Earlier text: THE SABBATH OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENTTHE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR CONVENTION
By C. M. Snow
[From our own correspondent.] THE great Christian Endeavor Convention of 1897, which has been taxing San Francisco's capabilities of hospitality to their fullest extent, has mustered out its members, its legions are disbanded, and are now speeding hither and thither, some on pleasure bent and others hurrying homeward. The unanimous verdict is, It was a great convention. Californians vied with one another in the attempt to make visiting delegates appreciate the fact that they were warmly welcomed; and the appreciation was also manifest. One of the visitors expressed her sentiment on that point in these words: “They’ve done everything they could for us, and if we didn’t appreciate it, we ought to be sent home till we did.” That this convention was a representative international one will be seen from the fact that delegates were in attendance from Hawaii, Canada, Scotland, France, England, Palestine, Japan, China, Australia, South America, India, Ceylon, and Mexico. Germany sent no delegate, but was “present by letter.” Letters of greeting were received at the society headquarters in San Francisco from numerous organizations not represented at the convention and from a number of foreign countries, some of whom also had representatives in attendance. Something of the size of the convention, as regards numbers in attendance, may be judged by a few statements from the standpoint of the railroad. On one day there passed through the city of Sacramento thirty trains loaded with Endeavorers, while at Ogden on July 6 there were reported to be eight miles of cars similarly occupied. With such numbers there was naturally a great deal of enthusiasm, and this was constantly manifest both on the trip across the country and during the convention, in a rather loud and worldly way. Each of the State delegations had a representative “yell,” patterned after the “yells” of football and baseball teams, and these were given with a will wherever opportunity offered. It may be easily imagined that religious sentiments, if present in these demonstrations, were of microscopic dimensions. There were many pleasing things about the convention, and this particular function could have been omitted and the program enhanced thereby. The preparations for the great gatherings at the two main pavilions were elaborate and complete even to the minutiae. There were separate booths for nearly every delegation, and in a prominent place on these booths were installed the coats of arms of each of the delegations represented. The colors of these symbolic devices, together with the gay trappings of the pavilions themselves, made a gorgeous livery for these improvised tabernacles. The convention was formally opened on the evening of July 7 by President Francis E. Clark, who has just returned to this country from a tour of the world. In giving a cue to the matters which would be considered at this convention, President Clark said: “The one thing after which we strive is the deepening of the spiritual life. Interdenominational fellowship is another expanding influence and result of the work, for which we ought to be thankful. Good citizenship is another direction in which the quickened spirituality has manifested itself. If the conventions have wrought anything for which we ought to be thankful, it is a development of homogeneousness of spirituality among our people. Christian Citizenship will come in for its share of discussion, as well as temperance and other branches of our work.” Simultaneous with this meeting of the convention, eleven others were held in various churches in cities around the bay, and a corps of noted ministers and evangelists from eastern cities occupied these pulpits on several occasions. President Clark, in his annual address, gave as the watchwords of the convention, “The world for Christ; the nation for Christ; the family for Christ; myself for Christ.” This address was an earnest appeal to Endeavorers to seek a closer walk with God, and to cultivate more of a self-sacrificing, missionary spirit. The annual report read by Grand Secretary John Willis Baer contained many interesting features. He likened the Christian Endeavor movement to the river spoken of in Ps. 46:4 and Eze. 47:12. He stated that during the sixteen years since the first society was organized in Portland, Maine, the movement had grown until it now numbered 50,747 local societies, with a total membership of 3,000,000. The statement that “California has no Sunday law,” was continually heard on the lips of those who spoke during the convention. They had been urgently requested by the officials of the California Christian Endeavor Union to ring the changes upon this matter at every possible opportunity, with the hope of bringing Californians up to the place where they would successfully demand a law prohibiting all work on Sunday except works of necessity and humanity; and for the furthering of this end the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts invented the following “yell,” which was the official “yell” of the Ohio State delegation:— “O H I O,
Saloon must go;
The Sabbath must stay;
The lawless must obey
O H I O.
