IT is evident that the virus of greed runs riot in the blood of most men in these degenerate days.
What will men not do to wrap their greedy fingers around the infatuating dollar? Society has instinctively recoined an old word into a new use in order to express in a nutshell the multifarious illicit methods devised for indulging its passion for coin. That word is GRAFT. No other word is to-day used more flippantly by all classes of persons, from babies to octogenarians.
Of all forms of graft, however, none is more essentially diabolical, more out-and-out wicked, than that of adulterating the foods, drinks, and medicines manufactured to sell to the consuming public. The medico-scientific world is frantically pursuing the menacing microbe into its last hiding place, and has almost succeeded in putting the fever germ into permanent quarantine. With unflagging zeal our doctors vaccinate, inoculate, and make immune. They mend broken skulls, replace a missing stomach, and disentangle a knotted intestine. But we practically undo all this by unwittingly eating or drinking some adulterant just as fatal, in time, as a sword-thrust.
Despite the laws that society has enacted in order to safeguard health and life, this most odious of all the forms of commercial fraud is everywhere prevalent. In reference to the crime of food adulteration an eminent publicist recently wrote: "Fresh fruit and meat 'on the hoof' so far defy adulteration; but aside from these there is little which man consumes of the purity of which he can be entirely sure." The investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, relative to the adulteration of foods and medicines, have led to the most surprising revelations respecting the extent and character of this nefarious practise. The head of the bureau, Dr. Wiley, alleges that "there is scarcely an article of food which has not been 'doctored' for fraudulent purposes." As long ago as 1894, Mr. A. J. Wedderburn, a special agent of the Department of Agriculture, who made a searching investigation into the whole subject, reported that the people of the United States paid $1,125,000,000 each year for the elements of adulteration which they consume in their food. This total, stupendous as it is, does not include the adulterations in malt and spirituous liquors, tobacco, drugs, and the horrors of patent medicines.
Impure Milk.
Even milk, a food indispensable to infants and to many invalids, is adulterated to an extent incredible to those who have not kept themselves informed on the subject. In the city of New York, during 1902, of 3,970 samples of milk taken from dealers for analysis, 2,095, or nearly 53 per cent., were heavily adulterated. In the state of Ohio, during the year 1903, the official chemists found that more than one-fourth of all the milk that they had time to analyze, was adulterated with that vile stuff known as "formaldehyde." These instances serve to illustrate the extent to which the lives of innocent children and helpless invalids are everywhere put in jeopardy, and all from motives of sheer greed.
In the very teeth of drastic laws against the "doctoring" of butter, there are scores of preparations purporting to be butter that are still sold in enormous quantities throughout the country. Of fifty-eight samples of stuff sold as butter, inspected in 1899, in Ohio, fifty proved to be oleomargarine, four to be adulterated, and two to be renovated, butter. Of the entire lot not one sample met the standard test. There are factories in various parts of the United States devoted exclusively to the manufacture of "renovated butter." Their agents frequent all the large markets for the purpose of buying up the refuse butter from the commission men and retailers, "taking stale, rancid, dirty, and unsaleable butter in various degrees of putrefaction; this refuse is put through a process of boiling, straining, filtering, and renovating, and is finally churned with fresh milk, giving it a more saleable appearance." The effect is said, however, to be only temporary, as in a few days the stuff becomes rancid, giving off a frightful odor. For this reason it is sold to dealers having a large trade, who will dispose of it quickly, for, if it is not consumed at once, it can not be used at all unless it is again renovated.
As a result of the researches made by the Municipal Pure-Food Laboratory of San Francisco, it is definitely known that nearly sixty per cent. of the honey sold in the Pacific coast markets is largely composed of glucose. A slightly smaller proportion of maple syrups and of molasses is freely mingled with the same adulterant, plus an admixture of salicylic acid as a preservative. This acid is a poison. A very large proportion of the jellies and of the evaporated creams is filled out with a goodly percentage of starch, with borax thrown in as a preservative. The same authorities further inform us that the manufacture of candies is made immensely profitable by the use of glucose in the place of sugar. Gelatine is almost universally used in the making of ice-cream, and more than five-sixths of the ice-cream analyzed contained borax. In several instances the cream was found to contain even wood alcohol, a rank poison.
