At a recent meeting in England of the Evan-
gelical Alliance, he said :—
“When I watch the trend of things and be-
come personally conversant with the operations
of the churches, my greatest anxiety lies with
the so-called Christian lands. I see a slack-
ening in Great Britain and America in respect
to the claim for religious liberty. In diplo-
matic relations between Protestant and Cath-
olic countries, it is the Protestant who is at a
discount. The Roman Catholic asks for all
and gives nothing. When I see the incursions
of Rome everywhere, especially on the frontier
line where 1 am working, I feel that there
never was an hour when Protestantism ought
to be more alert, vigilant, positive, and decided.
The time has come when Protestant nations
must demand of Roman Catholic nations the
same religious privilege and liberty that they
enjoy under Protestant rule. I call on this Al-
liance to request of the British government that
they make it a policy of their diplomatic re-
lations to demand of Roman Catholic govern-
ments the same religious freedom that the
members of their swn community enjoy under
the British flag.”
For some years a part of the message borne
by Seventh-day Adventists has been that the
large cities have become unfit and unsafe places
of residence, especially for parents with chil-
dren. The timeliness of this message has
since been shown in many ways, and just now
is being emphasized by conditions which pre-
vail in the nation’s metropolis. A carnival of
crime is in progress, with which the police
force of the city seems wholly unable to cope.
A press correspondent in New York states: —
“The astonishing pass to which things have
come is instanced by the lack of notice ac-
corded to any but the most dramatic crimes.
Four days after a doctor was strangled to
death on a populous street, the matter had
been forgotten, and the depredations of the
Black Hand Society, to whose door at least
one murder a week has been laid for months,
only became worthy of notice when culmina-
ting in the blowing up of a tenement house
containing two hundred persons. Battle, mur-
der, and sudden death, seem to be sweeping
through the city like a pestilence. Man hunts
for assaulters of children are of daily occur-
rence in the suburbs, no less than four occur-
ring in one day on Staten Island. The past
week shows twenty-two murders, and murder-
ous assaults labeled as violent, exclusive of
accidents, approach close to the hundred mark.
On top of all this comes the startling revela-
tions of the workings of the Hunchakist, the
Armenian secret society, which brought about
the murder of a prominent Armenian million-
aire, because he refused to be black-mailed,
and since his death has in letters to others of
the same race in this city openly acknowledged
causing his murder and promised the same
fate to others unless they gave large sums of
money. Looting banks has become a joke.
Only this week robbers held up the teller of
a Broadway bank during the noon hour with
masks and guns, in true desperado style, for
the sum of $1,000. Respectable citizens are
THE WATCHMAN
planning to take matters into their own hands
and to defend themselves by meeting violence
with violence.”
It is little wonder that the judgments of God,
in the form of earthquakes and fire, are com-
ing upon the large cities.
THE recent victory of the Socialists in Rome
was marked by significant demonstrations on
the part of the victors. The spirit of the
revolution of 1848, when the cry, “ Down with
the king,” and “Down with the pope,” was
raised among the populace, gave evidence of
being still alive. The Rome correspondent of
the New orld (Catholic) says that “by some
ecclesiastics in propaganda, it was termed ‘the
most disastrous day to Catholic interests in
Rome since 1870.” ‘The Socialist ‘campaign
was anti-clerical, and the opposition of the
victors to both king and pope was manifested
in demonstrations amounting almost to riot.
In his description of events the New World's
Rome correspondent says :—
“In the popular processions that took place
in different parts of the city in honor of the
victory of the anti-clerical party, all kinds of
anti-clerical and anti-religious banners were
carried; one of the associations of university
students was followed by a large wagon, bear-
ing a great eagle in imitation bronze, which
crushed beneath its claws the papal tiara, be-
sides which several cartoons most insulting
to the holy father were carried as well.”
