HARVEST GLEANINGS I [HG636]
TRUE BASIS FOR HUMAN EQUALITY "Desire of all Nations Shall Come"
Some time ago the famous National Liberal Club of London called upon Mr. George Bernard Shaw to deliver an address before the members of that club upon the subject of Human Equality, and therein to set forth his remedy for the alleviation of the social inequality and injustice which prevail the world over. Mr. Shaw accepted the invitation, and in a masterful way discussed social conditions.
By both example and explanation he gave in detail his conviction that equality of income is the only kind of equality possible to humanity.
Mr. Shaw’s address, together with replies from several members of the National Liberal Club, appeared in the Metropolitan of last December. The article has provoked much comment. The Editor of the Metropolitan gave opportunity for any one who desired to controvert Mr. Shaw’s argument to do so.
Friends of Pastor Russell saw the invitation and urged the Pastor to reply. Finally he consented. Following is his letter to the Editor: Editor Metropolitan, New York City.
Dear Sir:-Friends have called attention to Mr. George Bernard Shaw’s article in your December issue, and to your invitation for replies thereto. Responding to their earnest requests, I submit the following: THE BASIS FOR HUMAN EQUALITY Our esteem for Mr. Shaw’s cogency of reasoning and forcefulness of expression increased with every sentence of his masterful article, as we read it. We hold that his argument is unanswerable, except upon one point. We endorse it all except that one point, even though no two thinkers might express their thoughts in precisely the same terms. Unfortunately for Mr. Shaw’s argument, his one point of weakness is the center, or fulcrum, upon which his masterly argument rests. In other words, while he has demolished practically all other arguments, theories and fads, he has not established his own.
Mr. Shaw sets before us a human equality based upon an equality of income. Yet a picture of his ideal is disconcerting and unsatisfactory. For this reason, every reader of Mr. Shaw’s article, while conceding the strength of his argument, must have felt a keen disappointment in the end. His own and other men’s ideals ground to powder, Mr. ‘Shaw’s proposal was wholly unsatisfying. We are prone to believe that Mr. Shaw shared in this disappointment with his readers!
For surely reasonable reflection will convince us that the mere giving to every human being a bag of gold of equal size would not make the individuals equal-but merely the money, which one would hoard, another lavish and waste, and a few wisely use. A world thus on the financial basis of equality would be as unequal as at the present time as respects mental and moral equality-the soul. Indeed, they would be more unequal than now; for each, able to gratify his whims, would accentuate his peculiarities; whereas now the treadmill of necessity moderates these whims and teaches valuable lessons.
Having brushed aside Mr. Shaw’s theory of human equality on a financial basis, and he himself having already swept away all other theories, our way is cleared for the presentation of the true theory of human equality. We confidently affirm that the only basis of human equality, as yet an ideal only, is the perfection of the human soul. By this soul-perfection we mean that balance and poise of mind which is represented by the Golden Rule, and which the Bible calls the image and likeness of the Creator. With all men brought to this grand standard of mental and moral perfection of meekness, gentleness, patience, brotherly-kindness, justice and love, we should have human equality. Be it remembered that such perfection of mind would include perfection of body, since the two are so intimately related as to be really parts of the same. Provide this condition in the world, and we shall have peace, love, joy, and as the Bible says, there will be no more sighing, no more crying, no more dying-no more curse in any sense of the word.
We take it that all of our readers will heartily acquiesce in this presentation-that they will all admit that any other equality would be as unsatisfactory as our present conditions-or nearly so. But do we hear an objection? Does somebody say: Such a perfection is idealistic and impracticable? We reply that this is not the question before us. The question is: What is human equality? With equal force we might claim that Mr. Shaw’s theory of an equality based on income is an unattainable theory-that by no process of reasoning can we imagine that humanity, constituted as it is with diversities of tastes and appetites, could ever bring itself to the place where all incomes would be exactly alike. And if the equal income could be attained daily, one man would have spent his before noon and be seeking to rob the other who had been more economical. The same is true of all the other theories which Mr. Shaw so cleverly dashed in pieces. [HG637]
EVOLUTION THEORY A DISAPPOINTMENT Our answer to the question is complete in the foregoing; but, as we still have space at our disposal, let us briefly outline how the Bible teaches that the ideal of human equality above set forth will yet become an accomplished fact-in approximately a thousand years from now.
Few evolutionists would be reckless enough to express the hope that the ideal human perfection above suggested could be attained by the human family short of millions of years-if ever. All evolutionists know that in one thousand years more, say, A. D. 3000, at the present rate of human increase, doubling every century, Earth would be overcrowded with a population two thousand times as many as at present, which would give them no time adequate to the attainment of human perfection, even if their theories were correct. Furthermore, evolutionists are becoming discouraged with their own theories, in view of the fact that mental, moral and physical decay seem to be on the increase, despite the heroic efforts made by noble souls to stem the tide. Despite the efforts of our learned physicians and surgeons the race is growing weaker and diseases multiply proportionately.
Education does not stop immorality, vice, criminality-our prisons and reformatories are overflowing. Humanity’s brain power is deteriorating. Asylums are multiplying and yet are crowded. In our noble Empire State more than thirty-two thousand thus mentally unequal, are confined in asylums-one out of every one hundred of the adult population of the State. It surely is time to bring forward some more satisfactory solution of the matter than the Evolution theory can offer, of attaining human perfection-God-likeness.
HUMAN EQUALITY THE DIVINE PURPOSE It has well been said that "Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity." The Bible, ignored or scoffed at in the colleges, and misunderstood and misrepresented in the house of its friends, is now in God’s due time coming to the front. To the astonishment of Bible students the Holy Spirit is illuminating its parables and dark sayings in an astounding manner. Instead of its being the foolish old Book that many of us once supposed, it is now radiating a light all its own-harmonious, reasonable, grandly beautiful-the very thing that honest, intelligent souls have yearned for and sought for ages. Astonishing wonder! The Bible tells that from the very first God has planned a world-wide Human Equality. More than this, the Bible indicates just when this condition of things will come to pass. Furthermore, it tells precisely the instrumentalities and methods God will use in bringing it to passl Only concisely can we portray this great, marvelous story of Holy Writ in our allotted space. Briefly: God foreknow the disobedience of the first man, who was created in his Maker’s moral likeness-perfect, yet untrained and inexperienced.
