Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 3, 1881
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
THE CENTURION'S SON.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
AFTER laboring two days with the Samaritans, Jesus left them to continue his journey to Galilee. He made no tarry at Nazareth, where he had spent his youth and early manhood. His reception in the synagogue there, when he announced himself as the Anointed One, was so unfavorable that he decided to seek more fruitful fields, to preach to ears that would listen, and to hearts that would receive his message. He declared to his disciples that a prophet hath no honor in his own country. This saying sets forth that natural reluctance with which many people have to acknowledge any wonderfully admirable development in one who has unostentatiously lived in their midst and whom they have intimately known from childhood. At the same time, these same persons might become wildly excited over the pretensions of a stranger and an adventurer.
The miracle that Jesus had performed in Cana prepared the way for his cordial reception. The people who had returned from the passover had brought back the report of his marvelous cleansing of the desecrated temple, followed by his miracles of healing the sick and restoring sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. The judgment passed upon his acts by the dignitaries of the temple, opened his way at Galilee; for many of the people lamented the abuse of the temple and the lofty arrogance of the priests, and hoped that this man, who had the power to put these rulers to flight, might indeed be the looked-for Deliverer.
The news that Jesus had returned from Judea to Cana soon spread throughout Galilee and the region round about. It reached the ears of a nobleman in Capernaum, who was a Jew of some honor. He was much interested in what he had heard of the power of Jesus to heal the sick, for he had a son suffering with disease. The father had consulted the most learned physicians among the Jews, and they had pronounced the case incurable, and told him that his son must soon die.
But when he heard that Jesus was in Galilee his heart was encouraged; for he believed that one who could miraculously change water into wine, and drive out the desecrators of the temple, could raise his son to health even from the brink of the grave. Capernaum was quite a distance from Cana, and the centurion feared that, if he left his home to seek Jesus and present his plea to him, the child, who was very low, might die in his absence. Yet he dared not trust this errand to a servant; for he hoped that the prayers of a fond parent might touch the heart of the great Physician with pity, and induce him to accompany the father to the bedside of his dying son.
He went to Cana, hastening for fear of being too late. Forcing a passage through the crowd that surrounded Jesus, he at length stood before him. But his faith faltered when he saw only a plainly dressed man, dusty and worn with travel. He doubted that this person could do what he had come to ask of him; yet he determined to make a trial. He secured a hearing from Jesus, told him his errand, and besought the Saviour to accompany him to his home for the purpose of healing his son. But Jesus already knew of his sorrow. Even before the centurion had left his home, the pitying Redeemer had read the father's grief, and his great heart of love had gone out in sympathy for the suffering child.
But he was also aware that the father had made conditions in his mind concerning his belief in the Saviour. Unless his petition should be granted he would not have faith in him as the Messiah. While the father waited in an agony of suspense, Jesus addressed him, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." He here revealed the superficial faith of the centurion, that would lead him to accept or reject Christ according as he did or did not perform the work required of him.
Jesus designed, not only to heal the child, but to illuminate the darkened mind of the father. He saw unbelief struggling with his faith. He knew that this man had sought his help as a last and only hope. In this centurion he saw represented the condition of many of his nation. They were interested in Jesus from selfish motives; they desired some special benefit that they hoped to receive through his power, but they were ignorant as to their spiritual disease, and saw not their terrible need of divine grace, but staked their faith on the granting of some temporal favor. Jesus met this case as illustrating the position of many of the Jewish people. He contrasted this questioning unbelief with the faith of the Samaritans, who were ready to receive him as a teacher sent by God, and to accept the promised Messiah without a sign or miracle to establish his divinity.
The father's soul was stirred to its depths with the thought that his doubts might cost him the life of his son. The words of Jesus had the desired effect; the centurion saw that his motives in seeking the Saviour were purely selfish; his vacillating faith appeared before him in its true light; he realized that he was indeed in the presence of One who could read the hearts of men, and to whom all things were possible. This thought brings his suffering child to his mind with new vividness, and he cries out in an agony of supplication, "Sir, come down ere my child die!"