Baking-powder.
A popular brand of baking-powder, which has been widely advertised and sold in large quantities, was found, under analysis, to contain thirty per cent. of pulverized rock. Chemical analyses have also laid bare the unsavory truth that most of the cream-tartar of commerce contains large admixtures of starch, phosphate, calcium, acid, and gypsum. The various flavoring extracts are equally deceptive in their composition. Tonka beans, a dangerous poison, artificial coumarin, and glycerole are extensively employed in making extract of vanilla. Of eighty-six samples of the different brands of lemon extract for sale in one of the states, Prof. R. E. Doolittle found that forty-four of the brands contained no oil of lemon whatever; only eight contained more than five per cent., and all except six were colored with coal-tar dyes. It should be remembered that the rules of the United States Pharmacopeia admit of no coloring matter except what can be effected by the use of lemon peel. Its rules further require that lemon extract shall contain no ingredient except the oil of lemon (five per cent.) and pure alcohol.
Canned goods are notoriously sophisticated. Poisonous drugs are used to give a pleasing color to these wares, as well as to insure their preservation. The manufacturer knows that salicylic acid arrests fermentation in canned fruits and vegetables, and borax in canned meats, and therefore he uses them without stint, as long as he is not molested by the officers of the law. These drugs also arrest digestion in the human stomach, but that is a detail with which the dealer does not concern himself, his business is to corral dollars, even at the cost of human health and life.
Canned peas are freshened into a vivid green by use of a positive poison, sulphate of copper. Prepared meats and codfish are preserved with boric acid, another drug altogether inimical to the health of the consumer. An additional chemical poison is employed to intensify the natural color of preserved meats.
The ground coffees of commerce are virtually all more or less adulterated—the most common adulterants being roasted wheat hulls, bran roasted peas, the husks of coco beans, and adulterated chicory. One interesting sample, analyzed in 1900, by the Ohio authorities contained ingredients in the following percentages: Sand, 7.5; sticks, wood, and husks, 2.59; pods, 1.56; ground beans resembling coffee beans, 5.93; other foreign substances, 70.21. The remainder was actually coffee!
In a late number of the San Francisco Argonaut, the editor informs his readers that "out of one hundred and thirty-nine decoy prescriptions sent out by the State Board of Pharmacy to Chicago druggists to be filled, twenty-three contained no trace of the drug called for, sixty-six were eighty per cent. impure; ten were twenty per cent. impure; nine, ten per cent. impure; and only thirty-one were pure." In San Francisco the agents of several reputable chemical firms have been quietly scrutinizing the adulterants offered under time-honored names to the unsuspecting public, and the findings have been anything but creditable to the dealers. The aforesaid editor makes the astounding statement that, "Even President McKinley, according to report, was treated, after he was shot, with a drug which the surgeons quickly found was so adulterated as to have the opposite effect to that desired. From the Atlantic to the Pacific the coin-clutching adulterator of drugs has left his trail."
Wood Alcohol.
Physicians declare, however, that the most awful adulteration is that of substituting deodorized wood alcohol, or methyl alcohol, for ethyl alcohol, or grain spirits. The latter costs somewhat more than two dollars a gallon, while the former costs but fifty cents a gallon. The extent of the consequent adulteration is said to be amazing. They tell us that the inevitable result of drinking or inhaling or absorption through the skin of wood alcohol is blindness or death. "No alternative has been discovered. The most noted specialists of this country are at one on this subject, and predict a time when we shall be in the midst of a crowd of sightless, groping, bleary wrecks, stumbling from corner saloon to corner saloon, to get liquor which took away from them the light of the sun, and enriched the unspeakable adulterators at the price of human sight." (This excerpt is from the Argonaut. It is, perhaps, slightly hyperbolical.)
In its recent report, the New York State Board of Pharmacy avers: "Wood alcohol is a very dangerous poison. Its use is known to have caused St. Vitus' dance, paralysis, and total blindness. Even when used externally it is exceedingly harmful."
