The Present Truth, vol. 12

February 20, 1896

“‘The New Light’” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

All over the civilised world people are now discussing a new discovery and photography, a specimen of which we present on this page. A few words may suffice to give the reader some idea of what the discovery is. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.1

It is well known that ordinary light consists of different rays, which may be separated by the spectrum. The rainbow is proof that there are different colours in sunlight. Some of the rays of light may be seen, and others are invisible to the eye. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.2

The rays of light with which we are familiar will pass through a glass, but not through wood, paper, etc. Consequently we see through a glass, but not through wood. The new ray which has been discovered in the course of electrical experiments, will not pass through a glass, but will pass through wood, paper, and sheets of aluminum. So although the human eye cannot see through those substances, since it cannot perceive the light that penetrates them, a sensitive plate upon which those peculiar rays of light are gathered up, reveals the fact that those substances which we have named are not really opaque after all. Coins and metals have been photographed through wood, so that in the photograph you can, as it were, see through the box that incloses them. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.3

This is very wonderful, but something more wonderful still, and which promises to be very practical, is that the newly-discovered light will pass through flesh, but not bone. Consequently the skeleton of a living man may be photographed. In the photograph of a man’s hand, shown in the cut, we see all the bones distinctly through the flesh, which appears only in outline as a shadow. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.4

This discovery promises to be, and has already proved, of practical benefit in surgery, enabling the surgeon to locate a bullet or piece of steel in the body, or to detect the exact nature of any disease or malformation of bone. The exact nature of a fracture, or the progress of repair of bone, may be clearly seen by the aid of the new light. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.5

But it is to the Christian Bible student that this discovery is the most interesting, since it is full of suggestion and illustration of spiritual truths. Remember that this so-called “new light” is not new at all, but has only newly come to the knowledge of man. It has been from the beginning. Remember also that God “is in the light,” and that He “is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” These rays, as others of which we know nothing, and which doubtless have still greater power of penetration, have always been visible to His all-seeing eye. And, lastly, remember that His Word produces light; because His Word is light. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.6

With all this in mind, and this picture before us, with what new force and reality the scripture comes to us: “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:12, 13. How much more real the truth is that He can see through every substance. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.7

The Psalmist prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know My thought; and see if there be any wicked way in me.” Psalm 139:23, 24. This prayer was inspired by the Spirit of God, and therefore shows what God really does. So in the same psalm we read, “O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.... Thou understandest my thought afar off.” Verses 1, 2. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.8

Again we are told, “All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for that which does make manifest is light.” Ephesians 5:13. God holds us up to the pure light of His Word, which penetrates not only flesh and bone, but soul and spirit. Sin only is dark and opaque. That light will reveal the cherished sin, just as this new light will reveal the leaden bullet embedded in the flesh. If the soul loves the light, he becomes “light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8), and so he “cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3:21. The light shines through him, and reveals no foreign substance. He is then “sincere, and without offence.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 113.9

Jesus has said that “there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: and hid, that shall not be known.” Matthew 10:26. The day of the Lord will declare it. When He comes, His glory shall fill the earth, and He “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.1

When a man first sees his own sinful condition, he imagines that God is as much surprised at the discovery as he is, and that God must abhor him as much as he does himself. He forgets that what is newly revealed to him was perfectly plain to God from the beginning, and that it was only the hitherto-undiscovered rays of the light of God’s Word that enabled him to see it. But the same light that reveals the sin will remove it if we acknowledge it. If not, in the last day when every hidden sin will stand revealed as clearly to every eye as are the bones in the photograph, by Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, the light will remove the sinner with his sin; “for our God is a consuming fire.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.2

God gives evidence, not explanation. He lets us know facts, but does not attempt to make our finite minds comprehend how they are accomplished. But He illustrates. We now know the fact that light will penetrate substances hitherto considered impervious to its rays. We cannot tell how it is; and a few weeks ago if anybody had said that it is possible to see through a board, and through human flesh, everybody would have said, “It is impossible; I don't believe it.” Yet now we know it to be a fact. Is not this discovery granted for the purpose of confounding those who say that they do not believe that Christ can dwell in the heart, because they do not see how it can be done? He is the Light of the world, and His representative is the Spirit of light. What matters it that we do not know how it can be? His Word assures us that it is even so; and if we will but believe it we shall know the truth of it, “because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.3

“Preserved from All Evil” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul wrote in his last epistle, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:6, 7. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.4

