VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER.
A BUSINESS MAN'S VIEW
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HOW a well-informed business man views the present situation may be of interest as showing that with all the prosperity of business men in recent years, and all their hurry and greed for dollars, they do see some things which touch their own interests.
The following is an extract from the address of Mr. D. M. Parry, before the National Manufacturers' Association, at its recent session in Atlanta, Georgia. He sees a nearer enemy than "the Yellow Peril." He said in part, as reported in the public press:
"Before proceeding to a brief consideration of the labor question, I wish to make a few statements respecting the tendency towards Socialism, which, at this time, is being strongly manifested in many ways. The Socialist party last fall cast nearly a half million votes, a remarkable development in strength, and organized labor, composed of over two million employes arrayed in opposition to individualism, continues, according to reports of its officials, to increase its membership. The growth of an avowedly Socialistic party, with its present creed, is certainly a sinister fact to all loyal citizens who understand and appreciate the importance of individual liberty. But while the existence of these organizations is indicative of a serious defection from the individualistic principle by certain classes, yet I believe that a still graver portent of coming evil is to be seen in the Socialistic trend of the thought of the general public as reflected by the press, by public men, and by recent legislative enactments. This trend of thought is having a potent influence on the policies of both the leading political parties, and while the question of individualism and Socialism is not a political issue in the sense that it has caused a division of party lines, it is, nevertheless, a leading issue within the ranks of both parties.
"While the enlargement of the scope and power of government by the purchase and management of certain enterprises has found considerable support among the people, yet I believe the sentiment favorable to Socialistic measures involving the confiscation of profits and the limitation of private management of capital is the more widespread and dangerous. Without making special reference to the aim of the avowed Socialists to bring about the Millennium through undisguised confiscation, we have organized labor and its sympathizers supporting the idea that organizations of men may dictate to a large extent the management of enterprises which they do not own. Besides assuming to say how much wages the employer shall pay and how he shall manage his capital in other respects, the union also presumes to deny the right of the individual to the full control of his own labor, determining for him the rate of wages for which he shall work, the number of hours he shall employ himself and the maximum amount of daily output he shall produce. As eight-hour and anti-injunction legislation is designed to assist the unions in the accomplishment of these objects these measures fall under the classification of Socialistic attempts by confiscation. Still another illustration of this kind of Socialistic propositions, and one which does not proceed from organized labor, is the pending national legislation to have the government fix railroad rates.
"It was Macaulay who prophesied, in effect, that the masses of the American people would, in the course of several generations, use their right of suffrage to confiscate all wealth in the name of the State. This prophecy certainly places a low estimate on the moral perceptions of the common people and displays a woeful lack of faith in the ability of men in general to govern themselves. But while the prophecy is rightly to be regarded as absurd, yet there is no question that there are elements in our population that are attracted by the proposition of enriching themselves through the ballot box. It is said that men vote in accordance with their interests, and some men doubtless construe it to be for their interests to vote for confiscation. But I am confident that such men are in the small minority. I prefer to believe that the greater number of those who favor Socialistic measures do so from an honest conviction that these measures would be beneficial for the common weal. The tendency towards Socialism is certainly not to be attributed to a declining sense of public morality. Rather, I believe, is it to be traced to ignorance of the fundamental principles of true liberty and to demagogic leadership that for its own ends would stop short of nothing. Thousands of well-disposed men, who would not think of injuring the interests of their fellow-beings by their votes, have been led by these demagogues and false teachers into the belief that they are in some inscrutable manner being robbed by the rich, and they, therefore, are not to be morally censured for taking up with Socialistic propositions.
"Since the Socialistic tendency is to be attributed to ignorance rather than dishonesty on the part of many voters, the problem of protecting individualism resolves itself down to a problem of educating the voting masses. Many Americans, in reply to Macaulay's prophecy, will declare that its [R3618 : page 260] fulfilment is impossible because the people of this country are generally speaking, far more intelligent than the people of other countries, and that the democracy in the establishment of a great common-school system has amply provided for its own protection. But existing facts demonstrate that the common-school system is not a sufficient guarantee of the perpetuation of liberty. Because the law-abiding elements, busy with their own affairs, leave politics to others, who perhaps are not quite so busy, the government in many of our communities has become a protector of vice and a machine for graft, as well as being a policeman. And if these same law-abiding elements and busy men of affairs do not wish to see the government also blossom out into a paternalistic meddler in private business the sooner they devise methods whereby they can wield at least a part of their proper share of influence in public matters the better. What we need is less politics in business and more business in politics. It is sheer folly to leave the discussion of public questions to the demagogue and agitator alone.
