'Twas the last night, the last before His death,
And, loving His disciples to the end,
His heart with pity yearned, to leave them here
Surrounded by a world of sin and woe.
"My little children, yet a little while
Can I be here among you." Oh, how sore
Was every heart string made at what He spoke!
Yet blessed promise came to soothe their pain:
"I go to make homes ready for you all
Within My Father's house. And if I go,
I will return again and you receive,
That ye may still be with Me, and may share
The glory that I left to come to earth."
Oh, blest assurance to the waiting church,
The one bright star that lights this earth's dark
gloom!
Eternal joys will make amends for all
That we may suffer here for Jesus' sake.
Yet promise thus indefinite alone
Has not been given to his waiting ones,
So weary with the wicked ways of sin,
And Satan's troubling arts upon their souls,
Who pant for country free from sin and woe,
Beneath the reign of Christ, their glorious King.
There had been given to the three most loved
A panoramic view of things to come,
Showing to them as well as scenes could do
His power and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Yet one narrating this in after time
Has said that prophecy more plain than this
Is given that his people may take heed
As to a light that guides us through the gloom.
Ah, yes, more plain, and yet the world goes on
Unconscious that the hour is now at hand!
II.
The wind goes wailing through the forest trees,
And makes the bosoms heave of all that hear,
It sounds so like the voice of one unseen.
Its mourning cry will almost make the tears
Start from the eyes; and each voice of nature
Swells in the song, as over all is hung
The veil of midnight. In the western sky
Already, only four more hours to shine,
Appears the moon among the fleecy clouds
That scud across its face and oft obscure
Its friendly rays completely. Then the wind
Seems still louder to howl, as if it strove
To force the dimming vapor swiftly past,
And let the light shine down upon the earth
To startle some poor villain at his crime.
All down the ages since the moon first shone
Upon the earth, and lit its beauties up,
Ere man began earth's energies to bend
To his own will, to our own time, when all
Seems made to gratify his needs or lusts,
This scene has common been upon the earth.
Yet when had it such meaning as to us?
Oh, what a history has our old, old world!
What progress, what decay, and how this brings
A contrast of this age with those before!
The same old moon that watched the Pharaohs die,
The same that saw Birs-Nimrod's pile arise!
How long will this continue? What the end
And destiny of all we see around?
Will there be e'er a change? Ah, who can see
The mighty engine roll along the track,
Its one great eye and many lesser lights
Forcing the deep, dark shadows from its track,
Shaking the earth beneath its mighty tread,
In one uniting all the lands of earth,—
A truly good example of the age,—
Nor think of those that Nahum has foretold
Would run with flaming torches in that day,
And running jostle one against the next
As onward like the lightning's flash they speed?
III.
But signs prophetic ne'er had power to rouse
A slumbering world, though given with trumpet voice
That shook the earth and loud proclaimed the end
Of all things as impending at the doors.
Yea, all we see around us only proves
That if, through hardened hearts and unbelief,
The message given in God's holy word
Is spurned, rejected, and accounted false,
So would it be though God should raise the dead,
Who, with a tocsin voice, would warn the world.
IV.
In ages past the only hope that cheered
The saints who sought relief from earthly woe,
Was that of reigning with their Saviour King.
Our Lord's apostles thought so much of this
That all their writings teem with promises
Of future glory, only ushered in
By Christ's appearing in the clouds above,
And taking quick and dead away with him.
But when that wicked one began to work,
And foul the record of God's dealings with
And will to man, this hope was blotted out,
And in its stead was made the specious plea
That when man dies he goes to bliss or woe.
(To be continued.)
Love Fulfilling the Law
"Love is the fulfilling of the law."
FRAGMENTS.
By P. Giddings
BY P. GIDDINGS.
1. Love is the electric wire that connects God to man.
2. Take care of your company. “Tis better to be the d in good than the d in devil, and the last place in the one is better than the first place in the other. “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
3. The same alphabet that composes the Bible, composes also the infidel’s literature. It is all in the arrangement. The same talents that would make you a competent worker with God may be so diverted as to make you an efficient agent for Satan.
4. It takes just as much strength to lift one hundred and fifteen avoirdupois pounds of gold as one hundred and fifteen pounds of mud. Some men spend their strength in lifting the latter.