He fears that while he has been doubting and questioning, death may have closed the scene. This was enough. The father in his need seizes the merits of Jesus as his Saviour. In demanding him to come down ere his child dies, he clings alone to the strength of Jesus as his only hope. His faith is as imperative as was that of Jacob, when, wrestling with the mighty angel, he cried, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me!"
Jesus responds to the demands of the centurion by commanding him, "Go thy way; thy son liveth." These brief and simple words thrill through the heart of the father; he feels the holy power of the speaker in every tone. Instead of going to Capernaum, Jesus, by a flash of divine telegraphy, sends the message of healing to the bedside of the suffering son. He dismisses the suppliant, who, with unspeakable gratitude, and perfect faith in the words of the Saviour, turns his steps homeward with a peace and joy he has never felt before.
At the same hour the watchers stood around the dying child, in the distant home of the centurion. The form that had been so strong and symmetrical in its youthful grace, was now worn and emaciated. The hollow cheeks burned with a hectic fire. Suddenly the fever leaves him, intelligence beams from his eyes, his mind becomes clear, and health and strength return to his body. The fever has left him in the very heat of the day. The attendants behold the change with amazement; the family is summoned, and great is the rejoicing. No signs of his malady linger about the child, his burning flesh has become soft and moist, and he sinks into the peaceful slumber of childhood.
Meanwhile the father hastens on his way with a hopeful heart. He went to Jesus with grief and trembling. He leaves him in joy and confidence. He feels the solemn assurance that he has talked with One whose power is unlimited. No doubt crosses his mind that Jesus has really healed his son at Capernaum. While still some distance from home, his servants meet him with the glad tidings that his son has recovered. With a light heart he hurries on, and, as he approaches his house, is met by the child, bounding out to receive him, radiant in health and beauty. He clasps him to his heart as one restored from the dead, and thanks God again and again for this miraculous restoration.
The centurion and all his household become disciples of Jesus. Thus their affliction was sanctified to the conversion of the entire family. They published this miracle through all Capernaum, and thus opened the way for Christ's further labors there. Many of his most wonderful works were done at that place.
This case of the centurion should be a lesson to all the followers of Christ. He would have them place implicit faith in him as their Redeemer, ready and willing to save all who come unto him. But he sometimes delays bestowing his precious gifts, in order to impress our hearts with a sense of our deep need of that true piety which entitles us to ask of him what we will. We are to lay by the selfishness that is frequently the sole cause of seeking him, and confessing our helplessness and bitter need, trust in his promises. He invites all to come unto him who are weary and heavy-laden, and he will give them rest.—Great Controversy, Vol. 2.
CHRIST ON EARTH.
By Christian Union
HAD we but lived in those mysterious days
When, a veiled God, 'mid unregenerate men,
Christ calmly walked our devious mortal ways,
Crowned with grief's bitter rule in place of bays—
Ah! had we lived but then!
Lived to drink in with every wondering breath
A consciousness beyond all human ken,
That, clothed in flesh, as long conceived in faith,
We viewed the Lord of life and Lord of death—
Ah! had we lived but then!
At! "Peace! be still!" the storm-wind ceased to roar,
And the lulled waters seemed to sigh, "Amen!"
Fear—the heart's mightier tempest—surged no more,
But a strange silence fell on sea and shore!
Ah! had we lived but then!
With our own ears to catch the words He said
(Their magic pondering o'er and o'er again)—
The wine of wisdom quaff from Fountainhead,
Mark the lame leap, and watch the rising dead—
Ah! had we lived but then!
The world grows old! Faith, once a mountain stream,
Now crawls polluted down a poisonous fen;
The Bethlehem star has lost its morning beam;
Thy face, O Christ! wanes like a wasted dream—
How changed, how cold since then!
Ah! 'tis our dreary lives whose promise fails!—
These languorous lives of low, lost, aimless men.
Through mockery's mist our Lord's pure aureole pales,
Yet tenderer than the Syrian nightingale's,
His voice sounds now as then!
—Christian Union.