The Creator permitted him to take his course, to bring upon himself sorrow, pain, crying and dying-mental, moral and physical imperfection; not eternal torment in some other world, as taught by our creeds and generally misunderstood by all.
The Divine purpose, according to the Bible, is that humanity’s troubles and difficulties shall eventually prove educational to all. The Divine Program as therein set forth is divided into seven great Epochs or Days, corresponding to the human week. For six of these great Thousand-Year Days man has labored in toil and sweat of face to extricate himself from the entanglements of his fallen condition-sin, sickness, sorrow, pain, tears, dying.
But as we have seen, all of these efforts have been futile. The sages of the past, who sought the world around for the waters of life and elixirs of health, have been followed by our great schools of medicine and thousands of able practitioners-to no effect. In spite of all our efforts, we are a dying race. As St. Paul declared: The world has been living under a reign of "Sin and Death," for six of these great Days, each a thousand years long.
We are now entering the Seventh Day, or Epoch. We have been amazed that the aurora of its dawn has been so much brighter than that of its predecessors. Within its first fifty years the world has been illumined with rich blessings of intelligence, which evidently come, not because of humanity’s increased mental powers, but because the hand of Divine providence is lifting the veil and scattering the mists hitherto impenetrable. The Bible explains that according to the Divine Plan, arranged before man’s creation, the Seventh Day or Thousand-Year Epoch is to be totally different from the preceding six. Through appointed agencies "God will wipe away all tears from off all faces"-the curse or blight of sin, DEATH, will be removed. Instead, the sunshine of Divine favor will bring to humanity life, joy, peace, not through Evolution, but through Restitution. Acts 3:19-21
ORIGINAL CAUSE OF HUMAN INEQUALITY According to the Bible, humanity deteriorated at an alarming rate for four thousand years. St. Paul explains to us that this degradation, which is still more or less manifest all over the earth, came because of [HG638] human willfulness and because God did not interfere to hinder the demoralizing course, except in a few instances-Sodom, Nineveh, etc. We read, "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, . . . Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts . . . and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, . . . being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, malignity. ”Two ways were open to the Creator in dealing with His rebellious creatures:
(1) He could coerce them or destroy them.
(2) He could permit them to take their course and learn the lesson of the "exceeding sinfulness of sin"; and that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Then He would reveal to His creatures His own character of Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power, and demonstrate that He could provide and offer to them recovery from the plight into which disobedience had plunged them-recovery from sin, weakness, sorrow, pain, death-or the alternative of obedience to these blessings, would bring annihilation, "everlasting destruction" (2 Thess. 1:9) to perish "like natural brute beasts." (2 Pet. 2:12) The latter is the plan which God adopted according to the Bible. Who can dispute its reasonableness, it justice, its love, its God-likeness?
Retracing our steps we see in the light of the Bible that while the world in general took its own course, God revealed Himself nearly twenty-five hundred years after the fall, to Father Abraham-because of His loyalty of heart. However, the great Seventh Day appointed for Earth’s blessing was yet far distant. And so the Almighty, instead of changing the operation of His Plan, merely injected into the loyal heart and head of Abraham an illuminating ray-a divine promise which pointed down to the great time of blessing. God informed Abraham that the prevalent blight, or curse, of death would ultimately give place to a general blessing which would affect every member of the human family. He assured him that this blessing would be bestowed through members of the sin-cursed race, and that Abraham’s descendants would be prominently identified with the work of blessing. Abraham merely got heart-inspirations. These were handed down to Isaac, to Jacob, to all Israel; and these promises are the basis of all Christian hopes. As expressed in Jesus’ prayer, "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, even as it is done in Heaven."
Here we see exemplified the power of the mind and its uplifting influence. Not that all the Jews were lifted out of sin and idolatry to grandeur of character-only a few were thus exercised. The others received merely a secondary influence from the promises, which they imperfectly understood and but slightly believed. It has been the same during this Christian era. The wonderful words of life and hope through the Kingdom preached by Jesus and His Apostles had a quickening effect, a transforming influence, a sanctifying power, upon the comparatively few who heartily believed and loyally obeyed throughout this Age. The secondary influence of the teachings of Christ are manifest in the higher civilization that has since come into the world-much of it merely a form of godliness without the real power-nevertheless, this reflex influence of this last Message from Jehovah has done much to lift the whole world out of its previously helpless stupor.
DIVINE METHOD OF RESTORING EQUALITY The Bible explains that the dying conditions which have prevailed in the world for six thousand years are to give place to resurrection influences in the great Seventh Day already dawning. In that day Messiah will reign-exercise Divine power in the interest of humanity. Satan and all malevolent influences opposed to God, righteousness, truth, will be bound or restrained; and good, helpful, blessed influences, knowledge, truths, will, like a rising sun of righteousness, flood the whole earth with blessings and helpful opportunities of return to Divine favor and everlasting life.
God’s promise to Abraham, "the hope set before us in the Gospel" (Heb. 6:13-19), is so comprehensive as to include every member of our race in the blessings promised. "In thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." This, as Jesus and the Apostles pointed out, guarantees a resurrection of the dead-both just and unjust, "every man in his own order," company, or class. The first, or chief, resurrection Jesus informs us will include none but the saintly class who faithfully follow His leading in their hearts, and, so far as possible, in their words and deeds. (Rev. 20:4,5) Only the saintly will receive perfection of life at the Second Coming of Christ.
The world’s resurrection will be a gradual process, lasting a thousand years, the reward of everlasting life obtainable only when the thousand years are finished.
The entire work of Messiah’s Kingdom will be restitutionary, uplifting, resurrecting, and will include every member of Adam’s race-involved in sin and death through one man’s disobedience (Adam), [HG639] and privileged to have return to Divine favor through the merit of the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Retribution there will be, the Bible assures us.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." But those retributions will not be vindictive, nor will they be administered during death, nor by Satan and his hosts. They will be purifying, administered in sympathy and love, with a view of correction in righteousness and the uplifting of the degraded ones gradually back to the Divine image. The judges of the world who will administer those corrections and rewards, the Bible tells us, will be Christ and the Church in glory-unseen-on the spirit plane.