5. The person who brings you all the scandal of the neighborhood insults you. He (it is oftener she, however) is using you as the garbage box to empty his dirty trash in. Resent it with Christian dignity. Let him know that you agree with Paul when he says: “Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
6. What we say is the theorem; what we do, the proof.
7. You may not be what the world calls a “great man,” but you can be a good man, and all good men, and only they, are heaven’s great men.
8. I knew a man who bought with smiles and good manners what other men pay dollars for. I tell you, my young friends, good manners pay. I do not say that they buy everything, but they buy many things, and there are some things most valuable which they purchase that money cannot.
Make Peace with God
You must make peace with God before you can make war with Midian.—Matthew Henry.
GO AND TELL HIM.
“If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.”
“I don’t want to say anything to him about it.”
“Go and tell him.”
“I don’t want to speak to him.”
“Go and tell him.”
“I am afraid it will make a bad matter worse.”
“Go and tell him.”
“I may say something that I shall be sorry for.”
“Go and tell him.”
“I have made up my mind to say nothing about it.”
“Go and tell him.”
“I think I shall let the whole matter drop.”
“Go and tell him.”
“Well, I shall not do anything about it.”
“Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”—Selected.
MOTHER'S WISDOM.
By Susan Teall Perry
BY SUSAN TEALL PERRY.
"I OFTEN marvel," said a middle-aged man, "at the way my mother used to work out the kinks and knots in our young lives. She had such a faculty of lowering the pitch of our indignations and of placing before us in the true light all sides of our troubles. Instead of fanning the flames of our unjust and unbalanced estimates of the wrongs we thought we had suffered, she calmly judged the case and showed us where we were at fault. She showed us the unwise results of jumping at conclusions, and the wrong we did ourselves and others by forming unjust judgments of them. And I cannot remember that I ever heard her speak an unkind, uncharitable word of anyone. What a pity that we cannot see these wonderful characteristics in our young days, and that they are not revealed to us until so many of our mothers have passed away, and we cannot tell them how they influenced our lives for good?"
When my friend left me I found myself thinking of the wonderful influence of mothers. To the child what mother says and does is always right. Mother's estimate of people and things is conclusive. What opinions she has must be right, for is not mother the wisest and best person in the whole world?
If the boy has a quarrel and comes home to tell her that his mate is the meanest boy in the world, that he has injured him, and he hates him and will not speak to him again—"never as long as he lives"—the unwise mother will take her boy's part; she will depreciate his mate in his hearing, and leave the impression on her son's mind that he is perfectly justifiable in his denunciation of his former friend.
But the wise mother will listen calmly to her boy's statement of the wrongs he thinks he has suffered, and then she will ask him what he did himself to bring about such a state of unpleasantness. She will not magnify the wrong, but make it as light as possible, and convince her boy that he was somewhat to blame himself, and that it "always takes two to make a quarrel, but one can always end it"—showing that a forgiving, forgetting spirit is the right one to be fostered, and that it is no sign of weakness, but strength, to go more than half way in the making up of quarrels and being good friends again.
Children often come in and tell some stories detrimental to their neighbors, which they have heard unwisely told over in some of their young companions' homes. Oh, how much trouble and unjust prejudices have come from gossip of this kind spoken before children, who have not the discretion to keep it to themselves!
The wise mother never encourages such gossip. She deprecates it, and teaches her children that charity which makes the child and the man and the woman so Christlike all through life. If we mothers could only, as Madam Swetchine says, "employ heavenly forces to keep our balance amid earthly ones"!
Let us try to keep out of our own and our children's hearts all bitterness and irritation and the words that have stings in them and hurt so cruelly. Let us be careful not to talk too much of the burdens of life, and estimate their weight in high figures—rather by patient bearing to show the strength that comes from the help given by the mother's God, in whom she trusts and on whose arm she leans.
The true mother has no time or strength to give to the vanities of life. "Blessed is the memory of a good mother. It floats to us now like the beautiful perfume of some woodland blossom. The music of other voices may be lost, but the entrancing memory of hers will echo in our souls forever. Other faces will fade away and be forgotten, but hers will shine on until the light from heaven's portals shall glorify our own. When in the fitful pauses of our busy life our feet wander back to the old homestead, and, crossing the well-worn threshold, we stand once more in the low, quaint room so hallowed by her presence, how the feeling of childish innocence and dependence comes over us as we kneel down in the evening hour just where we long years ago knelt at mother's knee, lisping 'Our Father'! How many times when the tempter lures us on, the memory of those sacred hours, that mother's words, her faith and prayers, saved us from plunging into the abyss of sin! Years have piled great drifts between her and us, but they have not hidden from our sight the glory of her pure, unselfish love." —Christian Work.
