“MAY we go to the river, mama? Ed Taylor says he found some lovely stones down there yesterday, and we want to get some. Please let us go, mama.”
I looked up anxiously, wondering what the mother would say—how she would meet the request of four-year-old Fred and his little sister—a request even more loudly spoken in their features than in word.
I had reached my friend’s Idaho home from the east only the day before, and one of my first impressions, as I took in her immediate surroundings, was the danger to her children which lay in the swift, treacherous Snake River, which ran its weird course not far from the house.
I had not mentioned the subject, but the child’s question served to emphasize my thought, and I eagerly awaited her answer. It was but a moment, and there was no suggestion of annoyance in face or voice, as she said, in her animated way:—
“I have been wondering how it would be to have a little river of your own in the back yard. I will give you each a stout iron spoon, and you can dig a big ditch instead of a well, as you generally do. Then you may dip water from the barrel out there to fill it, and have a canal something like the one we saw when we went driving with Mr. Clark last week.”
“O,” exclaimed Fred, “that will be fun! Where are the spoons? We’ll dig a big one, won’t we, Ruthie?” And full of enthusiasm they set about their work, where I found them half an hour later deep in the mysteries of head gates, brakes, and other features peculiar to an irrigated country.
The larger river had been quite forgotten in their absorbing interest in the smaller; the children had suffered no sense of restriction; there had been not a trace of antagonism between the mother and her little ones, and when, toward evening, she suggested that we all take a walk to the river, and gave the children a basket in which to gather stones, there was a manifest happiness which evidently found its highest expression in the mother’s presence.
The next morning proved cold and sunless, and I heard my friend say to her husband, unnoticed by the children: “I wish you would bring in a pan of that dry sand from the back yard. It won’t do for the children to go out in this cold wind, and I must plan to entertain them indoors.”
Not long after breakfast Fred announced his intention of going out to see the canal of his digging the day before, and was immediately followed by Ruthie’s, “Me go too.”
Taking no apparent notice of his remark, the mother said: “Fred, did you ever hear of a sand garden in the house? I read of one a few days ago, and if you like you and Ruthie may make one.”
Of course the boy was all attention, and full of questions, while the mother spread upon the floor several large newspapers, and then, going to the kitchen, closely followed by the children, she brought in two basins of sand and some wooden toothpicks with some bits of colored paper, and, placing the basins on the floor, showed them how they could stick the toothpicks in the sand for trees, and bits of colored paper for flowers.
All thought of going out-of-doors was forgotten as the little ones, with an occasional hint from mama and much assistance to Ruthie from Fred, arranged and rearranged their trees and flowers.
An hour passed before the sand garden began to pall, then Fred ran to the window, and was evidently meditating an out-of-door excursion, when his mother asked, “Fred, where are those stones you gathered yesterday?”
“They are in the shed. Do you want them?”10
“Yes; I’ve been thinking of a nice game you might play with them.”
Fred ran to get the stones, while mama removed the sand garden, easily gathering up that which was spilled on the papers. She then sent Fred to the kitchen for the clothespin bag, which he presently came dragging into the room.
“Now,” said mama, sitting down on the floor, “I want you to make a ranch and teach Ruthie how to make one. You see, you can make the fence of the clothespins, laying them down end to end, and using one for a gate; then play that the little stones are cows and horses, and put them in the fields.”
It took but a few moments, and the mother resumed her work, while the children busied themselves in making fields and driving cattle till dinner time, after which the bright sunshine permitted the renewal of canal digging in the back yard.
Going out to watch them, I was struck with the fact that, although they helped themselves freely from a barrel of water by the side of the house, their clothes were not wet or soiled, and remarked upon it to their mother.