THE SPIRIT OF DISCONTENT RETARDING THE BLESSINGS The Bible, as now better understood, teaches that these glorious things of God’s grace, these blessings for every creature of the human family, are nigh, at the door. Although so near us, they are discernible only by those who are permitted to look through the key-hole of the Bible. The view there seen is that the multiplied blessings of this dawning hour of the Millennium are not being received by mankind in a proper spirit. Gratitude, thankfulness and love are not the fruits of this increase of blessings and knowledge; but on the contrary faith in the Almighty is decreasing; anchorages of faith are breaking; selfishness, envy, hatred, strife-" every man’s hand against his brother"-are increasing. Thus we demonstrate that earthly blessings are really injurious to those out of tune with the Infinite One.
The talents of Mr. Shaw and other able men of humanitarian instinct, or allied with Socialism, are farming the spirit of discontent and slowly, but surely, guiding the less mentally efficient onto the rocks of revolution. They are doing this in all honesty, too-because they do not see the great Divine Plan outlined in the foregoing. The Bible tells all this to those who have learned to read it right. It shows us that a revolution is at hand, short, sharp, terrible-" a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation." (Dan. 12:1) In that revolution according to the Bible, the social earth will melt and disintegrate in the fervency or heat of the strife, and the symbolic heavens (ecclesiasticism) will be involved and pass away with a great commotion.
But then, O joy! God’s time will come for human rescue from human passion.
Messiah will interpose and still the storm of human passion, and there shall be a great calm. Thus in God’s providence mankind will be permitted to go the full length in demonstrating that only Divine power can rescue them. Then as the Scriptures declare, "The desire of all nations shall come"-Messiah’s reign of righteousness, truth, justice, mercy, love.
Volume 6, Number 2 RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC GLEANINGS
HOLY ROLLER FOOLISHNESS "So thoroughly entrenched is the doctrine of religious freedom that the public has tolerated practices which have caused the innocent to suffer in many instances.
St. Louis Globe-Democrat"An illustration comes from Newton, 111., where an epileptic youth was beaten by so-called Holy Rollers with the hope that the beating might exorcise the devils supposed to be responsible for the condition of the unfortunate lad. A still more striking illustration was the wholesale slaughter by "Adam God" and his crew of fanatics at Kansas City. The Holy Rollers base most of their claims on a portion of the last chapter in Mark, which does not appear in the Vatican and other old manuscripts. They profess power to heal any illness, the ability to speak in an unknown tongue and many other miraculous gifts. In their public services they have various forms of nervous spasms and jump up and down in ecstasy, giving rise to one of their appellations, Holy Jumpers. At other times they roll on the floor and babble. Some occasionally go into trances. They surround the sick and carry on their babbling, singing and shouting, creating a condition that aggravates nervous disorders and could not be beneficial to a patient ill of any malady.
"In dozens of communities the victims of this religious mania allow children to die of ailments that are seldom fatal when treated by physicians. Yet because of the sincerity of parents and the fact that the children might have died, even if given proper attention, jurors are reluctant to return verdicts of guilty in criminal prosecutions. Criminal prosecutions do not stay the mania. When the leaders are committed to jail they compare themselves to Peter, Silas, Paul and other early Christians and count their imprisonment persecution and take glory in it. They hold services in [HG640] jail and impress fellow-prisoners and jail officials with their sincerity. It is useless to argue with them. If a person over whom they hold their prayers and services recovers, it is proof of their divine influence; if the person dies, it is a sign that his appointed time had come. Any event is interpreted as a mark of favor or an indication of the Lord’s displeasure. Few of them are impostors and their criminal prosecution would not be just."
CALIFORNIA STAR GAZERS MAKE FINDS Information sent out from the Lick Observatory in California is that the particular universe of stars in which we dwell is half again as large in scale as the world has been supposing. Our own sun is still youthful, and keeps travelling northwardly through space at the comparatively leisurely pace of twelve miles per second, or only two-thirds the average speed of stars of its own class. The North Star is not really a single star, but triple, consisting of three suns revolving about a common center.
PREACHERS HAVE POOR OPINIONS OF EACH OTHER "The trouble with the church of today is the fact that it has too many pinheads," said the Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher, of the Temple Baptist Church, Los Angeles, before the National Baptists Association in convention here today. Dr. Brougher’s statement caused somewhat of a stir among the delegates. Dr. Brougher said further: "The church is hindered in its progress by a bunch of weazen, hammered-down tightwads, and is the greatest congregating place for downright backwoods people. The only comparison I can emphasize as to its progress is a woman wearing an encumbering hobble skirt." Sacramento Union Mr. Marconi says that he believes the day is not far off when the human voice will cross the Atlantic by wireless telephone; that the results of his recent experiments are conclusive of this prophecy.
DARWIN EVOLUTION THEORY EXPLODED This article was republished in Reprints R4846-R4847, July 1, 1911, entitled, "Darwin’s Evolution Theory Falling."
By William Hanna Thomson, M. D.
"BLESSED ARE THE MEEK" This Article was republished in Reprint 5370, December 15, 1913, entitled, "Blessed Are The Meek."
MISCELLANEOUS COLUMN
"WITHIN THE LAW" "I have listened to nearly all the great preachers of the world, but I never heard from any one of them so powerful a sermon as was preached to me in ‘Within the Law. ‘It was an eye-opener, a soul-rouser, a heartwarmer! It made you feel good; it made you feel bad; it threw you down to the bottom of the abyss, it lifted you to the glorious heights; it made you cry, it made you shout for joy.
"Poor humanity, what a hard time you have had of it down through the long, sad, weary agesl How your saviors have crucified you, how your governments and laws have robbed and oppressed you; how your [HG641] institutions, professions, sanctities have bled you, brutalized you, degraded and damned you! You are still very sad and miserable, after thousands of years of honest struggle for uplift and progress. Squalor, wretchedness, degradation, almost despair, are written very plainly in your looks and still more plainly in your deeds.
HYPOCRISY AND GREED "Yes, you have had a hard time of it. It is because the whole fabric of Sociay, the whole machinery of State, of Business, of Politics, of the Law, has been dominated by the spirit of the twin-devils of Hypocrisy and Greed.
