Earlier text: THE SAINTS ARE NOT TO BE WITH CHRIST TILL HE COMESTemperance.
By H. Clay Trumbull
IS WINE SAFER THAN WATER?
IF a man were to judge of the comparative harmlessness of wine and water by what he hears said of the danger of drinking water while away from his home, and of the necessity of using wine instead, he would be tempted to think that wine is the true “gift of God,” and that water is an invention of the devil. Some years ago I was riding in an open wagon over the plains of California, with three men who before were strangers to me. The day was hot and the road dusty. At noon-time we stopped at a wayside tavern for dinner. The dinner consisted chiefly of boiled pork, boiled potatoes and boiled beans. One of my companions, not less than sixty years of age, ate of the pork and beans as if he were laying in a week’s provisions. After dinner we were again on our tedious ride. Under the hot sun, and in the jolting wagon, my heavily-laden seat-mate was taken with cramps. As he writhed and groaned in pain, it never seemed to occur to him that that pork and those beans were proving too much for him. Oh, no! It was the water which had done the mischief. “Dear me!” he groaned out, I wish I hadn’t drank any of that water at dinner. It’s almost killing me. I declare I’ll never drink any more of the water, without a touch of brandy, as long as I am in California. It really isn’t safe.” And that man’s idea of the perils of water drinking away from home is a good illustration of the general feeling on the subject, among travelers in our own country and abroad. While at Florence in Italy, I was remonstrated with by a kind-hearted lady, who sat next me at the dinner-table, because I ventured to drink cold water as at home. She assured me that there was no safety there except in wine-drinking—even the guide-books emphasized that fact. Moreover she told me pathetically of the serious effects of water-drinking in Florence, by one and another who had for a time dared brave its risks. I then noticed that I and my traveling companions were the only persons at that well-filled table who did not drink wine. I saw enough of my fellow-boarders in their eating, and I knew enough of them in their modes of living, to know that drinking cold water was not the only danger to which they were exposed in Florence, and that wine-drinking would not by any means prove a guard against their every bodily peril. In their minds it was not the unsettled life they were living; not the fatigue of sight-seeing, day after day; not the exposure of the night air, and the drain on their nervous force by their late hours and their unaccustomed variety of food, that was a cause of any physical disturbance they might have experienced; no, no, it was “the water”—the God-given, God-cursed water that was at the bottom of their every fear and risk. And I happened to know, moreover, that the water there at Florence was a great deal better water for steady drinking than the water on which many of those American travelers had been brought up in their American western and southern homes. And as to a substitute for the native water of the region,—if they desired to avoid that,—it didn’t seem to occur to them that any of the many standard bottled mineral waters which were available there, would be safer and more health-giving than native wine. No, it was the water that must be shunned; it was the wine that must be taken. I have spoken of Florence because the water there is called particularly bad. But it is pretty much the same the world over, as to this dread of water, and faith in wine, by the average traveler. Why, here in Philadelphia, during the Centennial summer, when millions came in from outside, and packed themselves in close quarters, and wore themselves out with long days of walking and standing and bewildering gazing, and overtaxed their stomachs with hurriedly eaten, indigestible lunches, whatever pains and aches anybody from that throng of visitors had, in Philadelphia or on the way home, were almost without exception attributed to the water. Of course it was the water! To hear one talk about the troubles that come from water drinking away from one’s home, might fairly prompt the question, Is there anything that is really dangerous in this world except water? And yet all this talk about the necessity laid on a traveler to drink wine or brandy instead of water while away from his home is sheer, bald nonsense. I have traveled not a little in my life-time, I have averaged nearly twenty thousand miles a year for twenty years at a time, I have been through the length and breadth of our land from Maine to California, and from Minnesota to Florida. I have journeyed also in Europe and Asia and Africa. Yet I never found the place where it was necessary for me to drink wine or brandy, nor yet where I deemed a native wine as safe as the native water, judging from the apparent effects on those who used, the one or the other. I have found some pretty poor water in my