassing in this place. Up to this time I have sold about six hundred tracts and books. As I was succeeding in carrying the truth
to every corner of the city, from the high merchants’ magazines to the lowest and farthest shops of copper-smiths and muslin-workers, Satan, that old deceiver, was stirred with rage, and aroused the government. I sold to Moslems more than seventy tracts of Daniel Two in Turkish. In a second tour I was selling the “Secret of Health” in Turkish, and when in a coffee-house I was presenting them, a policeman asked me if there was another book. As I
View of the City of Tokat, Asia Minor. The Large White Building at the Left is a Roman Catholic Church and School. Our Meeting-house is near this building.
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Bridge Over the River Iris, Near Tokat
gave him Daniel Two, immediately he seized all the books and carried them to the police department.
I followed him. There I learned he was instructed by the chief of police to make this arrest. Many Moslems have complained to the chief of police about me, and some of the officers had been stirred up against me. They registered all that I had in my satchel. They interrogated me in detail. They called Brother Baharian too, and asked him about me and about the work that we were doing. Then they carried me to a guard-house in the southern part of the city where the Turkish shops are numerous and where too, I had sold Daniel Two. As I entered the place to be examined there came about fifteen persons — two of them Armenian — to testify against me. They had read the tract and seen the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and thought this image represented Turkey, standing on its toes, and Italy the stone, ready to smite it!
They testified as if I had said to them that Italy would soon come and smite the Turk. Besides they testified that I had said, “The end is near,” “God has a center in heaven,” “There will be no other kingdom to follow the modern kingdoms but God’s eternal kingdom,” etc., all of which are regarded by Moslems as heresies.
By God’s help, after two days’ examination they set me free, without any imprisonment or even exile. They kept the Turkish Daniel Two tracts that were left in my satchel, and the others they returned to me with the order, “You will not sell any more Daniel Two and similar publications to Moslems. As you know, these teachings are not pleasant to them, and already they are very stirred up, and it is dangerous. This time we will not punish or exile you; moreover, you may sell the other ones to Christians.” We learned afterward that some of the vagabond Turks had decided to kill me in some depopulated place while canvass-
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ing. Brother Baharian was very joyful when he saw me delivered. Thanks to the Lord for his wonderful providence.
Half of the population of the city are Moslems. The Christians are mostly Gregorians and Catholics. There are Congregationalists, and a few Disciples. For a period of six months, from early autumn to the end of the winter, 1911, all the people heard the truths. At selling time, when I pass along the markets, the Turks call out, “The end is going!” and the Armenians say, “The first day is passing!’’ as they are accustomed to call it “Kiriaki” (in Greek, “Lord’s day”). From some of the shops I was turned out of doors. Many of them were mocking and reproaching me, and a great many of them were blaspheming me, the Sabbath, and Sabbath-keepers, and many expressions of contempt were uttered which I would not care to mention; you may find them described in Eph. 5: 1-12. In this very narrow and sad way, I continued my canvassing, returning home with good results and joy. All the opposition and dishonor I know is for the sake of the Lord Jesus, and this only gives me courage and blessing in the work.
Some weeks before, when I was in a magazine, there were gathered ten to fifteen persons listening to me. During the conversation a Greek came and asked me, “When will you depart from here? because we grow tired of hearing you so continually; when will you depart from here?”
Now I leave this city, but I carry with me a great many blessings from experiences that I gained here, during my first canvassing tour. M. N, Askabedian.
Tokat} Asia Minor, hme 1, 19 t2.
* *
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world.”
A Visit to the Grecian Mission Field
This mission field is composed of Macedonia, Albania, and Greece. It has a population of about three million people. But there are only four workers.
About two thousand years ago when the Apostle Paul received his vision at Troas to go to Macedonia, this region became a very successful mission field and many lively churches were established by preaching Christ the crucified. The light was shining brightly from there to the Occident and Orient, though it seemed to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness. In time, this cross became a dried piece of wood, so that only the forms of Christianity remained. In these last days the message of the second coming of the Lord is being preached as the final work in this country.