"The politicians and statesmen have been talking of reform; the legal gentlemen have been shouting about justice; the preachers have been bombarding their congregations with beautiful platitudes on Heaven and the rapture of the saints; and all the while the canker of Greed and Indifference to the great Natural Law of Right, which should ever prevail between man and man, has been eating away at the heart of human joy and human good.
"If Richard Gilder can but make his millions he does not care a continental what becomes of Mary Turner and Helen Morris.
"If Inspector Burke can only ‘convict’ somebody, he doesn’t care the toss of a copper whether the person convicted is guilty or innocent.
THE MAIN THING "If you can only get wealth and power, it makes no difference how you get them, they will make you a ‘big one, ‘and that is the main thing.
"If you are only ‘orthodox’ in religion, then a fig for such idle questions as ‘Is this orthodoxy true or false? Does it emancipate and uplift the mind or enslave and degrade it ? Is it a blessing or a curse ?’
"If the outside of things is all right no matter about the inside. Keep up the Appearances. Make a good bluff. Be a hypocrite, and act your part so damnably fine that no one will be able to ‘catch on’ to the game.
"It is a wide-reaching, lynx-eyed, all-searching, remorseless inquisition, that drags out into the light of day, and mercilessly flays, the double-dealing, insincerity and cold-blooded selfishness and brutality of institutional society.
"LIVERY OF HEAVEN" "It shows us what a terrible thing it is for a man to forget the right of his fellowmen. It makes us feel how supremely necessary it is that we should all feel a loving interest in one another, and be willing-gladly, joyfully willing-to find our happiness in the happiness of others, if possible, in the happiness of all. It makes us ashamed of the shark-toothed greed which gloats over the gain that involves the misery and ruin of other human beings. It makes us hate with all our heart the suave, oily, decorous hypocrisy that prates of good while it is working evil, and that in its flawless livery of heaven is doing what it can to turn earth into a hell.
"Is it not about time that those ‘in authority’ had taken off their masks and looked their fellows squarely in the face? Isn’t it about time that we had begun to love simple truth, and to love one another more than we love place, and power, and gold? Isn’t it high time we had come to the conclusion that there is nothing holier than human love and happiness, just as there is nothing unholier than the brutal selfishness or spic-and-span hypocrisy which would sacrifice these things to their personal upbuilding?" Rev. T. B. Gregory in New York American On the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus broiled some fish one fine morning upwards of 1900 years ago, a sardine canning factory is planned.
THE GOLDEN AGE NOW DAWNING This article can be found in its entirety in the Newspaper Sermons, entitled, "The Dawn of the Golden Age of the Prophets and the Poets. "
Peace, perfect peace! by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.
[HG642]
INFANTS SAVED FROM TORTURE "Else were your children unholy, but now are they holy." 1 Cor. 7:14
This text, which differentiates between holy and unholy infants, was probably the basis for much of the confusion which has prevailed in all denominations on the subject of infant salvation and infant damnation.
Some months ago the Presbyterian General Assembly in the United States took a very advanced theological step on this subject. According to telegraphic dispatches, it has altered the Presbyterian Confession of Faith so as to save the non-elect infants as well as the elect ones.
The thought that God had arranged a Plan by which some infants would go to Heaven at death and other infants would go to eternal torture has for centuries greatly troubled the minds of all Christian people Catholic and Protestant. Some said that the elect infants would be saved and the non-elect infants would be tortured. Others had it that any infant by baptism would be brought into the Church and be saved, while infants not thus baptized or sprinkled would go to eternal torture. Others had it that none could be saved without regeneration, and these were perplexed to know how infants could be said to be regenerated.
Therefore how could they hope that any infants would be saved? The hearts and the heads of all good people have suffered terribly for many centuries because of these confused ideas.
It is gratifying to see that with the Presbyterians, at least, love and sympathy have triumphed, and that, so far as they are concerned, 30,000 infants daily go to Heaven, instead of going to Hell. Certainly this is a missionary project of no mean proportions! At this rate they no doubt believe that Heaven will soon begin to have reasonable proportions as compared with Hell. We regret that the brethren did not take any measures looking toward the relief of the non-elect infants of the past, who now must number thousands of millions. This point is worthy of consideration, and we trust will have their attention.
And since the matter is so easily adjusted, why would it not be the proper thing for all Christian denominations to follow the lead and example of the Presbyterians? We fear that not many of the other denominations will join the Presbyterians in their generous work of helping the infants. They might reason that if all infants dying in infancy are saved, it might be the safest thing that parents could do for their children to insure their eternal salvation by killing them in infancy. Then baby incubators and various devices-medicines, foods, etc. intended for preservation of infants’ lives might come to be considered detrimental to the eternal interests of the children!
But how foolish all such theories seem! How beautiful by contrast is the simple teaching of the Bible, that the salvation for all-old and young, of heathen lands as well as of Christian lands-is through the resurrection power of Messiah’s Kingdom-through its enlightening and uplifting, or resurrecting influences! Why should we longer trouble ourselves with the errors of the Dark Ages, where God’s Message, the Bible, is now opening up for His people, shining as an electric lamp, in contrast with the tallow-candle darkness of the creeds?
UNABLE TO AGREE We feel great sympathy for the move made by the Presbyterian brethren, but, nevertheless, we are unable to agree with their conclusions, believing that the Bible teaches otherwise. We realize that the Presbyterian view of Election makes it difficult for them to deal with the non-elect, both adults and infants. We find the Scriptures declaring that God is selecting, or electing, the Church from amongst the world. We concede that those not elected would be properly termed non-elect.
But we find nothing in the Bible to indicate that non-election to joint-heirship in Messiah’s Kingdom means predestination to an eternity of torture.
We realize, too, that the Presbyterian friends must feel considerable embarrassment in trying to adjust themselves to their changed creed. For if there are no non-elect infants, then all infants are elect; and if elect when infants, how could their predestination change with advancing years? Our advice to Presbyterian brethren is that the entire creed be recast; or, better still, that it and all other creeds be abandoned, and the Bible as a whole be accepted. Then all Bible students could come together without prejudice for mutual assistance and untrammeled growth in grace along Bible lines.