day, lime-stone water, brackish water, muddy water, sulphurous water, water well-nigh putrid with decaying vegetation. I have drunk water through a little pocket filter, from the prints of my horse’s hoofs in the traveled road after a rain-storm, as the only mode of quenching my thirst with water. I have drunk water from the tangled swamps in the sea-islands of the South Carolina coast, when I had to hold my breath as I drank because of the water’s stench. But I was sure in all these cases, that that water was safer as a drink, than wine would be, and that if I added anything to it to render it innocuous, there was less reason for my trying whisky or brandy, than ginger or mustard. Among all the personal risks that I have been called to take, in my life of varied experiences, I really count water drinking the very least, and of all the personal risks I have had occasion to note in others, from my earliest recollection to the present hour, I put wine drinking among the greater. Several years after our civil war, I was at the Surgeon General’s office in Washington, making a call on Dr. Otis, with whom I had been a comrade in army life, and who was now compiling and tabulating the medical records of the entire army. In the course of our conversation he asked me how it was that my health endured through all the exposures to which I had been liable in army service and in prison life. My answer was, “Well, Doctor, I suppose you will hardly agree with me on that point. I think that my keeping up so well was due to my letting whisky alone. The water we had was bad enough; but I thought it was better than the whisky, and I stuck to it all through the war. I think my total abstinence was my safety. I never borrowed to-morrow’s income to pay to-day’s expenses with, but I lived on the day’s strength every day of the war.” The Doctor’s prompt response was: “A few years ago I shouldn’t have agreed with you on that point, but now I do. Since I have compared in this office, the health-rolls of regiments where the surgeons refused to give whisky, with those of regiments where whisky was given freely, I am so impressed with the proof of gain from total abstinence, that I wonder how so many of our soldiers lived through our whisky treatment of them.” And as with whisky in America, so with wine in Europe. So distinguished a medical authority as Sir Henry Thompson has said recently in a letter to the London Times: “I can affirm . . . without hesitation, that the ordinary traveler need never run the risk of drinking poisoned water. I may also add here that it is equally unnecessary to drink alcoholic liquor of any kind. . . . During the last ten years, of which a total of more than two has been spent in Continental hotels, I have never consumed any other liquids than tea, coffee, and mineral waters.” The evil effects of wine drinking I have seen both at home and abroad. A large proportion of all those who were my play-fellows and schoolmates have either died from intemperance or are living drunkards. Men of my acquaintance who had larger brain and stronger will than I could claim, have proved unable to resist the temptation to excess which wine drinking promotes. Even the seeming possession of a Christian character has by no means proved a safeguard against this danger to those who tampered with the evil. Ministers of the gospel by the score, within the range of my personal acquaintance, have been among the victims of intemperance. And wives and mothers, as well as young ladies, have swelled the list of those whom I have known as drunkards—through counting wine drinking safe and necessary. Indeed I have known but few families in all my life, which the curse of intemperance had not in some way blighted. I have in mind the only son of a widowed Christian mother who learned to drink while traveling with his mother, she thinking that wine was safer for him than water. He is a hopeless, worthless sot. He would better have taken the risks of native water, as I did when I was his fellow traveler. I have seen on our ocean steamers, and in European hotels, the wine-flush on the cheek of young wives and young misses and lads, day after day, and I have no more doubt that a large share of those wine drinking travelers are to die drunkards, than I am that water runs down hill. If a man drinks wine himself, he is not so likely to notice the effect of wine drinking on those who are at table with him. Yet I have been told by an intelligent Christian advocate of hotel table wine drinking in Europe, that the effect of the wine in loosening his own tongue and the tongues of his young lady table-mates was one reason of his counting it desirable. To say that the native wine of a vine-growing country is not promotive of intemperance, is to say that the Bible talks nonsense when it tells of Noah’s being stupidly drunk on wine from his own vineyard. Even if men were to deny the Bible story about Noah’s wine, I could testify that I have seen men drunk on native wine, both in Europe