He was about to suffer death, but he did not regard that as a calamitous ending of his life’s work. With his head almost under the executioner’s sword, and knowing that it must fall, he said, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom.” Verse 18. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.5

They could take off his head but they could not force him into evil. Naturally we should regard the execution, and even the imprisonment before it, as a great evil that had befallen us and was hanging over us. We sometimes confound trial with evil, and pray the Lord to deliver from the trial instead of maintaining our faith in God’s power to deliver from all evil in the trial. Paul, “the prisoner of the Lord” knew that he was in the hands of the Lord, and that all the power of the Roman Empire could not separate him from God’s care. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.6

“War Without the Glory” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

What would be thought of a man who should go in amongst a drove of fine horses in a pasture and hack them in pieces with a cutlass? What man would do it? But this is what is done in a war, and while horses are cut down by artillery, it is men who go in among their fellow-men, shooting, hacking, stabbing, disemboweling, braining, cursing-men transformed into very demons in their work of death and mutilation. Words could never picture the gruesome horrors of a hard-fought battle-field. Anyone who allows himself to think of it can easily understand what ghastly mutilations are wrought in the fury of a contest; not many who have written of them have dared to do more than hint at the awful sights. Not many readers are so morbid as to care to read detailed descriptions of the sights of a slaughter pen, where animals are prepared for food; still less would they wish it of a human slaughter pen. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.7

Why speak of it, then, at all? Because that is what war is. Because it is to this work that “Christian nations” send their armies, and call it glory and honour for men to engage in it. And, too, because it is rare to find even a religious paper in any country to-day which does not favour a resort to war if necessary to sustain national “honour” and “dignity,” just as formerly gentlemen thought that their honour could be sustained by a chance at killing or being killed in a duel. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.8

This is the kind of moral code which ordains that if political leaders of two countries fall out and declare war the question of one country must kill his brother Christian of the other, instead of meeting him as a brother. The word kill has received a conventional gloss which does not express the thought. He might shoot him as he wouldn't shoot a horse. He must stick a bayonet through him, and see his blood flow, and hear his gasps for breath. What ghoulish work! PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.9

“An Old Error” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Some are saying that Christ has already come, and that we are now living in the new earth. One wonders how anyone believing the theory could advocate it, but all winds of doctrine are blowing and there is no knowing what strange idea will be met next. However, this is not a new thing. Paul once said, warning against strife about words and theories, and the increase of them, “Of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is passed already; and overthrow the faith of some.” 2 Timothy 2:17, 18. The first resurrection takes place when the Lord comes (2 Thessalonians 4:15-17) and therefore to say that the Lord has come is to ignore all the Scriptures which describe His second advent and the attendant events, and to revive the old error to which Paul referred. The commonly held ideas that the dead go to their reward at death, and that Christ’s coming will be secret, have paved the way for just such errors. “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:27. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 114.10

“Creation and Redemption” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. In this brief sentence we have the whole of the truth of the Gospel summed up. He who reads aright, may derive a world of comfort from it. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.1

In the first place, let us consider who it was that created the heaven and earth. “God created.” But Christ is God, the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person. Hebrews 1:3. He Himself said, “I and My Father are one.” John 10:30. He it was too, representing the Father, created the heaven and earth. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1-3. And again we read of Christ, that “by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” Colossians 1:16, 17. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.2

The Father Himself addresses the Son as God, and as Creator. The first chapter of Hebrews says that God has not at any time said to any of the angels, “Thou art My Son, this day and have high begotten Thee;” “but unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of Thy righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.” And He has also said to the Son, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.” Hebrews 1:5, 8, 10. So we are well assured that when we read in the first chapter of Genesis, “in the beginning God created the heavens and earth,” it refers to God in Christ. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.3

Creative power is the distinguishing mark of Divinity. The Spirit of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah describes the vanity of idols, and then continues: “But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King; at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion.” Jeremiah 10:10-12. The earth was made by His power, and established by His wisdom. But Christ is “The power of God, and the wisdom of God.” So here again we find Christ inseparably connected with creation as the Creator. Only as we acknowledge and worship Christ as the Creator, do we acknowledge His Divinity. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.4

Christ is Redeemer by virtue of His power as Creator. We read that “we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins,” because that “by Him were all things created.” Colossians 1:14, 16. If He were not Creator, He could not be Redeemer. This is shown in the statement of the apostle but the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, which statement is immediately followed by another to the effect that the power of God is seen by means of the things that have been made. Romans 1:16, 20. When we consider the works of creation, and think of the power manifested in them, we are contemplating the power of redemption. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.5

