“A POWER from beneath is working to bring about the last great scenes in the drama,—Satan coming as Christ, and working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are binding themselves together in secret societies. Those who are yielding to the passion for confederation are working out the plans of the enemy. The cause will be followed by the effect. Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VIII, page 28.
I believe the only way to keep our children from being led into these deceptions is to teach them the dangers. If we ever receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we must be a united people, entirely free from all such influences.
“It is a solemn and terrible truth that many who have been zealous in proclaiming the third angel’s message are now becoming listless and indifferent. The line of demarcation between worldlings and many professed Christians is almost indistinguishable. Many who once were earnest Adventists are conforming to the world,—to its practises, its customs, its selfishness. Instead of leading the world to render obedience to God’s law, the church is uniting more and more closely with the world in transgression. Daily the church is becoming converted to the world.”—Id., pages 118, 119.
Unless we take a decided stand and heed the spirit of prophecy, I believe that we shall go as other denominations have gone. God’s work will be accomplished in the earth, for we are told, “Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” That is my hope on this lodge question, and I believe the spirit of prophecy will bring about this unity.
While in California in 1905, I heard Sister White say that some wonder what would happen if she should be taken away. She said, “The Lord has given this people light enough to take them through, if it was only heeded.” That is the trouble with us as a people,—neglect to heed the counsel God has sent. In spite of our neglect, the Lord has just sent us timely counsel in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. IX, page 19:—
“In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light-bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import,—the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention. The most solemn truths ever entrusted to mortals have been given us to proclaim to the world. The proclamation of these truths is to be our work. The world is to be warned, and God’s people are to be true to the trust committed to them. They are not to engage in speculation, neither are they to enter into business enterprises with unbelievers; for this would hinder them in their God-given work.”
From my personal experience I know we can not heed this counsel and have our minds taken up with lodge work; for we are to allow nothing else to absorb our attention.
“We are living in the midst of an ‘epidemic of crime,’ at which thoughtful, God-fearing men everywhere stand aghast. The corruption that prevails is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Every day brings fresh revelations of political strife, bribery, and fraud; every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering; of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide.8
“The cities of to-day are fast becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah. Holidays are numerous; the whirl of excitement and pleasure attracts thousands from the sober duties of life. The exciting sports—theater-going, horse-racing, gambling, liquor drinking, and reveling—stimulate every passion to activity.”—Id., page 89.
When we old people were children, there were only a few lodges. The World’s Almanac of 1908, in giving a few of the principal lodges, gives the names of fifty-six in the United States. The number given by those who have investigated the question is nearly three hundred. All this helps to bring about the sad condition of the present.
The ministers of the various denominations are perplexed, not knowing what to do. The Homiletic Review of June, 1909 (pages 459, 460), has an article, “The Ideal Funeral Service,” from which we quote:—
“At the ideal funeral service, no lodge will have charge. . . . Personally, it is very humiliating to me to be shoved aside in the home or at the grave by the uniformed ‘chaplain’ of some many-lettered organization. But I could swallow that as just a little pique, if that were all. But it is not all. I am there as the representative of the one divine institution among men, the church of the living Christ, to minister to the dead. And when these human organizations step in at such a solemn moment, for which even their stoutest advocates dare claim no divine authority, they seem to be elevating themselves to a place level with the church. As an ordained representative of the church of Christ, I have stood aside twirling my thumbs while men whose morals I knew were rotten clashed their swords across the casket, or sang songs, which, so far as the expression of any vital and distinct Christian sentiment is concerned, might be used at the funeral of the grand lama at Lhasa, or read prayers made ‘for humanity’s sake, Amen.’ And whatever may have been the fault of the church in failing to provide within herself that which men seem to crave and to find in these organizations, and however worthy the motives of the originators may have been, the impression they seem to give by thus officiating as a religious organization, and the impression a great many men take, is that the lodge is just as good as the church. . . . ‘Ministers, themselves lodge men, have said to me, “These organizations have no business with a man after he is dead.” And while burial is not a sacrament, yet if we grant these purely fraternal organizations the right to assume that much of the prerogatives of the church of Jesus Christ, why should it be a very far cry to the day when they might begin to baptize candidates and administer the Lord’s supper to full-fledged members? And so much display is certainly out of harmony with the simplicity of Christian thought, until it has become a proverb in certain quarters that the more plumes and brass bands and mummery at a funeral, the ungodlier the man.’”
This shows how a minister who probably knows little or nothing of the solemn message for this time, looks at these things.
