Vou. XXVIII ALLEGHENY, PA., OCTOBER 15, 1907 No. 20 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER ROMANISM BESET IN STRONGHOLDS One after another so-called ‘‘Catholic countries’’ are shaking themselves free from the Roman church-fetters which have held them for centtries. All are familiar with the situation in France, where the authority of Rome is now disowned and disallowed—Catholies, Protestants and Jews, etc., all standing on a common footing before the law—much as in this country. Spain followed the same course with, it is reported, the following outline of policy :— First. No religious order shall be established without the authorization of parliament. Second. The State shall accord support to any member of a religious order desiring to renounce the vows taken. Third. The Minister of Justice is empowered to withdraw the authorization of any religious order found to be inimical to morality or public tranquility. Fourth. The Cabinet shall forthwith examine the authorizations previously granted to religious orders and cancel those which are illegal. Fifth. Religious orders whose members are foreigners or whose director resides abroad shall be dissolved. The authorities are empowered to enter monasteries without ecclesiastical sanction. Sixth. Religious orders shall not be allowed to hold property in excess of the objects for which they were instituted. Seventh, The sums of money given by members of religious orders to such institutions on their admission and the sums derived by orders from charitable subscriptions shall be strictly limited. Eighth. All legacies to religious orders or donations to orders by living persons or by testaments or through intermediaries are formally prohibited. Ninth. Religious orders engaging in trade or industry shall pay the regular taxes. Tenth. Regulations for the dissolution of religious orders shall be established. Eleventh. The law of 1887 concerning the registering of religious orders remains in force. Now the people of Italy are in a ferment. Charges of immorality against the clergy (many of them probably false) are being widely published, with demands for the opening of all ‘‘homes,’’ ‘‘reformatories,’’ ‘‘nunneries,’’ etc., to civil inspection, as are all others not Roman Catholic. In a word, the special privileges and immunities of the church of Rome are likely to be abolished—as of course they should be. Austria-Hungary is the only great nation still acknowledging pronouncedly the Roman Catholic system as entitled to special and exclusive rights and privileges, The reason for the apparent greater prosperity of Romanism in Protestant countries—Germany, Great Britain, Canada and the United States—is that in these their clergy wisely refrain from expecting much special privilege, though they quietly obtain some because of their solidarity and the respect of politicians for the influence of their votes. The stripping of Romanism’s power and special privileges will doubtless prepare her the better for the new role marked out for her in Revelation—her codperation with Federated Protestantism in the exercise of power during the closing days of this Gospel age—just before the downfall of everything in horrible anarchy. SECULAR EDITORS CRITICISE THEOLOGIANS Under the heading, ‘‘ Preaching without Religious Faith,’’ a secular editorial says:— The confusion of religious thought at this time of declining religious faith was never made more apparent than in the sermons preached hereabouts on Sunday. The Rev. Dr. Van Dyke, preaching on the Atonement, deelared his belief ‘‘that the Son of God would have come into the world whether man had sinned or not,’’ a confession which conflicts radically with the whole orthodox theory of the sacrifice of Christ. He said also that ‘‘there are a thousand true doctrines of the Atonement,’’ which is substantially the same thing as saying that no doctrine specifically is true, for instance, the doctrine of the Westminster Confession, to which Dr. Van Dyke pledged loyalty when he was ordained a Presbyterian minister. The first sermon of the Rev. Dr. Hillis, as pastor of Plymouth church in Brooklyn, was devoted to extolling Christ without any reference to the Atonement or any doctrine which raises him to a divine or a supernatural elevation. He spoke of ‘‘the supremacy of Christ among men of genius,’’ said [4073] ‘“Jesus is the supreme literary artist,’’ and celebrated the wonderful power of his ‘‘imagination.’?’ Nowhere in his sermon was there any evidence of the positive faith which gave the impulse to Christianity; only generality, sentimen tality, the vague imaginings of a mind without any definite belief were made manifest in the pretty sentences of Dr. Hillis. * * * Secular editors deprived of theological instruction in word and conscience-twisting seem much more logical and more honorable than theologians. This editor evidently sees clearly that those who have abandoned the faith of their ordination vows should seek a new ordination in accord with their present agnosticism, and not practise a fraud. We publish the item to call attention to the departure from the central feature of the Gospel—our Lord’s atonement for sin. We have challenged the evidence that there is a single college or theological seminary in the United States where Evolution or Higher Criticism infidelity is not taught publicly or privately. No one thus far has produced proof in refutation of this charge. Similar conditions prevail in Canada. <A minister recently charged publicly that there is but one college in Canada loyal to the doctrine of original sin and our redemption from it by the death of Christ. We challenge that one case. We are morally sure that investigation will prove that if Higher Criticism, Evolution and Nb Atonement for Sin are barred from the textbooks and curriculum some of the professors surely hold these wrong views and privately confess them and laugh at the backwardness of their college. Well did the Apostle declare, ‘‘The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears [desiring something new and different] will gather to themselves teachers after their own liking: and they will turn away their ears from the truth and unto fables’’—respecting monkey progenitors millions of years ago.—2 Tim. 4:3, 4. JEWISH EMIGRATION TO PALESTINE Dr. M. Scheinkin, Director of the Information Bureau, Jaffa, Palestine, says in a recently published report in The Jewish Exponent :— ‘*Soon after the October riots of 1905, Jewish immigration into Palestine considerably increased. Every vessel from Russia brought sixty and even one hundred passengers. About 1,500 persons arrived in Palestine during the winter of 1905-06. Among these three to five per cent. were wealthy people, between ten and fifteen per cent. workmen, ten per cent. artisans and twenty per cent. had no particular occupation, and the remainder consisted of old people who became protogés of the Halukah. Almost all of the young workingmen found work in the colonies. Most of the artisans, with the exception of the tailors and shoemakers, who arrived in very large numbers, obtained employment in the cities of Jaffa and Jerusalem. Twenty families of the wealthier class remained in the land, eight of whom acquired land in the colonies, one rented a large farm from an Arab, and the rest engaged in business, chiefly in Jaffa. Eighteen thousand dunams of land passed into Jewish hands during the past two years. ‘*Different societies undertook the rebuilding of various streets in Jerusalem. A London philanthropic society built up one quarter of 150 houses. There are also two private building associations which are financially assisted by the Anglo-Palestine Bank. A large society of artisans recently began to build up a new quarter in Jerusalem. Ten families formed a company to build up a Jewish quarter in Kaifa, at the foot of Mt. Carmel. ‘‘The large commercial enterprises are still in the hands of Mohammedans and Christians, although during the last decade many Jews also attained a high position in the commercial world. In consequence of the recent immigration, twenty new Jewish stores were opened in Jaffa, a similar number in Jerusalem and several in Kaifa and in Beyrut. During the last month a Russian Jewish immigrant opened a large grocery store in Damascus. The lumber business is passing entirely into Jewish hands, due to the large credit allowed them by the Anglo-Palestine Bank. ‘The spiritual condition of the Palestine Jews greatly improved during the past two years. The hundreds of young laborers, the teachers and other intelligent persons brought with them a new life and new spiritual aspirations. ‘‘Aside from lower-grade schools the grown-up youth is desirous of obtaining more knowledge, and for that purpose there was organized in Jaffa, first, evening classes for lan (307-308)
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