Dr. Lederle, in 1903, then head of the New York City Health Department, found that nearly fifty druggists were using it, not only in spirits of ammonia, but in tincture of ginger. Acetanilid is known to be a very dangerous heart depressant. But it is cheap; hence it is very extensively substituted for phenacetin, a much more costly chemical. Of three hundred and seventy-three samples of alleged phenacetin bought from druggists in New York, in January, 1903, only fifty-eight were pure. The others were basely sophisticated or contained no phenacetin at all. "Sixty per cent. of the wine made in France," says a noted chemist, "never saw a vineyard, and grapes form no part of their composition." After careful investigation, it has been conservatively estimated that seventy-five per cent. of the whisky sold in this country is a vile compound of cheap alcohol, fusel oil, and various other poisons.
Thus we might continue ad infinitum to illustrate the awful completeness with which the world of trade has become inoculated with the virus of this abominable species of graft. How often we hear it said that we have become a world of traders; but does it not look as tho we had become also a world of swindlers? Well might some modern Madame Roland exclaim, "O Greed, what crimes are committed in thy behoof!" Apropos of the ubiquitous fraud of the mart, Mr. George Horace Lorimer recently delivered himself in the following pungent terms:
There is more than a sinister suggestion in the fact that it has been, and apparently still is, impossible to get Congress to enact pure food legislation. The adulterator of food is, at his best, a thief, and, at his worst, a poisoner, and, at all times, a repulsive specimen of callous degenerate. But he has "influence" enough with the machines of both our parties, in the nation and in most of the states, to secure the quiet smothering of laws against him.7The food adulterator, like so many others of our "respectable"—that is, most disreputable—criminals, thrives through the indifference and laziness of the mass of his fellow-men. But criminal carelessness on the part of purchasers does not excuse or lessen the crime of the adulterator or the crime of every legislator who, by failing to demand his punishment, makes of himself an accomplice in the stealthy crimes of this own cousin to the well-poisoner.
In the 27th verse of Revelation 21, there are named several classes of wrong-doers who "shall in no wise enter into" the city of God. The designation of one of these classes is most significant in this connection. Thus: "Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or MAKETH A LIE." If the adulterator of foods, etc., is not one who "maketh a lie," who, then, is?
CHURCH AND STATE NOTES.
By Editor
THE originator of, and leading spirit in, this Washington movement for the introduction of the teaching of the Ten Commandments and other religious matter into the public schools, “the Rev. Randolph H. McKim, D.D.,” rector of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, thinks “the public ought to look at the real issue involved in this whole discussion,” and in an interview one day this week has thus presented “the issue”:
The issue is simply this:
Shall the children be taught the Ten Commandments?
Shall they be taught to love God and to love their neighbors as themselves?
Shall morality be taught by selected text-books?
Shall an effort be made to secure a series of lessons from the Bible which Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Hebrews could all accept, instead of leaving the question to the individual teachers?
All the “religious teaching” asked for may be put into a few lines, to wit:
“Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.”
“Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image to adore it.”
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
“Thou shalt remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”
This is absolutely all that is asked in the way of “religious” instruction, unless the board see fit to adopt a brief exposition of the meaning of these four commandments.
The existing rule (No. 46) requires the inculcation of obedience to the commandments of God, without specifying what they are. It also requires the inculcation of the moral virtues by the teacher. No new principle, no innovation, is involved in the present proposals.
However much it may clarify the issue, it is certain that this statement will not lessen the issue any. This week, on the evening of March 21, the evening of the very day on which Dr. McKim made the above statement, there was a lecture on “Christian Education” at his church, the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, and one can but wonder if the Doctor was present. He should have been, for something was said that he needs very much to hear, and that was very pertinent to the movement he has inaugurated in Washington. The lecture was under the auspices of the Churchman’s League, and the speaker was Rev. Edward S. Drown, D.D., professor of Systematic Divinity at the Episcopal Theological School at Cambridge, Mass. In the course of his earnest address the speaker made the following statements:
The one means that the church has by which to do its duty in the religious instruction of its children, and therefore to do its duty to the state, is the Sunday-school, and if the Sunday-school rises to the emergency and does its duty as it should be done, the religious education of the children can be provided.
When the churches really want good religious education they will be willing to pay something for it, and they will get it, not simply because they pay for it, but because their payment proves the earnestness of their desire.
If our laymen really want the religious education of their children, and take that want to heart, they will get it, and one of the signs of their wanting it will be their willingness to pay for it.