School fraternities have gone so far that many of the States have been forced to pass laws abolishing them. I believe that unless we as a people stand united on this question, it is only a matter of time when this evil will get into our schools and colleges.
There is another phase of this question, and that is the life insurance. The Lord’s servant told us in 1867: “I was shown that Sabbath-keeping Adventists should not engage in life insurance. This is a commerce with the world which God does not approve. Those who engage in this enterprise are uniting with the world, while God calls his people to come out from among them and to be separate.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, page 549.
How much might have been saved to our people if this counsel had been heeded! “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.” Joel 2:17, 18.
Cedaredge, Colo.
Remember the Sabbath Day
By Philip Giddings
PHILIP GIDDINGS
No Scripture truth is more diligently urged by us upon others than Ex. 20: 8-11. And yet, as we look upon it in all phases of requirements, we may find cause for full personal application.
The day is to be kept holy, in the sense of the whole of it, in all its aspects, in a sacred way.
As applied to others, we would have them quit their work, but as applied to ourselves, we should not forget that it means to quit our words, as well. The common every-day topic must be left below, while we climb to Pisgah’s top, to see how near another six-days’ travel has brought us to the promised land. And shall we talk Moab in full view of Canaan?—Nay! our theme for the holy day should be found on the other side of the Dead Sea. “Half in the speech of Ashdod” and “according to the language” of Ammon and Moab, must be given up for full-rounded Hebrew. To-day, in a special way, we come “to the general assembly and church of the First-born, which are written in heaven.” The Persian daric, the Greek drachma and stater, the Roman denarius, as, and quadrans—all earth’s currencies—must for heaven’s day be exchanged into heaven’s coinage. To-day we should stop, and, unstooping from the earth-raking, view the celestial crown. To-day we should pass on from common nouns up to the proper. Vulgar conversation, like such strange, common fire, should not be brought to the altar of incense on heaven’s high day. We must have fire from above. The text of our Sabbath conduct and conversation should be heaven, and earth and the things therein, only thought of as similes that “the kingdom of heaven is like unto.”
The dressmaker should see change of raiment (Zech. 3:4; Rev. 19:8); the laundress, robes made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14); the lady of the house—and that term comes from two roots meaning loaf-kneader—should talk of leaven only as that silent grace working in the hearts of her home to leaven the whole lump for God; the farmer may talk of his field “like unto” “the planting of the Lord,” his harvest the final ingathering of souls, of whom he is one; the merchant seeking goodly pearls ought to consider that wisdom which is more precious than rubies, and that its possession makes a man more “precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir” (Prov. 3:14, 15; Isa. 13:12); the fisherman’s net may serve as a symbol of the gospel net by which men are to be gathered into the kingdom of the Lord (Matt. 13:33-48); the carpenter, the goldsmith, the blacksmith, and other smiths should all, from the different view-points of their callings, hear the high calling to harmoniously build the kingdom of heaven. Isa. 41:1-7.
Put in the language of the definition of a parable I learned when a boy,—“A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,”—unless our earthly stories and stores have heavenly meanings, they are nonsense and nothings. Ah, yes; earth is the parable of heaven, and we should keep it beneath our feet, to keep our head heavenward. Treated thus, earth is full of heavenly voices to ears not earth-stopped.
And yet men talk of their trade and truck, their tools and toys, not as the “like unto” something better, but, seemingly, as the things they love best. Absent from the body their business may be, but present in the heart, in the abundance whereof the mouth speaketh. And it is Sabbath-breaking whether we carry trade into Sabbath or Sabbath out to trade, whether we use mouth or hands on secular things in sacred time.
How is it that this little speck of a world can so fully furnish material for conversation for six solid days, and heaven—the land of “many mansions,” where no sin, nor sorrow, nor death will ever enter, of whose beauties man can have no conception,—how is it that it can not furnish conversation enough for one day? Why must our thoughts and conversation continually hark back to the trifling affairs of this little wandering star?
Those who “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” will not be at neap tide, but spring-tide, of spiritual eloquence; they will overflow the banks. They have, during the week, touched the common metals of daily experiences in such a way as, with the aid of the Divine Alchemist, to transmute them into Sabbath9gold. To such the Sabbath comes as both a compliment and a complement, rich and full with six days’ water turned wine at last. Having gone around Jericho for six days, on the Sabbath its walls must fall flat at their feet, as with trumpets and shout and the ark of the Lord Jehovah, they celebrate.
