(63-67) great is the narvest, and few the laborers. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest to send more reapers into the field.” Matt. 9:37-38; John 4:35, And so in harmony with these verses I thankfully and humbly accept the Lord’s invitation and say, Lord here am I, send me, send me. I therefore await your pleasure in the assignment of territory, and by the Lord’s grace am pleased to subscribe myself, A fellow servant in the Redeemer, J. H. Coxe, DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:— I am just in receipt of ‘Heavenly Manna.” It will serve to stir up the mind by way of remembrance day by day, bringing to our attention precious words ot doctrine, reproot, instruction, admonition, warning, comfort, consolation and encouragement from the divine storehouse provided by our heavenly Father, which I trust he will bless to our good and development into the Christ character. I pray that our heavenly Father will continue to use you in the dispensing of “meat in due season” to the household of faith, and that he will continue to grant you abundant supplies of grace and strength to overcome all the trials and temptations and persecutions incident to so prominent an office in the body of Christ. With much love and best wishes for the New Year to you, Dear Brother, I am Yours in fellowship and service, A, E, Burcess,—Michigan.. Dear BRorHER IN CHRIST:— I received the “Heavenly Manna” book last evening. I am sure it will be the source of many blessings to me throughout the year. This morning we took the January 20th text and read your words of comment, and as we realized that we were considering Vout. XXVI ZION’S WATCH TOWER ALLECHENY, Pa, the same subject that you all at the “Bible House” were discussing, we enjoyed it the more, and were stirred to better thought: to a greater endeavor to get every point fully before our minds, I trust that as the year goes on we may become better able to get the full benefit of the subjects. All the family join with me in sending you our Christian love and best wishes that the present year may be filled with rich blessings for yourself and all the brethren there. Your Brother in the blessed Hope, W. S. McoNavueut, Iowa, Dear Brethren of the WatcH TowER:— I want to tell you the story of one little tract. A few weeks ago I heard that an old friend, that I had not heard from for years until this fall, was in the hospital in Kansas City for treatment. I wrote to him immediately, sending him Tract No. 7. He received it just as he was starting to the doctor’s office, so handed the tract to a man in the same ward, lying there with an amputated leg and swearing. When my friend returned he found the swearing man with tears streaming down his face. He said that was the best little book he ever saw, and wanted to keep it to hunt the references. He said he was done swearing. Now, the friend is here visiting us. We found him to be a consecrated Christian, but in utter darkness as respects present truth. Today he was with us in our little meeting and was much surprised to learn of our Lord’s presence, but he seemed to have a hearing ear, so we rejoice and point him to the helps our Lord has provided; for our tongues are so clumsy. I do hope our Lord will some day loose my tongue, so I can tell the blessed “old, old story” more smoothly. Yours in love of our Lord, Mrs, S. B. STRATE,—Ilinois. ALLEGHENY, PA., MARCH 1, 1905 No. 5 THE GREAT DELUSION OF OUR TIME J. H. DENNISON IN “ATLANTIC MONTHLY.” It would be but human if this age were a trifle supercilious, not to say deluded, concerning its own powers. Great things have been said of it, nor can it be denied that it has fallen heir to great things, At least it has enjoyed and tested beyond all other ages the fruit of the tree of knowledge. “It is an epoch,” says John Fiske, “the grandeur of which dwarfs all others that can be named since the beginning of the historic period, if not since man first became distinctively human. In their mental habits, in their methods of inquiry, and in the data at their command, the men of the present day who have fully kept pace with the scientific movement are separated from the men whose education ended in eighteen hundred and thirty by an immeasurably wider gulf than has ever before divided one progressive generation of men from their predecessors. The intellectual development of the human race has been suddenly, almost abruptly, raised to a higher plane than that upon which it had proceeded from the days of the primitive troglodyte to the days of our great grandfathers.” This statement is so far true that it is dangerous. Doubtless there are a great many people, possibly a majority of socalled educated men, who would, without considering the limitations of scientifie knowledge, accept these words literally, who have formed the habit of thinking that the light which we possess today is, compared with that possessed by Luther or George Washington or Socrates, as sunlight to starlight. Their view is not only that we know infinitely more than George Washington knew, but that we alone possess the final criteria of knowledge. Socrates and Washington knew a good deal, but they knew vaguely; they could not distinguish accurately between fact and delusion. Our supreme advantage is supposed to be not only that we know, but that we know we know. The egotistic cast or vogue of thought envelops the mind of the age. It is more authoritative than Kaiser or Pope, than dogma or creed. It percolates through all classes, it penetrates our literature, its colors our judgment. It predetermines our view, shapes the outline of our facts, and is interwoven with the texture of our thought. In a considerable proportion of our typical men it has bred a sense of supreme judicial qualification. In the presence of a magisterial equipment so vast and complete, men of previous ages appear dwarfed; their efforts seem infantile. Even Jesus appears to grope. Our Scientific Judiciary does indeed reverence the purity of his spirit; but when it comes to his authority, or his views about God, they tenderly but firmly put him out of court. ‘‘PRIDE GOETH BEFORE DESTRUCTION’? Now this sovereign attitude of the human mind has in the course of history proved intoxicating, and therefore perilous. There was a man once who said, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?” Too much magistracy had begun to impair the finer workings of his mind. His next step was to eat straw like an ox. He lost sight somehow of organic relations. This suggests a vital question. Does our age actually possess the equipment for a magisterial attitude? Let us apply a test: Let us take those writers who most thoroughly represent the magisterial attitude of our times; let us see what light they throw on the social problem, what that radiance is which has caused the glory of Socrates and of Jesus to grow pale, and has made the intellectual distance between Washington and ourselves so vast that we can hardly see him. I quote from an article by Brooks Adams in the Atlantic Monthly for last November: THE ABSURDITY OF ‘‘EVOLUTION'’ SHOWN “From the humblest peasant to the mightiest empire humanity is waging a ceaseless and pitiless struggle for existence in which the unfit perish. This struggle is maintained with every weapon and by every artifice, and success is attained not only by endurance and sagacity, but by cunning and ferocity. Chief, however, among the faculties which have given superiority, must rank the martial quality, for history teaches us that nothing can compensate a community for defeat in battle. War is competition in its fiercest form.” “Human destiny has been wrought out through war.” “The first settlers slew the Indians, or were themselves slain. . . . To consolidate an homogeneous empire we crushed the social system of the South, and lastly we cast forth Spain. The story is written in blood, and common sense teaches us that as the past has been, so will be the future.” Applying this pitiless principle to our commercial relations, Mr. Adams argues that our only salvation is to maintain it to the bitter end. There is no hope of’ improvement; the human organism must fight or die. “The evolution of human society, like that of the brute, must be along lines of pitiless warfare.” Notice in this quotation what the light of today is, according to Mr. Adams; it is the doctrine of Natural Selection. By its “pure white light” he discerns without any illusions the pathway of society. “Human destiny has been wrought out through war.” “Dreams of peace have always allured mankind to their undoing.” “Nature has decreed that animals shall (3514)
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