There has been a great deal of idle speculation as to which is greater, redemption or creation. Many have thought that redemption is a greater work than creation. Such speculation is idle, because only infinite power could perform either work, and infinite power cannot be measured by human minds. But while we cannot measure the power, we can easily settle the question about which is the greater, because the Scriptures give us the information. Neither is greater than the other, for both are the same. Redemption is creation. Redemption is the same power that was put forth in the beginning to create the world and all that is in it, now put forth to save men and the earth from the curse of sin. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.6

The Scriptures are very clear on this point. The Psalmist prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10. The apostle says that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,” or a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17. And again we read: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.7

Compared with God, “man is less than nothing, and vanity.” In him “dwelleth no good thing.” But the same power that in the beginning made the earth from nothing, can take every one who is willing, and make of him that which is “to the praise and glory of His grace.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.8

“The Education Question in West Australia” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The crusade which is now going forward in demand of State aid to Roman Catholic, Anglican, and all voluntary schools adds an interest to the following account of Rome’s tactics in West Australia. It is furnished to the organ of our Society in Melbourne, the Bible Echo, by a West Australian correspondent:- PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.9

Just now the education question is being threshed out in Parliament. The Government party, which in reality is the Roman Catholic party, were forced to introduce a bill for the abolition of the assisted-school system; but the bill was prepared in such a way that instead of abolishing the State aid to the Roman Catholic schools, it will really perpetuate them. During the last twenty-three years Roman Catholics have received from the State for their schools ?34,559, an annual average of ?1,500; and during that time they have, by reason of this grant, acquired school property to the extent of ?37,000. The bill now before the House of Parliament proposes to give them an additional ?20,000. This invested at the rate of 7 per cent. (and that is the rate at which money can be invested on mortgage in the colony), will give them an annual income of ?1,400, whereas the average grant for twenty-three years has been only ?100 more. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 116.10

Thus it will be seen that instead of Catholicism suffering a defeat, it is really gaining a great advantage; for under the present system they have to submit to Government inspection, as well as to restriction as to books used in the school; but when this bill is passed (and it no doubt will be, as the Government have a large majority), then they will not only have the same amount of money annually, but, free from all restraint, they will be better able to make their schools what they are intended for, a means of propagating Roman dogmas, and by doing that, cementing their political influence. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 117.1

That which, twenty-three years ago, here in West Australia was granted to Rome as a charity, is to-day demanded, and in no uncertain way, by the Pope’s representative, Bishop Gibney, as a right. The work “Great Controversy” has well said: “The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her powers, in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world.” And what a close observer sees enacted here in West Australia is but an illustration of what she is accomplishing throughout the world. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 117.2

“An Unclean Beast” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Anyone who will look at the list of clean and unclean animals and fowls as given by the Lord through Moses (Leviticus 11:and Deuteronomy 14.) will see that the distinction was not an arbitrary or ceremonial one. Some animals were called clean, others unclean. Amongst the former were the ox, goat, sheep, etc. The list of clean fowls is not given, but the list of unclean fowls shows the distinction. Some unclean beasts were named, as the camel, the swine, etc., while the unclean fowls named are the eagle, the vulture, the owl, and others. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.1

When the Lord says the vulture, the mouse, the lizard; the camel, and (by the descriptions given) the dog, the horse, the rat, and each like are not good for food, that they are unclean, who in ordinary communities does not naturally recognise the fact that such things are unclean for food? Yet when the Lord included the swine in the list, along with the camel, the vulture and the mouse, what reason is there to suppose that He made a mistake? PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.2

Some time ago, before a medical congress, a sanitary authority gave the following description of the habits of the swine from ancient times to the present. It shows why the swine is physically unfit for human consumption:- PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.3

The most careful diet and thorough breeding has failed to eliminate certain disorders which are a constant menace to good health to consumers of pork; of these disorders we will mention two-scrofula and trichinosis. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.4

From remotest antiquity the unclean habits of the hog have challenged man’s aversion and disgust. The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Libyan, the Comani, the Scythians, the Galatians, the Zabbi, the Hindus, and the Phoenicians abominated and detested the dirty, mire-loving swine. Mohammed denounced its use as food, and the Bedouins consider it the only object whose touch is pollution. The Egyptian priests inveighed against it declaring that it engenders many superfluous humours. The Talmud, or general code of Jewish laws, states that “ten measures of pestilential sickness were spread over the earth, and nine of them fell to the share of pigs.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.5