“That, I think,” she said, “is largely the result of my teaching. From the first Fred has had a passion for playing in the water, and I knew I must indulge him as far as possible if I would keep him from the river during his toddling years. As soon as he could sit at the table in his high chair, I often gave him a spoon with two tin cups and a little water, which he could pour from one to the other, but I made him understand that if he got his dress wet it was to be taken away. Of course, I was obliged to take it away from him occasionally at first, but he soon began to exercise care, and now he seldom has an accident while playing with water; and it has been the same with Ruthie. They often play with sand and water, making mud pies the whole forenoon, without soiling their clothes or hands, something that I am very prompt to commend them for, so that they really pride themselves on their care in this direction. Of course I always provide them with spoons and cups, so that they may have no excuse for putting their hands into the water.”
“I have a neighbor who, when her little boy asks for a spoon to make mud pies with, tells him a stick is good enough, and refuses him a cup for the purpose, and then complains because he gets his hands and clothes muddy. The same neighbor says to her boy when he asks to go to the river, ‘No, you can’t go to the river; if you do, I’ll punish you,’ with the result that he steals away, and she is kept in a constant state of fear lest he be drowned.”
“I make many mistakes in regard to my children, but I try to regard their reasonable wants, and make it a point to say to them whenever possible, Do this, rather than, Don’t do that. It is my theory that if we give sufficient attention to the positive in training a child, the negative will take care of itself.”
“But,” I argued, “few mothers have that quickness of suggestion—that abundance of resource—which comes to you so naturally. The average mother is so slow that the thing she would not is done before she is ready with her, ‘Do this.’”
“You give me too great credit,” she replied. “I am not quick or resourceful above the average mother. I simply plan ahead, anticipating so far as I may my children’s wants. That canal device has been in my mind some time, awaiting a request to go to the river. I know that such requests must come, and I try to hold myself in readiness for them. The stones we gathered and brought home were for definite purpose. I suggested that they use them for cattle yesterday. Next time I shall propose that they make a village and use them on either side of the street to represent houses—the larger ones for churches, stores, and station—and I shall give them some wooden toothpicks for the railroad.”
“Toothpicks can be used in so many ways. A few days ago I bought a nickel’s worth of dried peas. Some stormy day I shall soak them, and with some toothpicks teach the children how to make furniture and toys after kindergarten fashion. It will require only a few minutes on my part, and, with an occasional suggestion, they can amuse themselves for several hours. I have already stored up in my mind hints for the occasion when it comes—a chair, table, windmill, and other things which they can make.”
“Another suggestion I am holding in readiness. Fred is beginning to count; he can reach ten now, and I shall soon fill a restless hour with the suggestion that he count one hundred, and shall tell him how he can do it by taking ten little butter dishes and putting ten beans in each. I have a cup of beans in waiting for the purpose.”
“Some pleasant day I am going to ask him to see how many kinds of leaves he can find in the yard, and I have an old book which I shall give him for a leaf album, and encourage him to remember the names of as many leaves as possible.”
“O, there is no end of devices for amusing children, but you see I am not to be credited with quick wit, because most of my suggestions are the result of careful thought! I am firm in the belief that so long as I can keep my little ones happily and healthfully active, they are developing what will not need to be rooted out later.”
“The neighbor to whom I referred seems to act on the principle that diligence in the pulling up of weeds will make a beautiful garden, forgetting that a healthy soil must needs produce growth of some kind; she is bringing up her boy on ‘don’ts’ and ‘stops!’ Of course his activity must have an outlet somewhere, and the result is that he simply goes from one prohibited line of action to another. I tremble when I think of the result of such training upon his mature years.”
My friend’s words opened up to me new vistas in the mother’s kingdom—vistas which grew broader and more far-reaching as I studied her during the weeks of my visit. As the plant in rain and sunshine, so her children’s natures seemed to unfold, naturally, beautifully. I seldom heard the word “don’t” from her lips. The little ones suffered no sense of repression, but were actively employed from morning till night, with never a thought that they were in any one’s way, and furnished a happy contrast to the child of negative training, whom I overheard tell Fred as they were playing together one day, “Harry Brown started to school yesterday; I guess his mother’s glad; she won’t have to worry so much now.”