"The most effective and permanent method of meeting the issue of Socialism is, I believe, that of educational propaganda. In order to establish such a propaganda it requires the organization of the substantial and law-abiding citizenship. [R3619 : page 260] With proper efforts and proper support, I have not the least doubt that the movement for the maintenance of individualism can be made so powerful as to be invincible. It is the solemn duty of true American citizens of this generation to do whatever lies in their power to down this specter of Socialism."
PEACE! PEACE! WHEN THERE IS NO PEACE
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Notwithstanding the world's fear of war and the general desire to introduce the Millennial peace before the time and before the proper conditions have been established, we opine that more wars are near at hand. Why? Because (1) the Scriptures seem to indicate that the anarchy which will crush our present civilization will be preceded by general wars. (2) Such wars seem inevitable as the forerunners of anarchy, because so long as the nations are powerful anarchy will have little chance of success. (3) The Scriptures assure us that there will be a general call to arms about this time, resulting in the weakening of the nations. (4) There seems not enough time intervening between now and 1915, and hence we expect present prosperity to continue in some measure for the next four years. (5) In order to have measurable financial prosperity for that time, war, somewhere, is almost a necessity--involving large expenditures of money for armies and navies, etc.
From this view-point we are on the lookout for everything likely to result in war. For instance, the rupture between Norway and Sweden, the German and French dispute respecting Morocco, and now the danger of an uprising of India against its British rulers. Let us remember that we are already entering the great "Day of Recompenses." (Ezekiel 7:7-26.) In this connection note the following cablegram from India, widely circulated in the public press:
Dread of another mutiny is being felt by all Europeans here. India is in a very serious state, and the authorities are making heroic endeavors to prevent the unrest and the mutinous spirit which, in spite of all their efforts, is spreading like an infection from Province to Province.
The cause of this condition is the war between Russia and Japan, for the supremacy of the yellow race has come as a revelation to the natives. That an Asiatic race has defied and even conquered a European race has made them think. The spirit of dissatisfaction and trouble in the air now is far more acute than it was two years before the mutiny.
What makes the situation more dangerous is the ability of the "Baboos" to spread their tidings of revolt to every end of the Indian Empire with rapidity and ease. The problem of how news traveled to the utmost ends of India in the days of the mutiny has only been partly solved. Since then Lord Ripon has dignified Indian native opinion, and the "Baboo" can make himself as easily heard as his master.
THE KING IS CONCERNED
Lord Kitchener's statement that the Indian army is practically worthless has been widely circulated among the ignorant natives. Lord Curzon's tyrannical methods have set every class against him personally, and the personality of a ruler has an effect in India which is incalculable. The potential possibilities of the situation have been brought directly to the attention of the King and it is known that he has had a number of consultations with prominent Anglo-Indians now in England on leave.
It is a fact that in Central India hundreds of Afghans are loafing and skulking alone or in couples. This is considered to be an ominous sign, for the Afghans do not wander so far south with any peaceful purpose in mind. If a holy war were to be preached, the Mohammedans would be as much the object of native fury nowadays as the Christians.
The situation has an ugly look, and there is a prayer on every one's lips that the cloud will not entail a storm.
THE YELLOW PERIL
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The papers of the world, especially those of Russia and France, are calling attention to the peril of the white race at the hands of the yellow. They call attention to the fact that since Japan's victories the Chinese government has put Japanese at the head of its military and naval schools, dismissing the Germans previously employed. China has now 700,000 well-armed and well-drilled soldiers, and by 1920 A.D. they claim they could have the numbers increased to 20,000,000 and could over-run Russia and all Europe. All the writers seem agreed that the combination of all Europe at once and fifteen years of preparation would scarcely suffice to prepare for such an onslaught. They claim that all the guns of Europe would be worn out killing these and leave plenty to still come on to the fray. Besides, the Japanese and Chinese can make as good guns and are doing so. It is claimed that within five years India and Russia may be conquered.