I left Constantinople in May, and
The. first and only Turkish Monument in Constantinople in remembrance of liberty
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View in the city of» Salonika. Under the Shadow of these walls our people meet every Sabbath. Turkish Citadel in the distance.
made my first stop at Salonika, where I met Brother Scior, who has been at work in this city the past two years. During this time he got so much of the Greek language that he is now able to hold Bible studies among the people. Lately he has been assisted by Sister Loxandra Keanides, who came from England as a missionary nurse; and Brother Savvas, of Constantinople school, as a canvasser. While I was there, we had Bible studies every evening, and sometimes the meeting room was quite full of listeners.
Salonika is quite an important city in the European part of Turkey. It has over one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants.
Half of the population are Spanish Jews, and there are only thirty thousand Turks, and the rest are Greeks, etc.
This city is the cradle of the revolutionists who dethroned Abdul Hamid, brought the Constitution, and have
been the leading party for four years. I was glad to see, while I was there, that	Brother
Savvas had very good success in canvassing. He sold over four hundred piasters’ worth of literature in one week. Considering the great number of	Spanish
Jews in Salonika and the surrounding country, we realize keenly the necessity of reaching this people with our Spanish literature.
From Salonika I went to Berea with Brother Savvas. At the depot, he was arrested, and his valise, which was full of all kinds of tracts, was examined. The train had to wait ten minutes until we could settle the affair. The authorities were afraid that he was distributing revolutionary literature. As they could only find the tract “Secret of Health” in Turkish and Greek, their eyes being blind to see the other kinds,
The city of Berea, near Salonika, mentioned in Acts 17 : 10, 11. The man seated on the wall is Brother Savvas, the first canvasser who sold tracts among the Turks, Greeks, and Jews in this city, with good success.
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Patras, Achaia, the Present Headquarters of the Grecian Mission Field
he was set at liberty, and the train brought us to Berea. Along the railroad, from Constantinople to Salonika, and from Salonika to Monastir, which is one of the headquarters oi the Albanian revolutionists, Turkish soldiers were posted to guard the line against damage from dynamite.
Going through the streets of Berea,
Brother Savvas was called before the chief man of the city who wanted to examine his tracts. As they were found to be very good, he was given the liberty of selling. He had a good sale in that place. In a hotel I made the acquaintance of a Turkish officer who had lately come from Tripoli. *1 could speak with him in French and interest him in our belief. He bought one of every kind of the tracts Brother Savvas had. Berea with its surroundings is a well-watered and fruitful place. Between it and Salonika, is the birthplace of Alexander the Great. On my return to Salonika, I found in the cars people with strange dresses, and I was told that the same style of dress was worn in the time of Alexander.
From Salonika I made my second stop in Athens. Athens is entirely a European city. It is wonderful how this city has improved during the last eighty years since its release from the Turkish bondage. I felt sorry not to have been able to meet Brother Sandres there. I was interested in beholding the ruins of the Greek arts. It called to my mind, when I stood on the Acropolis and saw all those temples in pieces, the Scripture account of the time of the Philistines when
their god Dagon was broken in pieces after the ark of God was brought in. This nation was always quarreling with their gods; and it seems that now they are doing the same thing with their priests. We earnestly hope to see a worker settled in this city soon, that we may be able to establish a lively church in it.
The Greeks are well educated. There is no part in the Near East where people read newspapers so much as in this city. This gives us hope that our literature can be sold easily. The information which I got there from one of the best booksellers and from a lawyer, assured me that Greece and Macedonia would be the most fruitful fields in our union for our coming canvassing work. We have already good omens of it.
From Athens I went to Janina where Brother Greaves and his wife have been at work. I was glad to reach this place safely, as this country is well known to be a lurking place of robbers and murderers. It is safest to travel after an attack has been made, for the way is clearer then and soldiers patrol the roads. Not only the private cars but the official ones too, are always in danger.
From Janina, Brother Greaves and I
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went to Vostina. There we visited a family who had accepted the truth some years ago without a preacher, merely by reading the Bible and some tracts which had come to their hands. It did my heart good to hear of the experience through which they had to pass. In spite of much mockery and persecution, they have held fast to the truth. On Sabbath afternoon, Brother Greaves baptized his second daughter.
Brother Greaves has changed his headquarters to Patras, in the country of Achaia, which is mentioned in Rom. 15: 26. May his entrance there be a blessing to the people.
Since my return to Constantinople, new doors have been opened through the canvassing work of Brother Savvas. He is working on the line from Salonika to Uskiib, which is a great center of revolution. In Istomnicha, about fifteen men are deeply interested in the truth, and are waiting to join God’s people.