Here was the thought that a child is necessarily an incumbrance—something to be put out of the way if possible—even such thought harbored in the heart of one of those of whom Christ said, “Forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
As I turned from his warped and irritable nature to the naturalness and glad abandon of Fred and Ruthie, I realized as never before the necessity of centering attention upon the flowers, rather than upon the weeds that would choke them—the careful cultivation of the former, leaving to the latter no chance for growth.—Christian Work.
Cardinal Gibbons Replies on Reunion of Christendom
To this the cardinal replied as follows:—
“CARDINAL'S RESIDENCE, Baltimore.
“Rev. GEO. W. KING—Dear Sir: In reply to your favor I beg to say that your aspirations for the reunion of Christendom are worthy of all praise.
“This reunion would be only fragmentary if the Catholic Church were excluded.
“It would also be impossible, for there can be no union possible without a solid scriptural basis, and that is found in the recognition of Peter and his successor as the visible head of the church.
“There can be no stable government without a head, either in civil, military, or ecclesiastical life. Every state must have its governor, and every town must have its mayor or municipal chief with some title.
“If the churches of the world look for a head, where will they find one with the standard of authority or prescription except the bishop of Rome?—Not in Canterbury or Constantinople.
“As for the terms of reunion, they would be easier than is commonly imagined. The Catholic Church holds to all the positive doctrines of all the Protestant churches, and the acknowledgment of the pope's judicial supremacy would make the way easy for accepting her other doctrines. You are nearer to us than you imagine. Many doctrines are ascribed to the church which she repudiates.
“Faithfully yours in Christ,
“J. CARD. GIBBONS.”
“Dear Cardinal: Your reply has been read with much interest. May I not now inquire if it would not be a wise and valuable thing for the Catholic Church to set forth to the Protestant churches a possible basis of union (describing the matter in sufficient detail) somewhat after the order of the Chicago Lambeth propositions of the Episcopal Church? I know how much the Methodist Church, and, indeed, the entire Christian church, is misunderstood by many, and I conceive it more than possible, inevitably, that the Catholic Church should likewise be misunderstood and misjudged in many things. Can not the Catholic Church correct this misunderstanding on the part of Protestants, to a large degree, at least? And would not this hasten the desired reunion?
“I believe the present divided condition of Christendom to be full of folly, shame, and disgrace, and have no objection to a central authority, under certain conditions of limitation or restraint.
“Sincerely yours, GEO. W. KING.”
[From Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.]
BALTIMORE, Md., Nov. 4, 1894.—Cardinal Gibbons preached at the cathedral to-day, on “Christian Unity.” He said:—
“Thank God there is a yearning desire for the reunion of Christianity among many noble and earnest souls. This desire is particularly manifest in the English-speaking world. It is manifest in England and in the United States. I myself have received several letters from influential Protestant ministers expressing the hope of a reunion, and inquiring as to the probable basis of a reconciliation. Reunion is the great desire of my heart. I have longed and prayed for it during all the years of my ministry. I have prayed that, as we are bound to our brethren by social and family and by natural and commercial ties, so may we be united with them in the bonds of a common faith.
“The conditions of reunion are easier than are generally imagined. Of course, there can be no compromise on faith or morals. The doctrine and moral code that Christ has left us must remain unchangeable. But the church can modify her discipline to suit the circumstances of the case.
“May the day be hastened when the scattered hosts of Christendom will be reunited. Then, indeed, they would form an army which infidelity could no longer resist, and they would soon carry the light and faith of Christian civilization to the most remote and benighted part of the globe. May the day soon come when all who profess the name of Christ may have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, when all shall be in one fold, under one Shepherd.”
A Time We Know Not When
THERE is a time, we know not when,
A point, we know not where,
That marks the destiny of men
For glory or despair.
—Anon.
HOW BABY WENT TO CHURCH.
By Eleanor A. Hunter
Our little brown-eyed baby—
She is not three years old—
With round cheeks brown and rosy,
And brown hair touched with gold,
Always on Sunday mornings
To church pleads hard to go,
But she is yet so little
Her mother answers, “No.”