and America, and that I know so much of the danger of wine drinking as leading to intemperance that I am afraid to drink wine or beer, at home or abroad, lest I should become a drunkard myself, apart from any question of my example before others who are weaker than I am—if there are such. It requires some courage not to drink wine abroad. Indeed, almost any self-denial involves a struggle—apart from the control of appetite. The fashion of this world is against self-denial. Wine drinking is the fashion in Europe, and one must have some character to be willing, anywhere, to stand as notably singular in a personal habit or a social custom. Moreover, those who do drink, will be constantly telling those who do not that there is no other safe way than theirs. If one would go and come as a total abstainer, he must be ready to abide unflinchingly by his own judgment, as to the right and safe way, in spite of the example and the entreaties and the solemn warnings of very excellent people, who think and do differently. But why should one not be an abstainer? Even though he fails to find total abstinence absolutely commanded in the Bible, he must admit that it is not forbidden there. Hence the privilege is before him to let wine alone if he wants to. And availing himself of this privilege, he avoids a terrible risk on the one hand, and he runs no risk on the other. For myself, I am afraid to venture on the moderate use of those drinks which have by their very use led so many to use them immoderately. I have seen that wine drinking anywhere is dangerous. I have found that water drinking is safer than wine drinking everywhere. That is my testimony on the wine question.—H. Clay Trumbull, in S. S. Times. Beer Shops and Public Immorality
By Lord Brougham
To what good is it that the Legislature should pass laws to punish crime, or that their lordships should occupy themselves in trying to improve the morals of the people by giving them education? What could be the use of growing a little seed here and plucking up a weed there, if these beer shops are to be continued to grow seeds of immorality broadcast over the land, germinating the most frightful produce that ever has been allowed to grow up in a civilized country, and I am ashamed to add under the fostering care of governments? —Lord Brougham. "WINE is a mocker; strong drink is raging." OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES.
"LITTLE Annie Wilder has joined the church," said Mrs. Fielding to her friend, Mrs. Brewster. "Joined the church! Well, I must say I don't believe in filling the church with children, and such material too. I don't believe Annie Wilder knows how to read." "And her mother is such a low-lived termagant," added the first speaker. "Yes, and that isn't the worst of it; she takes a drop too much, I am told." "Say a great many drops, and you will get nearer the truth," was the reply. This bit of dialogue took place in Mrs. Fielding's pretty summer parlor, in a certain suburb. It happened that not long thereafter Annie Wilder came to Mrs. Fielding and asked for work. She was set to washing dishes and cleaning vegetables, and a most efficient little handmaiden she proved. She was gay as a bird, warbling snatches of hymn and song, as she hurried from one task to another. One day Mrs. Fielding said:— "Annie, I wonder you are not more serious since you joined the church. It is a great responsibility to be a church member, and religion is a serious thing." Annie paused in her work, looked at the lady with her sweet, truthful eyes, and said:— "I don't know what you mean, ma'am." "I feared as much," said Mrs. Fielding. "Child, do you know what it means to join the church?" "It means being on Jesus' side," said Annie, her face radiant; "and O, I love him so that I can't help singing!" "But," said Mrs. Fielding, "don't you have any fears, any struggles?" "Why should I, ma'am?" asked the child, her clear eyes opening wide. The lady said no more, but she shook her head ominously as she walked away. The hot weather came on; family trials were onerous; nobody had an appetite; the children were cross; papa was critical. One morning Mrs. Fielding felt particularly out of condition. The sun, but a little way on his journey, shone with noonday intensity. Not a leaf stirred. The breakfast was tasteless. The flies were aggravating. I don't know how it happened, but it only takes a little spark to make an explosion when the train is laid. Some unguarded word was spoken, a temper blazed; a child was slapped and sent away from the table; the husband remonstrated; sharp words followed; there was recriminations, tears, a downright quarrel. "Oh, the trouble of living!" groaned Mrs. Fielding, when husband and children were out of the house, and she was left alone. "I cannot bear it! I cannot bear it!" and she gave herself up to hysterical sobbing. By-and-by, when the storm was a little cleared away, came Annie, her face serene, her eyes soft and untroubled. "Please excuse me, ma'am, for