There Is No Neutrality Toward Christ
By Editor
AN impossible attitude toward the cause of Christ was recently claimed by a young man in response to a question touching his personal salvation. "Are you on the Lord's side?" an earnest Christian asked him. "No," he said, "I am neutral." There are many people who imagine they can be neutral in this matter, but a time will come when they will see that their neutrality was actual hostility to Christ. A man on a burning ship refusing to enter the life-boat might call his inaction neutrality, and remain to be burned. He would be quite as consistent as those who are offered pardon and eternal life, but neglect the offer on the plea that they are neutral. (Matt. 12 : 30).
THE LAW AND THE SABBATH.
By John Norton Loughborough
CONCLUSION OF A LETTER TO A FRIEND IN SUSSEX.
BY J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, OF SOUTHAMPTON, ENG.
Your next question reads, "How could the Christian slaves keep the Sabbath?" I do not understand that the early Christians were all slaves, and if they were under Jewish task-masters there would be no difficulty about the Sabbath; for according to their own usages their servants would be required to rest, as well as themselves. I suppose your question relates to those slaves who had heathen masters. I do not know that even in such a case we are to decide what is duty by circumstances. The words of both Christ and the apostles show that those accepting the gospel truth must be willing even to lose their lives for the sake of the truth. Had the rule of deciding duty by simply submitting to circumstances been applied, we should have no record of the deliverance of Daniel from the lions' den, or of the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace. According to the rule of convenience, Daniel would cease to pray, and the three worthies bow to the image.
Perhaps your difficulty grows out of a statement made in British prints about one year since, that St. Paul told servants to obey their masters in all things, and as their heathen masters regarded only the "day of the sun"—the first day of the week—they would not be allowed to keep the Sabbath, and it was supposed that St. Paul's teaching sanctioned their breaking the Sabbath.
There is no direct evidence that these slaves at Ephesus and Colosse had heathen masters; but quite the contrary, for St. Paul addresses the masters as well as the slaves. This he surely would not do, in the manner he did, if they were heathen. If we claimed that these were heathen masters, and that the expression "obey in all things" is to be understood in its broadest sense, what would be the result? Suppose such a master told his slave (as he would be likely to do) that he must not assemble with the Christians, nor accept the Christian religion, but instead engage with him in the worship of idols, must he, the slave, do so because St. Paul had said to the Christian servants obey your masters?
Should you be permitted, as I have been, to witness the idol worship of the heathen Chinese in their temples in California even, you would see that the servants of idolaters have quite a conspicuous part to act in that worship, especially when it comes to spreading the meats before their idols.
In the instructions of St. Paul to the Ephesians (chap. 6) and to the Colossians (chap. 3) respecting husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, we see he is proceeding on the principle of mutual obligation, each respecting the right of the other. While he teaches the child obedience to parents he admonishes the parent to deal tenderly with the child, and while he exhorts the servant to obey the master, the master is told to give the servant that which is just and equal. It does not seem to be the design of the apostle in any of these cases to place the control of the conscience in the hands of either husband, parent, or master. In the case of obedience and submission on the part of the child and wife, he qualifies by saying, "In the Lord." God has never given to any man, whether in the capacity of husband, father, or master, the right to rule another man's conscience. St. Paul himself is good authority on this point when he says, "For why is my liberty judged of (or by) another man's conscience." 1 Cor. 10: 29.
Instead, then, of the apostle violating his own teaching and putting the control of the conscience of slaves into the hands of their masters, we find the instructions to servants to relate to temporal service, as "Not with eye service, as men pleasers," "not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity." Titus 2: 9, 10.
The question of the Sabbath, like all moral questions, should not be decided by what one class could do or could not do, but by the word of God. What slaves could do or could not do does not decide our duty. The historians do show us, however, that when the gospel made advancement among the heathen, and when this difficulty came up, and servants were not allowed to keep the Sabbath, the people suggested the idea of allowing these heathen converts to have their assemblies on the "Sun's day" the same day as the holiday of their masters. This was not done, however, by Christ, nor the apostles, but was more than one century this side the time St. Paul wrote his epistles.
The North British Review, Vol. 18, page 409, says of the introduction of Sunday among these converts from paganism, "that every day was the Sunday of their heathen neighbors and respective countrymen; and patriotism gladly united with expediency in making it at once their Lord's day and their Sabbath."