“Those who are not fully converted to the truth, frequently let their minds run freely upon worldly business, and although they may rest from physical toil upon the Sabbath, their tongues speak out what is in their minds; hence these words concerning cattle, crops, losses, and gains. All this is Sabbath-breaking. If the mind is running upon worldly matters, the tongue will reveal it; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
“The example of ministers especially should be circumspect in this respect. Upon the Sabbath they should conscientiously restrict themselves to conversation upon religious themes,—to present truth, present duty, the Christian’s hopes and fears, trials, conflicts, and afflictions; to overcoming at last, and the reward to be received.
“Ministers of Jesus should stand as reprovers to those who fail to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. They should kindly and solemnly reprove those who engage in worldly conversation upon the Sabbath, and at the same time claim to be Sabbath-keepers. They should encourage devotion to God upon his holy day.”—“Gospel Workers,” page 208.
“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then . . .” Isa. 58: 13, 14.
Roseau, Dominica, W. I.
God’s Standard of Righteousness
By William Covert
WILLIAM COVERT
Do we desire to know what standard of righteousness God approves? then look at the life of Christ for a model. He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John says that if one claims to abide in Christ, he should walk as Christ walked; for Christ came down from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of the Father who sent him, and he attended faithfully to the mission which he came to perform. It is true that the standard which Jesus sets before us is an exalted one; but it is for our interest that it should be so, and we should desire nothing less in righteousness than the example enjoined by our blessed Master, the righteous One, for he surely knows what is best for all, and his footsteps may well be followed.
Holiness Enjoined
When God called upon Abraham to stand as a representative of truth in the earth, he said to him: “Walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee.” Thus it is seen that the condition upon which the covenant with Abraham was based, embraced a life of perfect conformity to God’s will. And this standard Abraham did reach before the end of his journey, for the Lord said, “Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” (Gen. 26: 5.) Moreover, God requested Moses to speak to the children of Israel for him and say, “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.” Lev. 19: 2. This request for holiness accorded perfectly with the profession they were making, and with the work which God had called upon them to do. And their example in holiness before the world was to serve as an argument in favor of right living, and as an inducement to lead others in the way of holiness. They were to pose before the nations as the sanctified representatives of the God of heaven, for they had been chosen by him to bear the message of truth and carry the standard of righteousness to all the nations of earth. For these reasons they were called upon to be a holy people, like the Lord who had called them.
The same God who called Israel out of Egypt has called his people out from among the nations to-day, and the same reason should be assigned for the holiness of his people now that was assigned for their holiness then. God is in holiness now just what he was in holiness then. And he has the same ability now to keep his people holy that he had then. And, too, the very same requests for holy obedience have been handed down through the ages that were given in early times to God’s people. Neither have any taught its importance in stronger terms than did Christ when advising his listeners upon the subject. His words to them were, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5: 48.
Says an apostle: “As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [all manner of living]; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1: 15, 16. While considering the high standard set before us in the teachings which have been cited, it is helpful to know that God’s requirements enjoined, become enabling promises to all who believe them.
God will not command his people to do that which man can not do, or that which he will not enable them to perform. The word therefore which God commands becomes the word of his power to them who believe and accept the favor of his grace. For the prophet has said to the Lord, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isa. 26: 3. Indeed the Lord will create man anew that he may be able to perform every work enjoined by duty’s call. The gospel plan is to take an alien from God who is dead in sin, and in his stead create a new man in righteousness and true holiness. It is the new man created in righteousness who lives the life of true holiness. He has given himself up as an instrument to be in the divine hand and to be directed by the divine mind; and so it is God that works in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Chicago, Ill.
An Ice Slide
By John N. Quinn
JOHN N. QUINN
THE place of worship was comfortably filled with those who had tramped through ice and snow to attend the Sabbath service. The opening exercises were concluded, and the pastor took up his theme, “The Certainty of Christian Experience.” To the one who believed in Christ, there could be no doubt as to his acceptance with God, no doubt in the matter of forgiveness of sin, and all were being encouraged with the hope of victory even to the end. Outside the sun was throwing his warm rays upon the ice-covered roof of the building, and little by little the grip of the ice was loosened. Suddenly it was entirely released, and with a loud noise the great sheet of ice and snow was precipitated to the ground, startling not a few in the congregation, bringing ejaculations of fear from the lips of children.
