Earlier text: Question Corner“YOUNG MRS. BOLTON’S HUSBAND.”
That is what people got in the way of calling handsome Jack Bolton, who, altho not an out-and-out bad fellow, was decidedly thoughtless, and not a little reckless withal. He liked a fast horse, a dog and gun, a game of cards or billiards; he frequented ball games, “foot and bat,” and boat-races and horse-races, and went to all sorts of places where he would not have taken his wife had she wanted to go, which she did not. Young Mrs. Bolton was lovely, accomplished, and, best of all, a very earnest working Christian. Having leisure she put it into church, mission, and other philanthropic work, and all the church people who went sometimes to prayer meetings and mission meetings were perfectly confident that, whoever stayed at home, Mrs. Bolton would go, so that the minister would have somebody to keep him in countenance. Jack’s manner of life being in such marked contrast provoked comment, of course, and after a while every one fell into the habit of calling him “young Mrs. Bolton’s husband;” and Jack would say in his droll way that it mattered very little what he did, for he traveled on the piety of his wife. The young women sometimes said they should think his wife would be ashamed of him, but she was not, altho, of course, she wished he would lead a more useful life. “He has talents and time, and might be helpful in so many directions, instead of simply amusing himself,” she would say; “and in these days, when there are so many ways to spend time and money for the benefit of one’s fellow-beings, it is a pity that he will not recognize his opportunities.” But she did not preach or scold, and Jack never got over thinking her a paragon of perfection. Jack was not a Christian, of course, and the burden of his wife’s thought was that, should he be converted, he would, as a matter of course, change his manner of life. So she prayed for him, and asked her father, who was a minister, to pray, and all her particular10 friends were entreated to make Jack an object of special prayer. One morning as she was putting everything in perfect order in her pretty home, for they kept no servant, the thought came to her that perhaps she had in reality more of the Martha spirit than of the Mary. “I am always doing,” she said, “and so was Martha. When I am at home, I am hurrying through my work so as to get ready to go out—on the Lord’s business, to be sure; I seldom am occupied with anything else, and I have endeavored to be diligent. It may be possible that I do not spend time enough in quiet prayer. I pray, I pray for dear Jack almost without ceasing, but it is often as I am rushing along the street or riding in a car, and, of course, my thoughts are, in a way, taken up by my surroundings. I do not take time to be holy.” “Now I firmly believe that all things are possible with God and that he is able and willing to hear and answer prayer, and now, for a time, instead of overmuch serving, I will sit at Jesus’ feet and learn of him, and I will pray for the conversion of my husband until my prayer is answered.” “What has become of young Mrs. Bolton?” people said. “She must be away; I haven’t seen her on the street for days.” But all the time the faithful little woman, after her housework was done, was in her closet engaged in earnest prayer for the conversion of her husband. She did not speak of the matter to her husband or to any one. She was so often out that her friends, seeing the closed shutters, did not ring the bell, so she was not disturbed. Jack, who was seldom at home excepting at meal-times and to sleep, did not inquire into her pursuits so long as everything about the household machinery moved on smoothly and regularly, and supposed she was occupied in district visiting and attending meetings as usual. At length, when some time had elapsed, he said to her one Sunday morning:— “I have been thinking lately that I am leading a very useless and unsatisfactory life. I don’t know what did put it into my head at first. I fancied it was because I was tired, but the thought has kept in my mind like an expostulating voice, and I thought I would ask you what you thought about it, and if you would like to have me go to church with you to-day.” “Mrs. Bolton has got back,” people said with animation. “How pleasant it is to see her bright face again! And her husband is with her. What can it mean?” It meant that Jack Bolton, having become quietly convinced that his life was being wasted, was led by his wife to seek divine guidance, and in all the years since their lives and their work have been in perfect harmony. “What has become of young Mrs. Bolton’s husband?” some one asked at a “race” or “game” a few months later, and the reply was:— “O, he became tired of this sort of thing, or thought better of it! Couldn’t help it, I suppose, with such a wife; and the funniest of it all is that since there has ceased to be such a contrast in their manner of life, the old nickname is dropped, and they have settled down into simple Mr. and Mrs. John Bolton, useful members of the church, and of society, and active in all benevolent enterprises.” Mrs. Bolton’s father told me this story, with permission to write it for the benefit of all who are praying for the conversion of friends, perhaps in a half-hearted way.—American Messenger. THE PRACTICAL DUTY OF THE PULPIT.