Chafie, a clergyman of the English church, in a work published in 1652, pages 61, 62, seeks to justify this proceeding, thus, "Most Christians then were either servants or the poorer sort of people; and the Gentiles, most probably, would not give their servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly, except their Sunday."
Authentic history will show what men did in departing from the word of God, while duty must be decided by the Scriptures themselves. Jeroboam had his excuse for setting up the golden calves in Bethel and Dan, and by so doing opened the way for all Israel to depart from the worship of the true God, and go into idolatry.
You again ask, "Where is there any proof that the Sabbath was ever given to Gentiles after the fall of man?" I judge from your manner of stating this question that you admit the Sabbath was given before the fall of man. The fourth commandment (Ex. 20: 10, 11.) gives the reason why the seventh day is the Sabbath. It is because God sanctified the day at creation, "In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Keep the day holy because God made it holy at the close of creation week, seems to be the sentiment of that commandment. This is not a reason that is peculiar to Adam or the Jews. The Lord is the creator of all men. He demands worship and obedience of all. The Sabbath is the sign of God's authority and power as creator. Our Saviour said, "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2: 27. Not the Jew-man, but for man—for the whole race. I suppose by your question you wish some scripture text that refers to the Gentiles in connection with the subject of the Sabbath. That we will have presently. You state that "God does not give commands to his enemies." If he does not give commands to his enemies, he may call upon them to turn from their transgression of the laws he has given his friends. So we see some of the Jews broken off by disobedience and wicked works, grafted in by true repentance and faith in Christ.
We do not read in the Scriptures that God ever made any covenant with the Gentiles. If you note carefully Jer. 31: 31, 33; Heb. 8: 8-10, you will see that both the old and the new covenants are made with Israel. Gentiles are grafted in and become partakers of the root and fatness of the live tree—the blessings of God through Christ.
If God makes no commands to his enemies, he makes some for them. St. Paul says, that the law was made for "the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons." 1 Tim. 1: 9, 10. It comes to such to give them that they may truly repent, be born again, and thus become of the household of faith, yielding from the heart acceptable service to God.
Now we will notice a text where the "sons of strangers"—Gentiles—are called upon to keep the Sabbath, not because God has made a covenant directly with them, nor because they have decided to become Jews, but because they have "joined themselves to the Lord" to serve him. It is a prophecy of the work of the Lord in this dispensation which is found in Isa. 56: 6, 7: "Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant, even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer." The sons of strangers were Gentiles, so here is a promise to Gentile Sabbath-keepers.
There is another statement in your letter of which I do not see the force, and must, therefore, ask you to state more fully. You say, "The church is part of the new creation, and so is not obliged to keep the Sabbath." If you mean by this new creation, that by being born again we become new creatures in Christ, and that "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new," 2 Cor. 5: 17, I would say the new things relate to the changed demeanor of the individual whose sins are washed away and his affections and habits of life point in an entirely new direction. In stating the same thing to the Ephesians, St. Paul says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2: 10. This is made plain by the words already quoted in this letter from his epistle to the Romans, "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." Rom. 8: 4. So you see that being made new creatures in Christ, does not release us from the obedience to the law that God has before ordained.
Excuse such a lengthy epistle. I could not satisfy my own mind by saying less. Truth and not victory is my desire in what I have been saying.
A SEVENTH PART OF TIME.
By William H. Littlejohn
BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.
FOURTHLY, the providence of God is against this exposition.
Having found that the internal evidence of the law is overwhelmingly against our opponents, we might rest here in the confident conviction that our case is fairly made out. But, remembering that men who are called upon to change opinions of long standing, desire, if they do not require, all the light which can be given, we pause before submitting it to them to pass upon, that we may present testimony drawn from the providence of God, showing that his dealings with his people, during the forty years in which he walked and talked with them in the wilderness, were such as to render it utterly impossible for them to keep any day but the last of the week.51
If we shall succeed in doing this, as there is in Him "neither variableness nor shadow of turning," as he never does anything the effect of which he does not previously comprehend, and, as the rule of action is precisely the same now as then, we shall be condemned for attempting, now, that which the Hebrew then found it impossible to accomplish. Or, to state the proposition in another form, as there can never be any shade of conflict between God's revealed will and his secret purpose, as his words and his acts always tend to the same end, if the former were designed to vindicate the idea of a variable Sabbath, the latter would have been equally decided in its favor. We will, for the sake of brevity, suppose that some one of the mighty host of Israelites had been seized with this modern notion. He has conformed to the usage of the multitude a long time; but finally he grows restless, and makes it manifest by intimating that Moses takes too much upon himself, in that he teaches the people that all are to keep the Sabbath simultaneously, since this, to his mind, was by no means a part of the original plan. Weary, at last, with simple remonstrance, he takes a step further, determined either to become a martyr to his own faith, or revolutionize that of the camp.