While Brother Scior was staying there and holding meetings, the local authorities became suspicious and the fanatical people were excited, so that they urged him to leave the place. He will try to work in the vicinity of Istomnicha, to take care of those who are interested, and
instruct them in the truth. We are glad to see that something is going on in Macedonia. It is not easy to control the people there, as for many years it has been constantly in turmoil. The surrounding Powers have sometimes hard work to manage this district. But we are sure that the Lord has honest souls in it, who will accept the message before the Lord comes.
All the workers of the Levant Union need the prayers of Christian people. The present state of political affairs in the country is uncertain, and the future of Turkey looks very dark.
As Turkey will have to surrender Tripoli to the Christians, the newspapers say that again a great massacre may happen in the near future. Our comfort stands in Ps. 27: 1-6.
E. Franchiger.
* *
The Morpion Menace
“Mormonism seeks to invade every part of the world. Its adherents have been compelled to leave Mexico and abandon large tracts of fine agricultural land valued at several millions of dollars. This will not deter them, however, from spreading to other sections. Germany is becoming alarmed. Several Mormon missionaries were recently driven from Bavaria, but despite this hostility it is said that in Berlin the propaganda of Mormonism is making headway. England also has been aroused against the campaign for Mormonism, and in London and its suburban districts an organized movement is on foot to counteract
A Group of Workers in the Levant Union
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its nefarious influence, which is felt chiefly among the servant class, the girls being easily impressed by glowing descriptions of life in Utah. Very expensive films for a series of moving pictures to illustrate the history of the Mormon church are being prepared under the authority of the ecclesiastical officials. These will be used in connection with a world-wide movement to secure followers of Brigham Young.,,
So reports the N. Y. Christian Advocate. It is stated that the revenue derived by the Mormon Church from the tithing system amounts to over $20,000,000 a year.
* *
Panama, Its People, The Canal — III
In Panama, what does it mean?
This shriek of whistle, 'rush of steam, Rumble of wheel and plunge of dredge, Scoop of dipper and pound of sledge, Shout of driver, rumble and roar Of a thousand machines, and a thousand more;
Smoke of powder and dirt high thrown, The powerful dynamite’s muffled moan As it severs the centuries-old earth rock In millions of pieces, at tick of clock; Mountains of spoil and whirl of train As it loads and unloads again, and again—
Not pandemonium this, at all,
But response to the twentieth century call; And co-ordination of man and machine As they seek to accomplish the mighty scheme
Of dividing the land and uniting the ocean That commerce and war may make livelier motion.
The inhabitants of Panama might almost be represented by an immense interrogation point. What does it mean? is the question put to every industrial enterprise because, for centuries, every attempt at national development has been
characterized by noise, and smoke, and — nothing more.
Europe early sent out the Spaniards to explore the country, but to the Indians it meant invasion ; Africans were brought here to develop its resources, but to the Spaniards (through miscegenation) this brought annihilation; the coming of the French was to have been an evolution to Panama; but the evolution was backward; and thus far, the efifort of the Americans is interpreted to mean “a mint of money and a nasty smoke to kill a few innocent mosquitoes.”
But we are more sanguine and believe, as Count de Lesseps did, that “The canal will be made.” We hear in these discordant shrieks and roars the sweetest symphonies of progress. Behind the dark and trembling columns of smoke we see the outlines of that mighty furrow that is cutting its way through swampy lowlands, verdant hills, and mountains dividing the great American continent, and making the waterway that is to revolutionize the trade routes of the world.
To one who sees the Panama canal in the making it is not difficult to tell something of its story; but the alertness of the press keeps the world in such living touch with every detail of progress, that it is difficult for us to know on what phase of the work on Uncle Sam’s “big ditch” the Watchman readers are uninformed.
However, though it is oft repeated, it is always good news to all that we are within a year of the completion of what is perhaps the greatest industrial enterprise ever undertaken by man. We might say truly, that the Panama canal is only the greatest of a series of such projects that have been completed within the past six decades. However, this is not true when we include in it the work of sanitation. The extermination of the
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dread mosquito that is more to be feared than war or pestilence, and the sanitation of the fever infested jungle, is something new, and will ever remain epic in history.