By W. N. G.
The innate desire of the modern pulpit for political influence is indicated by a San Francisco Rev. editor in the following expression:— “Yes, the pulpit has a duty, a practical duty, and if the supervisors go astray, it is the duty of the pulpit to call them back.” So Paul must have misunderstood the duty of the pulpit. He visited and preached, in the greatest cities of his day, cities fairly teeming with political corruption, yet in no instance do we hear of any “municipal reform” movement on his part, or on the part of any of his contemporaneous laborers. The city of Corinth was a very wicked city; Paul lived and labored there at one time for a year and a half, but he made no effort at municipal reform. Writing to the brethren afterward, he said:— “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. . . . And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” 1 Cor. 2: 2-5. Then the minister of God who will have his preaching accompanied by the Spirit and power of God, must give his attention to the one grand theme of “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” If he will preach Christ faithfully, he will have no time to devote to the regulation or reformation of the governments of this world, municipal or national, for Christ expressly said that his kingdom was not of this world. The minister of Christ goes out under express directions to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. With all of Paul’s diversified gifts, and he “was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles,” he had one purpose from which he never deviated. That purpose is expressed in these words: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The minister of Jesus Christ is an ambassador (2 Cor. 5: 20), not to civil officials as such, but to individuals as sinners. It is not to bring recreant “supervisors” or other officials back to their legitimate civil duties, but to beseech men of every grade, as individuals, to be “reconciled to God.” If this can be accomplished, the individual so changed will be a more faithful person in every capacity consistent with Christian duty. But the commission of the Gospel ambassador contains no prerogative to compel any one either in-religious duty or civil function. His message to sinful man is, “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” He can do nothing further in Christ’s stead, for Christ himself went no further than to offer salvation to those who would accept it. We have no record of his endeavoring to compel civil officials to perform their duties. Furthermore, the apostle Paul is very emphatic in regard to the duty of the minister to continue the work of the Gospel on the principle enunciated by him. Writing to the churches of Galatia, he says: “There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” It is the Gospel of the kingdom of God which the ambassador of Christ is to preach, and not the patching up of the corrupt governments of this world, which are soon to be broken in pieces and consumed by the coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This sin-cursed earth and its sin-laden governments are soon to pass away, and “we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” The only legitimate correction the Gospel minister may have for the civil officer is to warn him as an individual sinner before God, to reason with him, as Paul did with Felix, of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment. With the regulation of civil office, the “pulpit”—the Gospel minister as such—has no legitimate concern. “Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” Luke 9: 60. W. N. G. The Superior Consistory of Russia, the highest Protestant ecclesiastical authority in Germany, has made a pronouncement on pastors and politics which has a little of the old-time Protestantism in it, albeit it comes from a state church. Of late some of the younger and more liberal Protestant pastors have been dipping quite deeply into political matters. Upon this the address of the Consistory thus speaks:— “In view of this the Consistory regards it as its duty to ask the pastors to desist from this work as inconsistent with their calling and profession. It is not a part of their vocation to take part in political and social agitations. Their work is to faithfully attend to their duty as preachers of the word and as pastors of souls intrusted to their care. It is not denied that Christianity is to be the salt of the earth; but it is not the pastor’s duty to take a direct or immediate part in such agitations. Let the pastor in the line of his direct work instruct his people in godliness and in love to their neighbors, and these teachings will then bear their fruit in the callings and walks of life. Not directly, but only indirectly, is it the duty of the pulpit to influence the affairs of political and public life.” And this is the Gospel idea. Would that the many pastors in this favored land believed in the