SKIN EXERCISE.
By Dr. C. W. Lyman
BY DR. C. W. LYMAN.
MENTION was made in a preceding article of the importance of a daily exercise or manipulation of the skin and of the body. This was well understood and practiced by the ancients. It is perhaps the leading measure used in training pugilists into perfect condition, next to diet and muscular exercise. The skin is an important adjunct to the lungs, absorbing oxygen and exhaling poisonous gases. It plays an important part in nutrition and the conversion of digested food into blood. Its pores are channels through which various volatile and solid excretions are constantly thrown off, which are not easily or not at all disposed of in other ways, and cause weariness, depression, or stupefaction while retained in the body. In a word, the immediate causes of the sense of fatigue are largely gotten rid of by a healthy and active skin. Hence the daily rubbings with the palms of strong, soft hands, stroking downward always, which so increase the circulation of blood in
the skin of a man in training as to make it seem like rose petals washed over with milk, or a red shawl covered with thin white tulle. When we remember the thousands on thousands of nerve endings in the skin, it is easy to see how much the brain and general consciousness may be influenced by little messages from the skin all over the body, telling of an active, happy business going on at all points between the blood and the air, there brought into an open-life exchange. Hence largely the high spirits and buoyancy of men in training, recalling the ancient belief that the so-called "animal spirits" were "compounded of blood and air."
There are several good ways in which the skin can get a daily working over. A dry flesh brush agrees with some best, a wet brush with others. Hand rubbing with or without cold water does very well indeed. Rubbing with a suitable oil does wonders with some people who find other methods too rough. The writer uses a square of cloth, knit expressly for the purpose out of macrame cord, which is first saturated with soap and water. This brings a high color without irritation, is followed by a cold douche, and, after drying, by a little oil. Guided by their own sensations and the after effects, each person can soon make a good choice of means, if only the end in view is distinctly realized—namely, to work off all impurities and effete matter, and to keep the blood supply at a maximum of amount and activity.—N. Y. Voice.
RUSSIAN JUSTICE.
General Van Wahl, chief constable of the police at St. Petersburg, when he was governor at Kieff, received a visit one day from a poor woman, the widow of a police agent who had fallen a victim to his duty. For a long time she had solicited the pension which was due her. The head of the police, to whom she addressed her demand, sent her brutally away. What was to become of her and her children? She took the resolution to go and see the governor, and told him all her story. "Sit down there and write," replied the general, pointing to a writing table. The trembling woman took her seat and wrote, from the general's dictation, a long supplication. "Now address it and wait for me in the next room."842Two or three minutes afterwards the woman was recalled, and the general gave into her hands a sealed letter, saying to her, "Take this letter to the head constable; take care not to open it, and come back to see me as soon as you have the reply." A week passed, at the end of which the woman went to the palace again, but this time joyfully; her pension had been granted, and she thanked the governor with joy. "It is useless to thank me, I am nothing," said he, "in the affair," and he immediately gave the following order: "The head of the police at Kieff is dismissed from his post and sent into exile. The reason, because he granted a demand after receiving a sum of money for so doing." In the letter which the widow had written to the head of the police, General Wahl had, unknown to her, slipped a banknote for twenty-five roubles, which accounted for her supplication being granted.—Our Dumb Animals.
A STORMY SABBATH.
By Henry S. Washburne
Not many to thy sacred feasts,
O Zion of our God to-day,
Will upward haste with willing feet
Their early sacrifice to pay!
A few—the strong in manhood's might,
And woman, venturesome for prayer,
And youth, as buoyant as the light—
May mingle in devotion there.
O Sabbath, to my soul most blest,
Though clothed in sadness and in storm,
Thou bringest to the weary, rest,
As if thou cam'st in milder form!
I hailed thee when thy mellow light
Bathed spire and tree, and vale and hill,
When every scene that charmed the sight
In quiet whispered, "Peace, be still."
And now, as howls the angry blast
And thickly falls the drenching rain,
Faith sees the bow of promise cast
Athwart the brow of heaven again;
And something in this hour of strife,
Through all the paths our feet have trod,
Proclaims, amid destruction, life;
Amid the frowns, the smile of God.
—Henry S. Washburne.
FEEDING THE PIGEONS.