Plutarch and Tacitus speak of the detestation in which the hog was held by the people of their time on account of the “leprous emanations appearing upon his belly.” Herodotus and a host of more recent chroniclers unite in ascribing various disorders to the use of pork as food. What the hog was 2,000 years ago he is to-day. No animal has such filthy habits. No place exists so foul and loathsome that will exclude him. Animal carcasses, undergoing decomposition and filling the air with pestilential odours, are sought after by trim with epicurean gusto. He will leave a repast of nuts in the Southern woods to dispute with the buzzard the possession of the putrid remains of a defunct mule. He is the scavenger of the shambles. He is voted the freedom of our village streets, to act as a sanitarian in removing the filth and garbage therefrom. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.6

These filthy habits are natural, not acquired, and no amount of careful breeding will ever modify them. Is it, then, surprising that among all nations and in all ages the flesh of the hog has been supposed to “engender many superfluous disorders”? The derivation of the terms “scrofula,” and choiras,” applied to a disease alarmingly frequent-the former from the Latin scrofula, meaning a “breeding sow,” the latter from the Greek-indicated that the ancients had good reasons for excluding the flesh of the hog from their dietary regime. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.7

“Items of Interest” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

-The average yearly worth of articles left in cabs in London is put down at ?20,000. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.8

-The Congo River has with its tributaries, navigable waterways of more than 6,000 miles. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.9

-There are in Wales about 910,289 Welsh speakers, and about 236,000 outside the Principality. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.10

-Since its inauguration in 1866, the Guion Line claims to have conveyed over one million passengers across the Atlantic without the loss of a single life. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.11

-In 1801 less than 2 per cent. of mankind spoke English, while 2? per cent, spoke French. Now there are over 8 per cent, who speak English, and less than 2? per cent. who speak French. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.12

-Only seventy years have elapsed since the first railway in the world was finished. During that comparatively brief period 400,000 miles have been constructed, the British Empire accounting for about a sixth. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.13

-Ecuador, the equator country, for that is what the name means, has no Protestant missionary, and never has had. Its area is twice as great as that of Great Britain and Ireland. It has a population of 1,220,000. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.14

-In Great Britain the average output of books is-sermons, one volume a day; novels, five a day; educational hooks, two a day; art and science, two each every week; histories or biographies, six a week; and law, one every two weeks. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.15

-A Parish Council in the Thrapston district has been so economical in its administration that its whole expenditure for the first financial year amounted to the modest sum of one shilling. The account, however, had to be officially audited, and to complete this process it was necessary to affix an audit stamp of five shillings. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.16

-Paper is now being used for building. An American has perfected a paper pulp substitute for building stone, which casts into perfect slabs. It is light, hard, a non-conductor of sound and heat, and non-porous. In Norway there are two mills turning out roofing tiles of paper. We are, in short, entering on a paper age. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.17

-This year is a leap-year, and the 20th of February will make it possible for those both on that date to celebrate their birthday this year it they desire to. But they will not be able to celebrate another birthday for eight years, or til 1904, if time continues so long. By the Gregorian calendar a leap-year is dropped at the end of three centuries after four, so that 1900 will not be a leap-year. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.18

-M. Borchgrevink, the Antarctic explorer, says that in his last expedition he and his party wrote a letter, all signed it, and then it was placed in a small bladder which had been given him for the purpose by the Norwegian Consul in Melbourne. Then they threw it overboard, and watched to see their mail depart. To their chagrin, before the bladder had gone many yards, a large albatross hove in sight, pounced on it, and gobbled it all up. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 126.19

“Back Page” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

A ship mission has recently been opened by our friends in South-eastern Europe in Galatz, for the Danube and the Black Sea. Publications in the Balkan languages are being increased. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.1

Letters from our workers on the African Gold Coast show that they are finding much to do. Some of them have suffered severely from the climate, which, as shown by the fatalities in connection with the Ashantee expedition, is no friend to the white man. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.2

The French religious budget for this year is 45,000,000 francs. This is paid to the clergy and for repairs and care of churches. The French Catholic missionaries in the East are also paid by the State, as they are regarded as representing French political interests. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.3

Sicily is poverty-stricken, but the Sicilian idea of paying homage to Mary may be inferred from the report that thieves recently entered a Palermo church and stripped a statute of her twenty pairs of diamond earrings, dozens of valuable bracelets, and her robe, which was ablaze with precious stones. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.4