Sunday affords a convenient opportunity for carrying his plan into operation. As with the Hebrews, that day began with the setting of the sun on what is now Saturday evening, he assembles his family in his tent at that period, they having been previously notified of, and having acquiesced in, his intention. As the shades of evening draw on, they retire to rest, wooed by the almost holy stillness of the night into the impression that they are keeping an acceptable Sabbath unto the Lord. Morning dawns at last; and, as the rising sun throws for the first time his golden pencils of light across the landscape, they awaken to the consciousness that it is holy time. The first inclination is to break a fast which has been of so long duration that nature is somewhat importunate in her demand for food. This is especially true of the children, and they clamor for bread. But their appeals are unheeded; there is not a morsel of food in the tent.
It is true that the fields without are white with that most delicious substance, whose taste was said to be "like unto wafers mingled with honey;" but they remembered that the Lord had said that the people must not go out to gather it upon the Sabbath day. Ex. 16:29. The dilemma is an unpleasant one. The father appreciates the awkwardness of the situation, and, stung to the quick at the prospect that his first attempt at innovation must prove abortive, since it would be folly to persist in it under the circumstances, and anxious to shift the responsibility of failure to the shoulders of another, reprovingly inquires of his wife why she did not foresee this upon the previous day, and guard against by furnishing a double portion of manna, according to the usual custom. She gently reminds him that it was impossible; for, that being the seventh day, no manna had fallen, else the word of the Lord would have been broken. Ex. 16:26. Mortified, but not corrected, and failing to comprehend to its full extent the moral which this lesson ought to have taught, he attributes his first failure to the unfortunate selection of a day that had been preceded by one upon which there was no fall of manna, and decides to make one more effort. Monday furnishes the first opportunity for this purpose, and is therefore fixed upon; and Sunday, the very one which had witnessed his disappointment, becomes the preparation day for the second experimental Sabbath. There is now no lack either of the material to prepare, or of a disposition to put it in a state of readiness for the morrow. When the seething and baking of a sufficient quantity is completed, it is viewed with evident satisfaction, since it is supposed to furnish a complete guaranty against a failure similar to the one which had occurred in the past. The sun goes down, and holy time is once more fairly entered upon, the night is passed in unbroken silence, and the first dawn is hailed as the arrival of the auspicious moment which is to witness the triumphant vindication of a theory, the enemies of which, through the merest accident, have been enabled to ridicule for a period.
Again, the family circle is complete. As they gather around to partake of the morning meal, the urn, in which is deposited that which is one and the same time the precious food of angels and that of God's wandering people, is brought forth and its cover removed, in order that each one may receive his portion of its most delicious contents. How perfect the revulsion of feeling and how great the chagrin, when they find in the place of that for which their souls longed, a living mass of loathsome worms. The words of Moses, that they should not keep any of that which was gathered on any day but the sixth until the morning, are brought to mind; and they perceive, at last, that they have but repeated the experiment of those who had formerly disregarded this injunction, and found that "it bred worms, and stank." Ex. 16:20. But folly had not yet run her perfect round. Reason seemed to have been dethroned until Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are tried with like success.
Upon the first day of the week, that which many are now solemnizing in supposed obedience to the commandment, there was found no food at all, while upon the remaining five, it was in such a condition as to forbid the entertaining, for a moment, the thought of its being appropriated as food by mortal man.