being late," she said, "but mother was bad this morning, and wouldn't let me come." "What is the matter with her?" "She has been drinking, I suppose," said Mrs. Fielding. Annie raised her arm at that minute, and there on the soft, fair flesh was the livid mark of a blow. "Please don't ask me, ma'am; it is nothing." "Your mother has been beating you—and what a face! You look as if you hadn't a trouble in the world. How can you bear such things?" "I keep saying 'em over, ma'am." "The charity verses. I said 'em so fast I didn't hear mother very plain." " 'Love suffereth long and is kind'—isn't it beautiful, ma'am?" and the child's face glowed. "And then when I started to come here," she continued, "I couldn't help feeling bad and lonesome, and I thought of another verse; 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.' Always, ma'am, think of that! It means Jesus, ma'am; and Oh, I love him so!" Mrs. Fielding went to her own room, dumb before the wisdom of an ignorant child. Presently Annie's voice came floating out on the stifling air. She was singing, "His loving kindness, Oh how great."—Christian Union. BREAKFAST was late at Mr. Smiles' house one fine autumn morning—an unusual occurrence; but you know that there are some hours, even in the best regulated households when things seem to go wrong. The principal trouble was that Bridget was sick that morning, and when Mrs. Smiles came down, of course there was no fire in the kitchen, and the table was not set; but Bridget lay tossing and moaning with violent sick headache. "I couldn't stand to get dressed, ma'am; let alone making the fire; for I am kilt intirely with the pain in my head." "I'll see to the breakfast," said cheery little Mrs. Smiles, "when I've brought you up some medicine." So she administered the dose, and then set about her task. But the fire would smoke that morning, and the baby awoke and cried. "Nelson," she called to her husband, "Bridget is sick, and I am busy; can you attend to baby?" "With pleasure" answered a strong, kind voice from up-stairs, and the pitiful cries soon ceased. Harry was in the wood-shed, splitting wood. Mr. Smiles came in, throwing off his coat. "There, my boy, I'll finish this job. You run in and see if you can set the table something like the usual pattern." "Why, father, you said that you had to be early at the store to-day, and should not have time to come out here!" "Yes, I know, but Bridget is sick, and mother is hard at work getting breakfast, and it cannot be helped this morning." "Harry," he added, calling him back, "don't say anything about that to mother; it's no use worrying her with it now." Harry smiled, and nodded comprehension, and was soon experimenting upon setting the table. "Pshaw! these are the supper plates! I am sure I don't know father's napkin ring from mother's! There! I forgot the butter knife!" and so on. Meanwhile Mr. Smiles split his wood industriously, thinking to himself, "I suppose I might have gone to the store without waiting for breakfast; but then that would have troubled Jenny. And what can one do better with his morning, than to make his wife comfortable, even though he loses a customer by it for once? What's the good of customers, or the money they bring, but just to buy comfort, which it is poor economy to buy at the price of discomfort." The bell rang and he went in. "What a nice little breakfast you have made us!" he exclaimed; "and boys can set tables, can they not, Harry?" So there was a cheerful, even a merry meal, an hour later than usual, in Mr. Smiles' house; and then he went away, leaving a gleam of sunshine behind him in the hearts at home, kindled by his loving looks and comfortable words. Across the street lived Mr. Scowls, who breakfasted that morning at the same hour, having kept his wife and Carrie waiting while he took a morning nap, and then made a hasty toilet. Unshaved and grim he came into the breakfast-room. "Draw down that curtain," was the first salutation; "this glare of light is horrid." Carrie hastened to obey, while Mrs. Scowles poured out the coffee with a sigh. "I cannot stand that noise!" he remarked again. "Caroline, take this bird away!" So Carrie took away the canary's cage, and shut it up in the dark and gloomy parlor, which was seldom used—the only thing which dared to sing cheerfully in that house. Then they sat down to breakfast, with their usual discomfort—Carrie nervously dreading the incessant admonitions not to eat fast, not to take so much molasses, to hold her knife better, or to sit up straight; and her mother, a thin, pale, anxious-looking woman, apologizing timidly for everything she feared would vex her husband. "This coffee is not quite so good as the last, but it is the best that Brown has." "Why didn't you go down to Smith's for it then? Half a mile is not so far to go, I'm sure." Then after a silence, "this steak is overdone again, not fit to eat." "Susan thought we were to breakfast at half past seven, and now it is eight." It was a relief