Then the brave eyes grow cloudy,
The small mouth, red and sweet,
Has such a piteous tremble
As we go down the street,
That I, one Sunday morning,
Said, “You may go to-day;
We’ll stand outside the window
And hear them sing and pray.”
Her face grew bright, “But, auntie,
Will you let Dan go too?”
Dan is her tawny mastiff,
A friend and comrade true.
Dan went; he leaped and barked
For joy all down the street,
While, fast as they could follow,
Sped baby’s tiny feet.
We neared the church; then said I,
“Will you and Dan be good?
The church is God’s house, darling;
Has baby understood?”
Four gentle brown eyes gravely
Looked up into my face;
Dear dog and darling baby
My meaning tried to trace.
With hand upon his collar
She led him, and I smiled,
He seemed so like a lion
Led by a little child.
Beneath the painted window
She spoke one whispered word,
And down he dropped beside her,
As he the signal heard.
Just then from out the window
A flood of music poured,
The one grand sentence chanted,
“Glory to thee, O Lord!
Amen!” Her face was shining;
She whispered to me then,
“They’re singing, ‘Now I lay me;’
I heard them say, ‘Amen.’”
And there throughout the service
The baby kept her place,
And lifted toward the window
Her reverent little face.
“I love God,” said she softly—
’Twas all her little creed—
“I love God, and he loves me.”
Of more she had no need.
And He who blessed the children
Long since with love divine,
Most surely blessed her also—
This little lamb of mine.
And when the last hymn sounded,
We softly came away,
And no one knew who worshiped
Outside the church that day.
—Eleanor A. Hunter.
Keep in the Sunlight
“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”
Marriage Beyond Outward Beauty
“He who marries a pretty face only is like a buyer of cheap furniture—the varnish that caught the eye will not endure the fireside blaze.”
QUEEN VICTORIA'S COSTLY MISTAKE.
QUEEN VICTORIA is said to have a great fondness for pearls. She has taken care that all her daughters shall have fine pearl necklaces. One of her first purchases, after the birth of each, has been two or three pearls, and every year until their marriage she has added a pearl or two to her stock until the necklace she required was ready.
In this quiet, economical way she has been enabled to make up almost a complete rope of pearls for each of the princesses, and those who have seen the necklaces at court say that the daughters are, as far as pearls go, well supplied with jewelry. Thereby hangs a tale.
Some years ago her majesty bought from a well-known London jeweler three very valuable pearls, the united cost of which was not far short of five hundred pounds. A little while after the purchase had been made, the merchant was surprised to receive a letter from a lady at court, which read: “The queen wishes very much to know whether pearls will burn.” The reply to this somewhat tartly scientific inquiry was an assurance that if her majesty wished to oxygenize pearls for her amusement, she would find that they would burn in an ordinary fire. The rejoinder brought the secret to light.
The queen had placed the pearls on her writing desk, wrapped in a piece of tissue paper. As she was writing one morning, she used the tissue paper to wipe her pen, and then threw it into the fire. The pearls, all unobserved, went with it. The ashes of the grate were searched for them in vain. They had been destroyed so utterly as to leave no trace. The queen with her own hand had cast three splendid jewels, worth more than the average income of her middle-class subjects, into the blaze.—Ladies' Home Journal.
TAKE TIME.
LET us take time for the good-by kiss. We shall go to the day’s work with a sweeter spirit for it. Let us take time to speak kind words to those we love. By and by, when they can no longer hear us, our foolishness will seem more wise than our best wisdom. Let us take time to be pleasant. The small courtesies which we often omit because they are small will some day look larger to us than the wealth which we have coveted, or the fame for which we have struggled. Let us take time to get acquainted with our families. The wealth you are accumulating may be a doubtful blessing to the son who is a stranger to you. Your beautifully kept house, busy mother, can never be a home to the daughter whom you have no time to caress.—Christian Herald.
EATING SLOW OR FAST.
