A traveler lost his way in a dense wood; he sought in vain to find a way out, trying one path after another; he seemed to get farther and farther in the depths of the forest. The rain began to pour down almost in torrents. Night coming on, the weary traveler’s courage failed him; he sat down discouraged, drenched with rain, tired, hungry, with a feeling of helplessness. He looked around for a shelter of some kind, and resolved to make one more effort to find a way out of the lonely forest. As he walked along he saw in the distance a rude hut. He quickened his footsteps, and at last reached a place of shelter.
The little hut was unoccupied. It had only one room, if it could be called a room; an opening in the wall served for a window. It was a cold, dreary place, but it would afford shelter from the fast-falling rain. On the rough stone hearth wood had been placed in order for a fire; a match, the only one in the room, lay beside the wood. As he took the match in his hand to kindle the fire, he said to himself, “What if this fails to ignite? It is my only chance for life.” Tremblingly he drew the match up or over the rough stone; a feeble flame came forth, the fire was kindled, his drenched garments were dried, and he was cheered by its light and warmth. The light was seen from the window of a house in the distance. The lost traveler was soon made comfortable through the kindness of strangers who came to his assistance.
There are many traveling through this world following paths that will end in the loss of the soul. Remember that the light of a single match may direct them to a place of safety. The glorious light of the Gospel is shining all around. Jesus says to the hungry, “I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger.” To those in the storms of life God is a refuge and strength; a very present help in time of trouble. Let all who are journeying through this world seek more earnestly for the employment of every opportunity. Remember, a single match may light up the way enough to guide the lost one home. It is no excuse that you have but little talent; but little is required, and you are held responsible only for the little you have. Strike the match, and do the best you can in guiding others to the right haven, and it may prove just the effort required to set others to work; and the results are not to be computed by the first feeble effort. Strike the match. It is all you can do, and God will do the rest.—Christian Work.
BLESSINGS OF POVERTY.
By Anon.
The story is told of the children of a certain family who, during its prosperity, were left in the nursery in charge of servants. When adversity came, the servants were discharged and the parents lived with the little ones. One evening, when the father had returned home after a day of anxiety and business worry, his little girl clambered on his knee, and, twining her arms around his neck, said: “Papa, don't get rich again. You did not come into the nursery when you were rich, but now we can come around you, and get on your knee and kiss you. Don't get rich again, papa.”—Anon.
TWO SCHOOLS.
By Henry Van Dyke
I PUT my heart to school,
In the world where men grow wise,
“Go out,” I said, “and learn the rule;
Come back when you win the prize.”
My heart came back again,
“And where is the prize?” I cried,
“The rule was false, and the prize was pain,
And the teacher’s name was Pride.”
I put my heart to school,
In the woods where wild birds sing,
In the fields where flowers spring,
Where brooks run cool and clear,
And the blue of heaven bends near.
“Go out,” I said, “you are only a fool,
But perhaps they can teach you here.”
“And why do you stay so long,
My heart, and where do you roam?”
The answer came with a laugh and a song—
“I find this school is home.”
—Henry Van Dyke.
AN ANCIENT BATTLE CRY.
“Hip-hip-hurrah” has always been regarded as a thoroughly British cry, typical of the exuberant temperament of the race. Compared with it the “Vive” of the Frenchman, the “Hoch” of the German, and the “Slava” of the Russian are tame and expressionless; but the “Hip-hip-hurrah” from Anglo-Saxon throats rings through the spheres and carries everything before it. It is a cruel blow to find that the words are not English at all. One great consolation left us is that they were not “made in Germany.”
A gentleman named Adams has been investigating the mysteries of the pyramids and monuments of Egypt, and has found the phrase “Hip-hip-hurrah” among the early hieroglyphics of that country. Another consolation derivable from this remarkable discovery is the argument which may reasonably be deduced, that the presence of these British words among the etymological treasures of Pharaoh-land give us an a priori right to the whole of the Nile Valley. And this theory is strengthened by the fact that, according to Mr. Adams, the hieroglyphic “Hip-hip-hurrah” means, when translated, “On, on to plunder.”—London Telegraph.
SUBSTITUTES FOR SUGAR.
All Are Coal-Tar Products, and Are Dangerous to Health.