when the dreary meal was over, and Mr. Scowls put on his hat and departed. "Get up, you lazy brute!" he growled, kicking the great dog on the door-step, while the cat ran up the wood-shed roof, and peered at him over the ridge-pole, till he was out of sight. Then she came down, and brought her kittens one by one, out of their box in the cellar, into the warm sunshine. Carrie ran to feed her bird before school, and Mrs. Scowls went into her kitchen, to guard, with fruitless toil and watchfulness, against anything which might annoy her husband at dinner-time. So pass the days at Mr. Scowls'. Are you not sorry for them? One selfish man makes forlorn and gloomy, a home which might be as bright and happy as the sunny cottage opposite, if only he would learn Christ's law of love.—Independent. THERE they sat, Ora and Otto, curled up on the hassocks in one of the front pews—one of the very first pews in the middle block—a position not in general favor; consequently they were beyond the range of any gaze which if not actually offended by their untidiness, would at least have scrutinized them curiously and critically. Nobody saw them but the minister, who could only look and wonder at his odd little hearers, then wait until the sermon was over, for the purpose of speaking with them. It would not be difficult to guess how they got there. The honey bee, the brown wasp, and bluebottle, come to church in summer weather, when doors and windows stand wide open; just so these waifs from the street strayed in. There they sat, bareheaded, barefooted, with dirty little hands in their laps, hair like brush-heaps, and eyes more like coal-bins than anything else under sun or on earth. The pastor soon discovered that, spite of the intense heat, the passing flash of lightning's wings, the thunder-pulses throbbing in the distance, he had two hearers whose attention never wavered in the least. Once the lights flared, then almost died out. Next, some one with creaking boots left the place. Again, a hymn-book fell with a loud crash, yet those bundles of rags, with black sparks for eyes, neither lifted nor stirred. He was really sorry, this good, kind man, when, the service being over, he looked and they were gone—had vanished like two little bats that belonged to the darkness and loved it. He had not gone far, however, on his homeward journey, when a shadow within a shadow stirred; a thin, dirty little hand reached out and touched him.431 "Oh, sir, please give me some for my sick mother." "Wine and milk," replied the eager young voice. "We've nothing to buy them with, and the doctor wants her to have them. You said, 'Come, without money,' you know, and I'm here. Otto's brought a kettle, and I've got a bottle." "That was my text this evening," remarked the minister to a friend who had joined him. " 'Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price.' These children were my most attentive hearers. The girl, you perceive, has applied it to the one great need she is conscious of. What can I do?" "We'll go to their home, and see what is required of us," replied the gentleman. "If this story is strictly true, neither kettle nor bottle shall remain empty." Up a narrow court in the church's rear they found a woman far advanced in consumption, who had evidently seen better days. Her husband was in his grave. Wealth and station had vanished like a dream; and now, as the waters of the dark valley crept chillily about her, she looked and longed for an upward ray to pierce her spirit's gloom. Mr. R., while ministering to her bodily needs, lost no time in preaching to her the Sun of Righteousness; and as he talked, fear and agony faded out of the woman's face, and the light of a great hope dawned in her beautiful eyes. Those two little bundles of rags, Ora and Otto, sat curled up in one corner listening, just as they had listened from the pew, with hands folded in their laps, lips apart, and a deep, dead shining in the orbs that never for an instant left the speaker's face. Ora met him on the stairs as he was going out. "I know what it means now," she whispered. "Maybe I wouldn't if you'd brought the words without the wine and milk." A week later Ora and Otto were motherless, yet not alone. Kind friends took them in, kind hands ministered unto them; but neither ever forgot their first sermon; nor the kettle and bottle they brought to put it in.—Sunday School Class-mate. The Home Circle.
By Celia Thaxter
A DEAR little maid came skipping out,
In the glad new day with a merry shout;
With dancing feet and with flying hair,
She sang with joy in the morning air. "Don't sing before breakfast, you'll cry before night!"
What a croak, to darken the child's delight!
And the stupid old nurse again and again
Repeated the ancient, dull refrain. The child paused, trying to understand;
But her eyes saw the great world rainbow-spanned ;
Her light little feet hardly touched the earth,
And her soul brimmed over with innocent mirth. Never mind—don't listen—O sweet little maid!
