Earlier text: A WARNING CRYLAWLESSNESS IN THE MINING REGIONS.
THERE was no excuse for the violent lawlessness among the coal miners of Pennsylvania. They had on their side a great multitude of sympathizers. If they had right on their side in the principle of the strike, they could afford to wait. The very ones who led them into the strike counseled peace. The greatest incitement to violence was the fact that other workmen—non-union supposedly—were brought in to take their places. But these men have as good a right to work as the regular miners had to quit, and many had families to support even as did the miners. In any event no violence should have been done. But there are things which should be considered. Many of these miners have never known the blessings of true civil liberty. They came from old world countries where the struggle for existence is hard. Brought from there, frequently, and employed by men who are coining their millions of profit, the miners should have been placed under better conditions, as they might have been. But the operators of the mines have held their employees as little better than slaves, to be used as their derricks, engines, and coal cars, for what could be gotten out of them. The New York Independent truly says:— The mine operators of Pennsylvania for more than a generation have exploited their opportunities ruthlessly, with an utter disregard of moral considerations and to a great extent in open violation of law. To hear them talk now about the lawlessness of the men whom they have been grinding and squeezing, for whose physical well-being, social life, and moral condition they have shown no more regard than they would for so many beasts of the field, is enough to fill a righteous man with indignation. For the moral conditions of the coal regions these operators and no others are responsible. If thefts, burnings, and murders have interfered with the peaceful operation of the mines, the operators have themselves to thank. They have knowingly and for the sake of increasing their profits maintained conditions that could yield little else but theft, incendiarism, and homicide. We are well aware that these are severe words, but they are true words. There is only one procedure that can be applied to the coal operators. They must be made to feel the true grip of that sense of justice which fortunately does exist in other portions of the human race. But will the politicians, the political judges distribute to them the justice of civil law? What reason have we to believe such a thing now more than in the past? These conditions have existed for years, and have been made public scores of times. Money tells in courts nowadays. But they will get justice, and mayhap much more. Read what God's prophet tells us of what will take place when the oppressed, feeling able to bear it no longer, rise to despoil the oppressors: “Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers, . . . which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out; and the cries . . . have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” See James 5:1-8. Another says of that time: “Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? . . . Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booty unto them? Because thou hast plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder thee, because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all that dwell therein.” See Hab. 2:4-14. Now is the time for escape. Let him that has riches use them in helping the poor, the needy, the worthy. Let him do justice to all with whom he has to do. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Jesus Christ is the refuge, the only refuge for rich and poor alike. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE EARTH?
By G. B. Thompson
Under the above heading the New York World of Oct. 30, 1902, in an editorial says:— Up to last Saturday there were forty-five distinct earthquake shocks at San Cristobal, Mexico. Changes were observed in the shape of the San Juan Mountain, and loud and prolonged subterranean noises have been heard frequently of late in that district, and showers of ashes fell last Sunday. A wide area in Southern Mexico is almost hourly shaken by earthquakes or volcanic explosions, and telegraphic communication with the disturbed areas is interrupted. Of itself the news of these earth-quakings and volcanic action in Mexico is not surprising. Taken in connection, however, with similar recent phenomena elsewhere at widely separated points on the globe they constitute a record of seismic disturbance which is impressive and puzzling even to those scientists who have made a study of the subject. To speak only of comparatively recent happenings since the terrible eruptions of Mounts Pelée and Soufrière last May startled the world, there is the great landslide, supposed to be due to an earthquake, in Transcaucasia August 17, and earthquakes about the same date along the coast of Alaska. About the middle of September there was another grand series of phenomena, volcanoes in the Philippines showing activity, and a wonderful electric storm on the coast of Colombia, when “the whole sea and sky were a mass of fire,” the phenomena continuing for fifteen days. About the same time the great crater of Kilauea, in the Hawaiian Islands, increased in activity; columns of smoke issued from Mount Copperas, near Bainbridge, O., and