It would seem almost as if these statements were uttered in reproof of this movement that Dr. McKim is pushing. Dr. Drown, himself a leading Episcopalian, says that if the church really wants its children trained in religion, it will do it itself, and that it will pay for such instruction itself. To Dr. McKim’s cry that the children are not being trained in religion, and that the state should undertake the work, Dr. Drown answers, that, instead of such a demand from the church being an evidence that the church really cares to have the children instructed in religion, it is a demonstration that the church cares very little about the matter. And Dr. Drown is right. When churchmen propose that the state shall instruct the child in religion, they show a serious indifference to the real religious training of the child. It is an indication that they feel no real and proper responsibility in the matter.
The most noteworthy thing just at this time in connection with this religion-in-the-public-schools agitation in Washington is the expression in the subject made in a leading editorial to-day (March 24), by the Washington Post, the leading daily of the city and one of the leading newspapers of the East.
The editorial is headed “Public Schools and Religious Teaching,” and reads:
It is quite natural that the effort to introduce religious instruction in the public schools should have failed to arouse popular support. It was an agitation which, in the Post’s opinion, had no adequate basis. The public schools are not, and never will be, religious institutions. There are private sectarian schools which exist because they make religious teaching a feature of their curriculum, and there are Sunday-schools innumerable which are established for the very purpose of supplying religious education. If these are not sufficient, or if they do not reach a large number of people, the remedy is not to be found in altering the public school system. It is the duty of Christian people to enlarge the sphere of influence of their own institutions by inducing a larger attendance.
With all efforts which tend to spread the cause of religion the Post is heartily in sympathy, but these endeavors must follow appropriate channels. Their sphere of activity is well defined, and it does not include the public schools.
This editorial, especially at this stage of the matter, will hardly add to the joy of the promoters of this scheme for religious instruction in the schools.
THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
RUSSIA'S official figures of her great losses in the battle of Mukden have at last been published. It proves to have been one of the most sanguinary conflicts of the world. The total number of Russians killed, wounded, and taken prisoners is given as 107,000. The official statement of the Japanese losses throughout the long battle have not been given; but are declared to have been considerably less than those of the Russians, altho they were the attacking party.
The concentration of the Russian army is said now to be complete, with the advance line at a place called Sipinghai, while the movements of the Japanese indicate that they are marching in the form of a crescent, with the wings far in advance of the main body. The evident intention is to encircle the Russian position in such a manner as to prevent the escape of the army when defeated in frontal attack.
Both belligerents reassert their intentions to continue the war. Russia is placing great hope in the success of her fleet under Admiral Rojestvensky, which on April 8 was reported steaming through the Malacca Straits. A portion of the Japanese fleet was in its rear, and the remainder was waiting in the China Sea through which the Russian fleet must pass. Admiral Rojestvensky has a large fleet, but it is not believed to be an efficient one, because of foul bottoms and obsolete construction. Its crews have had little or no experience, while the Japanese have had experience and exhaustive training.
The eyes of Europe are now fixed upon Morocco and the three powers interested therein, namely, Germany, France, and England. England has recognized the preponderating influence of France in Morocco; but Germany, by the declaration of the emperor, refuses any such recognition, and has encouraged the ruler of Morocco to consider himself entirely independent of any foreign influence. France had influenced the Moroccan ruler to institute a number of reforms along European lines. Germany has advised that ruler not to comply with the wishes of France in the matter of reforms. The newspapers of these two European powers have indulged in some vigorous talk over the matter and the attitudes of the two nations. Right at this time King Edward visits the president of France, and this is taken in Europe as an indication that England stands with France on the Morocco question. There is some uneasiness throughout the world over the situation.
The recent great earthquake in India, in addition to doing great damage to buildings, is reported to have resulted in a great loss of life. At the hill station of Dharmsala, near Simla, eighty per cent. of the inhabitants are reported to have been killed. The earthquake was quite general, and numerous deaths are reported from other localities. Great buildings that have become historic were cracked or shattered or completely ruined.
Several great railroad companies are planning now to come under one management, making a much greater trust than that which was known as the Northern Securities Company. They will comprise one line of road from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The combination is being accomplished under the direction of J. P. Morgan and Kuhn, Loeb & Co., of New York City.