The Little Prince Boris, aged two, about whose religion the cabinets of Europe have been exercised for so long, was last week received into the Greek Church. The ceremony being concluded, “Prince Boris, amidst the thunder of guns and the acclamations of the multitude, was taken back to the Palace.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.5

It having been finally decided that the baby Prince Boris of Bulgaria was to be “converted” to the Greek Church, the Roman Catholic authorities at once showed...hostility to his father. The Chronicle’s Vienna correspondent wrote on Monday, Feb. 10, “Yesterday, for the first time, there were no prayers for Prince Ferdinand in the Roman Church of Sofia.” When Rome thought that Ferdinand was all right, she prayed for him; now that she thinks he is going wrong, she will pray for him no more. That shows that Romanism is the religion of human nature: blessings for its followers, curses for those who act contrary to its wishes. But how different from the example and teaching of Christ. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.6

In one of the provincial towns, but a few days ago, a young woman died in giving birth to her first child. The child itself did not live to see the light. The husband naturally desired to bury both mother and child together, and arrangements were made accordingly. He then visited a church official with the title of “Canon,” requesting him to conduct the funeral. On learning the facts, the Canon refused to officiate if the mother and child were to be buried together, since “the child, not having been baptized, was not a Christian like its mother, and could not be buried in the same grave with her.” The husband yielded to the demand of the priest, and the infant was taken from the arms of its mother in the coffin, and was buried in another place. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.7

We give the simple facts, without names, since we desire the attention of the readers to be fixed solely upon the foolishness, to say nothing of the wickedness, of that which by “the Church” is called baptism. The callousness of the priest was but the natural product of ecclesiasticism, which always exalts ceremony above humanity or even Divinity. But that may be passed by in this case, since the one whose feelings were most concerned acquiesced, and no harm was done to the dead, since the “unconsecrated ground” in which the child was buried is every whit as sacred as that which had been presumptuously “consecrated” by some bishop. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.8

But this case sets forth the doctrine of so-called infant “baptism” in all its ridiculous wickedness. If the child had lived but two minutes, long enough merely to draw a few unconscious breaths, and somebody had placed his moist fingers upon its forehead and mumbled a formula, it would have been a Christian, according to Church teaching; but for lack of that, it was a heathen. The bear statement of the doctrine should be sufficient to cause it to die of its own inherent absurdity. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.9

It is almost incredible that any person of intelligence should ever seriously believe any such nonsense; yet we are sure that to many it is sober reality. Why?-Simply because being accustomed to follow the teachings of men instead of that of the Bible, they have no conception of what constitutes Christianity. Christ and the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God are left out, and religion is wholly from men and under human control. And herein lies the essential wickedness of infant “baptism,” which is not baptism at all: it makes a person’s salvation or damnation entirely independent of either himself or the Lord, and subject wholly to accident or to the will of man. Surely, “the customs of the people are vain.” PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.10

“The War Spirit” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The War Spirit.-“The ‘war spirit,’ as it is called,” says a London newspaper, “is more common just now than it has been since the Crimean days.” One symptom of it is seen in the demand for war histories and literature, which publishers are ready to supply, thus increasing the demand by cultivation of the spirit which glorifies deeds of blood and daring. Not only in this country but in America and elsewhere it is the same. School histories are very much to blame for stimulating the natural spirit of combativeness in the youth, and more than one recent writer on the serious outlook for the peace of nations has called attention to this propaganda of “patriotism,” which gives the child immoral ideas of what is glorious and honourable that bear evil fruit in after life. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.11

“Sunday In Scotland” The Present Truth, 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Sunday In Scotland.-Reports of deputations and frequent correspondence on the Sunday question find place in the newspapers of Scotland, showing that the question is being agitated in that part of Britain. Now and then some friends of the Sabbath in Scotland find opportunity to call attention to the mistake of applying the name Sabbath to Sunday. Scotland has long called the Sunday by this name, but it is a fact that it was the last part of Britain to keep Sunday. Not until Queen Margaret’s day, and then by virtue of the command of “the blessed Pope Gregory,” was Sunday rest generally observed in Scotland. The demand for stricter Sunday legislation in Scotland, and elsewhere, is of itself a confession of the human origin of the observance, which must be sustained by human laws. Sabbath observance cannot be enforced by human laws, nor can Sunday laws blot out the Sabbath. PTUK February 20, 1896, page 128.12