While we have always maintained that rapid eating is unfavorable to digestion, yet there is something to be said against that sort of slow and deliberate eating in which one thinks all the while about the food, with a sort of worry lest some particle may go down before it has had sufficient attention. Mastication should be performed with energy and with a sort of pleasure. The energy given to it stimulates the flow of saliva and the gastric juice and favors digestion. One danger in mumbling over our food is that it inhibits these secretions. It does not follow, however, that with energetic mastication we should bolt our food half chewed. We should simply form the habit of masticating it with vigor, with energy, as if it were a pleasure rather than a task.—Journal of Hygiene.
Baptism: Its Significance, Nature, and Necessity
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
BAPTISM:Its Significance, Its Nature, and the Necessity for It. By E. J. Waggoner. Bible Students' Library, No. 79. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. 16 pp.; 2 cents.
LEADING CITIES IN CAPE COLONY.
By S. N. H.
BY S. N. H.
The cities of this portion of South Africa are not large, neither are they numerous. Cape Town and its suburbs is and ever will be the principal seaport town, and it is the largest city in South Africa. Its inhabitants number about ninety thousand, only about half of whom are Europeans. About one-quarter are Malays, and the rest Kaffirs of the various tribes. Cape Town is the seat of government of Cape Colony. It has admirable and picturesque surroundings. Table Mountain, occasionally covered with its “tablecloth” of fleecy vapor, towers behind it to a height of 3,500 feet, presenting striking features both of grandeur and beauty. The dimensions of the city are mostly in length around the borders of the mountain. There are from eight to ten suburban municipalities, extending ten miles or more. In many of these are well-made roads through planted groves, furnishing as pleasant drives as any in the world. Around the mountain is also a beautiful drive.
Cape Town is not large, yet large vessels come to the docks. A vast amount of money is expended yearly on the breakwater and the docks by the government. The labor is principally done by convicts, both white and colored, who are sentenced to hard labor from six months to seven years. Port Elizabeth has only an open bay, but East London has a harbor. All these harbors in South Africa are obstructed by bars, excepting Delagoa Bay, on the east coast. Even when the tide and circumstances are favorable, large boats can not enter the docks of the other harbors. However, strenuous efforts are being put forth to improve these harbors. A large number of the latest-style buildings have been erected in Cape Town, and others are in process of erection, while splendid residences grace the suburbs. There are also a large number of buildings of the old Dutch style, low and plastered outside.
Electric lights have lately been introduced, and an electric railway to extend through the suburbs is about to be built by an American company. In Claremont, one of these suburbs, eight miles from the city, a sanitarium is in process of erection, on an elevation of ground which is said to be the healthiest place in all of this vicinity. It is on what is called Claremont Flats. The population is rapidly increasing in the suburbs and also in the city. From this point a railroad extends to all parts of the country north, as also from East London and Port Elizabeth, connecting at Duar Junction, 500 miles north of here.
One peculiar feature of the towns of South Africa is a large market in the center of each, where “spans” of oxen bring in articles for sale each Monday morning, and in some instances every morning. A variety of articles are on exhibition at stated times for sale. Cape Town at the present has less of the “span”-of-oxen feature than other towns in South Africa. The farther from this place the more numerous are such scenes. A “span” is usually eight yoke or pair. But I have seen them with fifteen pair to one wagon, a boy leading them, and a driver on either side with a long pole and a lash of equal length used dexterously.
Cape Colony has an area of 221,311 square miles. After Cape Town the most populous towns, according to the “Official Handbook” of 1893, are as follows: Kimberley, the diamond mining town, numbers 28,913 persons, and, with the adjacent township of Beaconsfield, a total of over 39,000. Port Elizabeth comes next, with a population of 23,266, and Graham’s Town follows, with a population of 10,498. The other chief towns are Paarl, with a population of 7,668 persons; King William’s Town, 7,266; East London, 6,924; Graaf-reinet, 5,946; Worcester, 5,044; Uitenhage, 5,331; Crad(d)ock, 4,389; Oudtshoorn, 4,386; Queens-town, 4,094; Stellenbosch, 3,462; Beaufort West, 2,791; Malmsbury, 2,461; Aliwal North, 2,057, and Swellendam, 1,727.