In the course of an article on food adulteration, Dr. de Lavarenne, editor of La Presse Medicale refers to the manner in which the use of saccharin is being extended. It is one of the many bodies made out of coal-tar, and is, of course, not a sugar at all, altho many people are quite convinced it is. It is not only used to sweeten beer, but it is now also employed in the manufacture of syrups, jams, lemonades, wines (especially champagne), cider, brandy, pastry, and chocolate. Special substances of this nature are on the market for sweetening cider and brandy. Among these sucramine may be mentioned, which is said to be 700 times sweeter than cane-sugar. Other products of the same kind are sugar extract (made in Switzerland), cannabin, etc. All these names are misleading, for the substances are only sugars in name, being all coal-tar derivatives. They are not foods. Moreover, their long-continued use may gravely affect the digestive functions. According to Professor von Bunge, of Basle, saccharin reappears in the saliva after being absorbed, and in this way leads to a persistent sweet taste in the mouth, which interferes with the appetite. Dr. Plugge has shown that the addition of saccharin in artificial digestion experiments with various digestive ferments interfered with the breaking up of food substances. Dulcin, another sweetening body, which has been used as a substitute for saccharin, was given to a dog at the rate of one gram a day. The animal died in three weeks.
NEVER
Never exaggerate.
Never betray a confidence.
Never leave home with unkind words.
Never laugh at the misfortunes of others.
Never give a present hoping for one in return.
Never speak much of your own performances.
Never fail to be punctual at the time appointed.
Never make yourself the hero of your own story.
Never fail to give a polite answer to a civil question.
Never question a servant or child about family matters.
Never refer to a gift you have made or a favor you have rendered.
Never associate with bad company. Have good company or none.
Never look over the shoulder of another who is reading or writing.
Never appear to notice a scar, deformity, or defect of any one present.
Never arrest the attention of an acquaintance by a touch. Speak to him.
Never punish your child for a fault to which you are addicted yourself.
Never call a new acquaintance by the christian name, unless requested to do so.
“I’LL RUN FOR JIMMY.”
JIMMY was a little lame fellow about twelve years of age, pale and sickly-looking, supported by two crutches. He was looking wistfully at some of his playmates playing ball, and was eager to join in the game. The other boys, very good-naturedly, tried to coax him to stand on one side, and let some one else take his place. Still Jimmy urged that he might be allowed to join the game.
“Why, Jimmy,” said one at last, “You can’t run you know.”
“O hush,” said another—the tallest in the party. “Never mind; I’ll run for him,” and he took his place by Jimmy’s side, prepared to act. “If you were lame like he is,” he said in a whisper aside to the other boys, “you wouldn’t like to be told of it all the time.”
He was a true gentleman, for you know that thoughtfulness for the feelings of others is the mark of the gentleman wherever you find him. Manners or fine clothes pale into insignificance unless there is the proper spirit behind them.—Selected.
A CRUEL TRADE.
By E. J. Burnham
An African Village, Makabon, Kongo.
THE regions of Africa lying south of the Sahara, the home of the negro, have long been a vast slave-hunting ground. Before slaves were brought to America, negroes were stolen to supply the markets in the central and northern States of Africa, and in Turkey and other Mohammedan countries; but with the settlement of European colonies in America and the West Indies, the demand for slaves greatly increased, and the horrors of the trade were aggravated.
The great center of the export trade to America and the adjacent islands was that part of the coast of Guinea still frequently designated “the Slave Coast.” Each year thousands upon thousands of helpless human beings were dragged to this coast, packed in suffocating holds, and borne over seas, to toil out weary lives far from their home-land. It has been estimated that between the years 1680 and 1786, 2,130,000 slaves were imported into the British colonies of America and the West Indies; but these figures do not indicate the whole number stolen, for only about four-fifths of those who left Africa lived long enough to be sold to the planters.