It may never come to this; but the fact that military critics are discussing it lends force to two Scriptures: (1) Our Lord's words to the effect that in this time "men's hearts would fail them for fear, looking forward to the things coming on the earth." (Luke 21:26). (2) Our Lord's words respecting the awful trouble approaching, that except for the elect's sake, except for the Kingdom of the elect and its establishment of peace, "there would no flesh be saved."-- Matt. 24:22.
When we remember that the Yellow Peril is only one of the many now impending, and a minor one, no [R3619 : page 261] wonder we are assured that "men's hearts shall fail from fear" and that all the tribes of earth shall mourn. The anarchy and confusion resulting from clashing selfishness in civilized lands will be doubtless quite enough to make the Kingdom of Christ "the desire of all nations."
A few short years remain wherein the reaping of the "wheat" is to be accomplished. Five years more will surely bring us to stirring times. Let us who are of the Day not sleep as do others; let us not like them dream of worldly wealth and ease and name and fame. Let us, as faithful soldiers of the cross, be so zealous that it will simply cost "hardship," so that we may be among those crowned lawfully. The joys of our Lord and the association in the Kingdom work will much more than compensate us for every sigh and tear and pain now endured.
A WORLDLY MAN'S OUTLOOK
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The Oregonian is one of the principal journals of the Pacific coast, and its editor, an Evolutionist, scoffs at our interpretations of the Bible. Nevertheless its view of near-at-hand troubles is very closely in agreement with what we have been pointing out from the Bible for the last thirty years, and very much in opposition to the Evolution theory that men are about to evolute into angels, as monkeys evoluted into men. Here is an editorial clipping from the Oregonian:
"We suppose our country is 'booked' for socialism. Greed of speculators is bringing it on. Exploitation of public utilities by our first families hurries it forward. Such incidents or operations as this one, under our own eyes, of capitalization of the streets of Portland for millions, in the interest of private individuals--the public expected to pay dividends on the usurpation--are making socialists by thousands, in every direction.
"It is the same with all this exploitation of the modern time. Operators everywhere are seizing their opportunity to "capitalize" the wants of the public, in ways to create great properties and to obtain great dividends. The people believe that the only check to these schemes of plutocracy lies in a socialistic movement, under which the productive forces--in particular those related to municipal functions-- may be transformed into socialized effort.
"The Oregonian has not been willing to see this change. But in the contest that is coming--forced by the greed of capitalism and of exploitation--it finds itself compelled to yield to new conditions. In the contest between greed and privilege on the one hand, and popular rights on the other, it will follow the demands of the people, because it belongs to the people. It must stand with them, rather than with those who contend for the fictions of privilege and of vested rights."
JUDGMENTS OF THAT DAY
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Russia's woes seem to be part of the judgment of the Lord upon an evil system, just such as we should expect at this time when the new King Immanuel is beginning the correction of earth's wrongs and the establishment of justice and judgment [rewards and penalties] in the earth. When the Lord's judgments shall be extended to include all nations and systems what a time of trouble there will be in the earth! But before that severity Churchianity must have her bitter portion and all the true "wheat" be garnered.
A NUT FOR EVOLUTIONISTS
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According to the Evolutionists it is only a comparatively short time since men were monkeys and irrational. We have already pointed out that the findings at Nippur contradict such a thought, and that the "Great Pyramid" showed an exactness and skill possessed four thousand years ago which was lost in the interim, since only with something like modern machinery could it have been constructed. In other words, that the world of long ago had really, in some respects, been in advance of everything known in A.D. 1800. This would agree with the Bible's testimony that man was created perfect--in the image of God--and fell from it into degradation. Where the teachings of Christ have been received they have served to check the downward course; but the great advancement of our day is the result of divine overruling, preparing in every way for the great reign of Christ--the Millennium.
Now in accord with all this note the following, remembering that Mr. F. Petrie is a man of science and one of the best informed in all the world respecting the [R3620 : page 261] Pyramid:
A two years' study at Gheezeh has convinced Mr. Flinders Petrie that the Egyptian stone-workers of 4,000 years ago had a surprising acquaintance with what have been considered modern tools. Among the many tools used by the pyramid-builders were both solid and tubular drills and straight and circular saws. The drills, like those of to-day, were, says an exchange, set with jewels (probably corundum, as the diamond was very scarce), and even lathe-tools had such cutting edges. So remarkable was the quality of the tubular drills and the skill of the workmen, that the cutting marks in hard granite give no indication of wear of the tool, while a cut of a tenth of an inch was made in the hardest rock at each revolution, and a hole through both the hardest and softest material was bored perfectly smooth and uniform throughout. Of the material and method of making the tools nothing is known.--Mechanical News.