The entire population of the colony in 1891 was 1,527,224. These are divided as follows: European, or white (Dutch, English, etc.), 376,978; Malay (these are principally in Cape Town), 13,907; Hottentot, 50,338; Fingo, 229,680; Kaffir and Bechuana, 608,456; mixed and others, 227,806. The average to the square mile is about 7. The cape district, which is the most densely populated, has about 147 to the square mile. Port Elizabeth district has 144. In all the other districts the colored races predominate, and in some parts forty-nine-fiftieths of the people are colored. The white people represent only about one-fourth of the entire population; the remaining three-fourths are colored or mixed. About one-fifth of the population live in towns and villages, and here it is nearly one-half European. The remaining four-fifths live in the rural districts, and less than one-fifth of these are Europeans. This will give the reader something of an idea of the nature and character of the cities as to population and size, and of the country as a missionary field.
There is quite a difference in the cities. Space will only permit mention of one or two. King William’s Town is a live town, and there is carried on a large manufacture of “trek wagons.” A few years ago, knowing they could be manufactured much cheaper in America, a sample was sent over with order to duplicate it and return sample. The Yankees improved on it, making it lighter and equally strong. This stood around for years unsalable, and King William’s Town saved its life in the manufacture of “trek wagons.” The route from there to Graham’s Town by train is 489 miles, but across by cart it is only 94 miles, through a most interesting country. The Kaffir kraals can be seen in their original condition, and here the natives live as securely in their native simplicity as though the white man had never seen South Africa. About twenty miles before reaching Graham’s Town (City of Saints), which is very pleasantly situated, we pass through Pluto’s Vale, where the scenery is perfectly grand. Baboons from rocky ledge, high cliff, or overtopping rock or tree, will sit and look at you with the greatest complacency. Graham’s Town is lighted by paraffine lamps, which appear about as sleepy as its inhabitants. Many of the towns are dependent on the moon and stars. This is an educational center for the Methodists. Stereotyped and crystallized are its people to all outward appearance. They are a church-going people, and to attend their meetings and hear them talk you would think them as creed bound as was necessary to save them from any delusion of the devil, providing their very condition were not in itself a delusion. Stellenbosch, a Dutch town, 31 miles from Cape Town, is a government educational center. It is a beautiful place, with trees in the streets and gardens.
The town of Paarl received its name from a rock situated on the top of the mountain, which is said to resemble a pearl when the sun strikes it. And you must believe it if you please the Paarl people. But, like the Southern Cross fancy, it is a great help. There are skeptics who believe because they see, while there are others who see because they believe. Paarl has one long street running at the foot of the mountains. It is a pretty Dutch town, with vineyards yielding precious fruit; and, in this respect, the place in grape season is very desirable. Stellenbosch is embowered with oaks brought from Europe, which flourish in that locality like the green bay tree. But in either town there are not many people seen in the streets until the afternoon, when they move around “slow but sure.” Every street is an avenue, a cathedral nave of green leafiness which the sun scarcely penetrates. Along the streets on either side run streams of water, in which the housewives do the family washing. The snow-white houses, with their orange-colored shutters, are quite picturesque. In all of these cities our publications have been sold, in both the Dutch and the English, and the way is now opened for the work to go, with the outpouring of the Spirit of God.
WOMEN’S MISSION WORK IN SOUTH AFRICA.
MANY of the missionary societies in South Africa have seminaries and schools for training teachers, and nine female seminaries on the Mt. Holyoke plan have been established by American women, to train the girls and fit them for useful service. Some of these seminaries are said to be self-supporting. Prominent among these is the Huguenot Seminary, founded at Wellington, Cape Colony, over twenty years ago, by two American women, graduates of Mt. Holyoke. While this institution has been preëminently for the descendants of colonists, its influence has been felt12in the regions beyond among the native women. More than a thousand young girls have been educated, and some have gone out as teachers and some as missionaries to the natives. Its missionary society, affiliated with twenty-five local societies, supports eight women who have been sent forth as far as Lake Nyassa. Six are in the diamond fields of Kimberley. This institution is called the “Light of the Cape.” Ten other institutions have developed from this.—Gospel in All Lands.