While we mention Presbyterians, our thought includes all Christians. For surely many others than Presbyterians have been consigning adults and infants to the number of at least 90,000 every day, or 32,000,000 every year, to eternal torture, if not because non-elect, then because unregenerate, or unbaptized. Surely all intelligent people are out of accord with such a proposition. Surely all must agree that some great mistake has been made during the Dark Ages, and that under the influence of that [HG643] mistake, as expressed in our creeds, our God has been slandered. Surely today every thinking person will concede that a human being planning such atrocities would be a thousand times more devilish than any one known in history, and surely our great God, our Creator, could not be worse than the worst and most depraved of all His creatures!
On the contrary, God must of necessity be the very personification of all the graces-Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power. Evidently a God who foreknow and determined to send these 32,000,000 human beings per year to an eternity of torture would not only not be a God at all, but would be the most terrible devil that the human could conceivel Bible students are realizing that a great mistake has occurred, and that the Bible teaches nothing of the kind we had supposed. More and more, as the eyes of their understanding open to proper interpretations of God’s Word, they are appreciating the Divine character and the Bible as never before.
DIFFICULTIES STILL AHEAD As we understand it, our Presbyterian friends have changed the statement of the creed, which formerly read, "Elect infants dying in infancy are saved"-taking out the word "elect" and letting it read, "Infants dying in infancy are saved." But is this true? Do our Presbyterian friends believe this?
Come, let us reason together: Are not the children as well as the more matured members of Adam’s family born in sin and misshapened in iniquity? Are not all of these by nature "children of wrath?" Did not every member of Adam’s family come under his sentence and participate in the penalty, or curse, of his sin-" Dying, thou shalt die"? Is not this the reason that infants die at all? Will not all concede that had there been no sin there would have been no death in the human family? Does not St. Paul distinctly state this, saying, "By one man’s disobedience sin entered the world, and death as the result of sin, and thus death passed upon all men, because all are sinners"? Rom. 5:12; Psalm 51:5
ALL CONDEMNED NEED REDEMPTION Surely all Christian people, Presbyterians especially, will agree that the sentence of death, passed upon Father Adam and inherited by his race, must needs be settled, cancelled, before any of his posterity, old or young, could be released from the penalty. True, we all agree that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is the redemption price and that He provided it more than eighteen centuries ago. But do we not also agree that Jesus’ death, of itself, saves nobody; that His merit becomes applicable even to us of the Church only at such time as we believe in it and accept it, appropriating it to ourselves?
Is not this the proclamation of the Gospel Age- "Believe!" "Believe!" Do we not remember the Bible declaration that we are justified by faith, not by being infants? And do we not all agree that faith cannot be exercised except by a more or less developed mind? Hence all should agree that the Scriptural proposition is, that all infants shared in Adam’s sentence of death, and have provision also in the redemptive work of Jesus. Nevertheless, they can be saved only by coming to a knowledge of God and of Jesus, and by then exercising faith and obedience to the extent of ability. We believe this to be an undebatable proposition.
If this be so, then our Presbyterian brethren overstate the matter when they declare that all infants dying in infancy are saved. They might very properly say, All infants dying in infancy, and everybody else, come under the provision of Divine grace in Christ, and must all be brought to a knowledge of the Truth, that they may be saved; and then when thus brought to know the Lord and the terms of salvation, the results will depend upon themselves. If they accept, they may have the everlasting life provided; if they reject, they will experience the Second Death.
WHAT SAY THE SCRIPTURES? We have already intimated the teaching of the Bible. All mankind came under the Divine curse, or sentence of death not eternal torment. "In due time Christ died for the ungodly"-for every one of them-for all those who lived before His crucifixion, and for all born since-for white and black, old and young-of every nation. Because of this general redemption, co-extensive with the curse, or sentence of death, there is to be a recovery from the curse of death. All mankind are thus to be made amenable to the release from the death penalty to have the opportunity of a resurrection out of sin and death conditions back to perfect life conditions. Only those who willfully and intelligently reject this grace of God will die the Second Death-be blotted out as though they had never been-perish like natural brute beasts. 2 Pet. 2:12 From this standpoint we see that nobody is saved yet. All both infant and adults, heathen and Christians go to Sheol, Hades, the tomb, the state of death. All are said to sleep in Sheol, Hades, the tomb, until the glorious Morning of the New Dispensation, Messiah’s Kingdom of glory. Then the Church will constitute the First Resurrection class, to Heavenly glories and honors and Divine nature.
Following this, the Church with her Lord will reign as kings and [HG644] priests, for the blessing of the entire human family, of all ages, nationalities and colors.
In other words, according to the Bible none has gone to Heaven. As Jesus said, "No man hath ascended into Heaven." John 3:13) Hence there are no infants in Heaven. All infants who have died have gone to the Bible Hell, the tomb, and "know not anything." They merely await the time when the Kingdom shall be in power, and the awakening processes shall begin to operate; and they shall come forth from death each in his own band, or company. 1 Cor. 15:23; John 5:28, 29 R. V.
HOPE FOR ALL CHILDREN There is another theological theory, which has no Scriptural foundation, but which claims that every infant is immortal, and that the present life, long or short, favorable or unfavorable, constitutes the only opportunity ever to be enjoyed for reforming character and becoming fit for a happy eternity. Hence, according to this unscriptural theory, the children of unbelievers conceived and born in sin and depravity as are all mankind, more or less-are unprepared for an eternity of bliss, and consequently must spend that eternity in pain and horror.
But let us rid the mind of this false theory, and go by Scripture alone. As the Word of God declares, "God only hath immortality." Therefore no infants are immortal. When God said, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." He meant it. When He declared, "All the wicked will I destroy," He meant it. The penalty upon Adam and his race is death; and therefore children and all others die because of Adam’s sin. The worst that can befall the children of unbelievers would be death.
What, then, is the Scriptural hope for the children of unbelievers? It is exactly the same as for the children of saints; namely, that Christ Jesus our Lord tasted death for every man when he tasted death for Adam; for all are under Adam’s sentence of condemnation to death. One man’s sin brought the death penalty upon all; therefore the one man’s Ransom was the Ransom for all. The children of the unbelievers were redeemed in the most absolute sense from the entire condemnation of death. Indeed, none but sinners were redeemed. "Christ died for the ungodly." All are ungodly; all are sinners. Hence, all die; and all need to be redeemed, else they would have no hope of a resurrection.