Gospel idea. More would be done for the people in the true preaching of the pure Gospel of Christ in a year than can be done in an eternity by political means. But one difficulty lies in such a protest; it comes with ill grace from a body that has so lost faith in Christ and the word that it has united with the state. The pastors reprimanded will not be convinced or helped. The preacher is in politics to stay till the unnatural union shall have developed its virulent poison, and then follows from its continued infusion the destruction of church and state. The only hope of permanent benefit is in the power of God’s word, preached by ministers untrammeled by creed or state. The life in that word will be operative. It will if received bring life and healing to the dying and dead. Political machinery may build the form or magnetize the dead body, but it can not give life. Christ only can do that in his own way. The trend of opinion and action among some of our religious leaders is as significant as it is remarkable. Here is Dr. Parker writing an affectionate letter of adoration to the pope, addressing him as “Holy Father,” “Your Holiness,” and stating, with reference to the much-vexed question of reunion, that, “if this were a mere personal matter, I could hardly forgive myself for seeking to approach a presence so august and so venerable”—and so on. Since then Dr. Lunn has actually gone “to beard the lion in his den,” as a representative of British Nonconformity. The aged Italian ecclesiastic, however, refused to receive his visitor as president of the Reunion Conference, and so Dr. Lunn out-poped the pope by replying that he would not, therefore, interview him in his personal capacity. But there seems to be a lot of pope fawning to-day. Divorces Outnumber Marriages in Fresno
In the city of Fresno, Cal., there were more divorces last year than marriages—an illustration of the growing disrespect of the marriage covenant and obligations. “PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU.”
In every rough and thorny way
The weary foot of man has trod,
Tho’ dark the night, tho’ drear the day,
He walks serene who walks with God.
No haunting fears disturb his faith,
No restless cares, no hopes that fade;
His the calm trust in Him who saith,
“I am the Life, be not afraid.”
—Selected. May every soul that touches mine—
Be it the slightest contact—get therefrom some good,
Some little grace, one kindly thought,
One aspiration yet unfelt, one bit of courage
For the darkening sky, one gleam of faith
To brave the thickening ills of life,
One glimpse of brighter skies beyond the gathering mists,
To make this life worth while
And heaven a surer heritage.—Selected. Our girls do not realize how much the happiness of home depends on them. The mother has been called the better half of her husband, and I think our girls can be called the better half of mama in more senses than one. Do not be too dependent on your mother for the direction of your ideas. Study them out yourself. If you have plenty of time on your hands, do not loll around, and wander from room to room after mama, but read awhile to grandma, who is too dull-eyed to read to herself. Anticipate mama’s wishes; ease her cares. Try to rise up to some one of the requirements of home every day. Come out of yourself and try not only to be happy, but make others so. There is something very beautiful about the affection of brother and sister. You can be a coworker with mother in directing the headstrong boy into right paths, not by speaking unkindly; even if you feel vexed, restrain yourself, and try to be pleasant; if you cannot, then keep still. Better to say nothing than to speak cross. Respect your parents before the younger children. Make mother your confidant. Do not forget that she prays for you.—Christian Work. The Spirit of a Person's Life
“THE spirit of a person’s life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily bestowing fragrance upon the air.” Sin Is to Be Condemned, Not Condoned
By Carlos Martyn
SIN is to be condemned, not condoned. — Carlos Martyn. Professor Marsh’s investigations of extinct animals were conducted year after year in sections of the far west which had not been explored by white men. He had many adventures while he was discovering his 200 species of fossil vertebrates, but perhaps the most interesting was an encounter with an Indian warrior in the Bad Lands, told about in the Youth’s Companion. The professor, while searching one day for his gigantic six-horned mammals, cretaceous birds, and precious pterodactyls, was separated from the other members of the expedition. He was so busily intent upon his scientific occupation that he did not hear the stealthy approach of a solitary horseman. It was an Indian buck, on the warpath, in full paint and feather. The professor is a man of high courage, but he involuntarily found himself yearning for the quiet and security of his college classroom at Yale when he was suddenly