Make sure of your morning song," I said;
And if pain must meet you, why, all the more
Be glad of the rapture that came before. Oh, tears and sorrow are plenty enough ;
Storms may be bitter and paths be rough;
But our tears should fall like the dear earth's showers,
That help to ripen the fruits and flowers. So gladden the day with your blissful song,
Sing on while you may, dear, sweet and strong.
Make sure of your moment of pure delight,
No matter what trials may come before night."
—Celia Thaxter, in Wide Awake. -Dean Stanley left property to the amount of $400,000. -Sixteen persons were drowned recently off Frankfort, Lake Michigan. -Mexico celebrated the seventy-first anniversary of her independence on the 16th. -Sept. 15, most of the principal business houses of Austin, Nevada, were destroyed by fire. -There are now 400 American schools in Turkey, which are attended by about 15,000 scholars. -On the 13th a fire destroyed the Union Factory at Battle Creek, Mich., causing a loss of about $80,000. The schooner Regina, laden with salt, went down in a recent storm on Lake Michigan, with all on board. -The M. E. Church in California, have 121 church buildings, 159 Sunday-schools, and 8,185 church members. -Stockton opium smokers defy the law by going into the tules in boats, and smoking outside the city limits. -A new temperance colony has been organized in New Zealand. It occupies lands about seventy miles from Auckland. -General Ambrose E. Burnside died Sept. 13, of neuralgia of the heart, at his home in Bristol, R. I. He was 57 years of age. -In a recent battle, the Arabs gained a decided victory over the French, and nearly cut off the water supply of the city of Tunis. -The ship Olympus, bound from San Francisco to Seabeck, with a cargo of hay, oakum, and oil, was burned to the water's edge, on the 14th. -A Dental College has been organized in connection with the medical department of California University, and the professors have been appointed. -Mr. Spurgeon's statement in regard to the Revision Committee is that "they are strong in Greek, but weak in English." He thinks the New Revision needs revising. -Beatty's large organ factory, at Washington, N. J., was burned the night of the 18th. The loss is estimated at $200,000. Four hundred men were thrown out of employment. -In Ontario, cattle are reported to be dying in great numbers, on account of the drought. A million dollars' worth of lumber has been burned in Parry Sound district. -A riot, in New Orleans, on the 13th, started by some longshore-men who had struck, necessitated the calling out of the militia, and putting the city under military protection. -The Prefect of Constantine, Algeria, has received a despatch that sixty-one people were burned to death in one day in the recent forest fires, and many wounded. There were 682 dwellings burned. -A thousand dollars has been given by a friend of temperance in Holland to aid in placing Dr. Richardson's "Temperance Lesson Book" in the schools of that country. This is practical temperance work that cannot fail of good results. -The State Liquor Dealers' Association of Illinois have decided to organize in each Assembly District of the State, to defeat the candidates of either party who would not allow their business a fair and equal chance with all other business interests. -Sept. 14, a fire broke out in the fair-ground at Kansas City, Mo., and destroyed several buildings, among which was the grand stand, in which 12,000 persons were seated. Many persons were trampled upon and mutilated in the panic which ensued. -A land-slip occurred recently near the village of Elm, Canton Glarus, Switzerland. Two hundred persons were killed and thirty houses destroyed. A few hours later, a second one occurred, burying quite a large party who had come to the rescue after the first slip. -While some parts of the country are suffering with heat, other parts are having very cold weather. Quite an amount of snow fell on the 16th along the line of the Rock Island Road in Iowa. Between Stuart and Avoca the snow was from four to six inches deep. -Rev. Campbells, Canon of St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome, recently abjured Catholicism in the chapel of the Methodists, after notifying Cardinal Borromea, Prefect of the Congregation, of his decision. He says his action was caused by the continued hostility of the Pope. -Reports from the west coast of Africa, state that the King of Dahomey with his army of Amazons, has raided and destroyed the towns of Ignano and Okepo, which contained many thousands of inhabitants. All who were unable to escape were brought to