A VERY pretty sight is that which takes place down on the corner of Milk and Hawley Streets, up three flights, on the wide projecting stone window sills, every morning at just 11 o'clock. It is the feeding of town pigeons by President George T. Angell, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
This regular feeding has been going on for years, and long ago the birds have learned that if they are there at 11 o'clock they will get a good meal of shelled corn. Some have learned that it is well to come early and sit around on the neighboring eaves of the buildings, watching with an eager eye the window in the office of President Angell.
Some of the old-time "feeders" have grown so tame that they will eat out of President Angell's hands, and one day when he was a little late, and the window was up, he entered the room to find some sitting on his desk, while one was perched on the top of the frame of his picture, which hangs on the wall back of his writing table.—Boston Globe.
STAMPING OUT THE CHRISTIANS IN KURDISTAN.
By John H. Shedd
BY JOHN H. SHEDD, D.D.
[Missionary of the Presbyterian Board.]
Two of our missionaries have just returned from a three-weeks tour in the border districts under Turkish rule. The sad story of misery and oppression and privation they tell compels us to report that the Nestorian Christians are being stamped out of their ancestral homes. The process is an old one. The people are tenacious and cling to the fields and graveyards and stone churches of their fathers; but village after village is being uprooted by the cruel taxation and misrule of the Turk and the repeating rifle in the hands of the Kurd. In the annals of the past we read how the wild mountain eastward from the plains of Assyria was Christianized, and held in the Christian name for many ages. The strong fortress and town of Arbil was captured by the Moslems six hundred years ago, and the population was driven into the mountains. The many valleys eastward, now possessed by Kurds, were once Christian, as attested by the ruins of churches in many places.
The process of stamping out the Christians has been going on before our eyes in the last thirty years, especially in the districts of Zaboor and Shemisdeen. In the former two large villages were very open to missionary effort. Good schools were taught, and the whole people were being enlightened; but "the Shadow of the Kurd" was over them. Our two preachers were driven out by the Kurdish bandits. One was nearly killed; and now both these villages are deserted by the Christians except a family or two in each, who cling to the church, and are barely tolerated, in deep poverty. In Shemisdeen affairs are nearly as bad. There were eighteen villages in a fairly prosperous condition thirty years ago. At that time Sheik Obeidullah, who later became famous in his raid upon Persia, arose, in fierce hatred of the Christians. He openly proclaimed that the Son of Mary should rule no longer. One of the largest and most ancient churches was named St. Simon, for the son of the tanner, who was a distinguished martyr in the fourth century. This church was attacked by the Kurds and demolished, not a stone left to show its site. Since then the Christian population has been plundered of their flocks and grain, and every family mourns its young man killed by violence. Fear on every side, the people a prey to their enemies, the Turks practically in partnership with the Kurds—the result is a famished remnant. This beautiful valley is the home of the Mutran—the ecclesiastic next in rank to the patriarch; but the poor man is disheartened, fallen into that despair which yields to the misery upon his people without an effort.
A day's journey north of this district lies the Plain of Gawar, bounded on the west by a wall of rocky ramparts under the snowy peaks of Jelu, and on the east by the hills which form the frontier of Persia. This plain is a real granary under good government, but a dismal desert now. For twenty-five years or more before the Russo-Turkish War there was good government; but since 1877 all justice and security have fled. Since then famine has been added to the terrible cruelties of Kurds and Turks. The people are scattered, or are crouching in their villages in utter destitution.
Just west of Gawar is Jelu. The first valley is Ishtazin, with five Christian villages. Near them is the powerful tribe of Oramer Kurds, but both Kurds and Christians are well within the power of the Turkish Government. With the connivance of the Turkish governor, the Kurds have driven out the Christians from their own villages, and have taken possession. The poor Christians are now in the mountain pastures, unable to return to their homes, and, as winter comes on, must scatter to the world or perish.
The story might go on to other districts; but this is enough to show how Moslem rule crushes the Christian population, and to show how hopeless is any steady missionary work in the midst of such turmoil and misery. How hard it is for the poor Christians, many of whom are Protestants, and all of whom might be as safe and prosperous as their Moslem neighbors are, if they would give up their faith!—N. Y. Independent.
CHINESE PUNISHMENTS.