five craters were reported blowing in Guatemala. A week later and Stromboli, “the lighthouse of the Mediterranean,” was in violent eruption. Vesuvius showed signs of eruption and severe earthquake shocks were felt in Central America. September 22 the island of Guam had 180 earthquake shocks in a day, and October 9 Texas had several slight shocks. These are not a complete list of volcanic phenomena even for the past month or six weeks, but they are sufficient to show that mighty forces are at work under the earth’s surface, and that for some reason these are specially active at the present time. It is certainly true, as the writer says, that “mighty forces are at work under the earth’s surface.” And the student of God’s Word is informed why these forces are “specially active” at the present time. The earth has waxed old as doth a garment (Heb. 1:11), and is trembling with age as it hastens on to the close of human history, and the ushering in of a reign of righteousness. Our Saviour has forewarned us of “great earthquakes in divers places” (Luke 21:11). These should remind us of the instability of9 all things earthly, and cause us to transfer our affections to that “kingdom which can not be moved.” Rome, N. Y. G. B. Thompson. Volcanic Eruption in Guatemala
By Editor
[Since the above came two days ago, the steamer Luxor from Hamburg brings news of renewed activity of the volcano in the Quezaltenango district in Guatemala. She came into San Francisco with thirty tons of sacked volcano ash in her hold, which fell upon the ship to the depth of one foot while taking cargo in San Benito. On the earnest entreaties of the passengers the captain put to sea without clearance papers, the air so filled with ashes that it was almost impossible to see at all. All the cattle, it is said were destroyed for 400 miles around. A cable despatch from Lisbon, states that a severe earthquake has been felt at Guarda, Portugal, and elsewhere, and that serious loss of life and the destruction of many houses are reported. [Ed. S. of T.] MORE INSULAR PERPLEXITIES.
By Editor
OUR peculiar insular policy continues to breed trouble and create new embarrassing situations. The latest comes through a United States Circuit Court decision which declares all native-born Porto Ricans to be aliens. This decision is based on the provision of the treaty of Paris, which expressly declares that the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories coming into the possession of the United States through the agency of that instrument shall be determined by Congress. As Congress has taken no action on the political status of the Porto Ricans except to define in the act of April, 1900, the qualifications of voters in the island to participate in the election for the organization of the civil government, the court holds that they are excluded from American citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which restricts that privilege to persons born or naturalized in the United States. The decision has carried another fragment of the Constitution to all of our insular possessions, but it is unfortunately of a negative instead of an affirmative order. The natives born in these insular possessions, no matter what may be their color, race, educational, financial or intellectual character, are not citizens of the United States, altho the United States claims their allegiance. They are aliens, and if they wish to become citizens they must comply with all the formalities required of the subjects of foreign sovereignties. The situation thus created is in reality intensely ridiculous. But the whole operation of our insular policy is ridiculous. We have free trade to Porto Rico and our navigation laws extend to it; but neither is in effect in the Philippines or in Guam. All of our insular possessions have been brought under the operation of the general postal laws of the country. Still, all of them are foreign for some purposes and domestic for others. The postal laws extend to all. Now, their people are all foreigners and can not become citizens except through naturalization; must submit to the operation of the immigration laws as aliens; may be denied admission to the mainland territory as “undesirable aliens,” and yet, having no other government, they must submit to our sovereignty and their allegiance is due to the United States only. Verily our relations with these possessions are becoming more and more mixed and embarrassing.—San Francisco Chronicle. Revolutions in South America
THE expected conference between the government of Colombia and the insurgent leader has not taken place, owing to the course which the government has taken with General Uribe-Uribe, who surrendered recently. This makes more uncertain than ever the date when peace will be proclaimed there. The government gunboats are now searching for the insurgent vessel, and a battle is expected soon. A report from Bolivia states that the revolutionists of Acre province have defeated the government troops, captured two colonels and a considerable number of men. From Venezuela reports are conflicting and uncertain. It is only certain that the president is still in the field, and the revolutionists are not crushed. Arbitration of Miners’ and Street-Car Disputes