confronted by this startling apparition. His companions were not within call. He was completely at the mercy of the savage. The Indian coolly dismounted from his pony, and stood motionless before him, resplendent in paint and with plumes waving. Erect, sinewy, and dignified, he was a splendid specimen of a fighting buck. It was the most uncomfortable moment which the professor had ever known. “How?” said the professor timorously when the silence had become intolerable. “Is this Professor Marsh?” asked the Indian in clear-cut English. “Yes,” answered the professor, completely taken aback by the unexpected identification. “Of Yale College?” continued the Indian briskly. “The same,” confessed the professor. “How is Professor Hadley?” asked the Indian without a moment’s delay. The naturalist was almost speechless. To be suddenly interrupted in his scientific labors by a buck in war paint and feathers was sufficiently startling. To have the warrior, in place of scalping him, call him by name, and then ask sympathetically for a college associate, seemed nothing less than a miracle. The professor was fairly petrified with astonishment. But it was a miracle that was easily explained. The Indian had been sent east during boyhood to be educated, and had been befriended and instructed by Professor Hadley’s father. When his education was completed, he had parted pleasantly from the Hadley household, and had returned to his tribe in the reservation. Instead of profiting by his lessons and experience of civilization, he had gradually been overpowered by tribal pride, aboriginal instincts, and the irresistible fascinations of wild life and war paint. He had disappointed the expectations of the missionaries by reverting to savage conditions. Nevertheless, he paid civilization the compliment of respecting academic associations. He did not scalp Professor Marsh, but sat down on the rocks and had a pleasant chat with him. He even made an attempt to interest himself in some of the bones which the naturalist had exhumed. And when he remounted his pony, he sent “his kindest regards to the Hadleys.”—The Voice. In the spring of 1894 I put up two high poles in my yard; at the top of these I placed two boxes, each containing two compartments, one of these poles was intended for my old associates, the purple martins (P. purpurea), who generally arrived between the middle and last week of April, to sojourn with us until the fall reminds them of their autumn migration southward. The other pole was for the occupation of my little friends, the wrens (T. aedon), who arrived a little earlier than their above neighbors. The wrens, two pairs, duly arrived, and after closely inspecting every knot-hole and crevice to be found in or about the outhouses and barn, finally selected the box appointed for them, which, altho a new one to them, occupied the place of an old one, which had been taken down the previous winter, and in which they had nested for some years. They rapidly commenced work, and soon numerous sticks adorned their respective compartments, when suddenly a pair of English sparrows (P. domesticus) put in an appearance, and, driving away its occupants, took forcible possession of both compartments. The wrens retreated and disappeared, but in the short time of ten minutes returned with reinforcements, consisting of about seven or eight other wrens, who, after a sharp conflict, drove the intruders from the field. The sparrows, in about fifteen minutes, also returned, they in their turn having picked up about ten recruits, and vigorously attacked and put to flight the whole army of wrens. While attentively watching the battle, and considering it about time for my interference, I noticed a wren slip over my bird-house, and enter one of the compartments of the martin box, which was upon a much higher pole, and distant about ten yards from their pole, upon whose box the victorious sparrows were chippering and showing every sign of victory. The wren soon stole away and disappeared, and one of the female martins came out of its compartments, and was soon joined by the other female; in a few minutes the male martins arrived very closely together, and, uttering a few notes, all four charged the sparrows, and in a minute or two had completely routed the aggressors, who never returned; the martins returned to their box, and soon the four wrens came back, and settled down happily. I thought this was a clear case of bird sense and bird language on the wrens’ part; for they, finding they could not hold their own, had appealed to their neighboring wrens first—but where they found them so quickly I could not say, for I only knew of one nest, about two hundred yards distant—also of shrewd policy, when the enemy was reinforced, in applying for help to their powerful neighbors. The martins attacked the sparrows in a similar way that bee martins employ in fighting hawks or other birds who approach their nests.—The Museum. THE CHURCH OF ABYSSINIA.