It is also contemplated with universal satisfaction, that when the Isthmian waterway is opened to public service there will be supplied to international ocean commerce a need that has existed for four hundred years. It is of exceptional interest to us, as Americans, that to us has come not only the privilege but the honor of finding that “western passage to the great sea beyond” that Columbus and his successors so diligently yet unsuccessfully, sought.
The problem of a trans-isthmian waterway has been of international concern for two centuries. The expanding industries of the United States have, for the past half-century, demanded deepwater communications between our eastern and western seaboards. In pursuit of such a project our government, in 1846, concluded a treaty with New Granada whereby she secured the right to construct a means of transit across the Isthmus. The analogous interests of England in her American possessions resulted in the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty that bound the contracting parties for sixty years, or, until it was superseded by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901; which treaty proved to be one of the most unhappy affairs relative to the digging of the canal. However, it gave us the exclusive right to build and maintain the canal.
The last half of the nineteenth century was celebrated for its activities in canal building. Both England and the United States had expended hundreds of millions of dollars in the industry. Each of these countries at that time operated more than two thousand miles of inland navigation. France, under the lead of
the daring Ferdinand de Lesseps had successfully completed the much needed Suez Canal in the years 1859-1869, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, thus making one hundred miles of waterway twenty-five feet deep at a cost of $100,000,000. Our Erie, Welland, and Sault Ste Marie, canals were all in operation earlier than the Suez. England’s great Manchester Ship Canal, thirty-five miles long by fifteen feet deep, built at a cost of $75,000,000 was not finished until 1894. The Cronstadt and St. Petersburg Canal, sixteen miles long, twenty feet deep, costing $10,000,000 was finished in 1890; Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm canal, sixty-one miles long, twenty-nine feet deep, costing $40,000,000 was opened for traffic in 1895. Even down in little old classical Greece there was a stir in the canal activities and the Corinth canal, four miles long, twenty-six feet deep was built at a cost of $5,000,000 in
1893-
In 1881 we find the French in Panama. Although the world was indebted to the skill of de Lesseps for the success of the Suez enterprise, still the skill and genius of the old Count or the gold of the French peasants was no match in the fight put up by Panama’s anopheles and stegomyias, thirty years ago.
The French lost far more in Panama than they had gained in Suez. A knowledge of that failure would arouse the sympathy of a Jew. Under such a regime and with such an environment the first Napoleon with his grand army could have done no better. If these jungle gods could have enticed the little Corsican warrior to invade Panama, he would have left more veterans in these swamps than he left on the frozen plains of Russia in 1812.
Elated by the success at home and abroad, without doubt the French came to Panama overconfident of their own
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efficiency. They had built their own Midi Canal from Toulouse to the Mediterranean, a distance of 150 miles, in which an altitude of 600 feet is skilfully reached by a series of more than one hundred locks. Then, they won the admiration of the world by their success at Suez. They were proud, but their pride was to have a fall. The jolly old Count had passed his three score and ten, and had become neglectful of the ad-, ministration of his forces, and the management of his finances beggars all description. Drinking, gambling and immorality were unbridled, while corruption, extravagance and graft existed beyond all belief. These together with the mosquito problem, branded with failure the French Canal scheme ere it was fairly begun.
After the French failed, the feasibility of our government’s undertaking to complete the canal was again debated. President McKinley appointed a commission to investigate, both the Panama and Nicaragua routes. Just at this stage of the deliberations an incident occurred that raised the canal sentiment to fever heat throughout the country. It was during the Spanish-American War that one of our mightiest fighting adjuncts was on our western water front. While the whole nation breathlessly watched the Oregon do that thirteen thousand miles around the Horn to join the Atlantic squadron that was mobilized in the Car-ribean Sea, Congress easily concluded that our nation was rich enough to have a canal at any cost, that would reduce the distance by 8,500 miles from San Francisco to Santiago de Cuba. Yankee engineers quickly decided that the Panama route was the best; Congress offered the French $40,000,000 to leave the Isthmus and give us the right of way, which offer was gladly accepted.
Many criticize our government for giv-
ing forty million for “a pile of worthless junk.” But when we consider the French franchise, their surveys, and the experience that was thrown in with the deal, it may well be considered the best bargain that Uncle Sam ever transacted.