The miners’ arbitration committee has finished its inspection of the mines, and has taken up the work of receiving testimony from the two parties involved. In some of the mines the men have not yet returned to work. The board of arbitration appointed to consider the demands of the street-car men of Chicago have granted them an increase of a little over 10 per cent. in wage. The arbitrators of the French miners’ strike have decided against the miners in the matter of an increase of wages, and the miners propose to appeal to the House of Deputies. Lawlessness and Prohibition Laws
By Editor
The San Francisco Chronicle of November 9 contains a lengthy editorial upon the increasing lawlessness of the times, and draws attention to many open and flagrant violations of laws long existing upon the statute books of the country, but without existence so far as enforcement is concerned. It makes much of the alleged non-enforcement of the prohibitory laws of Maine and Vermont, and uses this as a text to show reason for the increase of lawlessness in general to-day. The Chronicle is certainly right in admitting the increase in lawlessness; it is seen on every hand. It is a sign of the times, a characteristic of these times; but that journal is as certainly wrong in the estimate which it places upon the work accomplished by the prohibitory laws of the States referred to, as it is right in the matter of increased lawlessness. We have been there, and we know the difference between the conditions which exist in those States and the conditions which exist in States where the sale of liquor is countenanced and protected by the laws. The liquor interests, while doing all in their power to break down those laws, are using every infraction which they are able to produce as an argument to prove that the laws are not good; and newspapers paid for pandering to the liquor interests are doing all they can to throw discredit upon those wholesome laws, encouraging laxity of enforcement, and making all they can of every such laxity. There is probably not a greater systematic lawbreaker in the country than the liquor power, and to try to make it appear that prohibitory laws are blameworthy for the increasing lawlessness witnessed to-day is certainly an assault upon common sense, a desperate expedient to convict the innocent. The prohibitory laws of the States that have them could be better than they are, without doubt; that they should be better enforced is true; but that they are responsible for the spirit of lawlessness which is so rife to-day is an untrue and unjust charge. The nations are forgetting God and turning to the service of self; they have turned away from God’s law, and pastors are teaching its abrogation. In such teachings as that is the root of lawlessness, and the crime of the day is the fruit it bears. The conditions are sad enough; but let the blame rest where an impartial judge must place it, and where the Judge of all the earth will one day place it—upon those who have taught men to disobey the laws of the Most High. Injuries from Secret Society Initiations
By Editor
For three years a young dentist of Port Byron, Ill., has been hovering between life and death as a result of a wicked initiatory ceremony performed upon him at the time of his initiation into the order of Fraternal Tribunes. During that time his suit against the order for $50,000 damages has been pending; but on October 16 Judge Gest, in the Circuit Court at Rock Island, instructed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. The dentist alleged that he was permanently disabled by the ceremony; but the court held that the plaintiff was a willing participant in the ceremony, and that there was no intention on the part of the lodge officials to injure him. Many suits have been brought against secret orders within recent years for damages on account of injuries received in such ceremonies, and in some of these we believe the plaintiff has been awarded damages. But this decision of the Circuit Court of that district establishes a precedent behind which the wicked folly of cruel initiatory ceremonies will go on unhindered and unpunished. It opens the door for any kind of cruelty which a mischievous mind may conceive to practise upon the persons of those who are foolish enough or ignorant enough to join a secret society. Because a person submits to being initiated, this decision clears the initiators from any blame in any harm that may come to him. The dentist referred to was given such heavy shocks from an electric battery that he will be a life-long sufferer from paralysis and frequently recurring epileptic spasms. The society has disabled him and refuses to hold itself responsible. Certainly such doings as these coupled with such a decision as this should go a long way toward deterring sensible men from joining such institutions. The really sensible will hardly be found doing it. European Powers Negotiate African and Asian Interests