By Geo. H. Schodde
BY PROF. GEO. H. SCHODDE, D.D. The events that have been transpiring in the last year or two on the eastern coast of Africa, notably the colonization projects and military expedition of the Italians, have brought into public prominence a people and a church of peculiar historic interest to all Christendom, namely, the people and the church of Abyssinia. In fact, the Abyssinian is the oldest national church in existence. While it does not date back quite as far as the Syrian, the Armenian, and one or two representatives of primitive Christianity in the east, it is the only one in this group that has preserved its composite and united national character to the present day. It can not claim to have been a prominent factor and force in the development of Christian thought or activity; but that it was not this is owing not to an absence of ability but to historic agencies as remarkable as they are unique. If any church on the globe is entitled to the name of “hermit” church, it is that of Abyssinia. Christianized in the fourth century, Abyssinia remained in touch and tone with the church at large only for a few decades. In the first centuries, when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, the Abyssinian too, like all her sister churches, became involved in the great theological and Christological controversies of the age. Taking sides with the Monophysites of the Coptic, Armenian, and other churches, it with these severed its connection with the Greek Church, when the Synod of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. condemned the Monophysitic doctrines. Only about two centuries later, Mohammedanism conquered Egypt, and separated the Abyssinian people and church entirely from all other Christianized peoples. It remained substantially a “hermit” church, until, beginning with its rediscovery in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese, it has repeatedly come into contact with other Christianities; with the Roman Catholics, through the Jesuits, who once even succeeded in converting an Abyssinian king, Basilides; then with the Protestants, through the Basel and London mission societies, and through the Lutheran Swedes, and recently again with the Greek Church, through the embassies from Russia to Abyssinia, and from Abyssinia to St. Petersburg. Practically the Abyssinian is still a hermit church, as all these efforts to rejuvenate her in doctrine and life have in reality been without material effect. As a result of all this we have in the Abyssinian, to all intents and purposes, tho in the shape of a petrification of forms and doctrine, the Greek Church of the fourth and fifth Christian centuries. What Abyssinia was in the days when her voluntary separation from the church at large took place, this it is substantially still. They are Semitic people, and altho the modern representatives of the Ethiopians of history, they are really not Ethiopians at all—i.e., they are not black. They are Caucasian, and are kindred people to the Jews, Arabs, Babylonians, and other history-making nations of the east. Originally they came from southern Arabia, now discovered by the German traveler, Edward Glaser, to have been the seat of the kingdom of the queen of Sheba. Of this the Abyssinians have still a distinct tradition. Their royal house claims to be descended from the house of Judah and of David, through a son, Menelek, born to Solomon after the visit paid him by the queen of Sheba. The present King Menelek is still able to trace his pedigree with more or less—undoubtedly less—reliability through all his ancestors to King Solomon, and even the patriarch Judah. On account of this claim the official seat of Abyssinia still contains the figure of a lion, with the inscription, “The Lion of Judah.” Belonging to the Semitic peoples, the Abyssinian, like all her sisters in this family of races, is characterized by a decided conservative trait, standing in bold contrast to the restlessness of the Aryan or Indo-European peoples. As an outcome of this the highest idea and ideal of Abyssinian church life was the preservation of the status of doctrine and life which marked the stage of development at the time when the separation took place, and through which, at least to a great degree, this isolation was caused. Accordingly, during all these centuries the church remained in statu quo, shared in nothing the development of church life elsewhere, and is now substantially what it was twelve