Three days after the Colombian senate had rejected the conditions of the Hay-Herran Treaty of 1903, there was a little flurry in the streets of Colon that was reported in the newspapers as “Panama in revolution.” The United States immediately recognized the new republic of Panama, and Colombia had forever lost her golden opportunity. In the autumn of the same year the Hay-Bunua-Yarilla Treaty was negotiated, and ratified by the two governments early in 1904. In this treaty Panama granted in perpetuity the Zone of the Canal to the United States, and in turn as a financial compensation, our government paid the Panamanian government $10,000,000, and after a period of nine years is to pay an annual subsidy of $250,000.
This treaty secured to the United States the right to build and control the canal, and President Roosevelt recommended that it be constructed in the shortest possible time.
Soon a corps of engineers were on the ground, and an organized force of men at work. The years from 1904 to 1908 were principally devoted to sanitary work, and the past five have been marked by phenomenal success in canal digging. To give the reader some idea of the magnitude of the work done, we shall give a few figures.
To complete the canal it was necessary to remove the enormous amount of 241,-211,379 cubic yards of earth. Of this amount the French had excavated 29,-908,000 cubic yards, and the Americans up to August, 1912, had taken out 178,-344,405 cubic yards. There remains of
(Continued on p. 768.)
Observations in England
G. H. Heald, M. D.
HAMPTON COURT
EAVING London by the Waterloo station of the Southwestern Railway we were brought, after a ride of perhaps fifteen miles through level farm lands and past thriving villages, to the town of Hampton on the Thames. Crossing the pretty bridge we came to a roadway having on the right the Hampton Court estate and on the left shops and dwellings of the village. After a short walk we entered the gate to the right and had a view down the long walk to the west front of the old palace. To our left were the long low buildings known as the barracks.
As we walked toward the old pile we noticed that it is built in the Tudor or late Gothic style, and that considerable pains has been devoted to its ornamentation. A closer view disclosed a peculiar richness and a great variety in the style of ornamentation. Take for instance the chimneys. Though there is a harmony of plan, I did not see two chimneys that were treated exactly alike. As the
leaves of the oak are all alike and yet all different, so these chimney tops.
In the wall at different places we saw excellent portrait-heads of the Roman emperors. Two are shown on the towers on either side of the main entrance. Within we found a series of courts, one containing a fountain. Over the gate of one of the interior courts, Anne Bol-
Hampton Court Palace. The Great Gate House
(eyn’s Court, if I remember, we saw a curious old astronomical clock, which for many years was out of order, but within recent years has been set running again. Over the Tudor arch of this doorway, as over the other doorways, may be seen a coat of arms and on either tower the head of a Roman emperor in bas-relief.
Visitors are permitted to go through the long series of state apartments formerly occupied by some of the British sovereigns. In some of these rooms, part of the royal furniture still remains. The walls still hang with almost numberless old paintings; but from time to time i the best have been taken away to other galleries; and one who goes to Hampton Court to see the pictures may be disap-
(765)
Hampton Court Palace, Main Entrance
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THE WATCHMAN
pointed, though there still remain many famous canvases.
But if the interior, as com-pared with Windsor, may suggest neglect, the gardens and parks are kept in the finest condition. Just south of the building is a glass house containing a grape-vine planted before the beginning of our revolutionary war. It is about as large at the base as one’s body, and is in a fine state of preservation, and bears, it is said, half a ton of grapes of the black Hamburg variety, every year.
Those who come to the palace from the north enter by the Lion’s Gate shown in the picture. A short way within this gate is the famous “image” built by William III, in which several hundred persons every week at the expense of a penny each try their skill — or their good luck — at reaching the center.
Hampton Court, one of the finest specimens of Tudor architecture in existence, dates from the time of Henry VIII. In 1515 Cardinal Wolsey received a ninety-nine year lease of the es-
tate and erected this building, the splendor of which awakened the jealousy of the king. And as kings in those days did about as they pleased with the lands and estates of their subjects the cardinal thought it prudent to present Hampton Court to the sovereign, who made it his favorite residence and made several additions to the building. There were originally five great quadrangles or courts, but only two of these now remain, a third having been added by *the architect Wren, for William III.
The immense gardens now containing some forty-four acres reaching down to, and commanding a fine view of the Thames, were, in accordance with the wishes of this same king, laid out in Dutch style.