Abomey, the capitol of Dahomey, for sacrifice at the great annual feasts. -Last week a farmer living in San Rafael, Marin Co., started a fire to burn some brush near his house. The fire immediately spread, and soon a large tract of country was in flames. About twelve square miles of territory were burned over, and several houses were destroyed. Pixly, the man who started the fire, lost his life. -A typhoon recently visited Shanghai, driving over 200 vessels of all nationalities on shore, uprooting trees and leveling to the ground whole lines of houses. During the storm, which lasted barely an hour, over ten inches of rain fell, 100 of the native sampans sank with their occupants, and about $3,000,000 worth of tea stored for shipment was washed away and lost. -Paper barrels are among the recent inventions. They are made of straw pulp, and run into a mold shaped like a half-barrel, and then subjected to powerful hydraulic pressure. The ends are of paper protected by wood. They are lighter, cheaper and more durable than wood. For transit of flour they possess the advantage of preventing the sifting which is so much of a loss in transit by wooden barrels. -Several months ago a majority of the Baptist churches in California withdrew from the Baptist State Convention, on account of their unwillingness to affiliate with Kalloch. Since then others have withdrawn, leaving the pastor of the Metropolitan Temple nearly alone. And now Kalloch finally announces his withdrawal from that body, and his unwillingness to fellowship the Baptist churches on the coast. In view of the preceding facts, the last step seems somewhat like a farce. -The Russian journals publish terrible details of the ravages of diphtheria, which is now epidemic in Russia. It is reported that in certain communities and parishes all the children under 15 years old have died. The origin of the attack dates from 1872, when the disease first appeared in Bessarabia. Since then it has spread far and wide over the south of the empire, whence it lately began to make rapid progress toward the east and northwest. In Pultowa province, of considerably less than 2,000,000 inhabitants, there have been 45,543 cases, of which 18,765 proved fatal. -The excitement that prevailed throughout Europe, upon the mutiny of the Egyptian troops, shows how easily the whole country might be plunged into war. The Khedive was unable to control the troops, and none of the powers dared attempt to put them down. England would not unite with France, and neither power was willing that the other should do it alone. Indeed, France has more on her hands now than she can well attend to. It was feared that if Turkey attempted it, it would lead to a revival of the Turkish claims of supremacy; and Italy claimed that if any interference were made, she should be allowed to regain the ground which she lost. The situation is very critical, and no one can foretell what may result. -The following appeal has been issued by the Citizens' Relief Committee of Detroit: To the people of the United States: The counties of Huron and Sanilac and parts of the counties of Tuscola and Lapeer, in Michigan, have been visited by dreadful calamities. Forest fires driven by high winds swept over more than 1,500 square miles of this region. In portions of it the destruction is only partial, but in the greater part of it the ruin is complete. More than 200 people were burned to death in the flames or suffocated in the smoke. Many others who escaped were severely burned and yet survive in great suffering. More than 15,000 people were made shelterless. The greater part of these lost all they possessed—their houses, barns, fences, crops, agricultural implements, furniture, clothing—entirely consumed, and they are absolutely destitute and dependent on the generosity of the humane for the necessaries of life. Detroit and Michigan will give liberally, but the wants of the sufferers are beyond their capacity to relieve. We therefore appeal to the generous throughout the United States to assist us in discharging this duty of humanity to the destitute sufferers. They need food, clothing, bedding, furniture, shelter, cattle, seed for crops, agricultural implements, table-ware, kitchen utensils, medicines, and a multitude of other necessaries. All individuals, societies, corporations, committees, and organizations are earnestly invited to send their contributions, whether of money or supplies, promptly, directed to Hon. William G. Thompson, Chairman of the Relief Committee, Detroit, Mich. All contributions will be acknowledged in the Detroit daily papers. THE REVISED NEW TESTAMENT.