Twentieth century knights are we,
Ohio shall be free.” The Sabbath Observance Committee of the convention met at the Central M. E. Church in San Francisco, on July 9. President Reid, of the California delegation, stated that the meeting was called to consider some of the best means of conducting sabbath reform. He said that there had been 300 Lord’s day committees organized in this State since the first of last March, and that California had won the banner offered by Mr. Crafts to the State union earning the most points for work done in advancing the cause of Sunday observance. After deprecating the fact that California had no Sunday law, he said:— “The societies can be depended upon to do what they are asked to do. None of the societies in California have objected to working for the Lord’s day observance. Every society in the State should have a Lord’s day committee. The Endeavorers have been effectually aroused from their slumber to the necessity of entering this work. Many of them have not been content with their pastors preaching upon this subject, but have gone out themselves to perform work along this line.” The president then referred to the work that had been done in certain towns in closing stores and post-offices and in getting the press to assist them in their work. Continuing he said:— “When we see a chance to strike a blow, we strike it and strike hard, and that we believe is the duty of the Christian Endeavorers. We need to organize Lord’s day committees and go to work, and then we will see something done. I have rejoiced at the way the Epworth League has joined with us in this work of promoting a better observance of the Lord’s day. It only requires persistent, insistent work; keep at it, keep at it, and you will win.” Reports from the different States were called for. The representative from New York spoke chiefly upon the efforts in the State to prevent Sunday baseball. The representative from Wisconsin said:— “I am pleased that the banner for the most points gained for work in behalf of Sunday observance has come to California, a State that has no Sunday law. However, we are told by our best judges that the sabbath in America is to be maintained by common law without the State law, and that any desecration in California can be suppressed by law if you appeal to the Supreme Courts of the country. “The land is full of very queer notions regarding the Sabbath, and many Christians have a vague understanding of it. They regard the Sabbath as a Jewish institution, just as the Egyptians regarded the Nile as an Egyptian river, never thinking that the river was running hundreds of miles before it ever came to Egypt; and so it is with the Sabbath. It was in existence before the first king was born, before Abraham was born—it had existed all along. It passed through Jewish institutions, the Jewish Church, and received some glory in passing through; but it is not at all Jewish. Our Lord himself said that the Sabbath was made for man, not for the Jew, not for the American, but for man wherever found. It seems impossible in these days of machinery and corporate activity to have a Sabbath or a day of rest without a civil law. We have found it so in Wisconsin, and I believe that you will soon find it so in California. However, the arm of the law and the teachings of the church should not be mingled. The law of the land can only give a civil rest; but it is from the church that the holiness and worship must come. The holiness of the day is the soul of it. Without that it becomes a dead corpse, something that will fill the land with poison, and the land would be ready to bury the Sabbath whenever the soul is taken from it. We must teach the workmen of the land that in order to secure the rest part of the day they must keep it holy. These things must be taught in some way. I would be in favor of having a small catechism prepared that would bring out the principles, history, and nature of the Sabbath day, holding the sacred and civil aspects of the day together in a sense and yet separated in another sense.” Chairman: “We admit that the Sabbath must be maintained. We stand upon that ground without any argument. We also stand upon the ground that Sunday, the first day of the week, is the day for which the Christian Endeavor Societies are striving to obtain rest. This question of the seventh day or the first day will not be considered at this time. What we want to know is what you have done and what is being done. If the Sabbath is worthy of being maintained, why not maintain it? And if it is to be maintained, who shall maintain it rather than we?” Miss Matilda Kay, of New York, representing the Woman’s National Sabbath Alliance, gave a report of the work of that body. She read the following pledge of that society, which the committee unanimously voted to recommend for adoption by the International Convention:— “We women of America, recognizing the American Christian Sabbath as our rightful inheritance, bequeathed to us by our forefathers; as the foundation of our national prosperity; as the safeguard of our social, civil, and religious blessings; as the conservator of the rights of the wage-earner; do hereby pledge ourselves to resist, by precept and example, whatever tends to undermine Sunday as a day of rest and worship; such as the Sunday secular paper, Sunday social entertainments, and Sunday driving and traveling for gain or pleasure; and we further pledge ourselves to use our influence to create a right sentiment on all aspects of the Sunday question, especially in reference to traffic of every kind on that day.” This society is now at work organizing auxiliary societies in every city and town in the country, and have a field secretary going about among the newly organized societies instructing them in this branch of work. The representative from Santa Fé, N. M., gave a report of the work which he had done in that city in restraining Sunday desecration. He said that all the butchers and barbers and merchants in Santa Fé with one exception now closed their doors on Sunday. “Some signed the agreement to do so through fear of being boycotted. While I am not generally in favor of that way of treating people, yet I believe