In 1641 Parliament sold the palace which afterward became the property of Oliver Cromwell. After the Restoration it was a royal residence until the time of George II.
In this palace, Edward VI was born, and here James I held the conference to settle disputes between the Anglicans and the Presbyterians. At the present time the palace is a kind of “home” where persons of high rank but in reduced financial condition, are cared for by the benevolence of the king; but the state apartments and the picture galleries are kept open to visitors.
* *
“To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” “Behold now is the day of salvation.”
* *
“During the year ending June 30, 1912,” observes The Independent, “you drank twenty-two gallons of beer and one arid one-half gallons of whiskey and smoked 125 cigarettes. Or, if you didn’t, somebody else got your share. Never mind. Let him have it.”
Hampton Court Palace. West.Front.
Hampton Court Palace. The Clock Tower
THE watchman
767
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Presbyterians of the Southern Presbyterian Church, according to statements made in religious journals, are still disturbed over the matter of “elect infants/’ and have decided to amend the paragraph in their confession of faith, which begins: '-Elect infants dying in infancy/’ etc., so that it will read, “Being elect, infants dying in infancy/' etc. We hope this will be made retroactive, so as to cover all past cases of this kind, as well as present and future ones.
* * *
Four attempts, three of them successful, have been made to assassinate presidents of the United States, and in each instance when we take up the trail of the assassin we find it leading to the Church of Rome. The conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln and Seward was hatched at the home of Mrs. Surratt, a Catholic, who was found guilty of complicity in the crime and was executed. Guiteau, the murderer of Garfield, was a French Catholic; Czolgosz, the assassin of McKinley, was a Polish Catholic; and Schrank, who fired the bullet which was in Ex-President Roosevelt's body while he was making his last political speech, has a rosary which he counts among his most treasured possessions. Nine-tenths of the anarchists and assassins which Europe has dumped upon our shores are from countries where the Church of Rome has for centuries held undisputed religious sway.
Why Has the Turk Remained in Europe?
(Continued from p. 720.)
protecting hands over the assassians at Bosphorus and mobs at Constantinople, whose hands are red with Christian blood, have been cheering outside the British Minister’s house in Stamboul.
Once more the opportunity to see justice done is placed before the people of England, once more we have a chance of following Gladstone’s advice, but even now we know what will happen. In diplomacy there is no feeling, sympathies do not count, and diplomats representing countries, all jealous of each other, assert that the status quo must be maintained and no matter what happens in this way, the Turks will be permitted to remain on European soil.
England is afraid of Germany, and because of this fact English statesmen refuse to listen to the spirits of thousands of murdered women and children crying for vengeance, and forget that the same Turkey that now looks to Great Britain for protection and support for centuries has outraged every decency that a white man holds sacred. English statesmen will vote in favor of keeping the assassin among us in Europe, but I want to make my American readers understand that what English diplomats do is not in accord with the feelings of the English people, who are permitted to have no say in the matter.
It is a strange situation, and one which as nothing else, is drawing the attention of the civilized world. The true explanation of it, can be found only in the fact which inspired prophecy places before us, that the winds of war and commotion are being held by the angels of God in order that the final work of the everlasting gospel may be accomplished. See Rev. 7: 1-3. The Turk is the “king of the north" of Dan. 11: 40-45, who is to “plant the tabernacles of his palace" (establish his capital) “between the seas in the glorious holy mountain" (Jerusalem, between the Dead and Mediterranean Seas), and then “come to his end." “And at that time shall Michael
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THE WATCHMAN
[the archangel, Christ] stand up; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was.” Chap. 12, verse 1.
The expulsion of the Turk from Europe is to be quickly followed by the “standing up” of Michael, which means the taking of his kingdom by Christ; and this means that his work as high priest,— as mediator between God and sinners — will then be ended. The Turk will not come to his end until the world is ready for the awful scenes which are to follow; and the world will not be ready until the gospel message of warning shall have gone to the ends of the earth, and gathered under its standard such as are to be saved in the day of wrath. This is why the Turk has so long remained in Europe. But the day of his departure can not now be long delayed.
Panama, Its People, The Canal
(Continued from p. 764.) the grand total only 33,832,595 cubic yards to be removed.