Sometimes a spirit of coldness and indifference settles on the believer, and in spite of himself he feels the warmth of God's love is departing from his life. The service of God does not have its old-time attractiveness, and the allurements of the world are yielded to with scarcely a struggle of resistance. He becomes dissatisfied with himself and his experience, and shutting himself in with God and his Word, he seeks for a reconversion. The Lord Jesus meets with him at the cross, and as the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shine upon him, his heart warms with its old-time fervor, the first love returns, and the ice barrier slides out of his life to be dashed in pieces on the everlasting Rock, and its fragments melted in the presence of God's holiness. Christian service becomes to him the joy and rejoicing of his heart, and whenever opportunity presents itself, he offers praise and thanksgiving to God for his abounding love. Missionary work is no longer irksome, a mere duty, performed more to cover up his real experience than to bring souls to a knowledge of the truth. With delight he accepts every opportunity to speak for God's truth, with gladness he opens his pocketbook to pay for literature to be used in heralding the glad tidings of the coming King, and although conscious of his unworthiness, yet he is cognizant of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit to reprove, comfort, guide, satisfy, and fill him with all the fulness of the divine life. Truly he can testify that the chilly feeling in spiritual things is uncomfortable; the warm, bright one is a delight.
Takoma Park, D. C.
Duty Above Worldly Censure
BE not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power, and consequently should not be any part of your concern.—Epictitus.
After Twelve Years
By Mrs. S. R. Town
MRS. S. R. TOWN
The Transforming Power of the Truth
It was in the autumn of 1896 that we first visited the company of new believers in this gospel of the kingdom, located in one of the provinces of the Argentine Republic of South America. After a pleasant ride of thirty-six hours by river steamer, we arrived at our port about midnight. At sunrise we could discern a Russian wagon winding down from the brow of the bluff above us, and we were soon rolling over the open prairie in the fragrant country air, far from the taints and contaminations of city life, the bluest of spring skies overhead, many colored wild flowers under foot, and soaring song-birds all around us.
A ride of twenty-four miles brought us to the place of meeting. The worshippers were already assembled, and were singing with all their might. There seemed to be as many different parts to the music as there were voices, but each part fitted in with every other part in its windings and slurs and broken time, and all ended so abruptly that it left one breathless. The men were patriarchal looking, with unkempt hair and beard and soiled hands. The women11were gaudily dressed, and each had her head enveloped in a large kerchief. The children were exact reproductions of the parents, except in matter of size. But when meeting was over, and we were made the recipients of their smiles and hearty fraternal greetings, we realized that the same blessed hope as ours had come into their lives, and that our aims and affections were one. With true brotherly love they extended to us their hospitality, and we, as newcomers, were apportioned for the night to a more commodious home than others by our fellow workers; that is to say, we had only one roommate, the general rule being for visitors to share the same sleeping-room with the rest of the family. But we were unable to sleep, from the nature of our bed, as well as from the lack of fresh air, to which our roommate objected, being an elderly man.
The houses were made of adobes, roofed with thatch, and without floors. The furniture was of the most primitive, both as to quantity and as to quality; and dogs and cats, ducks and chickens, had free sway. All the dwellings were huddled together, leaving the land to be worked at a distance. The least personal privacy was impossible as long as daylight lasted, every window being filled with childish faces from without, and the room door opening unceremoniously as often as any man or woman chose to enter.
Educating the children was something which had not as yet occurred to these brethren. Each child was regarded as a profitable investment, being used to replace hired help at a very tender age.
Just twelve years from the time of this trip, we visited the same section again, to help temporarily in the work of an industrial boarding-school established among this same people. As before, we were invited to visit their homes; but although glad to see them, we did not look forward to our stay among them with very much pleasure. Imagine our surprise when the first brother took us, not to a mud hovel, but to a good white house, with shade trees and flower gardens, orchards and cultivated fields surrounding it on every side. Windmills and herds of cattle also betokened that industry and thrift had taken the place of idleness and vice. Personal cleanliness and modesty of dress marked their persons, and the house rejoiced in convenient furniture, and such little comforts and ornaments as distinguish a home from a mere house. There was a spare room for transients, airy and comfortable, and the children no longer intruded. And as we went from one place to another, this experience proved to be the general rule, and not the exception.
Among them lived their former associates just as they were before, but those who have heard the message, “The Lord is coming,” are getting ready for him, soul and body. Not only that, but they are getting their children ready. Each little neighborhood has its children’s school, and as already mentioned, they have also established a more advanced school for preparing their young people for gospel laborers. About ninety were in attendance last year, and some have gone to Europe to take more extended courses than this school affords. A sanitarium in course of construction stands as another witness to their zeal and liberality, and there may be seen to-day their sons and daughters neatly attired in nurses’ uniform, learning to make themselves useful.
