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VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER

THE WAIL OF RUSSIAN PEASANT WOMEN

CZAR NICHOLAS received recently the following remarkable document. It is a petition from the peasant women of the village of Nikolskaje, in the government of Warquesch. It reads:—

“For generations the women of the peasant class have lived without having any rights whatever. From birth to death they have been and are subject to the will of fathers, grandfathers, husbands and sons. We are not even considered human beings, but simply beasts of burden.

“We demand to be taught to read and write; we demand that our daughters be given the same facilities for learning as our sons.

“We will no longer be forced into marriage; we demand to be given land to cultivate that we may become independent and able to earn our own living.

“We know that we are ignorant, but we are not to blame. We demand to be told what is happening in the world around us, and we demand the right to be represented in the Douma.”—Cincinnati Enquirer.

* * *

While the worldly spirit of Selfishness is goading on the whole world to battle for “rights,” the Word of God directs the children of God to be not strife-breeders but peacemakers. It says: “Be patient, brethren; the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” His Kingdom will soon give to all absolute justice and right every wrong. Do all you can kindly, peaceably, lovingly to “follow peace with all,” but expect to suffer and to bear considerable for righteousness’ sake. “Think it not strange.” “Rejoice in tribulation,” trusting your affairs to him who has promised to make all your experiences work out for your everlasting advantage. He who takes to the sword will perish by the sword. He who trusts in the Lord will have peace now and hereafter.

DRIFTING TO SOCIALISM

“The revolutionary movement in Russia has been going on for nearly a year, and as conservative authority as the London Spectator predicts that it may last five years longer, and it further suggests that some young Russian lieutenant of artillery may today be studying the career of Napoleon Bonaparte and be qualified to act at the end of that time. The French revolutionists talked of constitutions and the rights of man. The Russian revolutionists are talking of these things, too, but they go further; they are talking of division of land, of equalizing the distribution of wealth, of other crude and half-formed ideas of economic change—in a word, Socialism. Tolstoi says that Russia is in better condition than any country in the world to attempt common ownership of land.

“Should Russia in course of time and after a glut of horrors become a Socialist or semi-Socialist state, the revolutionary wave would spread, for good or ill, to other nations.

“Already we read of Austrians and Hungarians insisting upon universal suffrage, and a delegation of no less than 200,000 workingmen filling the Vienna ringstrasse to impress parliament with their earnestness in making the demand.

In Germany the Socialists, inspired by events in Russia, have begun an agitation for the reform of the

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election laws which will give them the representation in the reichstag, possibly a majority of that body, to which they are entitled.—Scranton Times.

ANGER, HATRED, STRIFE, MURDER

Lodz, Russian Poland.—Thirty-four girls working in Kindler’s mills at Pabianice, near here, on refusing to join a strike, were poisoned by a powder that was strewn upon the floor of the mill. One of the girls died and the remainder are seriously ill, ten of them not being expected to recover.

* * *

Russia is one of the newest countries to come under the influence of “strikes,” but the above shows that no other nation could teach it much along the line of the “works of the flesh and the devil.” What may we not expect, the world over, very shortly in the great “time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation.” The veneer of civilization, miscalled Christianization, is quite thin, even in Churchianity. Then the works of the flesh and of the devil will show in marked contrast to the fruits of the Spirit of Christ—joy, peace, brotherly kindness, love. Let us not measure ourselves with the poor world, but with the perfect Lord, whose Spirit we have received and in

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whom we are seeking to be perfected in the Chief Resurrection.

SACRED RELICS RECOVERED

According to recent accounts the golden candlestick and other articles used in the Temple service, by the Israelites, have been recovered from the River Tiber, where they were thrown by the ancient Romans when the sacking of Rome by the Goths seemed imminent.

“In the box were discovered many vessels and trumpets which exactly answer the descriptions in the Old Testament. Should the identification be accepted this candlestick would become one of the most valuable treasures in the world.

“The value of the gold alone is more than $30,000, and, in addition, the rich working enhances its value, being of the finest. It stands nearly three feet high.”

* * *

It is claimed that the ancient Romans more or less worshiped the River Tiber and frequently cast valuables thereinto as sacrifices. A systematic effort is being made to recover those valuables, and the foregoing is the first important recovery we have learned of. It is hoped that the golden Ark of the Covenant from the Temple may yet be recovered also.

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— July 1, 1906 —