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broad view preach the gospel of love and forgiveness. That is the need of the world today.' "Elsewhere the writer heard a pessimistic strain, and he quotes several expressions of it: "Said a leading Wesleyan minister of New Zealand: "We hope to be victorious - but the mass of the people are less eager to hear our message than ever before." A well-known secretary of one of the Y. M. C. A.'s of the antipodes declared: "I am sorry to say that many of our best men were killed; others who were good men before the war came back different from what they were when they went out; we cannot reach them-they have gone wrong, they do not attend church. What else can we expect? They killed on Sundays the same as any other day-they played cards and gambled on Sundays Sundays were not different to them from other days."

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of God yet be answered by a mutilated Christianity? Will He not yet save us for Jesus' sake! But must not we co-operate with Him?'

"These words, says an editorial note of the Herald, 'make one aware that this is no time for Christian people in America or elsewhere to be engaging themselves in disputes about dogmas and prophecies and dispensations, but to get busy at promoting social as well as individual righteousness and peace and good will.' As a matter of fact, however, says the Christian Science Monitor (Boston), 'the world is no more out of joint than it has ever been. What is really happening is that the world is finding itself out, which is a very considerable step toward reformation.' This should because for congratulation, and to those who understand, it really is. But to the fearful, and their name is legion, it is an hour of horror and trepidation.'

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DELEGATES TO THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE Left to right: General Botha and General Smuts, South Africa; Sir Joseph Cook, Australia.

"A prominent minister in one of the larger colonial cities, speaking of the indifference to the gospel, said of a training school for ministers that although the amount of money in hand for bursaries exceeded many times over the calls for it, there had been only three applicants for scholarships in the past year.'

"The effect of the war on the spirit of brotherliness and co-operation between the denominations is next considered. In Australia a joint council of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches has prepared and agreed upon a basis of union as to doctrine and polity, while in New Zealand similar efforts have failed. Generally the outlook is dark, and the writer asks:

"Do the churches of the British Empire and the American Republic really desire the fresh infusion of divine life? Are their members willing to try to live by the plainest teach

ings of the gospel? Can a revival in religion be effective without repentance? Otherwise, whither shall we drift? Will the mighty calls

"What the world needs, then, almost more than anything else, at the present moment, is clear leadership, and by leadership is meant not the effort to think for it, and so to weaken its mental processes, but rather an attempt to marshal and co-ordinate the facts of its social, political, and economic existence without bias and with a supreme truthfulness, so as to enable the listener or hearer to form correct estimates of conditions, and to act fearlessly on those estimates. In doing this, of course, selfishness, whether individual or national, must be rigorously put upon one side. Indifference as to how your neighbor lives must become as illegitimate as indifference to what is happening beyond your borders. Only on such a basis is demonstrable Christianity a possibility.''

The trouble is that governments are not really Christian, although so called. There is and can be no truly Christian civil government. As contrasted with the population of heathen and Mohammedan countries there are Christian peo

ples, but comparatively few of the people of Christian lands are themselves Christians in the spiritual sense.

The sentiment expressed by General Smuts, does him credit; but he is in error in supposing that it would help the situation even in the least degree if "ministers of the gospel would cease preaching so much about personal salvation and think of the salvation of the world."

The gospel is God's plan for the salvation, not of the world as a whole, but of as many indi

viduals as are willing to be saved out of a revolted and sinful world. We believe it was Mr. Moody who, when solicited to inter

est himself in some political or semipolitical scheme for the betterment of society at large or of men en masse, replied by saying,

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THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY CARRIES A STAFF,

NOT A SWORD

should devote themselves much more than many do.

Let every proper and possible agency be employed to help the people socially and industrially, as well as spiritually, but let no Christian deceive himself with the thought that such work should supplant the preaching of the gospel of personal salvation.

make ready for Him. And

they did not

receive Him,

because His

face was as though He

would go to Jerusalem. And when His disci

ples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire

to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But He turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to

save them. And they went to another village." Luke 9: 52-56.