in boycotting every shop that will keep open on Sunday.” This sentiment was loudly applauded by the delegates present. Mr. Hale, of Niles, after giving a report of the work of the Endeavorers in that town, said: “I think that the great obstacle in the way of sabbath observance in California is the lukewarmness and inaction of the Christian people, and I heartily believe that if in every town and city represented here there were Endeavorers who were ready to work, we would see a great result accomplished. We must be about the business of our Master.” The chairman stated that when all the stores and shops of a town were closed on Sunday, and the merchants saw the money that would otherwise be flowing to their tills going into those of the saloon, they would turn around and help to get a law that would compel the saloon-keepers to keep their places of business closed on that day also. The representative from Berkeley, Cal., stated that at a disgraceful political convention in this State the Sunday law of the State was blotted out, and now the cry of California to the other States was the Macedonian cry, “Come over and help us,” that this State may stand in line with the other States of this great republic. After hearing reports from other cities throughout the State, the committee adjourned. In line with the work of this committee a Sunday mass-meeting was held at the Mechanics’ Pavilion on Sunday, July 11, which was addressed by a number9 of prominent speakers. In introducing the main subject of the day, the chairman, Dr. Francis E. Clark, said:— “There is no more important subject on our program. Is it not a significant fact that the convention where this fact was emphasized the most was the California convention of ’97? More conspicuous attention has been given to this subject here than at any other convention; and it is because our California friends themselves desired to have it emphasized. You know they have the banner this year, because they have put forth the most strenuous efforts for the preservation of the sabbath. It is a good sign of the times that here the Christian people are most alive to this idea and the movement is most vigorous; and this great subject will be revivified in our hearts and more strenuous efforts be put forth in the east because of the influences from California and the Pacific Coast. I believe that this vast meeting and this important theme and the influence awakened by this convention, is an indication that what I have said will be true, and that the sabbath-keepers of California will not only be a source of blessing to their own State, but to all these commonwealths, and to all these cities, and to all these provinces, by sending back this splendid reflex wave of influence for the Lord’s holy day from this convention which we are now holding.” Miss Matilda Kay, of New York, secretary of the Woman’s National Sabbath Alliance, was the first speaker, and chose for her theme, “Woman’s Part in Securing Sunday Observance.” She began her remarks with a history of the organization which she represented, and told of the work which they were trying to do, giving some simple incidents which had very little connection with the subject under discussion. Rev. W. H. G. Temple, of Tacoma, Washington, was the second speaker, and his topic was “Modern Forms of Sabbath Desecration.” He said: “The last thing that a speaker ought to be called upon to defend in this Christian country is the Christian sabbath. And yet we have to stand guard over it with drawn swords lest some new form of iniquity put its hoof upon this sacred institution.” The speaker stated that while he would not wish to return to the Puritan Sabbath of our ancestors, he would advocate the beginning of a preparation for Sunday on the Saturday evening preceding, and gave an eloquent appeal for the better observance of and preparation for the sabbath in the home—an appeal which would have had real weight had it been directed to the keeping of the day which God has blessed and sanctified and given to man as a memorial of his rest from the work of creation. As enemies to the sanctity of the Sunday sabbath he mentioned the “hand of a godless rationalism,” “the hand of corporate greed,” “the American saloon,” and “the hand of unsanctified pleasure.” During the consideration of the first he said, “O, shall we not plead that our God shall have his sabbath—yes, our sabbath, observed according to his law?” Referring to the second foe he said: “We ought to glory in our ambition. Ambition and industry make a splendid team. This race for gold is a magnificent race, and may you all be worth a million before you die—only do not let that ambition lead you to desecrate the Lord’s day.” The third foe was referred to in these words: “This blear-eyed, rum-faced, leprous-handed, basilisk-hearted thing turns our boys into drunkards, spoils our homes, and now it wants our sabbath. O, Christian Endeavorers, make a solemn vow to God that as long as you have a voice to raise, or an influence to use, or a vote to cast, you will use these three mighty engines of power against the saloon and in favor of our American Sunday.” The speaker was willing to allow the “poor, dear, tired working people” to go out into the fields or to the museums on Sunday, but they “must have the purest possible motives in so doing, or else that would be dangerous.” Excursion trains should not be run, excursion steamers should not leave their docks, and the theaters ought to be compelled to close their doors. Continuing he said: “If you destroy the American sabbath, you strike directly at the foundation of this nation. You, the American people, are responsible for the character of the nation to which you belong, because the government has been committed into your hands. I adjure you, see to it that this nation shall have a sabbath, and that it shall come to it with its holy hush upon its great multitudes.” This address was followed by two musical selections rendered by the Policeman’s Glee Club. As they retired, the chairman arose and said: “When California gets a Sunday law, which she will one of these days, these guardians of the law will help to enforce it.” A Civil Sunday Law Wanted.