Cerebro-spinal meningitis has assumed the proportions of a plague in New York City. It is said to have caused not less than one thousand deaths in that city since the beginning of the year. The death of a Chicago teacher, who had recently returned from New York City, has given rise to the fear that an outbreak in that city would occur soon.
Only one serious conflict is reported to have occurred in Russia during the week between the police and the people. This took place at Warsaw, in the Jewish quarter. A large gathering of people, said to be Jewish Socialists, was fired upon by the troops and police, as a result of which four were killed and about forty wounded.
On March 26 a bomb was thrown into a police station at Warsaw, Russia, wounding seven persons. The chief of police, Baron von Nolken, started at once for the station in his carriage, and a bomb was thrown at his carriage. Its explosion wrecked the carriage, and seriously wounded the baron.
Hon. Seth Low and a large number of ministers are planning an extensive revival campaign in Greater New York. Ten large tents will be employed, each with its corps of religious and musical workers. The aim is to reach street children and crowds of idle men.
The great Simplon Tunnel through the mountains between Switzerland and Italy is now complete, and trains are in operation. This is the longest tunnel in the world, and difficulties of gigantic proportions were overcome in its construction.
The municipal election of Chicago has resulted in the carrying of a ticket which stands for the city ownership of all the great public franchises. Judge Edward F. Dunne was the successful candidate for mayor.
The coal-mine explosion at Zeigler, Ill., on April 3, resulted in the death of 43 of the miners. The disaster was caused by an explosion of powder and the afterdamp following.
Suicides are increasing at a rapid rate in Berlin. Last year the ratio was 34 to every 100,000 inhabitants, or more than twice as great as the ratio for London.
Seven men recently named by the President, will constitute a commission to have the immediate oversight of the construction of the great Panama Canal.
President Roosevelt has accepted the San Domingan Government's proposition to take control of the finances of that government.
A Strong Adversary of the Gospel
A Strong Adversary of the Gospel.—A Methodist bishop, Dr. Foss, is credited with this statement concerning strong drink: “As a Christian minister, I oppose drink because it opposes me. The work I try to do, it undoes. It is an obstacle to the spread of the Gospel; nay, it is an obstacle which assails the Gospel, and whose complete success would drive the Gospel from the earth.”
This is certainly true, for it is one of Satan’s very delusive weapons, and perhaps his most destructive one. “It biteth like a serpent,” and the serpent was his first medium in the introduction of sin and death into the world. But there is another sinister principle behind the strong-drink evil, which gives it impetus and its wonderful influence; and that is the “love of money,” which is “a root of all kinds of evil.” It is doubtful if there is a man in the world who believes that the indulgence or the traffic of strong drink is right. It is the business of liquor-making and liquor-dealing that puts the tempter in the way of those who are susceptible to its influence, and the “love of money” is the sole incentive to engaging in the business.
CREDULOUS SKEPTICISM.
By S. S. Times
CREDULITY is the child, not of faith, but of unbelief. The worst errors and vagaries are those entertained by skeptics. "I am not a Christian, and do not believe in a personal God," writes a doctor. That is unbelief. But mark its credulity. "I believe that the universe is governed by immutable laws, and is ruled by one all-power force. I believe that this force is what we call electricity." So! When a new little life comes into your home, and you see a fresh soul unfold in rarest beauty, it is only a new electrical connection. When you sit by the little body from which the soul is gone, and your heart is as lead within you, cheer up, don't be foolish,—electrical connection has simply been disarranged. Here is a creed, indeed. Skepticism accepts it. Faith denies it. Faith believes the truth. Skepticism doubts it. Skepticism credulously swallows folly. Faith demurs. The real incredulity is the incredulity, not of skepticism, but of faith.—S. S. Times.
CHRIST OUR LIFE.
By Roderick S. Owen
BY RODERICK S. OWEN.