MORE DARWINISM FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS
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Although Sunday School literature has for some time been gradually undermining faith in the Bible, supplanting it with the suggestions of "higher critics" and evolution theories, it seems that the progress of unbelief has not been sufficiently rapid to satisfy some. Prof. W. S. Jackman of the Chicago University advocates more pronounced teaching--emphasizing Nature and her laws and correspondingly ignoring the true God. In the Educational Review he says:--
"To thousands of people it were not more shocking to doubt the common axioms of morality than it is to question any part of the Biblical story of nature.... But out of patient and careful observation science has created a conception of the origin, the development and the destiny of nature, and of man's place in the great plan, that can not be linked with the primitive conception by even the maddest flight of poetic fancy.... The Darwinian theory, which certainly has more points in its favor regarding the history of life than any other, completely demolishes the old picture which was very firmly established in our minds in our early years through the teaching of the Sunday school....It is [R3620 : page 262] against this flinty wall of pious belief that Nature-study must hurl itself and upon which it must make some impression if it is to gain a foothold in the Sunday school as a means of moral and religious training. To introduce Nature-study into the Sunday school, that is, to make it a direct factor in moral and religious training, means to give the child an entirely different point of view from that received by those of us who learned its lessons a quarter of a century ago."
REV. R. HEBER NEWTON'S VIEWS ON SPIRITISM
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That Spiritism continues to make progress in deceiving those in high positions as well as in low, the following extract will show. What will the harvest of such teachings be? How soon will the seed ripen? A very few years will show terrible results.
Discussing psychical science in an address to-night before the American Institute for Scientific Research in the home of C. Griswold Bourne, the Rev. Dr. R. Heber Newton made the assertion that the spirits of the dead communicate with the living; that telepathy is a power possessed by many men and women, and that clairvoyance is an established scientific fact. Said he in part:
"Clairvoyance was nothing but a will o' the wisp, but it is now a confessed power of certain organizations.
"For the first time in the history of man these powers have been scientifically investigated in our day. Already the result is that a considerable number of eminent men of science have had the courage to avow that, after allowing for illusion, fraud and every possible hypothesis of interpretation, they have been driven up to the ultimate solution of the problem--the belief in the actual communication of the spirits of those whom we call dead with the living.
"Anyone who walks with his eyes open, ready to hear what men have to tell, will find stories pouring in upon him from men whom he cannot mistrust as liars, and whom he knows to be sane and sensible, which will stagger him. These experiences are not at all confined to the seance and the medium. Their most impressive forms occur in the privacy of the home without a professional medium present."
RUSSIA AS SUPERSTITIOUS AS JAPAN
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Rev. Dr. Robert S. Macarthur, in an address before the Baptist Young People's Conference, held in New York, said:--
"There is Russia--holy Russia, with its famous ikons and its worship of them. Everyone knows the story of the carload that was sent from St. Petersburg to defeat the Japanese. Has heathendom anything to offer worse than this? When I was in Russia I knew a noble lady. She went to one of the high priests of her faith and hired an ikon to cure her of a disease. She paid an enormous sum for it and it was drawn through the streets of St. Petersburg, clothed in royal robes and in the royal carriage. As it passed through the streets I saw men and women throw themselves down on the street and bury their faces in the mud until the thing had passed.
"Yet Russia calls herself a Christian country and begs as such our sympathy."
THE GERMAN KAISER'S AMBITION
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It is the growing impression among diplomats that Emperor William II. regards himself as a "man of destiny," another Napoleon I. He is accredited with a desire to form a combination of the governments of Europe either as United States of Europe or as a Fifth Universal Monarchy. His ambition is a "germ" which the Lord can make use of at any time to foment strife-war. True, he speaks for peace, but was not the Czar of Russia the instigator of the Hague peace conference? Very evidently there will be more war ere long. The nations apparently will be weakened preparatory to the great cataclysm of anarchy which we understand to be due to commence October, 1914. "Then they that reverenced the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that reverenced the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his only son that serveth him."--Mal. 3:16.
THE EARTH ABIDETH FOREVER, BUT AGES AND EPOCHS
PASS AWAY
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BY REV. JOS. A. SEISS, D.D.