In fact, fathers and mothers there are struggling and sacrificing just as they do here, to prepare their children and send them forth in the work which lies so near their hearts. From such humble beginnings, the message of the Lord’s coming is going to all parts of South America to high and low, rich and poor, and we can only say, “What hath God wrought!”
Takoma Park, D. C.
Why Worry?
By George B. Thompson
GEO. B. THOMPSON
THOUSANDS worry. Many professed Christians put in days and nights anxiously fretting about things real or imaginary. And as a result of this, many have had their peace of mind permanently wrecked, their health ruined; and some have gone to the insane asylum or committed suicide as a result. Yet worry never improves, or helps, an unfortunate circumstance. Who can arise and truthfully testify that he ever received any help from a period of worry?—not one. Then why do it?
To the man without God or hope in the world, there is perhaps some excuse for fretting and being anxious about things, for he knows of none to help him. But with the Christian it should be different. He should never act as if there were no God, or that he was sleeping or unmindful of the needs of his creatures. God cares; he is a Father; he is a present help in every time of need, and bids us cast all our care upon him. He is both able and willing to help us.
A manufacturer took his little daughter to visit his factory for the first time. The child was terrified by the deafening roar and din of the rapidly revolving machinery which surrounded them, and clung terrified and sobbing to her father. “What are you afraid of, my child? Don’t you know that I am master here?” he said. “Look!” And he lifted his finger. In a moment every wheel was still, every sound hushed.
So with Jesus. The program of events is in his hands. The machinery of circumstances is under his control. The circumstances which surround your life and mine, and the perplexities which tend to harass us, are within the reach and control of an infinite hand. Then why worry through unbelief?
When the disciples were toiling amid the billows of the storm-lashed Galilee, seemingly about to perish among the elements which they were unable to control, the simple words of appeal, “Lord, save us: we perish,” brought deliverance. With a word Jesus hushed the tempest, and stilled the foam-crested billows which threatened their destruction.
When Paul was rocked amid the angry billows of Adria; when sun, moon, and stars for many days were unseen, surrounded with criminals and an unbelieving crew in whose heart all hope of reaching port had died, the servant of the Lord stood forth and said, “And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” Acts 27: 22-25.
In our lives there are days of tempest, sunless days and starless nights, when, if appearances were the only guide, all hope might well be abandoned. But God is greater than these. Clouds surround Jehovah’s throne.
“He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.”
In the midst of the storm and danger, Paul, though in chains, rested his head on the bosom of Omnipotence. It is our privilege to do likewise. The same God who saw and understood the needs of his servant on the sea, and then sent an angel to cheer him, will do the same for us; for he is no respecter of persons.
It is said of Bulstrode Whitlock, Cromwell’s envoy to Sweden, that upon a certain occasion he was so disturbed in mind over the state of his nation that he could not sleep. His servant, observing it, said to him, “Pray, sir, will you give me leave to ask you a question?”—“Certainly.” “Do you think that God governed the world very well before you came into it?”—“Undoubtedly,” was the reply. “And do you think that he will govern the world quite as well when you are gone out of it?”—“Certainly,” he replied. “Then, pray, sir, excuse me: do you not think that you may trust him to govern it so long as you live in it?”
This well illustrates the point. Worry removes no burden, only adds greater ones. The Christian can well rest the affairs of life in the hands of an infinite God who is too wise and good to err. At the close of each day we can say, in the trustful words of the poet:—
“The day is ended: ere I sink to sleep,
My weary spirit seeks repose in Thine.
Father, forgive my trespasses, and keep
This little life of mine.
“With loving-kindness curtain thou my bed,
And cool with rest my weary pilgrim feet;
Thy pardon be the pillow for my head.
So shall my sleep be sweet.
“At peace, dear Lord, with all the world and thee,
No fears my soul’s unwavering trust shall shake.
All’s well whichever side the grave for me
The morning light shall break.”
The writer is not unmindful of the fact that this is a world of trouble, that man is of few days and full of trouble. There are heartaches and sorrows all about us while pilgrims through the valley of the shadow of death. Afflictions await us all. Death robs the home of those we love. Yet amid it all we can trust. We can be perplexed, though not cast down. We can dwell on the Israelite, rather than the Egyptian, side of the cloud. We can rest, rather than worry, though the eyes be dimmed with tears. Like Job, we can exclaim in trial, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” This is possible for the trusting child of God through receiving the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Takoma Park, D. C.
