VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER.
SELFISHNESS RULES BOTH SIDES.
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WE hear much about the selfishness and tyranny of capital, and how it at times is unjust, unless restrained by law. We even hear claims made that the laws favor the rich. We could expect nothing else under the present course of this world, under the law of selfishness. We have often wondered that our laws are so just, so equitable toward all classes as they are.
But while longing for the reign of love, let us not look for it in any other than the one direction: let us not look to man, but to God, and wait and pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Some are inclined to look for the reign of equity and love under Socialism. They are sadly deceived. The poor, if they had the power, would be no more equitable than the rich, no more generous, no more loving or gentle. As an illustration, take the following account of the operation of Socialism in Australia, where it has achieved great influence, but is not yet in absolute control of the government, courts, etc. Judged by its fruits there, it would be a long time in bringing "peace on earth, good will to men." We quote:--
The Philadelphia Public Ledger publishes some correspondence from Sydney that throws additional light on the Australian labor situation, as reviewed the other day in the editorial columns of The Journal. The article says that New South Wales appears destined to lose much of its shipping trade because of the exactions of labor unions. A case in point is cited.
The American ship Andromeda arrived at Fort Jackson loaded with lumber. The vessel had a union crew and proceeded to discharge its cargo, when the captain was informed he must employ only members of the Sydney Wharf Laborers' union, and that his donkey engine must also be run by members of the Sydney Donkey Enginemen's union. The captain, finding it impossible to unload otherwise, finally consented to employing the Sydney laborers, although his own sailors were union men and were being paid to do the work. However, he refused to employ the Sydney donkeymen, and the result was that he was taken into court and fined in all $350, the money to go to the members of the Sydney Wharf Laborers' union.
WHAT THE U.S. COMMISSIONER OF LABOR THINKS.
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Speaking recently before the Society of Ethical Culture, Col. Carroll D. Wright said:--
"The wages system will pass away. In its stead, I believe, there will come a system which will be composed of the profit-sharing and the co-operation ideas. The great labor question means the struggle of humanity for a higher standard of life. The employer must consider [R3320 : page 51] his employe, as well as the stockholder, as an investor."
Of scarcely less interest than his prediction of a new labor system was Col. Wright's approval of a plan to insure labor against incapacity resulting from accident, illness or advancing age. The German idea was quoted, under which the employer pays one-fourth the cost of a sick and death benefit policy, the employe one-fourth and the government one-half. "England," said Col. Wright, "has taken up this question, and we of the United States are steadily approaching it."
Continuing, Col. Wright said: "Capital charges to the consumer the depreciation of property and machinery. Why should not the depreciation of labor's machinery, its hands, its brains, its body, be included in the final cost? We see in every progressive community that the demand of the workingman is no longer for a wage sufficient to enable him to keep body and soul together.
"Labor has been taught to feel that it is a social as well as an economic power in the community, and this educating process has gone on until the demand of labor is for a reasonable margin beyond that fixed by the iron law of wages.
"The wages system will pass away. It has, as has been shown, unsatisfactory conditions in many of its applications. It depends too largely for its equities upon the generosity and greatmindedness of employers. That there are many such who would scorn to influence the votes or actions of their employes and who would be incapable of taking petty advantage of their workmen is happily true. That there are others that will make use of these opportunities proves the weakness of the system and argues for a greater measure of independence for those who labor.
"The system that will take the place of that under which mere wages are paid probably will be composed of the profit-sharing and co-operation plans. The work [R3320 : page 52] people will then acquire the interest of investors, the more capable will rise to their opportunities and the less worthy will find their level."
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The Commissioner is a fore-seer. He reasons out from observation what God's people know from the Scriptures. We see, however, what Col. Wright does not see, viz.: that the change of program is not coming about peacefully, but by a great time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation, which will introduce the Golden Rule of Immanuel's Kingdom.
FIND A HELL AND PREACH IT.
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We clip the following from a daily:--
"We must find a hell and preach it," declared Rev. Dr. Burt, of Nottingham, presiding at the monthly meeting of Methodist ministers at the Y.M.C.A. building Monday morning.
"I was never reminded of this so strongly as this morning," he said, "when I read of the devilishness of a man who could calmly write to a friend of his intentions, then go home, greet his wife lovingly, rise up in the night, murder her, murder his three children, lie down beside his wife's body and kill himself.
"Such a man ought to be damned; he must be damned. If such a murderer's punishment is not swift and awful there is no just God. It would be a good text for all of us--to preach of this terrible crime and the justice of God."
Dr. Burt's remarks came in a discussion of a paper on revivals, read by Rev. Dr. Warner and discussed by Revs. Mitchell, Moore, Cory and others. The paper regretted the tendency to preach less of an actual hell than of subjects more pleasing to the congregations. Dr. Warner believed churchgoers thought more of good worldly appearance than of salvation and said many a church was dying for need of a spiritual revival.