As the cruelties connected with the traffic became known, opposition was excited; and early in the nineteenth century measures were taken that checked the trade. But it is still carried on by Arabs, the slaves being sold in Moslem countries of Asia and Africa. Large numbers from the western and central parts of the Soudan are taken across the desert, and “distributed to the northern and eastern Mediterranean coasts.” It is said that one who did not know the caravan route from Kuka in Soudan to Fezzan, “would have only to follow the bones which lie right and left of the track.” The depredations of the slave-traders are extended into the Nile Valley, the Lake region, and into parts of the Kongo Free State. From the eastern hunting-grounds slaves are “smuggled into Egypt or sent by the Red Sea to Turkey.”
Stanley tells of a party of slave-stealing Arabs that he encountered while sailing up the Kongo in 1883. The Arabs were three hundred strong, and had been engaged in their work of carnage sixteen months. They had desolated a region 34,570 square miles in extent, destroying 118 villages with a population of not less than 118,000. When Mr. Stanley met them, they had just wiped out the village of Mawembe on the Kongo. They had with them “a wretched, ragged, and starving crowd of 2,300 women and children, with not one grown up man among them. . . . On an average, six persons had been killed to obtain each puny child in the encampment. The slaves were fettered in groups of twenty chained together; and such fruits as could be found were thrown down before each gang, to fight for as they might. The odors and abominations of the crowded camp were simply horrible.”
The process of slave-capture is thus described:—
The Arab steals up stealthily at midnight through the darkness to the doomed town. No sound save the chirping of insects disturbs the sleepers, till suddenly the torch is applied on all sides, and in the light of the flames of the grass roofs of the houses, the deadly musket shoots down the men as they appear. Many succeed in reaching the shelter of the woods; but the women and children are seized and carried off.
Rev. J. A. Bain, a missionary at a station thirty-five miles northwest of Lake Nyassa, in the Missionary Review of the World, 1889, gives the following account of a slave raid that he witnessed:—
At daybreak, March 15, we were awakened by a number of shots fired in rapid succession, and we were told that it was Mereri with two bands of Arabs. The surprise was complete. More than thirty women with babes and several girls were captured. The men, only half awake, tried to defend their wives and children, but were driven back by the murderous firing. The next move of the Arabs was to entrench themselves, with their captives, in a bamboo stockade, which became the scene of indescribable revels. Two children, who disturbed the orgies by weeping over the dead bodies of their mothers, were flung into the flames of a burning house. The two following days were spent in plundering and destroying.
Other incidents might be given of this cruel trade in human flesh and human souls,—the cruelest trade that man's greed of gold has ever devised; but surely these are enough to awaken the sympathies of any Christian heart.
Missionary effort has done much for Africa's degraded and helpless sons and daughters; but there is still here a large and needy field. A few years ago Seventh-day Adventist laborers entered the Gold Coast, just west of the Slave Coast. The country is the home of a deadly malaria, and soon had to be abandoned; but some there accepted Christ, and still remain faithful. They are now calling earnestly for help to emancipate them from being “slaves to Satan.” This, after all, is the worst bondage; for it includes everything that is oppressive and degrading. The Gold Coast can be made an important center. From it native laborers, after being trained and educated, can be sent into a wide extent of country, including “the heart of the Soudan,” a country where missionary effort has been greatly hindered by the predominating Moslem influence.
O that in all our hearts there was a deeper and more self-sacrificing missionary spirit,—a spirit that would lead us to work and pray for the helpless and oppressed, and for “the slaves to Satan,” wherever found. E. J. BURNHAM.
AFRICA OPENING HER DOORS.
In a recent issue of the Gospel in All Lands Bishop J. C. Hartzell tells of the many openings now visible in the Dark Continent. The article is interesting as showing how, in this last generation, God is opening the way for the presentation of His last message in Africa, as well as in the rest of the world. We quote from the article as follows:—
For fifteen hundred years the Christian Church has been waiting for the continent of Africa to open to the Gospel of Christ. Only within a comparatively few years has that prayer been answered. To-day all Africa is not only waiting but calling for teachers and preachers, schools and Christian churches.
For more than a generation the negro millions of America and their friends throughout the nation have been praying that the way would be opened for educated and consecrated black men and women from America to go to Africa, and have a share in the redemption of their fatherland. To-day that prayer is answered. If I had the means, I could put one hundred excellent black men and women from our schools in the South in different sections of Africa as missionaries, and there would be abundant opportunity for them to work for Christ.