This long-expected work is just published. It is the result of ten years of faithful labor by the most eminent Biblical scholars of England and America. It is published in four sizes, any of which can be obtained, post-paid, at the prices named below, from 1059 Castro Street, OAKLAND, Cal. NONPAREIL, 32mo.—Paper Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ .20
Cloth, Limp, red edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
French Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Venitian Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
BREVIER, 16mo.—Cloth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
Morocco, gilt edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.10
Turkey Morocco, Limp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.25
LONG PRIMER, 8vo.—Cloth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00
Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.80
Turkey Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.25
PICA, DEMY 8vo.—Cloth, bevel boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.75
Turkey Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
PICA, ROYAL 8vo.—Cloth, bev. boards, red edges . . . . . . . . 4.00
Turkey Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.50 Over 200,000 have already been sold. Every Bible student should have one. THE COMPARATIVE EDITION
By Editor
EMBRACING THE
Revised and the Old or King James Versions, on
Opposite and Corresponding Pages.
8 Vo. Long Primer, Price $1.50.
16 mo. Brevier. Price 75 cts.
Postage Paid. AS THE CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE in the revision of the New Testament are now exciting a great deal of interest, and comparison between the New and Old Versions will be constantly made, we have secured a comparative edition containing the two versions arranged on opposite pages, so that the alterations can be seen at a glance. This arrangement makes the work one of great popular value, as it does away with the necessity of using two books, and saves the time that would be occupied in seeking corresponding passages. ADDRESS, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. COMPANION TO THE REVISED NEW TESTAMENT,
Explaining the Reasons for the Changes made in the Revised Edition, with Explanations to the Appendix of the Revised New Testament,
Which contains the Changes Suggested by the American Committee but were not assented to by the English Committee. Paper covers, 8vo., 25 cents. Cloth. 16mo., 75 cents. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. The Sunshine Series. Stories for little ones, in ten small books, adapted to children from the ages of four to ten years. In glazed paper covers, 320 pp. 50 cts. Golden Grain Series. A choice collection of instructive stories suited to the wants of children from eight to sixteen years and older, illustrated and beautifully bound in three volumes. THE HARD WAY, 160 pp. 40 cts. THE SCHOOL-BOY'S DINNER, 160 pp. 40 cts. GRUMBLING TOMMY, 160 pp. 40 cts. Golden Grains in Ten Pamphlets. The same reading as in the first two volumes, without pictures, in ten pamphlets of 32 pages each, 320 pp. 50 cts. Sabbath Readings for the Home Circle. In four volumes, containing moral and religious reading for the household; carefully selected, and compiled for the use of Sabbath-school and family libraries. Each, 75 cts. The Child's Poems. Containing Little Will and other stories, teaching beautiful lessons of temperance and virtue. Bound in cloth and richly embossed in gold and black. 128 pp. 30 cts. THE YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR
By Editor
AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY PAPER FOR YOUTH AND CHILDREN, DEVOTED TO MORAL, MENTAL, AND RELIGIOUS CULTURE.
This paper is not devoted to insipid stories and religious fiction, but is filled with a great variety of that kind of reading which tends to the healthful development of the youthful mind. Its pages are made bright by the choicest illustrative pictures, and its columns are always full of useful information. As a Sabbath-school and Lesson paper, it is suited to the wants of scholars and teachers, and is calculated to increase the interest of all who read it, in thorough Bible study. The Sabbath-school Department contains two series of lessons, one for children and one for youth. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, 75 CENTS A YEAR.
All new subscribers paying the above price will receive the "Child's Poems" as a premium without extra charge. TERMS TO CLUBS, PAID IN ADVANCE.
Price per Copy, Post-paid.
5 to 10 copies.....................................60 cents a year.
10 copies and upward .........................50 cents a year. Subscription for 5 to 10 copies will be taken for six months. Larger clubs may be paid for quarterly. Address YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR, Battle Creek, Mich. TRACTS.—4 cents each. Redemption—The Second Advent—The Sufferings of Christ—The Present Truth—Origin and Progress of S. D. Adventists—Ten Commandments not Abolished—The Two Covenants—Address to the Baptists—The Two Thrones—Spiritualism a Satanic Delusion—Samuel and the Witch of Endor—The Third Message of Rev. 14—Who Changed the Sabbath?—The Spirit of Prophecy—The Millennium—Signs of the Times—Scripture References—Constitution of the T. and M. Society—Tithes and Offerings—Sabbaton.