Thus terminates the first attempt to confound the sacred with the profane. Its victim, thoroughly humbled and profoundly penitent, returns to the old way, a wiser and a better man, resolving in the future, to atone, as far as possible, for the past, by a faithful observance of the Lord's Sabbath. Making Friday the preparation day, he once more enters upon its solemn hours. How different the experience now! No hunger here, nor sight of nauseating food! The creature is in harmony with the Creator. The latter, to make up for the lack of manna on the seventh day, gives a double portion on the sixth; and to obviate the difficulty which would arise from the fact that the manna which ordinarily fell would become corrupt within twenty-four hours, by an exercise of divine power, he makes this of a nature to last forty-eight.
Thus did the Lord distinctly teach his ancient people that his Sabbath was a particular, definite day of the week. If you would feel the force with which this conviction must have rested down upon their minds, you have but to remember that there were in each week, three distinct acts of God, or, if you please, miracles, all tending to confirm them in it; viz., the falling of the manna on the six days, the giving of a double portion on the last of them, the preservation of this over the seventh, and the absence of any, whatever, on this. Also, that, as there are in the year fifty-two weeks, they must have witnessed in each year one hundred and fifty-six of these occurrences (there being three each week), and, in the forty years of their wanderings in the wilderness, the enormous aggregate of six thousand, two hundred and forty.
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST.
By Aimee
“He led them out as far as to Bethany,” along the road they had so often journeyed with him, every step reminding them of some incidents or words of wisdom and love of the dear Master, who was now about to leave them alone, and all those happy evenings spent in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus—how freshly they return to the minds of the chosen friends. Here he stops and looks around on the little band. They have taken their last walk together, the last words have been spoken to his beloved disciples, whom he is about to leave in the world that had treated him so cruelly, and which he knew would treat them cruelly, also.
We may imagine the look of unutterable love he cast upon them, as he raised o'er them those hands so pierced and wounded, and blessed them, and was borne up, those hands still outstretched as pledges of his love!
“Lift up your heads, oh, ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.” His work on earth is now ended, and his mediatorial work in Heaven begun. The bereaved disciples return to Jerusalem, not this time in sorrow, but in joy, their hopes fulfilled, their fears and doubts removed. Their Lord has gone up before their very eyes to the Father he had told them of so often, and where he was going, to prepare mansions for them.
They hastened now to fulfill his last commands, to go and spread abroad the story of his love. No more faithlessness, but strong, earnest, loving work for the Master, for though absent from them in the body, still they have his promise, “I am with you always.”
Doubtless in the fiery trials that awaited them, and the cruel deaths they all (with one exception) suffered, his life, death and words, which they were privileged to see and hear, strengthened them to endure even as he endured. This same Lord is our Lord and Master; let us therefore hasten to obey his commands, for “The night cometh, when no man can work.”—Aimee.
"ALWAYS THE BIBLE."
By Mrs. Marcia S. Avery
"Always the Bible!" it tells us of Eden,
Of Adam and Eve in the garden of grace;
T'was there 'mid the flowers, among the green bowers,
That Satan first plotted to ruin our race.
"Always the Bible!" the law of Jehovah,
The Sabbath, shines out, as when Israel heard,
When he thundered aloud from dark Sinai's cloud,
And trembled the host at the voice of the Lord.
Yes, "always the Bible," the dear blessed Bible!
It brings life to light, immortality too;
It tells the glad story, when earth, filled with glory,
Shall be the abode of the loyal and true.
"Always the Bible!" rich mine where the Christian
Finds jewels of worth, in its pages revealed
Are wisdom and truth for the aged and youth,
And its wonderful visions no longer are sealed.
"Always the Bible!" the book of brave martyrs;
Their comfort in dungeon, in darkness and gloom,
Their solace in death, when resigning their breath
At the stake, in the fagot-fires meeting their doom.
"Always the Bible!" it tells of God's prophets;
Of holy Elijah who prayed for the dearth,
The idolatrous tale of the prophets of Baal,
Of the waters of Noah, that deluged the earth.
We find in "the Bible" the story of Jesus;
It speaks of the birth of the poor Nazarene,
The sweet infant stranger, in Bethlehem's manger,
While angels, enraptured, hung over the scene.
"Always" in "the Bible" we find the great "Healer,"
Engaged in relieving the woes of mankind,
As he taught by the sea of "deep Galilee,"
Giving health to the leper, or sight to the blind.