IN December, 1891, I was in Canton. One afternoon I visited the principal law court. Two prisoners in chains were introduced, one an old man too infirm to walk, the other a youth tolerably vigorous, but abject and forlorn in demeanor. The presiding mandarin appeared, sat down, and sipped his tea, while an official pattered out a long oration, presumably an indictment, for the prisoners proceeded, as I understood, to plead "not guilty." What followed was this: The old man was held up—not held down—while two stolid Chinamen flogged him, with long, pliant canes, above the knees. The youth was divested of his chains, which were then piled up in front of him. Upon these he was compelled to kneel, while his feet, hands, and pigtail were all attached by a cord to a post behind him and tightly secured.
The cries of the victims and the complete composure of the spectators were alike disgusting. I said as much to my guide, whom I generally regarded as an amiable being. His reply was: "This is very interesting. I never seen this before," though I have no doubt he had. The explanation of the dreadful scene—excuse there could be none—was that by the law of China no man can be executed until he has confessed his guilt. These two individuals had been convicted beyond doubt of heinous crimes, but they refused to confess. The alternative before them was execution or death by torture, and apparently they preferred the latter. The ceremony I witnessed was to be repeated from day to day until either life or resolution gave way. How the end came of course I never knew.—The Spectator.
SIX RULES FOR LAMPS.
1. LET the wick always touch the bottom of the lamp, and trim the top square and even, cutting off the corners. In student lamps rub off the crust on the wicks, and never cut them.
2. Fill lamps within half an inch of the top. If too full the oil runs out, and especially when lighted, greasing everything that touches it.
3. In lighting, turn the wick up slowly, that the chimney may heat gradually and thus not crack.
4. Keep the wick turned high enough to burn freely. If too low a poisonous and explosive gas is generated.
5. A free draft is as necessary with a lamp as with a fire, so keep all parts free from dirt.
6. Wash chimneys in hot suds and polish them with old newspapers.
BREAK AWAY.
By Rosa A. Young
BY ROSA A. YOUNG.
O THE galling chains that bind you
Fast to sin, and leave behind you
Scarce a ray of light to guide you
Into paths of right.
Break these fetters, break them now,
And, with firmness on your brow,
Lift you from their bondage low—
Rise with all your might.
WHAT THE CHARM WAS.
"Was she beautiful?" I said,
"That so many hearts were led
To her feet?
Was her mind of rarest kind,
Depth and brilliancy combined,
Thus complete?"
"No, not beautiful, nor wise,
More than thousands whom we prize;
But her smile
Was like sunshine in a room
That before was filled with gloom
All the while."
—Selected.
Judge Not One Another
"LET us not therefore judge one another any more."
Men of Tender Heart
MEN of tender heart and loving sympathy and gentle touch are wanted to give comfort to the world's sorrow, to help other tempted men in their battles; to rescue the perishing out of their bondage.—J. R. Miller, D.D.
Comfort in Unhappiness
"IF a man be not so happy as he desires, let this be his comfort, that he is not so wretched as he deserves."
THE BIBLE IN RUSSIA.
THE British and Foreign Bible Society is being seriously checked in Russia. About eight months ago the society was informed that its shop in the city of Kieff—the Russian Jerusalem, and a great resort of pilgrims—must be closed for six months, by order of the Minister of the Interior. The governor of Kieff has now gone further. When an effort was recently made to have the shop reopened, he replied by strictly prohibiting colportage in the four large provinces over which he has jurisdiction, and by publishing in the newspapers throughout the empire that he does so because the colporters of the Bible Society are actively engaged as Stundist propagandists. There can be, of course, little doubt that the distribution of the Scriptures among the villages of Russia has vastly helped the cause of evangelical truth, and that hundreds and thousands of the peasants known as Stundists owe their light to the reading of the Bible; but it is denied absolutely that the colporters have been engaged in the work of preaching or teaching. Their simple duty, as in the case of the colporters of the American Bible Society, which they do not overstep, and which they are strictly forbidden to overstep, is to sell the Bibles and Testaments with which the Bible Society supplies them.—Christian Cynosure.
MISSION WORK IN COREA.
THE kingdom of Corea, at present the scene of a great conflict between China and Japan, has been open to missionary labor but a few years. The American Presbyterian Board began work there in 1884, and the American Methodists in 1885. There are now engaged within the kingdom, the Canadian Society, the Australian Society, the Southern Presbyterian Board, and the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Those who labor in that field say that the work has been carried on under great difficulties, the mass of the people being suspicious and unfriendly. The most efficient means of approaching them has been through medical work. The hospital and dispensary, under the care of the Presbyterian Mission, has treated over 2,000 cases. The people are represented as desperately poor and corrupt, but, as one missionary says, all the more do they need the gospel of Jesus Christ. The recent war has added much to the difficulties of the work, and for a time there was much anxiety for the safety of the missionaries and the native Christians. But recent advices are reassuring, announcing that the missionaries and their property are for the most part under adequate protection.