Liberia was the first foreign mission field of the Methodist Episcopal Church. . . . The development of West Africa, and the improvement as to health conditions and government in Liberia, have made it possible to inaugurate an advanced movement in every department of the work. To-day Liberia is one of the most hopeful of our foreign mission fields.
Our greatest need is an increase in the number of intelligent leaders. Some of these can be taken from America, but the hope there, as in every foreign field, is in the raising up of intelligent and aggressive leadership on the ground. We now have over twelve hundred pupils in our thirty-four schools, the center of which is our College of West Africa, Monrovia. The outlook in our native heathen work in Liberia is very encouraging. . .
Our West Central Africa Mission Conference, starting from St. Paul de Loanda, two thousand miles south of Liberia, a city on the coast of eighteen thousand people, has a territory of nearly three hundred thousand square miles where ours are the only Protestant missionaries. The natives are of a high type. Livingstone said that they and their language were among the best he had met with in Africa. There is an opportunity to add to our property a splendid lot and large building adjoining our present property at St. Paul de Loanda at less than half its cost. The province of Angola has a great future. Our inland stations are more than five thousand feet above the sea. With that additional property at the capital city, we have a base of operations through which to command that enormous territory for generations to come.
At Malange, more than three hundred miles interior, we are struggling to complete our mission building, and we must have a chapel. The railroad is within seventy-five miles, and this will be a great commercial center for many years to come, to which multiplied thousands of native carriers will come from the far interior to exchange their goods.
At Quessua, five miles distant, we have a large tract of land with a splendid mountain stream running13through it, affording water for irrigation and water power. Here is our opportunity for a large industrial mission station, which can rapidly develop, and in time become self-supporting. Here we must have a mission building and chapel. In all these buildings much iron must be used as a matter of economy. Once built they will abide, while wooden buildings are destroyed by the white ants.
In the East Central Africa Mission Conference the large donation from the British South Africa Company gives us good buildings, which, with some repairs, ought to last many years. At New Umtali a great opening has come not only among the natives, but among the Europeans. This is the only important European center in eastern Rhodesia. It is over two hundred miles from the coast, lies among the mountains, and will be the third important center of white population in all Rhodesia. It had six hundred white people at the beginning of the war, and will soon have many more with the restoration of peace. It lies in a rich mining and agricultural section. Here we have the beginning of a good European church. Our school numbers fifty scholars, and in the very near future will develop into a seminary where white teachers and missionaries can be trained for Africa. I have a standing offer that the government will bear half the expense of a school building, the property all to belong to the church.
Beira, on the east coast, is to be a large city and seaport, from which the railroad now extends four hundred miles inland, soon to connect with the line from the Cape to Cairo, and open up vast regions for commercial enterprise and settlement. There is no church in this growing city. This is the natural seaport for American Methodism on the east coast. Ethiopia is indeed, as never before, stretching out her hands unto God.
BLESSING IN DOING.
By Aubrey de Vere
There is no remedy for time misspent;
No healing for the waste of idleness,
Whose very languor is a punishment
Heavier than active souls can feel or guess.
O hours of indolence and discontent,
Not now to be redeemed! ye sting not less
Because I know this span of life was lent
For lofty duties, not for selfishness.
Not to be whiled away in aimless dreams,
But to improve ourselves, and serve mankind,
Life and its choicest faculties were given.
Man should be ever better than he seems;
And shape his acts, and discipline his mind,
To walk adorning earth, with hope of heaven.
—Aubrey de Vere.
KNEE WORK.
Dr. J. A. DUNCAN had, on an important occasion, delivered a sermon of wonderful intellectual and spiritual power. He was asked, “What is the secret of such a sermon as that?” He replied, “The secret of that sermon is thirteen hours of prayer.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, when asked for the explanation of his success, said, “Knee work, knee work!”
David Livingston, on two occasions, preached a sermon of wonderful power. At each time five hundred persons were convicted. Both sermons were preceded by a whole night spent in prayer.
C. G. Finney, after spending a whole day in the woods, fasting and praying, preached at night to a phenomenally irreligious congregation. The sermon was accompanied by such divine power that the whole congregation, except one man, an elder in the church, fell prostrate on the floor, and voiced their agony under conviction in such loud cries that the preacher was forced to stop.