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Poor blind guide! The abundance of his ignorance betrayeth him. He wants a man damned and tortured who already is suffering from the damnation, curse or sentence pronounced upon father Adam! Does this "Doctor" of Divinity not know what ails our poor race? Does he not know that "By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world and death as a result of sin,--and thus death has passed upon all men"? Does he not know that this murderer's ailment is that he was mentally, morally and physically more than nine-tenths dead when he committed the crime,--else he would not have committed it?
What the man needed was a release from the curse he was under. He needed to have the Good Physician take him in charge mentally, physically and morally. He needed the very thorough, drastic treatment which the Lord tells us he proposes to give during the Millennium to all of our race who do not in the present age hear his voice and voluntarily enter his school.
Had this Doctor of Divinity and others done their duty, this poor man might have been released from some measure of his malady. They should have informed him respecting the teachings of God's Word. Those who look to them for bread should not be given stones! The unscriptural traditions of the dark ages respecting eternal torment are no longer believed by the people any more than by the clergy. Consequently, those lacking in moral stamina or in intellectual balance no longer have anything to restrain them. Such conclude that--as "orthodoxy" includes them when computing the Christians of the world, and teaches that all Christians are bound for bliss the next moment after death--they will exercise faith in God and go sooner than some of their neighbors.
Who is to blame for these misconceptions? We answer, The Doctors of Divinity, who promulgate such false teachings. How differently this poor man would have felt on the subject of death had he been Scripturally taught, that death is the extinction of life, that life itself is most precious, and that in proportion as it is wisely used in harmony with the divine regulations; that an eternity of life and joy unspeakable has been made possible for all through the great sacrifice at Calvary; that it is attainable only through the acceptance of the Savior and obedience to his instructions. Who can say that the truth, thus presented to this weak mind might not have sobered it and steadied it; or, as the Apostle expresses the matter, it might have given this man the spirit of a sound mind.
This poor murderer and suicide was merely deliriously intoxicated with false doctrine, and we have no suspicion that the Great Judge will feel toward him as Dr. Burt expressed himself. The case is analogous to that of the saloon-keeper who kicked out the poor drunkard after he had taken his money for the vile stuff that robbed him of his senses. In our opinion the Great Judge will most severely arraign those who for the sake of money and popularity have dealt out the intoxicating errors. (Rev. 18:3.) He will have greater compassion upon their dupes, we are sure. "Ye know not what spirit ye are of: the Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives but to save them." (Luke 9:55,56.) Thank God for the coming Kingdom and its righteous judgments and assistances to all who are now blinded by the god of this world. (2 Cor. 4:4.) "Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth, even as it is done in heaven."
"CAN THE ETHIOPIAN CHANGE HIS SKIN?"
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We answer, No. But all will admit that what the Ethiopian cannot do for himself God could readily do for him. The difference between the races of men and the differences between their languages have long been arguments against the solidarity of the human family. The doctrine of restitution has also raised the question, How could all men be brought to perfection and which color of skin was the original? The answer is now provided. [R3320 : page 53] God can change the Ethiopian's skin in his own due time.
Prof. H. A. Edwards, Supt. of Schools in Slater, Mo., has written for the public press an elaborate description of how Julius Jackson, of New Frankfort, Mo., a negro boy of nine years, began to grow white in September, 1901, and is now fully nine-tenths white. He assures us that this is no whitish skin disease; but that the new white skin is as healthy as that of any white boy, and that the changed boy has never been sick and never has taken medicines. Realizing that his story would be doubted, he interested Dr. F. A. Howard, chief division surgeon of the Chicago and Alton Ry., who corroborates the statement in the following published extract from a letter:
"I am obliged to you for an opportunity of seeing and examining the negro child, Julius Jackson.
"I found his heart action, respiration and temperature perfectly normal and his mental faculties seem acute for one of his age.
"The white skin now covering at least 90 per cent. of his body is, so far as I am able to judge, in full possession of all its organs and those organs seem to be performing their natural functions--no roughness, chalky, or ashen appearance is present.
"It seems to me that the conditions warrant your opinion--the change is certainly caused by chemical conditions of the blood. Very truly,
"F. A. HOWARD."
NEW ENGLISH LAW PLEASES CATHOLICS.
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The common schools of England are under religious control, and henceforth the dominant sect in each district will largely have control. Referring to this an exchange notes the following:--
"The Pope received an English pilgrimage, which, with the British residents of Rome, including the Duchess of Newcastle, numbered over three hundred persons.
"They were introduced by the Most Rev. Francis Bourne, archbishop of Westminster, and presented an offering of "Peter's Pence," besides an address containing [R3321 : page 53] the following passage:
"'Next year a great measure in support of the freedom of religious teaching in education comes into force in England, Catholic children and teachers being gradually put on an equality with the most favored children and teachers of the nation. Your Holiness will welcome for us such a great act of justice, since it shows that among the English the last shadow of bigotry is dying out.'
"The Pope thanked and encouraged the pilgrims for their faith and loyalty to Rome and imparted the apostolic benediction."
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