HUMAN SACRIFICES IN RUSSIA.
VERY few persons in Europe, or elsewhere, are aware that human sacrifices still exist in a part of the Russian Empire. The fact is, nevertheless, certain. Among the Tchuktchis such sacrifices still take place, and seem likely to be practiced for a long time to come. At the same time, no blame therefor can be attached to the Russian Government or the Orthodox Church, for efforts by both to stop the custom have proved ineffectual. The sacrifices alluded to are those of old people and the sick, who, finding no pleasure in life, resolve to have done with earthly existence, to rejoin their dead relatives, and to go to increase the number of happy spirits.
The Tchuktchi who has made up his mind to die immediately notifies his neighbors and nearest relatives. The news spreads in the circle of his friends, and all of them soon visit the unhappy person, to influence him to change his mind. Prayers, reproaches, complaints, and tears have no effect on the fanatic, who explains his reasons, speaks of the future life, of the dead who appear to him in his sleep, and even when he is awake, calling him to them. His friends, seeing him thus resolved, go away to make the customary preparations.
At the end of from ten to fifteen days they return to the hut of the Tchuktchi, with white mortuary garments and some weapons, which will be used by the man in the other world to fight evil spirits and hunt the reindeer. After making his toilet, the Tchuktchi withdraws into the corner of the hut. His nearest relative stands by his side, holding in his hand the instrument of sacrifice, a knife, a pike, or a rope.
If the Tchuktchi has chosen the knife, two of his friends hold him under the arms and by the wrists, and, at a given signal, the sacrificer thrusts the knife into his breast. If the pike has been chosen, two of his friends hold that weapon, and two others throw the victim on its point. For strangulation the rope is thrown about his neck, and the sacrificers draw it until death ensues.
Then the assistants go to the corpse, redden their hands in its blood, and place it on a sledge drawn by reindeer, which draws it to the place of the funeral. Arriving at their destination, the Tchuktchis cut the throat of the reindeer. They then take from the dead body of the person killed its clothing, which is torn in pieces, and place the corpse on a lighted funeral pile. During the incineration the assistants offer up prayer to the happy in the other world, and supplicate these to watch over them and theirs.
These horrible practices are followed today with the same exactness as in ancient times. The Iukatchis, the Lamouts, and the Russians, invited to these sacrifices, often take part in them, although there is no example of one of them having taken the same road to reach the other world.—Literary Digest.
SOUTHERN GAZALAND.
The Bulletin Missionaire has a letter from Dr. Liengme, of the Romande Mission, in Southeast Africa, in which he states that Gungunyana's people are not free from the charge of cannibalism. He writes as follows:—
"Lately 10,000 men and between 2,000 and 3,000 women and children in strange costumes went through the royal dance in the king's presence. Nothing could be more savage. Alas! human sacrifices were not lacking. It is the custom on the last day for a young boy and girl to be killed. At night near sunset a young 'beef' is brought by the people of the king's household into a tightly closed kraal. An eager fight is begun between them and the animal, which they must, without any weapon, simply by their strength of arm, harass, throw down, disembowel, and kill, pushing it with savage cries. When they have dispatched the animal, they bring, wrapped in reeds, the bodies of the two children who have been sacrificed. The flesh of the victims is mingled with that of the animal. Then all the young boys are seized and brought, willingly or by force, into the kraal. Some of them escape, unwilling to eat human flesh; others eagerly accept the invitation."
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LIFE OF WILLIAM MILLER,
WITH PORTRAIT.
This book contains sketches of the Christian experience and public labors of this remarkable man. No other man in this century has been more widely spoken of, and more generally misunderstood. These sketches were prepared by those who were his co-laborers, and are a true presentation of the leading events of his life and labors. In addition to the life and character of the man, the character of the Great Advent Movement, in which he acted so prominent a part, is clearly set forth. It is shown that Mr. Miller was no mere enthusiast, but a man of calm judgment, and his interpretation of the prophecies was mainly correct, his only mistake being in regard to the nature of the event to take place at the close of the 2300 days, in 1844. No one can consider himself well versed in the history of the advent movement in this country who has not read this book.