And describing the celebration of the cen-
tenary of Garibaldi’s birth, which came almost
on the same day, he adds: —
“The pope and king, priests and officers,
were alike hissed and shouted at, despite the
fact that the government had voted a million
of money for the Garibaldian celebrations. A
guard of soldiers were drawn up in double file
around St. Peter’s and the Vatican palace,
where the holy father in the silence of his re-
treat heeded little the noisy festivities going
on without. Unfortunately the great bronze
statue of Garibaldi, on the crest of the Gian-
icolo Hill, faces directly the sovereign pontiff’s
apartments, and here it was on the night of
the 4th that a turbulent, shouting crowd, which
termed itself a procession, made its way. Just
as the opal tints of a beautiful summer sunset
deepened into night, and the stars, clear, trem-
ulous specks of light, appeared against the
darkening sky, a lurid red light flamed upon
the Gianicolo Hill, in the midst of which arose
the dark figures of Garibaldi and his horse.
Shouts and frantic speeches and the blare of
three or four bands spoiled the quietness of
the evening, while in all parts of the city shone
the illuminations.”
Speaking of the revolution of 1848 Horace
Greely, editor of the New York Tribune, said:
“It was a great wonder to us all what started
that sudden commotion among the nations, but
it is a greater still what stopped it.” For the
revolution subsided as suddenly and mysteri-
ously as it had begun. An understanding of
Bible prophecy throws light on the situation,
and reveals the fact that the restraining power
of God represented by four angels holding the
winds on the four corners of the earth (Rev.
523
7:1, 2), is soon to be withdrawn, when the
spirit which began the overturning in 1348 wiil
reappear, and swgep everything before it.
Many signs are already to be noted of this
final blowing of the winds of strife.
RECENT cable dispatches from Berlin speak
of certain religious demonstrations at Cassel,
Germany, which are creating a great stir among
the people in that vicinity. The
states :(—
report
“An epidemic of religious frenzy which be-
gan some time ago at Cassel is now rapidly
spreading through the surrounding country.
It started with a series of revival services, at
which two Swedish women who are credited
with unusual spiritual endowments played a
leading part. The meetings steadily increased
in fervor, and at present the scenes are al-
most indescribable.
“Every evening members of the congrega-
tion start suddenly to their feet, and, flinging
themselves about with extravagant gestures,
stammer inarticulatory utterances, which are
rapturously hailed as inspired messages.
Shrieks, groans, and wild confessions of sin
arise, while some say that they have visions
of heaven and hell.
“Men and women are seen on every side
rolling on the floor in imaginary wrestlings
with the evil one. Some fall unconscious,
exhausted by their struggles. Others, think-
ing they have prevailed over sin, jump up and
seizing one of their fellows who is in a sim-
ilar condition of ecstasy, rapturously embrace
him or swing him off in a wild dance of tri-
umph. Women tear off their hats and men
their cuffs and collars to symbolize their re-
jection of the vanities of the world.
“The bedlam scenes which take place at
night, attracted at the outset thousands of peas-
ants from the surrounding country to Cassel,
but the frenzy has now seized the rural dis-
tricts, where similar assemblies are going on.”
Similar demonstrations have been seen at
different times and places in the United States.
The question arises as to whether such dem-
onstrations are a genuine manifestation of
the Spirit of God, or only a sham and a coun-
terfeit. In the time of the apostles, the mul-
titude were deceived by Simon the sorcerer,
thinking that the things he did represented
“the great power of God” Acts 8:9, 10.
Through Simon, the devil sought to counter-
feit the work of the apostles. He is no less
anxious to-day to counterfeit the true work of
the Holy Spirit. Whether the demonstrations
here described are from God or from another
source is a question no one need answer arbi-
trarily, for if they are from God, the fact may
be known by the presence of the fruits of the
Spirit, as stated in Gal. 5:22, 23. If they are
the work of the Spirit of God they must ex-
hibit meekness and temperance; also an ab-
sence of any unseemly behavior. 1 Cor. 13:5.
The world is soon to see startling manifesta-
tions of the power of God unto salvation,
through the outpouring of the Spirit in the
“latter rain.” It is very important that we
should be able to distingtrish between the true
and the false.