The Emperor of Germany is now the guest of his uncle, King Edward VII., of England, and will be for some days to come. It is also reported that before his visit comes to an end the king of Portugal will pay a visit to the British king. It is understood that weighty matters in international transactions are the cause of this conference of rulers. Great Britain is desirous of obtaining at least the greater portion of Portuguese East Africa, including the port of Delagoa Bay. But Germany's possessions in East Africa make it a matter of some consequence to her who shall control this vast territory, and the emperor is said to be turning this incident to account in securing concessions from England in Chinese matters. Reports indicate that England will hold this territory in nominal lease, and that a portion of the northern part will be under German control. Germany is also reaching out for railway and trade privileges in Asia Minor, and England can help or hinder her in that country by the attitude which she assumes toward Russia's projects there. The game of international politics is being shrewdly played, and all is looking toward the final lining up in the inevitable struggle. Republican Majority in the House
The latest returns from the general elections show that the House of Representatives will be Republican by a majority of about 35. A mining superintendant who has spent much time in Korea has recently returned to this country, and in an interview upon Korean affairs states that the condition of the inhabitants is pitiful. He declares that they are practically taxed to death by the officials. In addition to this burden, a severe drought has reduced a large part of the population to the verge of starvation. The people, on this account, have become weak physically, and the cholera is rapidly taking them off. The high taxes discourage the people from attempting to raise large crops, and the conditions grow worse instead of better. Over much of China Boxerism is still rampant. While the Boxers are restrained by the presence or fear of the military or otherwise in some portions of China, in other parts the movement is spreading. A rebellion against indemnity taxation has broken out in Chili province, and troops have been ordered there to suppress it. Anti-foreign posters are being scattered all over the province of Cheng-tu. The Boxers are raiding villages, burning churches, and killing Christian converts. Fighting has occurred between Russians and bandits, and this gives Russia excuse for remaining longer in Manchuria. The Chinese troops have had a number of engagements with the Boxers, and report having killed large numbers of them. The empress dowager and the governor of Ho Nan province are still resisting England's demand for the decapitation of the official responsible for not protecting the two English missionaries recently murdered by a mob. Serious loss of life is reported from the province of Beira, Portugal, due to an earthquake shock which occurred on November 6. Many dwellings were destroyed. Severe earthquake shocks have been causing much alarm in Adelaide, Australia, and adjacent towns. Much property is reported destroyed by the temblors. Experts declare that it would have required but little more force to have destroyed the city. A lighthouse at Troubridge collapsed, burying the keeper in the ruins. The steamer Luxor, which called at a port in southern Mexico on her way to San Diego recently, was compelled to put to sea without waiting for her papers on account of the heavy smoke and ashes from a volcano far inland. It is thought that many near the volcano must have perished. Fully 100,000 mules, cattle, and sheep are reported to have perished in the recent eruption of Santa Maria, Guatemala. A violent eruption of Colima volcano in Mexico is threatened, and the inhabitants are fleeing from the vicinity. The government buildings, the wharves, and nearly all the business part of the town of Ocos, Mexico, are reported to be now under water, and continuing to sink. The sinking has been going on since the earthquake shocks of last April. America’s Growing Railroad Freight Traffic
The enormous industrial activity in the United States at the present time is shown in the strenuous efforts now being put forth by the various railroad companies to furnish the necessary number of cars to move the produce of the country to market. One company alone, whose business is the manufacture of freight cars, has turned out an average of 6,500 cars a month during the year, and still that company is unable to meet the demands made upon it by the railroad companies for freight cars. During the year 1901 this one firm manufactured 66,000 such cars, and by the close of this year it will have manufactured 78,000 more. Other firms also are turning out thousands of cars a month, and most of them have orders ahead for six months’ work. During the year 1901 one billion and eighty-four million tons of freight were moved by the railroad companies of the United States. The estimated total tonnage for the present year is one billion and one hundred million tons. The railroads are unable to meet the demands of shippers for cars to move their freight, notwithstanding the thousands of new cars that are being built. News from the Philippines
It is now admitted even by the War Department that the “water cure” administered by American soldiers in the Philippines proved fatal in at least one case. A Catholic priest, a friend of the insurgents, died as the result of the “water cure” administered to him by the soldiers. These soldiers, however, have long since been mustered out, and the department has no power to punish them. The number of the natives who succumbed to this treatment will never be known. The Philippine commission has appropriated $2,000,000 (Mexican) for the purchase of rice for sale at cost to the poor of the islands in the districts where rice is scarce. The sultan of Bacolod is now professing friendship for the Americans and denying acts of hostility. In some of the provinces the Ladrones are again active, and the government is planning active operations for their suppression. Chicago Schoolchildren Strike