Contains 408 pp. Price, $1.00.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.
Sermons in Shoes
By Theodore Ledyard Cuyler
WHAT is done by God's professing people outside of the sanctuary carries more weight than anything said within the sanctuary, even though Paul himself stood in the pulpit. To-day this world's sorest need is for more Christlike men and women. The sermons it needs are sermons in shoes. The preaching that alone can save it is the preaching of a living Christ, illustrated by the holy lives of his followers.—Dr. Theo. L. Cuyler.
THE BIBLE IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES.
THAT in the more ignorant countries, and especially among the Spanish peoples, there exists the old-time opposition to the circulation of the Scriptures among the laity, it needs no testimony to establish. But evidence on this point is supplied by the seventy-eighth annual report of the American Bible Society, which has just been issued, and which deals with the obstacles which the agents of the society meet in the countries in which the Roman Catholic religion is in the ascendant. The report says that, although a late encyclical of Leo XIII. proclaims his desire to have the Scriptures "more abundantly opened for the use of the Lord's flock," not a priest or bishop in Mexico or South America is found to approve these commendations. On the contrary, according to the report, "it is at the instigation of ecclesiastics that any edition of the Bible which is not loaded down with notes is stigmatized as corrupt and pernicious, worthy only to be burned, for reading which the simple soul who desires to become enlightened becomes liable to excommunication and the forfeiture of all that church can offer as a help to salvation." It is affirmed, however, that the Bible without note or comment is being read more widely than ever before.—Christian Work.
BASEL, SWITZERLAND.
ELDER H. P. HOLSER, of Basel, Switzerland, writes to the Review of October 30, giving the decision of the Supreme Court in Switzerland in regard to the Sunday fines, the chief items of which are as follows: Last August the publishing house there was fined for the eighth time for Sunday work. The fine was three weeks’ imprisonment and $38.45 for the director, or in default of this forty days’ imprisonment. From that decision Elder Holser, the director, appealed to the Court of Appeals of Basel City, and, that court sustaining the decision of the lower court, the case was carried to the Federal Supreme Court. Here appeals must be made in writing. The appeal was made with an introduction, and fifty thousand copies circulated in all parts of Switzerland. Public sentiment was favorable generally, and many articles appeared in the journals in favor of religious liberty, some very decidedly condemning the decision of the Basel courts. Scarcely had this appeal been circulated when the case was set for October 10 by the Supreme Court, the appellant not even being informed by the court, but learning it from a friend of one of our brethren. The clerk stated that the appeal presented a better idea of freedom of conscience than the judges would have who decided the case. The Supreme Court of Switzerland consists of fourteen judges, in two divisions of seven judges each. Nine of these judges are Catholics. The division before whom the appeal came was composed of three Protestants and four Catholics. Each case that comes before this court is referred to one of the judges, who is expected to study it and present it to the court with his opinion. The case of Brother Holser was referred to Judge Blaesi, Old Catholic. He, however, did not present the appeal in full, but gave a summary of it, and read some portions of it, especially those that spoke of its being antichristian and papal to use force in matters of religion. His presentation of the case was fair, considering his position, but his opinion was that the appeal must be rejected on the ground that rights of conscience were not violated. The law did not punish us for being Adventists, but for violating the Sunday law, which is civil. Judge Cornaz, Protestant, stated as his opinion that Sunday laws did rest on a religious basis, that it was a fact that the State works on Sunday by exercising its soldiers, allows others to work in restaurants, railways, bowling alleys, hunting, etc., and that therefore it should allow the Adventists to work, who, like the Salvation Army, were a quiet, orderly people. He stated that the Adventists were right in their opinion, and were it in their capacity he would move that their rights be sustained, but that this was a question with which the Federal Assembly only could deal.
The sum of the matter was that the appeal was rejected, the cost of which will be borne by the State. The fact that the costs were laid upon the State shows the good will of the court. In the other cases the costs were laid upon the appellant. One gentleman remarked that if the Supreme Court decided to reject the appeal, he would be the first to petition the Federal Assembly in favor of our brethren.
Here is another court decision in a land of boasted religious freedom. The evidences show that we are rapidly nearing the time when Revelation 13 will be filled up. God will use all this to further his work, and that is the chief desire of our workers there. May the Lord bless our brethren who take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and give them wisdom to know how to use all these means so as to glorify the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.