In the Messianic Kingdom, the Resurrection Age, children of believers will have a little advantage over the children of unbelievers, in that they will have less depraved organisms when awakened. But under the grand resurrection processes then at work such disadvantages will soon be overcome. All who are willing and obedient shall be brought to a full knowledge of the Truth and full opportunities for complete Restitution, back to all that was lost to Adam, for himself and his posterity. In that day it will no more be said, "The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge." "Every one shall die for his own iniquity." "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Jer. 31:29, 30; Eze. 18:2-4 How reasonable are the ways of God? How plainly are they stated in the Word!
Those who have the eye and the ear of faith, who are harkening to the Word of the living God rather than to the dead creeds of the Dark Ages, have a joy and peace of mind which is a source of strength unknown to others.
According to the Divine arrangement, parents are responsible in respect to their children. The conscientious parent has a wonderful opportunity to train his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Christian parent should earnestly seek for the wisdom from above, that he may be able to rightly discharge his duties under all circumstances, even the most trying.
NOTICE OUR TEXT AGAIN The Apostle clearly distinguishes between the children of believers and the children of unbelievers. His argument is that the children of unbelievers are without any relationship to God, and without any supervision from Him; while the children of believers, because of parental relationship, are subjects of Divine supervision and care. For these, as for their parents, all things work together for good-for their welfare. this Divine supervision on account of their parents will, of course, terminate when the individual child comes to years of discretion and responsibility. Then he must enter into personal relationship with God, or, like the remainder of the world, be outside of any relationship with Him, until the Day of Christ, a thousand years long. Then whosoever will may come.
OBLIVION NOT ANNIHILATION This article was republished in Reprint 5327, October 1, 1913, entitled, "Oblivion Not Annihilation."
[HG645]
ERRORS OF DEATH-BED REPENTANCE "Verily I say unto thee this day, thou shalt be untie Me in Paradise." Luke 23:43
Few of the Master’s words have been so misunderstood as has this text, and few have produced so terrible a fruitage of sin. The influence of the text is greatly increased by the unscriptural thought that the dying sinner passes into everlasting torture. Those under the spell of that false doctrine cannot be reproved for wishing to escape from its terrifying influence. As the drowning man grasps at a straw, so those whose hopes for their dead are being held up by this error, grasp at the narrative of the thief, and hope that their departed experienced a momentary repentance, said, "Jesus, forgive me," and straightway was carried to Paradise.
The absurdity of the proposition is crowded out by the mingling of the hope with their love for the deceased.
Well do we remember conducting a funeral service which was interrupted by the wails of the widow. The husband had been shot by an assassin’s bullet in a distant mining region. He had died not being a member of a church, and by no means a saint. The poor widow’s wails, we afterward learned, were caused by the thought that not having had a moment’s warning, the murdered had failed to say, "God forgive me," and thus to gain Paradise.
Who can blame the poor woman for the absurdity of her reasoning? Had she not been taught so to think by all the great creeds of Christendom? Had not her husband and she been taking that very chance of having a moment for repentance before expiring? It is a shame that this wrong thought has been so long allowed to keep people back from making their peace with God in earlier life.
REPENTANCE ALWAYS PROPER, OF COURSE Let us not be misunderstood. We would not discourage a death-bed repentance, or any other. We would, however, have all to recognize that there are fixed rules of Divine Justice which forbid us to think that there is a hell full of unfortunates who died suddenly, with no opportunity for repentance; that there is a Heaven full of lucky murderers, thieves and vagabonds, who were carried to glory without any real change of heart or character, but merely as a reward for momentary prayer.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Whoever sows a life of sin and self-indulgence will not reap glory, honor, immortality, but a more depraved disposition than that with which he was born.
THE DYING THIEF’S PRAYER The supposition that the dying thief asked to go to Heaven with Jesus as a reward for a few kindly words is a mistake. The supposition that Jesus promised that he would go to Heaven that same day is also a mistake. Jesus did not go to Heaven that day. Instead, He went to the Bible Hell-Hades, Sheol, the tomb. He remained dead, St. Peter tells us, until the third day, when God raised Him from the dead by Divine Power. It was after His resurrection on the third day that He appeared to Mary and said, "I have not yet ascended to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." John 20:17
The Bible tells that Paradise was lost through Adam’s sin, six thousand years ago; that it is to be restored as a result of Jesus’ death; and the time of its restoration will be during the thousand years of Messiah’s Kingdom. Since there was no Paradise when Jesus died, He could not have meant that the thief would be there with Him that day. The claim made by Jesus was that He was to be a King. The thieves had heard Pilate’s question, "Art Thou a King, then?" They had heard Jesus’ reply, that to this end was He born. But He added, "My Kingdom is not of this Age."
The thief caught the thought that the grand, kingly Character beside him was probably the Messiah, the King of Israel. How to explain the circumstances of that dark hour he knew not, but he defended Jesus. Then with a measure of hope he said, "Lord, when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom remember me." In other words, I believe that you are a King, and that somehow you will yet have a Kingdom. I have sufficient faith to ask you to grant a poor thief a blessing when you reach that Kingdom.
MISPLACEMENT OF COMMA BY TRANSLATORS Jesus’ reply should be carefully studied. In substance it was, Poor thief, I appreciate your words; and when My Kingdom shall be established, I will remember your kindness and will reward it. Notwithstanding this dark day with its unfavorable setting, I am really a King, and these experiences are necessary for Me, that I may enter into My Kingdom. ThusJesus said, Be it as you have asked-I will remember you when I come into possession of My Kingdom. "Verily I say unto thee this day, thou shalt be with Me in Paradise."
The difficulty has been with the wrong thought of the translators, and the misplacement of the comma. [HG646] Punctuation is a modern convenience in all languages. there is none in the original Scriptures. The translators put the comma where they thought it should be, but evidently they made a great mistake. It would be thoroughly inconsistent to say that Jesus went to Paradise, when He had not yet ascended to the Father, and when the promised Paradise is to be established in the earth after the Second Coming of Christ, as a result of His Millennial Reign. Rev. 21:3-5 Placing the comma where we have done leaves the passage thoroughly in accord with all the Bible. That passage, properly understood, leaves not a shadow of Scriptural support to the thought that a prayer a moment before death would change the eternal destiny of anybody.