hundred years ago. It represents in its dogmas, its doctrines, its extensive liturgies, its literature, and the like, the Greek Church, under the influence of which the Abyssinians were originally converted to the Gospel. Only in one matter has there been a change, and this took place of a necessity, tho unperceived by those whom it affected. This change was the petrification of teaching and life in the church. The hull and shell of Christianity is still there; its life and spirit are gone. “He who does not advance recedes,” has proved to be the case here, as in so many cases in history. But it is an ill wind that blows no good, and the forced and voluntary isolation and the semper-idem principle of conservatism so characteristic of the Abyssinian Church, has not been without its good consequences. Shut up in its mountain fastnesses, “the Switzerland of Africa,” the Abyssinian Church has preserved a large number of specimens of early Christian literature lost to the Græco-Latin Church world in the wars and tumults that shook Europe in the first ten centuries of the Christian era, and which left Abyssinia virtually untouched. Not only have we an exceptionally good and ancient version of the entire Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, in Ethiopic, but also such works as the Book of Enoch, the Fourth Book of Ezra, the Book of Jubilees, Ascension of Isaiah, Third Maccabees, as well as whole collections of apostolic canons and constitutions, called by them “Synodos,” a great body of extensive liturgies, prayers, hymns, etc., otherwise lost to the Christian church. For it should be remembered that the literature of Abyssinia is characterized by two distinctive features, namely, that it is entirely a Christian literature, even works on history, medicine, and other sciences being under the spell of Christian thought, and, secondly, that it is a literature of translations and imitations, first from the Greek and later from the Arabic and Coptic. Practically there is no original literature in Abyssinia. Hence, too, in cases like the “Pastor Hermæ” and other works, where imperfect or defective texts exist in Latin literature, the complete and older texts in the Ethiopic version are most welcome and valuable additions to the working material of the student of church history. Just in our day, when the historical principle of interpretation is bringing the teachings of Christ and his apostles into closer connection with contemporary thought, these older Jewish apocalypses, preserved for the student by the hermit church of Africa, are proving a great boon and help. A glance at recent exegetical and biblico-historical investigations shows that such writings as the Book of Enoch are no longer regarded as mere curiosities of literature, but as valuable sources for the study of the world of thought in which the New Testament writers lived and moved and had their being. One very characteristic feature of Abyssinian church life and doctrine must not be overlooked, namely, its semi-Jewish character. It comes nearer to the ideal of a Jewish Christian church, which it is the endeavor of the learned leader of the Jewish Christian movement in Kishineff, Joseph Rabinowitz, to realize than any other on the globe. It has preserved distinct features of Jewish worship and service, such as circumcision, the observance of the seventh as well as of the first day, the practice of fasting, and the like. The Abyssinians themselves deny that these are practiced in the sense of a Jewish service, but historical evidence would seem to speak in favor of such a source. Glaser has discovered in Southern Arabia, the original homes of the Abyssinians, the existence of a Menaean or Sabaean kingdom, a powerful Semitic or even Judaistic government; and the theory is often proposed that there the Abyssinians were first converted to the religion of their kindred people and brethren, the Jews, and after that to the Christian faith. One other important fact speaks for this view, namely, the existence in Abyssinia of a class of Black Jews, called “Falashas,” in a state of semi-serfdom, ethnologically connected with the Abyssinians themselves. It is not at all improbable that these constitute the portion of that population which refused to give up their Jewish faith and adopt that of the Christian missionaries. Quite naturally the church of Abyssinia stands in the closest relation to the Orthodox Church of the east, and a reunion with this body of