THAT children are quick to follow the example of their elders was shown on November 7, when 400 pupils of the public schools in Chicago went on a strike because of a transfer of teachers. At one of the schools the parents are supporting the children in their action. On the following day 4,500 Chicago teachers applied for membership in the Federation of Labor, hoping thereby to bring the power of the 200,000 union men of Chicago to their support in any demands which they may choose to make. With the teachers of the public schools belonging to the union, how long will it be before the public schools will be effectually closed to the children of non-union parents? OPPORTUNITY
By Edith O. King
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” These words, tho written so long ago, are none the less true to-day.” “But I am not a toper. I take only an occasional glass.” The first speaker was a young woman with a pleasant, earnest face; the second, Mr. G——, a young man not yet twenty-eight. He was tall and noble in stature and looked the embodiment of strength, yet weakness was manifested in his trembling hands as he placed a chair beside his companion. The relationship existing between these two was that of old friends and schoolmates. The young woman, whom we will call Miss L——, had but lately returned to her home town after some years’ absence. Among the many changes time had wrought, none were more marked than the alteration in this friend of her childhood. On the afternoon of which we speak, he had called while on his way to fulfil an engagement. She had been praying for an opportunity to speak to him of his soul’s salvation, and now one had come. In their childhood days they had both been members of the same little Methodist Sunday-school. She had early given her heart to the Lord and had been given additional light; he had drifted away from the influence of the Sunday-school, and the allurements of society and evil associates had drawn him away from God. The pages of his life record of the last few years had been sadly blotted. The conversation continued:— “You say you take only an occasional glass, but have you considered that no drunkard becomes such by a single indulgence? The deadly habit may be years in forming, yet at last it fastens itself so firmly as to paralyze the will, dethrone self control, injure the body, wreck the life, and bring everlasting death. Who desires such an end? It is true, as you say, that, in what are called the ‘best circles,’ hundreds of men and women are deceived and ultimately ruined by moderate drink and the social glass. “You remarked, ‘If the man who uses tobacco will have no place in heaven, but few men will be there.’ Does not the Bible tell us, ‘Straight is the gate and narrow the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it?’ If heaven is not worth all, it is worth nothing. You remember these words, ‘If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.’ Does not tobacco defile the temple—and everything else it touches, for that matter? You know that your cigars are robbing you of your physical strength and endurance, and for the money you spend you receive a weakened heart and shortened days. But, Mr. G——, until you give yourself to the Saviour, until you surrender your will to His, you can not hope to be free from the evil habits that have bound you fast. Jesus alone can give grace to overcome. Why not give your best years to Him who gave His life for you? “Do not say He can not save you, for ‘He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him;’ He ‘will in nowise cast out’ the contrite one. ‘If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ The invitation is to even you, every one that thirsteth, come. “The days of our care-free childhood are gone and we are here man and woman, with the necessity before us of deciding for eternal life or eternal death. We must serve either God or the Adversary. We must spend eternity either with Christ or without Him. There can be no compromise. ‘Some day,’ you hope to become a Christian. Why not this day? Every one does not live to grow old. While it is always a cause for rejoicing to see a sinner come to the Saviour, yet how pitiable it is that blood-bought men will wait until on the very verge of the grave, when their usefulness is spent, before thinking of the Lord’s claim upon them.” The two were seated on the vine-shaded veranda. Strains of music came to them through the open window of a neighboring house. Some one was singing to piano accompaniment:— “Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” They sat silently listening until the song was finished, when Mr. G—— arose to go. He held out his hand; there were tears in his eyes. “Thank you, Miss L——, for your interest in my soul’s welfare. I will think of what you have said. Keep on praying for me. I must hasten now to keep my appointment. Don’t forget to pray. Good-by.” There was a street car accident—the car Mr. G—— took up town—and he met instant death. Who can say whether or not he, like Agrippa, had been “almost persuaded” only, or if in the short time left he had “made sure” his calling in God? Oakland, Cal. EDITH O. KING. REFORMATORY LESSONS TAUGHT BY WELL-KNOWN GOSPEL CHARACTERS.