BOTH THIEVES IN BIBLE HELL Let us get back to the Bible. Let us get rid of the foolishness of the creeds. Let us remember that a dead man is dead, as the Bible declares. "His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; they come to dishonor, but he perceiveth it not of them." "There is neither device nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [Hades, the tomb], whither thou goest"-whither all go.
But nothing in the Bible suggests that man dies in the same sense as the brute.
There is no hope for a future life for the brute, but God’s Word stands pledged for a future life for humanity. "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust." "All that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and come forth."
The Bible tells that unless Christ had redeemed the life of mankind by the sacrifice of His own life, there would have been no resurrection of the dead. But from the foundation of the world God purposed a resurrection; and that Jesus should eventually be the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world. "As by a man [Adam] came death, by a man Jesus] comes the resurrection of the dead; for as all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made alive"-" every man in his own order." 1 Cor. 15:21-23
Jesus Himself, we read, was the first to rise from the dead to be fully released from the power of death. Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, etc., were not resurrected in lull, but merely awakened temporarily. They fell asleep in death again, and will have in their own due time the Divinely appointed opportunity for a resurrection.
According to the Bible, the Church will be the next in order, and will have a resurrection to spirit nature, similar to that of Jesus; hence the Apostle’s desire to share in Christ’s resurrection by having a share in His sacrificial death. "For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him." 2 Tim. 2:11 Next after the Church will come the resurrection of the Ancient Worthies, of whom John the Baptist was the last. Their resurrection was referred to by St. Paul in Hebrews 11, where he declares that "God has reserved some better thing for us [the Church], that they without us should not be made perfect."
EACH IN HIS OWN ORDER St. Paul declares that in the resurrection every man will come forth in his own order, or band, or company. When the due time shall come for the awakening of the generation which crucified Jesus, quite probably both the thieves will come forth from death at or about the same time. Both thieves will receive the blessing purchased for them by the Redeemer’s death-to be brought to a knowledge of the Truth, to be helped up out of ignorance, superstition, blindness by rewards, stripes, punishments-if they will, to human perfection, lost in Adam, redeemed by Jesus.
But there will be a difference between the conditions of the two thieves. Both will be in Paradise; for the whole earth is to be a Paradise. The hardened thief may have had a less favorable birth, or a less favorable environment in life. Only the Lord, the great Judge, is able to know how much excuse should be made for him and how much penalty should attach to him.
The penitent thief will be much more favorably conditioned, not merely because he spoke some kindly words to the Master in His hour of tribulation, but especially because those words indicate that his heart was in a more just and tender condition. Additionally we are to remember that the Lord has especially promised that every good deed done to Himself, or any of His followers, shall receive a special reward. Any such sympathy or kindness would imply a condition of heart not far from the Kingdom; hence the promise of a special blessing for such good deeds bespeaks Divine recognition of principle and character.
"THERE’S A WIDENESS IN GOD’S MERCY LIKE THE WIDENESS OF THE SEA" It seems difficult to many to think of God’s having a provision for the majority of our race in the future. Somehow the impression has gone abroad that everlasting destinies are fixed at death. The only text ever quoted in support of this thought is a statement that "where a tree falleth there shall it lie." (Eccl. 11:3) Sure enough the fallen tree cannot raise itself. And sure enough man, fallen into death, is [HG647] equally powerless. There he would be forever were it not for the Divine arrangement for his awakening by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many of us have been too free to believe that the penalty for sin may be entirely escaped by a simple word of prayer, and yet reversely have believed that there could be no forgiveness of sins after death. The only explanation of this persistent thought in the minds of the masses is that they were taught that destinies were fixed at death by the taking of the dying one over to a fiery Hell, or to a blazing Purgatory, or to a blissful Heaven.
After all, in confusion did we not once say that everybody, for a time at least, would be brought out of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell to attend a Judgment scene-quite contrary to reason and the Bible-a Judgment to determine whether any mistake had been made in regard to who had Heaven, who had Hell and who had Purgatory? How foolish we have been-how stupid, how inconsistent, how unscriptural!
"EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW" Now we see that the dead are simply sleeping until the Morning, when all the sleepers will be awakened by Him who died for all. Now we see that no changes take place in the moral status of the dead, nor in the Divine standards. He who forgave us our sins when we confessed them and forsook them is "the same yesterday, today and forever," and will be just as ready to forgive the world of mankind, when in due time He shall send them light and they shall believe and repent.
Surely there is no more reason why a sinner could not be forgiven in the future than that a sinner could not be forgiven in the present. When sinners are forgiven now, it does not mean that they obtain full release from some proper penalty for their sins sickness, sorrow, pain. Nor will the forgiveness of sins in the future Age mean that no stripes will be put upon the transgressors. Jesus distinctly tells us respecting that future Age that then those who have sinned against knowledge, light, will be punished with many stripes, while those who have sinned with less light will be punished with few stripes. Luke 12:47, 48
Take for example the son of the widow of Nain, or others of those awakened by our Lord. We know little respecting their relationship to God. This widow’s son may have been a good man or a wicked man; but the fact that he had been awakened from the sleep of death by the Master would certainly work no injury to him afterward in the matter of forgiving sins for which he might repent.
God’s entire object in providing the Kingdom of Messiah and in restraining Satan and causing the knowledge of God’s glory to fill the earth is to give mankind a better opportunity than is now generally enjoyed for repentance and reconciliation with Himself. Now, only the favored few can see, can hear, can understand. Then, all, from the least to the greatest, shall be brought to a knowledge of the Lord and His goodness, and unto Him "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess."
JUDGMENT FOR A THOUSAND YEARS Now we see by the light of the Bible that good and bad, civilized and heathen, all go, at death, to the Bible hell to Sheol, Hades, the tomb. Now we see that all are waiting for the glorious Morning, to be ushered in by the Second Coming of Jesus. Now we see that only the few have yet had the light and blessing which determines their everlasting destiny; that the overcomers of this Gospel Age will be associated with Jesus as spirit beings in the Kingdom, while the overcomers of previous times will be associated with the same Kingdom as its earthly representatives. In their cases only will the Divine judgment have been settled.