By way of comparison, we give the following: The present force of 40,000 laborers employed by the Isthmian Canal Commission could erect more than a dozen of Egypt’s greatest pyramids annually; this force could dig the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in two years; or the Suez in one; or the Manchester Ship Canal in less than seven months.
For brevity we will accompany an imaginary ship through the canal. On the Atlantic side, a ship after passing the great breakwater of two and a quarter miles in length, enters the canal in Liman Bay and sails for seven miles to the Gatun Locks, where is is raised eighty-five feet, by a series of three lifts, to the level of Gatun Lake, a body of fresh water 165 square miles in area, where
Uncle Sam might easily accommodate his whole navy, or where the world’s greatest Titanics might steam thirty-three miles at full speed. Nine miles of this, however, is through the great Culebra Cut, or from Gamboa where the Cliagres River enters the lake to Pedro Miguel, where the ship is lowered twenty-seven feet, through a single lock, to a small lake, over which the ship passes a mile and a half to Mira Flores where it is lowered through two locks to sea level; then it sails seven miles to the Pacific.
Has this great canal that will cost more than $400,000,000 any religious significance?	B. E. Connerly.
Taoism
(Continued from p. 751.)
age and servitude the Chinese are held through the teachings of their systems of religion. Their priests are spirit mediums, controlling the powers of darkness, which they can restrain or let loose at will. Probably no people on earth lias ever been under such servile bondage to the fear and dread of evil spirits as the Chinese. But the day is dawning in China, and a new era has begun. What the people need is teachers of the Word of God, who shall be able to show them the true way to attain immortality and eternal life. The eyes of China are turned toward the West for enlightenment. Every door in this great republic is now open, and the Christian teacher and minister of the Word of God has free access to the people in nearly every community. What China needs, and must have, is this Word illustrated by the lives of consecrated missionaries, and taught from the pulpit and in schools, that heathen darkness and superstition may be supplanted by the enlightenment and uplift and hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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This world presents a strange spectacle. Peace is talked of on every side, yet war is in the very air. Society is in a strange turmoil. Labor is dissatisfied. Capital is insatiate. The political world is undergoing a dynamic change.
The recent presidential election presented many new and interesting features. Never before in the history of representative government has the influence of America’s greatest enemy been courted. We believe the growing church power will set itself more assiduously to the task of undermining America’s greatest bulwark : the principle of entire separation of church and state.
The WATCHMAN sounds the battle cry, and is endeavoring to point the people to the Word, the source of all true light. If you desire a magazine that is earnestly striving for Truth and to point out the error and dangers of these perilous times, we shall be glad to receive one dollar for your subscription for one year. We are sure you will enjoy the unique cover designs appearing on each issue as well as the high class of literature it contains. Drop us a card asking for a complimentary copy. It costs you nothing, you will not be under any obligation. Send to-day to the WATCHMAN, 2123 Twenty-fourth Ave. N., Nashville, Tenn. One dollar a year. Ten cents per copy.
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Rome and the Prohibition Party Platform. Establishing God’s Kingdom by Law.
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T5he Contents
A New Phase of Spiritualism takes up the announcement or Miss Stead that she has had a communication from her dead father, who was lost with the wreck of the Titanic. She makes some very startling statements, and the editor in writing the article, draws some very contrasting statements on the authority of the Word of God. This article should be given a wide circulation.
The Heaven-Opposing Powers of Earth is another article in the series being presented in the magazine from a well-known writer, Mr. Charles L. Taylor. Although embracing history nearly three thousand years old, some Important applications are drawn bearing directly upon momentous questions of the present day.
The Second Coming of Jesus, by George W. Rine Is given continued prominence in the magazine. This is a very important series of articles, and we can recommend them to our readers.
The Government and the Trusts, an article showing how ineffectual the famous lawsuit of the government dissolving the Standard Oil Company has turned out to be. Since this gigantic trust has been dissolved by the United States government, it has increased in value about five times. Not much of a dissolution! You will want to read the whole article and the prophetic application that is made at the close.
Mrs. E. G. White contributes an article on the times of William Miller. It explains the work of this great man so much misunderstood by the people of to-day.
The Freedom of the Will. An illustrated article which shows the real trend of religious laws, or laws uniting church and state, or any measures that tend toward religious persecution.
Increase of Metals as a sign of the times by Frank S. Weston. It is something new and will be of considerable interest to a large number of our readers on account of its statistics.
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