Vou, XXIII ALLEGHENY, PA., JANUARY 15, 1902 No. 2 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER America is forcing a revolution on Europe as certainly as God reigns. How? By taking the bread out of European mouths, by sending men, women and children to bed supperless, by forcing European millions to live upon two meals a day, and those two scant ones, in reality not more than one and one-half. American genius, American machinery, American push, American capital is doing that, and each revolution of American engines brings the inevitable day of doom for Europe nearer. How long has it been since the American manufacturer began to realize his power? Ten vears, perhaps. What has he accomplished toward the inevitable end in that time? He has closed European factories; he has cut European profits on manufactured goods to the minimum; he has thrown European workmen out of employment, he has forced Europe a ong step ahead toward the day of revolution. But the end is not yet. Scarely have we seen the beginning. Wait until a heavier over-production than we have yet witnessed cuts prices on manufactured articles still lower. Who can best stand such a cut? The American. Why? Because he has not already been forced to the last notch. He does not know the meaning of small profits. When he begins to sell on a small margin of profit the European manufacturer will go out of business, and the revolution will be on. Of all the nations of Europe England, blood-stained England, is least able to stand the dark days that are to come. Our people have drank more liberally of the liquor of prosperity and financial freedom than have those of other nations. We have cultivated a taste for the luxuries of life that is hardly known among the peasant classes of the continent. It will be hard to renounce these, and I fear they will not be renounced without a struggle that will be the dearest and darkest in the history of the English empire. American prosperity means European bankruptcy, and bankruptcy means anarchy.—lV. 7. Stead. This is a gloomy picture, not only for Europe but for the entire world; for the world today is bound together as never before. If Europe suffers, America will just as surely suffer. The poor world, the “groaning creation” has our sympathy as it opens its eyes to the grand result of its highest civilization, under its inexorable law of selfishness. Would that we could point out to this brilliant editor, and to all men, the glorious prospect we see in the Word of God—the silver lining of the cloud, which they see not;—the dawning of the longpromised Millennial day. But a clear insight into the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the divine love and plan is intended only for the “little flock,” yet. “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”— Dan. 12:10. Those who were readers of Zion’s Watch Tower twenty years ago, will remember how astonished they and others were at its presentation, from the Scriptures, of the very conditions which all men now perceive to be fast hastening toward us;— anarchy in the midst of the greatest prosperity the world has evcr known. Those who have newly come into the truth, and who never saw the earlier issues of our journal, are often amazed at the statements they find in the Mulennial Dawn, Volume I., when they notice that it was published in 1886. Our Master, who gives us in his Word the inside information, tells us to note the fulfillments; and adds, “When ye see these things begin to come to pass, then know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Look up, lift up your heads and rejoice, for your deliverance draweth nigh.”—Luke 21:25-31. ANTI-SEMITIC MOVE RENEWED IN RUSSIA Vienna Dispatch-—Again the Jews in Russia are being harassed. Presumably this is by order of the government, since the oppressive measures are not confined to any one place. The ministry of the interior has appointed a special commission, under the presidency of M. Dournovo, to revise the laws and regulations governing the Jews. Heretofore Jewish matters have been discussed and reported upon by the clerical department, Intervention by the ministry of the interior, acting on its own discretion, is likely to lead to a more stringent policy than ever. Jews of all classes are now prevented from moving freely about Russia in pursuit of their professions. For example, the law allows certain classes of Jews to reside in St. Petersburg or Moscow, but it does not expressly say that a Jew merchant has the right to trade in those cities, Therefore, if a Moscow Jew merchant wishes, he may go to St. Petersburg and he may even live there, but he may not trade there. If he dies his wife and children are immediately “cleaned out.” This is the phrase used. They are compelled to go to the Jewish “pale,” or the place from which they originally went to St. Petersburg or Moscow. In every form of activity known in Russia today the Jew is in some way represented, and, as he has no friends except those of his own religious persuasion, he is a convenient anvil for every official hammer. The Russians hate the Jews because hey fear them even more than they fear the Germans or the oles. Now that the ministry of the interior has taken a hand in the persecution, there will be no refuge. The officials will treat them with less mercy even than the clerical department, which formerly had them under supervision. There are instances where the clerical authorities have shown some mercy toward Jews, but there is none where the purely political officials have treated him as anything better than convenient scape-goat.—Chicago Record-Herald. THE ZIONIST CONGRESS As per announcement, the Zionist Congress opened December 26th, at Basle, Switzerland. It was attended by about one thousand delegates, twenty-five of them from the United States. Dr. Herzl of Vienna, the founder, presided, but had nothing definite to report from the Sultan of Turkey, respecting Palestine. He reported, however, that in his audience with him, in May last, the Sultan had expressed his sympathy with Zionism’s ambitions, declared himself the friend of the Jews, and that he considered them desirable as colonists. Failure to receive something more tangible was a source of disappointment to the Congress; but it is not discouraged. It has thus far accumulated about $1,000,000.00 toward its cbject ;—nearly all from the poor Jews of the world. THE DECAY OF BELIEF President Cyrus Northrop, of the Minnesota State University, recently delivered an address before the Chicago Baptist Social Union. In it he made the following reference to the present religious conditions. He said in part:— It seems to me that in looking at the religious condition of the country—I do not mean the statistics of the churches, nor the amount of gifts to missions and philanthropy, nor the general condition of the church as an organization—but I do mean the state of thought in the church itself in reference to its own faith; it seems to me that we are confronted by four marked changes which have grown into prominence in the last few years. If I am wrong I shall be glad to know it, and if I am right I shall be grateful, as I am sure you all will be, to any Biblical scholar who will show us the truth. These changes, stated briefly, are: First—A decay of belief in the supernatural. Second—What I may call the disintegration of the Bible. Third—New views respecting inspiration. Fourth—Loss of the sense of accountability. These four changes are essentially one. They are at least shoots from a common root—and that root is doubt as to whether God ever has had any communication with men. Under this doubt Christianity ccases to be the religion which God intended for men to cherish, and becomes simply one of (19-20) the religions of the world—a purely human device, like Confucianism or Mohammedanism, of no more authority than these and to be preferred to these only as its teachings are more reasonable and uplifting. There is a world of difference between saying this thing is true because God said it and God said this because it is true. The former carries with it the certainty of “Thus saith the Lord.” The latter is of no validity, because many things may be true which God never said. And if God never said anything to men inspiration becomes so attenuated that it is hardly discoverable under the more or less theory which grants inspiration of some degree to every one who voices a noble truth, and grants no higher inspiration, though perhaps a greater degree of inspiration, to any one else. Under this arrangement a man must first get his idea of God and then determine whether anything is the product of divine inspiration according as it meets or does not meet that idea. There is in this no possibility of revelation in the usual sense. The order is inverted —God does not reveal truth to men; the truth on the contrary, reveals God. Now this may or may not be satisfactory to some. But it is, to say the least, very unsettling to human faith and very depressing to the ordinary Christian who does not know enough about God’s style to determine whether he [2938]
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