"There is a notion bred from the morbid imagination of the Middle Ages, which has given birth to many a wild, poetic dream, which has much influenced the translators of our English Bible [which has unduly tainted religious oratory, song and even sober theology], and which still lingers in the 'Popular Mind' [as if it were an article of the settled Christian creed], that the time is coming when everything that is, 'except spiritual natures' shall utterly cease to be, the earth consume and disappear, the whole solar and sidereal system collapse and the entire physical universe vanish into nothingness. How this can be, how it is to be harmonized with the promises and revealed purposes of God,...there is not the least effort to show. The thing is magniloquently asserted, and that is 'quite enough for some people's faith', though 'sense,' 'reason' and 'Revelation' be alike outraged. There is indeed to be an 'end of the world.' The Bible often refers to it. But men mistake when they suppose the world spoken of in such passages to be the earth 'as a planet.'
Four (4) different [Greek] words have our translators rendered 'world.' 1, Ge, which means the earth proper, the ground, this material orb which we inhabit; 2, Kosmos, which means the ornamentation, beauty, the existing order of things, but not the substance of the earth as a terraqueous globe; 3, Oikouene, the habitable, the inhabited earth, and 4, Aion, which is used more than one hundred times in the New Testament, but always with reference to time, duration, eras, dispensations, --a stage or state marking any particular period, long or short, past, present or future,--the course of things in any given instance, rather than the earth...on which it is realized. It may be earth or heaven, time or eternity...it is all the same as to the meaning of the word 'aion' which denotes simply the time-measure and characteristics of that particular period or state to which it is applied. And this is the word used in all those passages which speak of 'the end of the world.' It is not the end of the earth, but the end of a particular time, age, or order of things, with [R3620 : page 263] the underlying thought of other orders of things and perpetual continuity in other ages. Aeons end, times change,...but there is no instance in all the Word of God which assigns an absolute termination to the existence of the earth, as one of the planets, or any other of the great sisterhood of material orbs... It will not be another earth, but the same earth under another condition of things. It is now laboring under the curse, but then the curse will have been lifted off. At present it is hardly habitable,--no one being able to live in it any longer than a few brief years; but then men shall dwell in it forever without knowing what death is.
"It is now the home of rebellion and injustice; it will then be the home of righteousness.
"It is now under the domination of Satan, it will then be under the 'Blessed Rule of the Prince of Peace.'"
CHURCH DISESTABLISHMENT IN FRANCE
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In the debates in the French Chamber of Deputies respecting the withdrawal of the Government from the support of religion in the matter of paying the salaries of the preachers and priests and furnishing the church buildings, the controversy was warm on both sides. Deputy Briand, favoring the movement and opposing [R3621 : page 263] some who pleaded that all religions would suffer--Catholic, Protestant and Jewish--said: "If the Church cannot exist without the aid of the State it is because the Church is dead!"
With the carrying into effect of the new arrangement religious matters must be managed in France as they are now managed in the United States. Each person can pay for his own religious propaganda and have his own kind. It will be a good move so far as true religion is concerned. However, clericalism will manage somehow to ride the people, while more or less blindfolding them as respects the truth of God's Word.
UNION OF THE CHURCHES
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The success attending the efforts to unite Congregationalists, Cumberland Presbyterians and United Brethren, encourages others. Now the various Lutheran bodies are endeavoring to unite, and are meeting with good success. The Baptists, as is well known, are independents, each congregation being free except as the Ministers' Union and Missionary Society unites them. Baptists' Missions--South and North--were separated during the Civil war and are now arranging for re-union.
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BEYOND THE SHADOWS.
Further on--beyond the shadows
Falling darkly o'er my way,
There is home, and rest and shelter,
Where no storms can e'er dismay.
Though the way be rough and narrow,
And a cross must needs be borne,
Further on--the night is waning
Soon will dawn the welcome morn.
Meekly to His will submitting,
In His love secure and strong,
Jesus whispers, "Bide the shadows,
It is better further on."
Further on--O blest assurance!
How it thrills my raptured heart,
Just to know that I shall see Him
When the shadows all depart.
Let me still be strong and patient,
Trusting where I cannot trace,
Further on--beyond all darkness
Faith can see God's smiling face.
Only waiting, ever praying,
Let my heart be filled with song.
Sweet the promise Jesus gives me,
"It is better further on."
--LIZZIE C. RAMSDELL.
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