Yet we find in "the Bible" the sad revelation,
How Christ died in anguish on Calvary's tree;
O cruel reward for thy love, dearest Lord,
That poor, guilty sinners should crucify thee!
"Always the Bible," good news of salvation,
Says millions shall waken from death and the grave
In lovely perfection; for Christ's resurrection
Doth tell of his might, and his power to save.
"Always the Bible!" the beautiful Bible!
The glorious record that God gave to man
Stands fair on its pages, and saints of all ages
Shall glorify him for the wonderous plan.
"Always the Bible!" the scenes of the Judgment
Are surely portrayed by prophetical pen;
When the King shall accord unto man his reward,
And mete unto each as his work shall have been.
"Always the Bible!" the beautiful city
Gleams out from its pages with battlements bright,
With pleasure untold, on its pavements of gold,
All the ransomed of ages shall walk with delight.
Then "always the Bible!" till earth robed in beauty,
At last the blest home of immortals shall be,
When saved from sin ever, to live now forever,
They'll swell the loud notes of the ransomed and free.
Yes "always the Bible!" till Heaven be my portion,
And Christ comes in glory, to dwell among men;
I'll then bow before him, revere and adore him,
And shout hallelujah forever—Amen!
Mrs. Marcia S. Avery.
THE TRUE STYLE OF SPEAKING.
By Sharp
ON the whole, when once a man is master of himself and of his materials, the best rule that can be given him is to forget style altogether, and to think only of the reality to be expressed. The more the mind is intent on the reality, the simpler, truer, more telling the style will be. The advice which a great preacher gives for conduct, holds good for all kinds of writing: "Aim at things, and your words will be right without aiming. Guard against their love of display, love of singularity, love of seeming original. Aim at meaning what you say, and saying what you mean." When a man who is full of his subject, and has matured his powers of expression, sets himself to speak thus simply and sincerely, whatever there is in him of strength or sweetness, of dignity or grace, of humor or pathos, will find its way out naturally into his language. That language will be true to his thought, true to the man himself. Free from self-consciousness, free from mannerism, it will bear the impress of whatever is best in his individuality.—Sharp.
ACCORDING TO YOUR ABILITY.
"Every man according to his ability," is the Christian rule of giving and working. It is not very faithfully obeyed. There are many persons who have ample leisure, yet give but little time; who have large possessions, yet make small contributions. This is an evil that we have all seen under the sun. And there is another like unto it. There are a great many people who have some ability, but who do nothing; who have not much leisure, but who give no time to the Lord's work; who have a little money, but who put none at all into his treasury. Those who have a little and give nothing violate the Christian law just as truly as those who have much and give little. There are a great many persons, young and old, in all our churches, whose means and opportunities are limited, from whom not much ought to be expected; but they are able to do something and do they nothing. They are transgressors of the Christian law. They ought to repent, and do works meet for repentance.—Sunday Afternoon.
A STRANGE MESSENGER
This is the title in one of our exchanges of this remarkable fact in natural history and its more remarkable outcome in morals:—
“A professional diver said he had in his house what would probably strike a visitor as a very strange chimney ornament—the shells of an oyster holding fast a piece of printed paper. The possessor of this ornament was diving on the coast, when he observed at the bottom of the sea this oyster on a rock, with a piece of paper in its mouth, which he detached, and commenced to read through the goggles of his head-dress. It was a gospel tract, and, coming to him thus strangely and unexpectedly, so impressed his unconverted heart, that he said, ‘I can hold out against God’s mercy in Christ no longer, since it pursues me thus.’ He became, whilst in the ocean’s depth, a repentant, converted, and (as he was assured) sin forgiven man. Saved at the bottom of the sea.”
Stick to Your Creator
A LITTLE boy about five years old once tried to pick a small snail from a rock, but the creature's hold was stronger than his tiny fingers, and he could not get it off. When he prayed that evening he thought of the snail and said:—
“O God, grant that I may stick to thee as the snail stuck to the rock to-day, and couldn't be got off.”
That was a good prayer. I hope it was answered, and that the noble little fellow was so helped that he did stick to his Creator. May all my readers stick to their religion, too.”