Christians, after a separation of more than twelve hundred years, is not an impossibility. This really was the purpose of the Russian mission under Askeneff, several years ago, to Abyssinia, and of the Abyssinian embassy to the czar some months past. To both Roman Catholic and Protestant Gospel workers Abyssinia has never given a warm welcome. The latter have succeeded best among the Falashas, many of whom still adhere to evangelical Christianity, altho deprived of Protestant teachers for many years. This attitude of the Abyssinian Church12 toward Protestantism is much to be regretted, especially when viewed in the light of a possible rejuvenation and conquest of the Dark Continent for Christian civilization, with the existing church in Abyssinia as a basis for further operation. In these days the old classical question, “What new out of Africa?” has attained a new significance. Why could not the Christian nation of Abyssinia, altho representing such a low stage of spiritual development, be recalled to life, and this be made the beginning for further work in all directions? The Orthodox Church of the east can never gain Africa for a living Christianity or a true civilization. This would be the work and mission of the great churches of the west, especially, and above all others, the Protestant. Whether Protestantism can ever gain a firm foothold here, whence it has been driven out repeatedly by the typical oriental oppression of “orthodox” Abyssinian kings, remains yet to be seen. No Christian government has ever made an attempt to gain such a foothold. England, even after its conquest of Theodorus the Great and Abyssinia in 1854, an expedition undertaken solely for the purpose of releasing Protestant missionaries held in bondage, left this country to its fate. Yet the Abyssinians are the most gifted people on the continent, and by historic right deserve the closest consideration on the part of the leaders of the Christian civilization of the west.—The Independent. CHRIST THY FULLNESS.
By Charles Miles Snow
Laborer in the whitened harvest,
Reapest thou with sickle keen?
Or with rusty blade and faulty,
Careless of the grain you glean? Words of Christ are sharpened sickles,
Keener far than man can speak,
Freighted with a sweeter comfort
For the erring and the weak. Let his Spirit dwell within thee;
Let his words thy sickle be.
He himself will do the reaping—
Only let him speak through thee. Let him teach thee, let him guide thee;
He hath wisdom, he hath might.
He will be a shining beacon
Through each dark and stormy night. Tho no flowers strew thy pathway,
Tho thy pillow be a stone,
Christ is still thy shining gateway,
Leading to thy Father's throne. Lackest thou the soldier's armor,
Strength of arm thy sword to wield?
Christ will put his strength within thee,
Be thy helmet, sword, and shield. Child of God, why longer falter,
Fearing still to join the fray?
Christ hath conquered single-handed
Where he leadeth thee to-day. A NEW house of worship was dedicated at Placerville, Cal., on the 23d inst., Elders N. C. McClure and Wm. Ings officiating. ELDER E. VAN DEUSEN arrived at Barbadoes, West Indies, January 25, and enters upon the work of a Christian missionary in that new field. BROTHER C. H. JONES, manager of the Pacific Press Publishing Company, left this city on the 20th inst., for Battle Creek, Mich., to attend the spring meeting of the General Conference Association. ELDER C. N. MARTIN, reporting the work in Missoula, Mont., mentions the baptism of six persons on the 8th inst., and states that others are soon to follow. A church was recently organized at this place. THE new house of worship at Atlanta, Ga., was dedicated on the 2d inst. Elders Geo. A. Irwin, Rodney S. Owen, Geo. E. Fifield, and J. A. Brunson took part in the dedicatory exercises, Elder Fifield preaching the sermon. AS A result of circulating literature in Iceland our friends in Scandinavia report a good interest in that island. One Lutheran minister there has, with his family, been led to accept the Bible Sabbath, and desires to fully coöperate with our Danish brethren in the work. Iceland is a Danish possession and has a population of nearly 71,000, mostly of the Lutheran Church.