By David Paulson
It is useless for you to expect miraculous restoration of your physical health, if, like Naaman of old, you despise such God-given means for securing relief, as proper bathing. 2 Kings 5: 10, 11. Do you, like Lot, desire to camp in the suburbs of sin, instead of planting your feet upon the table-lands of right principles? Gen. 19: 17, 20. If so, your future contains nothing that you can look forward to as in any way desirable. Remember, if you satisfy your morbid craving for unnatural and unwholesome food, as the children of Israel did, that God will allow you to partake of it, but he will send upon you as he did upon them, leanness in your soul. Ps. 106: 15. Are you sometimes tempted to sacrifice your splendid heritage of lofty ideals for some temporary questionable enjoyment? Then remember that Esau did this, and the result was permanent loss, and bitter tears could avail nothing. Heb. 12: 16, 17. Do you have one standard of reform when you are among your friends and an altogether different one when you are among strangers? If so, you need to have a Paul to give you such a reproof as he gave to Peter when he was tempted upon this very point. Gal. 2: 11–21. Joseph was used by God to feed the hungry multitude with grain (Gen. 41: 49). When you are as determined to repeat Joseph’s life of absolute purity in thought and deed, then God is ready to use you, even to-day, to feed the starving multitudes with “the finest of the wheat.” Ps. 81: 16. If, in the strength of the mighty One, you will resist the enemy with reference to personal ambition, presumption, and appetite, you will ultimately score such a victory on this point that the devil will not be permitted to continually tempt you on these things, but as in the case of the Master, he will be compelled to leave you at least for a season. Luke 4: 13. If you are willing to sacrifice some of the luxuries of life for the sake of humanity, and live an abstemious life, you may even now be a John the Baptist, and be able to teach the people how to lay the axe to the roots of their physical and spiritual difficulties, instead of merely picking away at the leaves of their symptoms, as so many are doing at the present time. Luke 3: 9. The use of even moderate quantities of intoxicating liquors will so paralyze the finer sensibilities of the soul that there will be an inability to discriminate between holy principles and merely common-place ideas. Such individuals are dying spiritually just as certainly as the sons of Aaron died physically when they attempted to officiate at the Lord’s altar when partially under the influence of strong drink. Lev. 10: 9, 10. If you seek to evade your responsibilities and shirk the plain duties which lie before you in your community, your church, or in your home, you are a Jonah, and you will soon find that there is something ready to swallow you up. It may be some wretched entanglement, or some scheme or device out of which you will not be delivered until you sincerely repent, and meanwhile an unwarned Nineveh which you might have been saving, has become more deeply steeped in sin. Jonah 1: 2, 3. If you consent to trifle with sacred principles as did Samson, you will soon become ensnared by habits that will bind you as securely as he was bound with “fetters of brass;” you will soon be as spiritually blind as he became physically blind, and ultimately you become engaged in as small a business for the devil as “grinding corn” in the prison-house of the Philistines; and you may even degenerate so far that you may finally, as he did, “make sport” of the very principles that you to-day regard as sacred. Judges 16: 21–25. If you are willing to subsist on simple, nutritious foods, rather than the luxurious and stimulating dietary that is now so common, and then conscientiously seek God, while others are worshiping at the shrine of selfish indulgence; if you are willing to be cast into the lion’s den of human scorn and mockery because of your devotion to right principles, then you may be a Daniel even to-day, and God only knows the heights to which you may attain, and the positions of trust and influence which await you. Dan. 1: 8; 6: 3. David had been so much a man of war that he could but assist some one else in building the temple instead of having the privilege of doing it himself. 1 Chron. 28: 3, 6. So, you may have been at war so long with the laws of your body that you will never have an opportunity to build it up as a perfect temple of health; but that need not prevent you from gathering material, even as David did, in the way of sound knowledge, by which you can impart instruction in reference to the principles of healthful living that shall enable some one else to build up a splendid temple in which God’s presence shall be manifested as it was in Solomon’s temple. Have you been struggling hard to advance the temperance cause and other reformatory measures, with little or no result? In other words, like Peter, have you toiled all night and caught nothing? Perhaps like him, you have clung too near to the shore line where there is only an abundance of rocks, and11 where there are no fish, when instead you should have boldly launched out into the adoption of complete reformatory truths, and where your sails would have caught the heavenly breezes. Then, like Peter, you would not only have developed enough work for yourself, but you would have been able to have set some of your associates to work. Luke 5: 4–7. When the king of Syria was dangerously ill, he sent to the prophet to ascertain his true condition, and word was brought to him, “Thou mayst certainly recover; howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die.” 2 Kings 8: 10, 15. In other words, the wrong treatment which he would receive, rather than his disease, would cause his death. The following day some one saturated a thick cloth with water and spread it over his face and smothered him. So there are thousands of people who are perishing each year of whom God is saying, With proper treatment, they could get well; but the wretched diet, quack remedies, and irrational treatment, ends their lives just as truly as the thick wet cloth ended the life of the ancient Syrian king. 2 Kings 8: 10–15. EARTH AND HEAVEN.