The remainder of mankind, dying in more or less ignorance of God and His terms of acceptance of sinners, are to have their judgment, or trial, during the thousand years of Messiah’s Kingdom. The willing and obedient shall be blessed and enter into life eternal. The disobedient, wilful sinner will die the Second Death.
MORE TOLERABLE FOR SODOMITES Jesus, in speaking of that coming Judgment Day of the world, declared that the Sodomites will be there, as well as the people to whom He preached. And significantly He stated that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum; for if the Sodomites had been privileged to enjoy the preaching of Jesus they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
From the Master’s words we thus perceive how serious might be our misjudgments of the hearts of men. The people of Bethsaida, Chorazin and Capernaum were regular attendants of the synagogues-decent people, having a form of godliness, but knowing little or nothing of its power. They will have an opportunity also during the thousand-year Judgment Day of Messiah’s Kingdom.
If they will, they may then learn the lessons necessary and eventually attain everlasting life. But because of their greater privileges, the blessings they will enjoy in the future will be correspondingly curtailed; and it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for them.
[HG648]
SALVATION UNIVERSAL AND YET LIMITED This article was republished in Reprint R5372, December 15, 1913, entitled, "Salvation -Universal And Limited."
Volume 6, Number 3
RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC GLEANINGS
BRYAN ON THE BIBLE "Judged by human standards man is far better prepared to write a Bible now than when our Bible was written. The characters whose words and deeds are recorded in the Bible were members of a single race; they lived among the hills of Palestine in a territory scarcely larger than one of our counties. They did not have printing presses and they lacked the learning of our schools; they had not great libraries to consult, no steamboats to carry them around the world and make them acquainted with the various centers of civilization; they had no telegraph wires to bring them news from the ends of the earth and no newspapers to spread before them each morning the doings of the day before. From what a scantily supplied storehouse of knowledge they had to draw, compared with the unlimited wealth of information at man’s command today! And yet, these Bible characters grapple with every problem that confronts mankind from the creation of the world to eternal life beyond the grave.
William J. Bryan"None but divinely appointed men, with their limited opportunities and facilities and the lack of knowledge of other people, could have written a work that all the philosophers of the world today, with millions of books to cultivate their minds and telegraph wires that keep them in touch with the pulse of all mankind, could not approach in logic, reasoning, example and precept."
HEART AND STOMACH WORK IN GLASS JARS A heart, stomach and kidneys, transferred from the casement of flesh to glass jars in his laboratory by Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute, are now performing their normal functions. This startling announcement was made by Dr. Carrel himself to a group of scientists who listened breathlessly to his account of his latest achievement.
Dr. Carrel has kept a heart, taken from its body, alive for 104 days. His success with this experiment strengthened his belief, he said, that the stomach and other vital organs of animals could be transferred from one body to another without cessation of their normal functions. He experimented with a heart, stomach and kidneys and told the scientists:
"The heart is beating, the stomach is digesting and the kidneys performing their functions as well as ever, while the body that contained them is long since dead."
New York American
BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON At an inter-denominational meeting in New York City recently, the Rev. Charles Jefferson gave expression to these fitting words: "In every capital of Europe you see the gleam of the bayonet and hear the tramp of armed men getting ready for the battle that is coming," said Dr. Jefferson. "In the air you see a fleet of ships in which men are practicing with bombs that they may send cities to destruction.
"We preachers have not done much, but we must do something. We can denounce the present system of maintaining great engines of war. We can insist that our diplomats be men of peace. We can insist that our government work for peace.
We ought to make the idea of war incredible. When we cease believing in war we will have peace."
Scientists of Denver are making a study of the three year-old son of an Italian washerwoman and a Spanish laborer. The boy is regarded as an infant prodigy.
He not only knows his alphabet and can write it, but speaks English, Italian and Spanish. He sings remarkably well, dances and plays on four stringed instruments.
The physicians declare that the child is normal, but possesses the most wonderful intelligence they have ever encountered in one so young.
[HG649]
MISCELLANEOUS COLUMN
PREPARING TO RESTORE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON The Jews are preparing to restore the temple of Solomon. The whole world is being stirred by a startling movement of the Jews toward their homeland. Ten years ago there were only 1,000 Jews in the city of Jerusalem; there are now 100,000. More than 200,000 Jews are found in the colonies recently established in Palestine. These are proving successful; good crops are being raised.
More than $20,000,000 is being invested in railroads. Within the next few months Jerusalem will have become a city of electricity; rails are being laid for electric cars. The Jews have $5,000,000 in a Jerusalem bank. They have purchased a large amount of land.
Until forty years ago the land of Palestine was arid. There were few inhabitants.
There is a prophecy which reads, "In the last days I will pour out upon you again the latter rains." Rain has come in abundance in the last few years; Palestine again blossoms; 10,000 olive trees have been planted in Samaria.
It is believed that Jerusalem will become as of old as the market-place of the Orient, and that Palestine will again "flow with milk and honey." Philadelphia Evening Times
"SEA AND WAVES ROARING" "One of the greatest demonstrations in the history of organized labor was held recently in Hyde Park, London. Fifty thousand sympathizers rallied in support of the nine labor leaders deported from Africa, while the merely curious swelled the crowd to more than 100,000.
"It was a scene of the utmost picturesqueness and impressiveness as, with splendid teamwork, the deported nine rose simultaneously on their respective platforms and a thousand brightly colored banners were raised aloft and shaken, as if in defiance of Botha and the South African Government, while the huge assemblage sang ‘The Red Flag’ and gave the exiles a tremendous welcome.
"Commenting upon the Hyde Park demonstration, "The Daily News says: ‘It is certain that none of the political parties has any idea of the magnitude of the storm brewing. This is not an ordinary labor agitation. What the man in the crowd feels, perhaps, rather than thinks or says, is that in their dealings with the deported nine Gen. Smuts and his colleagues struck a blow, not at trades unionism only, but at the very heart of civilized democracy.