Rev. Daniel Steele said: “Down upon your knees. I wish I had the power to reach every Methodist on the round earth. I would say, Cease living on the heroism of your fathers; quit glorying in numbers, sacrificing to statistics, and burning incense to the General Minutes; down upon your knees, and seek and find yourself the secret of the power of the fathers—a clean heart, and the endowment of power from on high; and then rise and unfurl the banner of salvation free and full, and a common-sense theology.”—Selected.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
A LOCAL camp-meeting is in progress at Brushton, Franklin County, N. Y., which will close on the 31st inst.
THE baptism of four candidates at Talmage, Neb., by Brother F. W. H. Schroeder, is noted in the Reporter.
THE Dakota Worker notes the organization of a church near McKinney, N. D., by Brother Lars Neilsen.
THE Ontario Messenger for August says that thirteen members were recently added to the church in Toronto.
THE tent-meetings being held at Quincy, Cal., by Brethren C. N. Martin and D. Parsons, have so far resulted in eight conversions to the truth.
ON the 2d inst., a company of ten members was organized at Weyerhaeuser, Wis., by Brother J. B. Scott. A leader and a treasurer were chosen, and a full church organization is to be effected in the near future.
As a result of labor by brother L. L. French at Meadow Valley, Wis., seven persons have accepted “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
ABOUT the middle of September, there will be issued special numbers of our Swedish paper (Sion’s Väktare), and our Danish-Norwegian journal (Evangeliets Sendebud). They will each contain 32 pages and colored cover. The Väktare is published in Battle Creek, Mich., and the Sendebud in Christiania, Norway. The prices will be: 1 to 49 copies, 5 cents each; 50 to 499 copies, 3 cents each; 500 or more, 2½ cents each. Our State tract societies will take orders.
WRITING to the Wisconsin Reporter of the work at Barron, Brother J. B. Locken says: “Six have already decided to walk in the light. One of these is a brother eighty-two years of age, who, having become discouraged with the pride and formalism of his church, has been seeking for this truth many years, and how glad he was to receive this message that makes the Bible a new book to him. Two Scandinavian sisters have also decided to obey. One of these, a blind lady, gave a touching testimony of gratitude to God in our last Sabbath meeting, for restoring her spiritual eyesight, and for the glorious hope that ‘when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.’”
OF the work with the SIGNS in Buffalo, N. Y., we take the following from Brother B. E. Connerly’s report to the Indicator: “One brother handed a paper to a stranger on the street one evening, and as a result Brother McCreedy is now rejoicing in the truth, and is so interested that he pays for and carries twenty-five copies to the State Penitentiary each week. We have over twenty flagmen looking for the SIGNS each week; we also distribute the papers in the lodging-houses, where we have excellent chances to do work for the Master, and in many other places we go with our good missionary paper. Thank the Lord for such a paper and for a part in the work!”
HEADQUARTERS of the California Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association is at 203 Parrott Building, San Francisco, Cal. Directors—A. T. Jones, president; E. E. Parlin, secretary; L. M. Bowen, A. N. Loper, M. D., F. B. Moran, M. D., W. S. Sadler, R. A. Buchanan, M. D., W. C. White. The principal department enterprise of the association is the St. Helena Sanitarium, in Napa County. Board of managers—T. A. Kilgore, L. M. Bowen; A. N. Loper, M. D., A. M. Winegar, M. D., A. Boeker. Medical superintendent, A. N. Loper, M. D.; manager, T. A. Kilgore; medical faculty, A. N. Loper, F. H. Zelinsky, A. M. Winegar, Jean E. Whitney; matron, Mrs. J. L. Ings. The San Francisco Branch Sanitarium is located at 1436 Market Street. The superintendent is R. A. Buchanan, M. D., with W. S. Sadler, H. E. Brighouse, H. H. Haynes, and E. E. Parlin as managers.
The Problem of Africa.
By Douglas Thornton
There are about 1,200 European and 250 American missionaries to the continent. Of this number perhaps one-half are, from various reasons, a working force. These are distributed as follows: North Africa, one Protestant missionary to 125,000 Mohammedans; the Sahara, one to 2,500,000 Mohammedans; the Soudan States, one to 45,000,000 Mohammedans and pagans; West Africa, one to 50,000 pagans; Central Africa, one to 80,000 pagans; Southern Africa, one to 14,000 pagans.