TO WHICH CLASS DO YOU BELONG?
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
There are two kinds of people on earth,—I mean
The people who lift and the people who lean.
Wherever you go you will find the world's masses
Are always divided in just these two classes.
And, oddly enough, you will find, too, I mean,
There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.
In which class are you? Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?
Or are you a leaner, who lets others bear
Your portion of labor and worry and care?
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
THE DOUBLE PORTION.
The “double portion” is often the only remedy for our losses. Nearly forty years ago a girl just stepping into womanhood bade good-by to parents, friends, and home, and set off across the American continent to China, on the way to meet her missionary lover, who had gone out some years before to make ready for her. Several months went by, and the friends waiting in the old home received her first letter. She wrote: “I have traveled for seven months through strange continents and over tempestuous seas to meet my beloved, and I have found the grass seven months green upon his grave.” The missionary friends wished to take her to their own house, but she refused. “Let me go to the home he made for me,” she said, and there she took up her abode. Thirty years after, visiting her native land for the first time, with a record of missionary work behind her such as few women have ever achieved, she said: “From some people I believe God takes away the pain of loss for the asking. With others of us he leaves it all unlighted, and only gives the strength to bear it. So it has been with me, that I might the better realize the desolation and the darkness of the lives of those Christless Chinese women.” So she won her “double portion.”—Selected.
International Sabbath School Lessons
“So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”—Neh. 8:8.
Lesson IV.—Sabbath, October 26, 1895.
A THEOCRACY—TRUE AND FALSE.
1. What is a theocracy?
2. Who, then, must be ruler or king in a true theocracy?
3. What is the nature of God and his law? “God is a Spirit.” John 4:24. “For we know that the law is spiritual.” Rom. 7:14.
4. What kind of service is acceptable to God? “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” Deut. 6:4–6. “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.” Isa. 1:19.
5. What two things must, therefore, exist in a true theocracy?
6. When only in the highest sense did a true theocracy exist in this earth? Same note.
7. What later example have we of a true theocracy? Ans.—Israel.
8. Who was the king? “The Lord shall rule over you.” Judges 8:23. “When the Lord your God was your king.” 1 Sam. 12:12.
9. What proposition did the Lord make to Israel? “And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Ex. 19:3–6.
10. What reply did Israel make? “And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.” Verses 7, 8.
11. How was this covenant sealed? “And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.” Ex. 24:4–8.
12. How much did the conditions of this compact include?
13. What did Israel thus become? “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Ex. 19:6.
14. By what means did the Lord reveal his will to his people?
15. What did the people in their backslidden state desire? “And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us.” 1 Sam. 8:5, 6.
17. How did he still show his love for his erring people? Ans.—He exhorted them to faithfulness, and assured them of his guidance. See 1 Sam. 12:20–24.
18. That Israel might have righteous rulers, how were they to be appointed?
19. By what were the kings to be directed? Same note.
20. As the people departed from God, how did it affect the kingdom?
21. What was the final result to the kingdom? Same note.
22. What was the final result to the people? “And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.” Mark 15:12–14. “And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour; and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.” John 19:14, 15.
24. When will he take the throne of his kingdom? “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.” Matt. 25:31.
A FALSE THEOCRACY.
25. What is that government which claims to rule in the place of God?
26. What does the prophetic word say of such a power? “Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” 2 Thess. 2:3–7. See also Rev. 13:1, 5, 8.
27. Who is back of all this blasphemous assumption? Ans.—The devil. See Rev. 13:4; 12:9.
28. What does the historian say of its development?
29. What will become of all these apostate kingdoms and false theocracies? “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Ps. 2:8, 9. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Dan. 2:44.