This is only one of the many important lessons in religious tolerance to be learned from the Scriptures. Force can make only hypocrites; love alone has power to make true followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

C. P. B.

Ο

Georgia Court Hears Plea for Religious Liberty

By Our Own Reporter

N Monday morning, October 4, 1920, the case of State of Geor

gia vs. S. T. Page was called by Hon. W. A. Wooten, solicitor for the State. On account of the absence of the State's witnesses, two of whom were named "Pope," the solicitor requested a continuance. On inquiry the Court learned that the case had been continued twice, and was about to enter an order of "demand," which would secure a positive trial or dismissal on the part of the State, when it was learned by the Court that one of the former continuances was solicited by the defendant.

The Court was then advised that the defendant, S. T. Page, wished to interpose a demurrer, which brought in question the constitutionality of the Georgia Sunday law.

more than 500 yards, which seems incredible. Religious prejudice among

some of the neighbors, who before that time seemed friendly, inspired the prosecution.

This is another unhappy illustration of how Sunday laws, which are always religious, can be used by narrowminded and misguided people as a means of persecution. Mr. Page did no more on his farm on Sundays than his neighbors,

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yet he was singled out as the victim of the Sunday law be cause he keeps the seventh day of the week (Saturday) instead of Sunday, the first day of the week.

Hon. Elijah Graham, judge of the superior court, which was sitting at Alamo, Wheeler County, thereupon announced his willingness to hear the demurrer and argument. Mr. Cyrus Simmons, of counsel for the defendant, and member of the Knoxville, Tenn., bar, was introduced.

S. T. PAGE

The defendant, who has been a Seventh-day Adventist for the last thirty years, and who is nearly sixty-nine years old, was charged with working on his farm on Sunday. It developed that the alleged work was done in a retired place on the farm away from the public highway, the church, and neighbors. The prosecuting witnesses would have had to recognize the accused at a distance of

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servance of the seventh day of the week for the Sabbath, and makes the keeping of that day a test of fellowship. The law in question, by compelling him to cease from labor on Sunday, compels him to keep two days of the week, thus depriving him of his property and rights without due process of law.

The fourth ground alleged the law to be bad because it required the accused to rest on Sunday, and thereby gave to that day a Sabbath sanctity contrary to his religious belief.

The fifth ground quoted from the fourth commandment of the decalogue,

mendable and not criminal per se, and therefore pursuing his business on Sunday would not be against public morals.

The eighth ground of demurrer showed that since the business of the accused is honorable and not criminal per se, and not detrimental to public morals, the law in question, by denying the right to work on Sunday, interferes with his inalienable and constitutional rights.

The ninth ground showed that the law gives a preference in favor of the religious majority, and is therefore vicious class legislation, because it denies to the religious minority the right to rest on

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the Sabbath of its choice, with the privilege of working the other six days.

False Basis for Decisions

Mr. Simmons then directed the attention of the Court to the Georgia decisions wherein the constitutionality of the law was upheld on the ground of regulating civil conduct. He showed that

In support of this position, Mr. Simmons quoted as follows from the case of Karwisch vs. M. & C. of Atlanta, 44 Ga., p. 208:

"The law fixes the day recognized as the Sabbath day all over Christendom, and that day, by divine injunction, is to be kept holy.

'On it thou shalt do no work.'"

He further argued that the same error

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AN UNDESIRABLE ALLY

The whole history of Christianity proves that she has indeed little to fear from persecution as a foe, but much to fear from persecution as an ally.- Macaulay.

from the language of written opinions the honorable judges were under the impression that Sunday, the first day of the week, was the same as the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week.

He said the He said the difference between the two rest days was evidently not brought to the attention of the Court. This false conception evidently had a controlling influence with the Court in sustaining the law.

was followed and enlarged upon by Chief Justice Bleckley, in the case of Hennington v. State, 90 Ga., p. 398-9, when the constitutionality of the Georgia Sunday law was under review. The Court said:

"Doubtless it is a religious duty to pay debts, but no one supposes that this is any obstacle to its being enacted as a civil duty.

"With few exceptions, the same may be said

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