Again: These missionaries are thus far equipped with the Word of God. There are twelve African Bibles in circulation, besides the English, Dutch, French, and Italian Bibles, which are also widely understood. There are thirty-one completed New Testaments, and ninety-eight Bible versions; that is to say, one or more translated books of the Bible. With these agencies all Southern Africa and most of Northern Africa could be evangelized AT ONCE were men of God forthcoming. In central Africa the Swahli, Ganda, and Nbunda Bibles can already reach many millions. And when the Hausa Bible is completed, fifteen millions of people in the great Soudan States could be evangelized. The neediest districts seem to be Morocco, Egyptian and French Soudan, the regions of the Upper Nile and Kongo, and numberless tribes in Western Africa. Can not more Americans join hands with European pioneers, and together penetrate some of these inland regions without delay? I leave it with you to settle in the presence of our God.—Douglas Thornton.
APPEAL FOR MEXICO.
By C. H. Jones
As stated in our issue of July 16, Bro. Geo. E. Henton, wife, and two daughters, started for Mexico on Sunday evening, July 13, for the purpose of establishing a branch office of the Pacific Press Publishing Company in that Republic. They arrived at their destination on Friday, July 18, and are now stopping with Professor Caviness, in Tacubaya, a suburb of Mexico City.
The live question, just at present, is that of location. Brother Henton has visited Guadalajara and the City of Mexico. These two cities are the only ones that seem to offer special inducements, with the balance in favor of Mexico City.
Brother Henton is anxious to get to work as soon as possible, but we can proceed no further till more funds come in. The Directors have taken the stand that no debts are to be incurred in establishing this Branch. Brother Henton states that it will take at least five thousand dollars, gold, to purchase the necessary type, machinery, etc., to establish a small plant. This is a very conservative estimate, and allows nothing for salary, or incidental expenses.
In response to the calls already made we have received the following:—
Previously acknowledged
$474 21
M. Davis
1
M. S. Straum
50
S. W. Burkhart
2
Anna Thursted
2
A friend
10
J. H. Rice
25
Grace Reese
50
C. E. Abrams
9 55
Miss J. E. Frakes
20
C. H. Henry
1
Lydia Lane
2 50
Mrs. L. F. Oliver
1
Mrs. S. L. Hodges
7
W. F. Lane
85
Ada Bradley
35
Emma David
2
J. M. Haynes
26
Mrs. P. Sherman
1
Total, $540 92
At the last meeting of our Board of Directors, this whole question was carefully considered, and it was voted to make an appeal to those interested in this mission, for five thousand dollars to purchase the necessary material. Stock in the PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY will be issued to those who desire to take it at the rate of ten dollars per share, and the money applied to the Mexican Mission.
It is hoped that our friends will respond promptly in order that the work may not be delayed. Any amount from twenty-five cents up will be thankfully received and acknowledged in this paper. Address SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.
C. H. Jones, Manager.
A PLEASANT OCCASION.
By J. O. Corliss
BEING called to San Jose on business a few days since, I was kindly invited by Dr. Belknap to spend the night at the Garden City Sanitarium. That very evening proved to be the time set apart for a formal welcome to be extended to Dr. Wilbur O. Upson, who had just come from Chicago to connect with Dr. Belknap in conducting the work of the Sanitarium in San Jose.
It was indeed a pleasant gathering of patients and friends of the institution, beneath the trees of the lawn. Short talks were rendered on the principles of rational diet and treatment by both Drs. Belknap and Upson, and others, which breathed the deepest loyalty and devotion to the work in which they are engaged.
The occasion of Dr. Upson being called to connect with the work in San Jose is the fact that the work there has grown beyond the ability of its former corps of physicians. Already plans are made for enlarging the main building of the institution by the addition of eighteen rooms, besides other facilities. The conscientious work hitherto done there by physicians, nurses, and others, is giving the institution a deserved recognition among the best places of its kind. With its present equipment and force of loyal workers we see no reason why it should not continue to prosper, and do a righteous work for suffering humanity.