ALL men desire life; all shrink from death; and yet how few there are who are walking in the way of life! The words of Jesus to the Jews are equally applicable to-day: "And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." John 5:40. Christ is the One through whom all life comes; "for as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;" "for the Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." John 5:26; 6:33. The presence of death proves the existence of sin. So that all who sin are under sentence of death. Since "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," death reigns over all the human family. For "as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
Just at the point of the first transgression is the time where Jesus, who is the Author of the life, becomes life to the sinner, in the sense of saving the transgressor from immediate death, and extending his existence through a probationary period, in spite of his repeated offenses; so that we are indebted to Christ for our every breath. O, how sad to think that so many spend the breath thus given in mercy, in profaning and abusing Him who has Himself suffered, to become the donor of life—thus cursing the hand extended in blessing!
But Christ "is the Saviour of all men," and "specially of those that believe." Yes, there is a life beyond a mere physical existence, and this is found in Christ Jesus. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:36. He who finds this, finds the power of that endless life, which is manifest in Jesus, to destroy the works of the devil. He "shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Such an one can say. "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Such an one having been born from above, and being risen with Christ, he walks in newness of life, his affection not set on things of the earth, but on things above. He being dead with Christ, his life is hid with Christ in God; and when Christ who is his life, shall appear, then shall he also appear with Him in glory. For Jesus said: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10.
“Go quickly, and tell His disciples, He is risen from the dead.”
But this life in the flesh, or mortal state, is not all, even tho in it we do find a victory over the power of temptation. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." Phil. 3:20, 21. For we who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, "even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. 8:23. For "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead [in Christ] shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1 Cor. 15:51-53. Immortality! O, what a life, coequal with God! Free from corruption! not subject even to a liability to die! And all this comes to us through the Saviour, which God has provided for us, in giving His only-begotten Son to die, that we might have everlasting life.
Thus we see that Christ is our life:
Because He is the Author of our existence.
Because He saves us, as sinners, from immediate death, giving us a probationary life.
Because He imparts to us eternal life now, which lifts us above the power of sin, and which enables us, tho in the flesh, to walk in newness of life.
Because, at His glorious appearing, He will clothe with immortality all who trust in Him.
God grant that we may all know Him whom God has sent, whom to know is life everlasting.
Eternal Love and Eternal Life
By S. S. Times
ONLY the eternal love gives the eternal life.—S. S. Times.
WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
CHRIST'S second coming will be in marked contrast to His first coming. Then His glory was veiled with the garb of humanity. He came with no outward manifestation of glory. When He comes the second time, His divinity will not be concealed. He will come with His own glory and the glory of His Father. He will come as one equal with God, as His beloved Son, the Prince of heaven and earth. Instead of a crown of thorns, He will wear a crown of glory. Instead of a garment of humility, He will be clad in a garment of royalty. Upon His vesture will be written the name, "King of kings and Lord of lords."
At His first coming, Christ was denied and rejected by men, and by them dragged as a criminal to Pilate's bar, where they charged Him with blasphemy. He was scourged and crucified. Nails were driven through His hands and His feet. For three hours He hung on the cross, while His enemies said tauntingly, "He saved others; Himself He can not save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him; for He said, I am the Son of God."
At His second coming, the scene will be changed. He will be acknowledged by all as the King of glory. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The angels will bow in adoration before Him. His enemies will see the mistake they have made, and every tongue will confess His divinity.
Christ's glory did not appear when He was upon this earth. He was then a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Men hid their faces from Him. But He was following the path God had marked out for Him. Still bearing humanity, He ascended to heaven, triumphant and victorious. He has taken the blood of the atonement into the holiest of all, sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat and His own garments, and blessed the people. Soon He will appear the second time to declare that there is no more sacrifice for sin.
Then by innumerable voices will be sung the song, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."
With earnest longing God's people await the tokens of their coming King. As the watchmen are accosted, "What of the night?" the answer is given unfalteringly. "The morning cometh, and also the night." Light is gleaming upon the clouds above the mountain-tops. Soon there will be a revealing of His glory. The Sun of Righteousness is about to shine forth. The morning and the night are both at hand,—the opening of endless day to the righteous, the settling down of eternal night to the wicked.
"The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
The Lord is soon coming, and we must be ready and waiting for His appearing. O, how glorious it will be to see Him, and be welcomed as His redeemed ones. Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty, we shall be forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud, "Homeward bound!" We are nearing the time when Christ will come in power and great glory to take His ransomed ones to their eternal home.