Think on These Things
By Burton Castle
BURTON CASTLE
SOMETIMES shadows cross our pathway,
Sometimes sunshine makes it glow,
Sometimes we are looking, hoping,
Hidden things to see and know.
Constant thought on things of beauty,
Things of good report, and pure,
On an upward road will lead us,
To that home which shall endure.
If such thoughts our minds are filling,
And our eyes are fixed above,
Every day’ll be one of sunshine,
Sunshine in the Saviour’s love.
Then though clouds may cross our pathway,
And the nights be dark and drear,
We’ll not faint nor weakly falter,
For the Saviour will be near.
Fairland, Ind.
A Children’s Meeting in 1844
By suggestion of Brother Chas. E. Sturdevant, of Illinois, we reprint the following description of a children’s service in the 1844 movement, taken from “Life Sketches,” by James White:—
“The first of May I received an urgent call to visit West Gardiner [Maine], and baptize. A messenger was sent twenty miles for me. He stated that there were ten or twelve children there, who were convicted by my lectures, who had held their little meetings by themselves, and sought and found the Lord, and who had decided to have me baptize them. Their parents opposed the idea, and told them that Elder Getchel, the pastor of the church, would baptize them. They held a little council, and decided that they would not go into the water unless they could have me to immerse them. Their parents yielded, and sent for me. But before I reached the place, an effort was made to intimidate these dear children, and, if possible, to frighten them, and thus keep them from doing their duty.
‘What kind of an experience does Mr. White suppose those babies can tell?’ said a Baptist minister of the most rigid stamp of past times.
‘The large schoolhouse was crowded at the time appointed, and there were three unfriendly ministers present to watch the proceedings. ‘Please vacate these front seats,’ said I, ‘and give those who are to be baptized a chance to come forward.’ Twelve boys and girls, from seven to fifteen years of age, came forward. It was a beautiful sight, which stirred the very depths of my soul, and I felt like taking charge of them as I would of a class in school. I was determined to help the feelings of those dear children as much as possible, and rebuke their persecutors.
‘After taking my text, ‘Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’ (Luke 12:32), a text quite applicable to the occasion, I stated that I should not require the children before me to relate their experiences before the congregation. That it would be cruel to decide their fitness to follow the Lord in the ordinance of baptism by the confidence and freedom they might have in speaking before those professed Christians present who felt unfriendly toward them, and that I should, at the close of my discourse, ask them a few questions. The children were much comforted and cheered by the discourse. In fact, I was enjoying decidedly a good time with those lambs of the flock. They then arose in their turn and answered some questions, and related particulars as to their conviction of sin, the change they had experienced, and the love of Jesus they felt, until the congregation heard twelve intelligent and sweet experiences. . . .
‘I then called upon all present who felt opposed to the baptism of the little flock before me, to rise up. Not one arose. I stated to them that the present was the time to object if they had objections. But if they did not then and there object, to forever be silent. I then said to the children that no one objected, and that the way was fully open before them, and no person from that day had any right to object to their baptism. We went to a beautiful body of water, where I led those dear children down into the liquid grave, and buried them with their divine Lord. And as I led them to their parents, the children met them with a heavenly smile of joy, and I praised the Lord with the voice of triumph. This meeting and that sweet baptism are among my most pleasing memories of the past.”
_A Heathen Mother's Example_
By W. C. Dunscombe, M. D.
W. C. DUNSCOMBE, M. D.
ONE day as I walked through the grounds of a large Buddhist temple, I noticed a mother, with a baby strapped to her back, approach the bronze image of Buddha. She took the heavy rope hanging in front of the bell and struck it two or three times to awaken the god if perchance he might be sleeping. Before the bell had ceased vibrating, clapping her hands together, she bowed as she offered up her petition. Her baby was only about two years old, but as soon as the mother had finished, she put the baby's hands on the rope and helped her strike it. Then the child put its hands together and bowed its head also for a moment or two.
I have often thought of this since, and it has taught me a great lesson. Those who serve Satan are wiser than many Christian parents. When a Buddhist has thus been taught from its earliest childhood to reverence Buddha, it is indeed hard for such a soul to break the fetters and come out into the light. O that Christian parents would as faithfully instruct their children to reverence Jehovah and his worship! Shall it be said of us that the heathen are wiser in their generation than we?