J. O. CORLISS.
Courage in Danger
FEAR can keep a man out of danger, but courage only can support him in it.
9 “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found with thee any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that useth divination, one that practiseth augury, 11 or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For 12 whosoever doeth these things is an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. 13 Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. 14 For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearken unto them that practise augury, and unto diviners; but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. 15 The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken; 16 according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. 17 And the Lord said unto me, They have well said that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him.”
Golden Text.—“This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world.” John 6:14.
Special Helps.—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” Ch. 28, page 330; Ch. 43, page 480.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) In giving counsel to Israel, what land is spoken of? What were the people forbidden to do in that land? Verse 9. Note 1. (2) What classes of deceivers were they forbidden to tolerate among them? Verses 10, 11. (3) What were some of the characteristics of these classes? Note 2. (4) How does God personally regard all these classes? What befell the nations of Canaan because of these evil practices? Verse 12. Note 3. (5) What kind of character did God design that Israel should develop? Verse 13. (6) Has this design toward His people changed? Note 4. (7) What contrast is drawn between the heathen and Israel? Verse 14. (8) What promise is then given to the people? Verse 15. Note 5. (9) In harmony with what desire was this promise made? Verse 16. (10) What did the Lord say in regard to that desire? Verse 17. Note 6. (11) What promise was made at that time? Verse 18. (12) What is the consequence of rejecting the words of that Prophet? Verse 19.
NOTES.
1. Forty years the Lord had been preparing His people for entrance into a land from which He was about to drive out another people on account of their abominations. So He now gives Israel a warning exhortation. They had no reason to expect any other result of disobedience than had fallen upon the Canaanites.
2. “To pass through the fire” was part of the worship of the Phœnician god, Molech. A large image of brass, with head of an ox, and members of the human body, was heated, and children were placed in its arms. Divination.—Securing information from a god by some method of drawing lots. Augury, A.V., “observer of times,” from a word signifying “to cover,” “to cloud over,” referring to the hidden, secret work. It may relate to those who observed the heathen days, devoted to their gods. An enchanter is one who observes omens, an example being divination by the flight of birds; prophesying from signs that consist in words, or actions, or in fire, or rain. A sorcerer, or witch, one who uses herbs or spells for producing magical effects. A charmer is one who attracts or fascinates by a spell, something akin to hypnotism. A necromancer (A.V. “consulter with familiar spirits,”) as also a wizard, is one who claims communication with supernatural sources of various kinds; “one who interrogates the dead.”
3. “These things,” the things mentioned in the preceding verses, were all practised in Israel in later times, notwithstanding the prohibition. See 2 Samuel 8; 1 Kings 14:21-24; 2 Kings 17:16-18; 2 Chron. 33:1-9; Eze. 23:36-39. That prohibition is just as binding to-day as it ever was. God changes not (Mal. 3:6), therefore what was abomination to Him in any former time is abomination to Him still, and ever will be.
4. The purpose of God’s longsuffering mercy has not changed. He is still saying to His professed people, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5:48. See, also, Eph. 4:11-13; Col. 1:28; 4:12.
5. The Prophet that was to be raised up like unto Moses was Christ. There were many prophets raised up in Israel, but none could be said to be like Moses until Christ was manifested. Deut. 34:10-12; Ex. 33:11; John 1:45; Acts 3:23, 24. So intimately are Moses and Christ connected as type and antitype, that it is impossible to be a believer in Christ’s words without believing in the writings of Moses. John 5:46, 47. Yet, strange as it may seem, there are many who profess to believe Christ who ignore the writings of Moses.
6. The Voice that spoke the ten commandments from Sinai, together with the awe-inspiring scene on the mountain, so terrified the people that they asked that Moses should speak to them instead of God. Ex. 20:18, 19. It was no wonder that they made the request; for, although Moses spoke comforting words to them, he himself did “exceedingly fear and quake” because of the “terrible sight.” Heb. 12:21. In their sinful condition, the people could not approach God directly, and their desire for a mediator was a virtual acknowledgment of that fact. The promise of a Prophet like unto Moses (a mediatorial Prophet) was a comforting reply to this request, and Moses was a type of the true Mediator. Now that Moses was about to be taken away from them, it was fitting that the promise be repeated.
