President Lincoln’s Order to the U.S. Army and Navy in 1862.—In view of the United States alliance with us in this momentous struggle, it is interesting to read President Lincoln’s order to the U.S. Army and Navy in the last great crisis in that nation’s history. It is as follows:—”The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will, demand that Sunday labour in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. The discipline and character of the National Forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. ‘At this time of public distress,’ adopting the words of Washington in 1776, ‘men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country, without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.’ The first General Order issued by the Father of his Country, after the Declaration of Independence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should even be defended: ‘The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavour to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.’” This is a high-toned and noble order, worthy of the man who issued it. In this and other quotations we have allowed the name “Sunday” to remain, as the term used by the speakers or writers, though we object to this way of designating the Sabbath, or Lord’s Day.
Another Step in the Wrong Direction.—It would appear that harvest Sabbath breakers are to have a sop to their conscience, at least, the issue of special “Services for Sunday Workers in the Fields,” with a foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop says: “There are places, it is said, in which it will be found really necessary to the due ingathering of crops, and consequently to the safety and wellbeing of our country, that some quite temporary relaxation of our Sunday rule as to rest and worship should be called for.” One would have thought after his experience in giving permission to Sabbath ploughing that the Archbishop had learned that it is a somewhat daring experiment
to tamper with God’s laws, however lightly esteemed by men. Thousands have read, in the trying spring weather we had, God’s answer to men who were to get on without Him and break His laws at the same time.
Russia in the Quagmire.—The woful condition in which Russia finds herself at present is a bitter disappointment to the Allies, and there is danger that the great lesson taught by the chaos created by the Revolution in this mighty nation should be overlooked. Socialism, with a strong element of atheism, is gaining rapidly in the working class circles of the world. It is to bring in an almost ideal state of things as far as man’s happiness in this world is concerned if we are to believe its advocates. In Russia the opportune moment came, and the birth of a new nation freed from the tyranny of Czarism was hailed by the British people as an event of epoch-making importance. Everything was done by this country to make the Socialist Agitators of Russia feel that they were worthy of all praise. But as time goes on, things do not appear quite so promising, and Socialism governing a nation is giving a poor exhibition before the civilized world. We rejoice in knowing that the tyranny of Czarism is broken, but we deeply regret that the power that has broken it is in itself very dangerous and a menace to all true liberty.
A New Revelation and the Coming Revival.—In these days, all sorts of new ideas are advanced by so-called leaders of thought. Some time ago, Sir Conan Doyle wrote in one of the London papers: “In recent years, there has come to us from Divine sources a new revelation which constitutes by far the greatest religious event since the death of Christ. When one knows, as I know, of widows who are assured that they hear the loved voice once again, or of mothers whose hands, groping in the darkness, clasp once again those of the vanished child, and when one considers the loftiness of their intercourse, and the serenity of spirit which succeeds it, I feel sure that a fuller knowledge would calm the doubt of the most scrupulous conscience. Men talk of a great religious revival after the War. Perhaps it is in this direction that it will be.” In ordinary circumstances, these gropings in the dark while the Sun is shining would not be worthy of serious attention, but coming from such a source, and at a time when the seed thus sown falls on fertile ground, it is necessary to be reminded that we have Moses and the Prophets; let us hear them; for if we believe not their testimony, neither would we believe though one came from the dead.