By Iva Farber
Who hath not gazed upon the sky
At even, when with stars bedecked
The shining vault so wondrous bright
Seemed heaven’s own beauty to reflect?
And while our gaze is fixed above,
Such beauty, such entrancing light,
Awakens in our hearts sweet dreams
Of heaven above where all is bright. And when below our eyes are cast,
How dark and gloomy all around;
Earth’s beauties seem to pass away;
Far grander sights the eye hath found.
For those who know the Christian’s joy,
For all who love the Saviour’s voice,
Earth’s pleasures vain soon lose their charms;
The heavenly path is made their choice. While heavenward the face is set,
The heart’s petitions upward rise,
Forgetting all that’s left behind,
With patience wait to gain the prize;
And seeing not the gloom of earth,
Our hearts rejoicing in His love,
His glory leads us safely on
To mansions beautiful above. Janesville, Wis. IVA FARBER. WHEN the biggest tree known to exist in the world was discovered in the mountains of Fresno County, Cal., the other day, the despatches announced that it would not be cut down because it was just inside a government reservation. The implication was that if it had been just outside it would have gone to the lumber mill—or rather a lumber mill would have gone to it. Consider for a moment the full atrocity of such a crime. That tree is 350 feet high, and 51 feet in diameter six feet above the ground. It would have dwarfed the fallen Campanile of Venice both in height and in bulk, and when the Venetian bell-tower first looked out upon the Adriatic, a thousand years ago, the Sierran giant was already a hoary patriarch. It was a contemporary of the trees that masked the crater of Vesuvius before the pent-up fires burst forth upon Pompeii. It was flourishing in maturity when Pericles watched the building of the Parthenon, and it was a brother to the cedars of Lebanon that Hiram’s workmen wrought into the Temple of Solomon. But to a part of our advanced civilization its chief distinction is that it could be sawed into lumber enough to load five freight trains of fifty cars each. The Campanile of Venice can be rebuilt, but a gardener who wished to duplicate a tree like that in California would have to sit up five thousand years to do it. Happily that particular tree is safe, but many others, hardly less majestic, have already been sacrificed to the doctrine that “a man may do what he likes with his own.” Is it not about time to set some limits to that doctrine, when doing what one likes with one’s own means inflicting irreparable loss upon mankind?—Thrice-a-Week World. Let there be the closest possible comradeship between parents and children. Let it never, for an hour cease. Never give your young people any reason for seeking sympathy in confidants outside the home circle. Recall your own childhood and youth. Enter into the lives of your children heartily. The information they will surely seek somewhere let them have at home. Anticipate their natural curiosity by discreet revelations from time to time. Teach them modesty and purity and how to avoid evil companions. If they have an especial bent in any direction, sympathize with it and encourage it. Nature is the best guide toward a successful career in life. Try to see things from their standpoint. The more you do this, the more will they learn to look at things from your own standpoint of greater knowledge and experience. Hold their confidence as a priceless treasure to you and to them. Let nothing separate you from their loving trustfulness, let nothing mar the beauty of the closest possible intimacy.—Christian Work. ASPIRATION
By Fanny L. Fancher
EXISTENCE is a failure, dire,
Having no aim, no purpose great;
Achieving naught, naught to inspire,
Earth’s groveling beasts ye emulate.
—Fanny L. Fancher.