—Present Truth (London). THE South African Telegram of January 11 gives quite an extended account of the Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting then being held at Mowbray, a suburb of Cape Town. Among the ministers in the camp are mentioned the familiar names of Elders S. N. Haskell, A. T. Robinson, Geo. B. Thompson, Ira J. Hankins, and P. J. D. Wessels. It is stated in President Robinson’s address that “arrangements are pending for the translation of several of our smaller works into some of the native tongues.” Also that the Orphans’ Home, recently completed, “is now providing the comforts of a Christian home for fifteen destitute children;” and that “our people in Kimberley and Beaconsfield have opened a home for destitute men, which is doing a grand and noble work in its line.” BROTHER F. L. MEAD, general canvassing agent, reports that the amount of book sales through our denominational agents during the year 1895 was $343,960. There were not so many agents in the field as in some former years, a number having withdrawn on account of general hard times. Had they continued, the sales would have been much larger. The experience of most of those who stuck to the work has demonstrated that success in book selling, as in all other branches of the Lord’s work, is a matter of faith rather than of worldly financial prosperity. Even in the best of times, those who buy books for the sake of the truth they contain, often do so at a sacrifice. It will never do to estimate what may be done for the cause of Christ by the business prospects of the world. There is just as much silver and gold in the world in “dull times” as at any other time, and it all belongs to the Lord. We may safely trust his Spirit working in honest hearts to call it out when the proper effort is made in faith believing. THE following assignment of laborers in General Conference District No. 2 was made at the recent meeting in Atlanta, Ga.: Elder Isaac Morrison and Brother Frank Lyndon to conduct tent meetings at Minden, La. Elder H. S. Shaw to resume labor at Vicksburg, Miss. Elders W. T. Drummond and D. C. Babcock to conduct tent meetings at Citronella, Ala. Elder C. M. Kinney and Brother M. C. Sturdevant to labor with the colored people of Birmingham, Ala. Elder J. A. Brunson and Wm. Woodford to labor with a tent at Chattanooga, Ga. Elder Rodney S. Owen and Brother Curtis to labor with a tent at Rome, Ga. Elders B. F. Purdam and E. L. Sanford to labor with a tent at Lego, N. C. Elder D. T. Shireman and Brother De Vault to labor in North Carolina, as the way may open. Elder R. M. Kilgore and Brother C. L. Kilgore to conduct tent meetings at Rockwood, Tenn. Elder I. E. Kimball and Brother J. O. Johnston to continue their labors in South Carolina. It was also decided to hold a district camp meeting at Chattanooga July 17–26. Our New Catalog of English Publications is now ready. PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., OAKLAND, CAL. KANSAS CITY, MO. N. Y. CITY, N. Y. “The Miniature Prophetic Chart,” giving the chart on the first of an eight-page tract, with explanations of the various symbols, in the six pages following, by Elder Wolcott H. Littlejohn. The explanations follow the usual line, and are much too brief to be conclusive or satisfactory, aiming at giving simply mere facts. However, some of its dates are wrong, as, for instance, the breaking up of the Roman Empire, 356 to 483. These dates should be 351 and 476. Price, 5 cents. Address the writer, Battle Creek, Mich. The Keepsake Book Mark is an entirely new and ingenious invention by Mr. W. W. Giles, of Occoquan, Va. It is designed to register the place in any book where you leave off reading, and it does this whether it remains in the place or not. It is very beautiful, being lithographed in ten different colors. It has a place on the front for the mounting of your photograph, or a friend’s. If one desires to give his picture to a friend, he can find no better way to mount it than in this book mark. It contains a perpetual monthly calendar, and a sick-room dial. It would make a most appropriate present, for it is full of precious Gospel food. Among other good things it contains Monod’s little sermon, “Looking unto Jesus.” Price by mail, 42 cents. Agents are wanted everywhere, to whom good commissions will be paid. Address the inventor as above. We hope that it may be sold by the millions, for it is worthy. BROTHER H. M. SMITH, of Mandan, N. D., feels it to be his duty to warn our brethren of a man lately in the Dakotas and Montana, borrowing money on false pretenses. He is described as having a club-foot, is about forty years old, very dark complexion, black moustache and eyes. He has given his name as "H. C. Walker" and H. C. Clark."