Rev. Josiah Strong, president of the Evangelical Alliance of New York, was the next speaker. He said in part: “I think if we had some hundreds of thousands of such policemen scattered throughout our country as these to whom we have just listened, our sabbath laws, where they exist, would be better enforced. If our efforts in behalf of workable sabbath laws are to be intelligently made, we must understand that we observe two sabbaths, which are quite distinct in their origin, their authority, and their character. One is divine and sacred, the other human and secular. The latter is the civil sabbath, of which I am to speak.” The speaker gave a sample of arguments pro and con in reference to the validity of sabbath laws, in which the supporter of such laws was usually worsted in argument because of his failure to distinguish between the civil and sacred rest day, and then produced an “argument” which could be used to secure the same ends and still be “logical,” holding that liberty of rest for all could be secured only when there was a law of rest for all. He said:— “If there ever was an age of the world that needed a sabbath law, it is this present, feverish age; and if there is a State in the Union that needs a sabbath law, it is the State of California. It is the duty of the State to protect the day from such uses as will prove detrimental to the public morals. There are certain amusements which are hostile to the morals, because they are hostile to the religious observance of the day. These amusements which entice away from the church, are detrimental to the popular morals and should be forbidden by law, not because they are detrimental to religion, but being detrimental to religion, they are detrimental to morals, and morals are essential to the life of the State. “Sabbath laws are the friend and bulwark of popular liberties, and our popular liberties are bound up with the civil sabbath. It would be entirely practical for these young people’s societies to sow the whole State with literature which would show the character of the civil, spiritual, intellectual, and physical sabbath. Our individual influence may be as light as air, but with these young people in a mass moving together we can shake the continent.” “The Claims of God—Keep It Holy,” was the subject assigned to Rev. Robert Johnson, of London, Ontario. He said:— “There are two institutions without which no nation can grow great; these are the family and the Lord’s day. We find in the Garden of Eden these two institutions laid down as the foundation of all social living and religious living. The foundation which lies at the basis of all religious life is the Sabbath, which he established in that garden when he rested on it and sanctified its use. The one table of the law looks manward, the other looks Godward. God laid the foundation of that when he separated the Sabbath day from the others and kept it holy for himself. Religion goes if the Sabbath goes. The church is lost if the Sabbath is lost. You can not retain your Bibles if you do not hold onto the Sabbath. God by his example, by his precept, by his oft-repeated exhortation, emphasized the thought that the Sabbath was to be kept holy unto himself—by his example in Eden, when he withheld the manna on the seventh day while giving it on the other six days, by his exhortation through the prophets, reminding them that it was the sign and seal of their covenant to be his—and then came the Messiah; and tho Jesus Christ freed the Sabbath from many of its rituals, yet never by word or deed or influence did Jesus Christ detract from the holiness, the sacredness of that day as a day that was to be the Lord’s and spent Godward. The apostolic example follows in the same line; and so through the ages we have one line of testimony, as if God by every avenue through which he could reach man’s soul would write this word upon his heart, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. The Sabbath lies at the root and foundation of the religious life of the individual, the religious life of the church, and the religious life of the nation. So I summon you to the defense, protection, and preservation of the Lord’s day as a day holy unto himself.” The closing meetings of the convention were marked with considerable enthusiasm, meetings in various churches around the bay being again addressed by prominent speakers from abroad, as well as the overflow meetings in San Francisco. The meetings of the Junior Endeavorers were also important gatherings. There is no doubt that this convention will have a great influence upon the inhabitants of California in regard to securing a Sunday law for this State. Rev. E. R. Dille’s remarks in this respect have considerable significance. He said: “You have poured a mighty torrent here like Niagara and the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, enough to start a great dynamo of enthusiasm. But what good is a dynamo unless it is hitched onto something? I suggest that this mighty power be hitched onto all our activities.” California is now preparing to “hitch” this power onto her Sunday-law agitation, and strenuous efforts will be put forth to bring about the object for which they strive and to which all other work in California is now subservient,—the enactment of that law. NOT CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
By William N. Glenn
ONE of the addresses at the late Christian Endeavor Convention in San Francisco was on the subject of “Christian Endeavor and Christian Citizenship,” by Josiah Strong, D.D., of New York. After an array of facts and figures showing the extent and increase of political corruption in the country, he asked, “What are Christian Endeavorers going to do about it?” Then he proposed a remedy, the substance of which was ministerial alliance with Christian Endeavor auxiliary forces. Where there are already ministerial associations, they can carry on the work. Where there are none, such alliances or associations should be formed at once. They should then district their community, and assign young Christian Endeavorers to these districts as messengers, under the direction of the ministers. Then when any legislation or other movement is to be opposed, or some proposition is to be advocated, the community could be quickly canvassed by these ever-ready messengers, either with literature or petitions. In brief, this proposition for political reform is based in the suggestion that the ministers manipulate the young Christian Endeavorers in the interest of what they deem good politics. This is stooping far below the original design, or the ostensible design, of the Christian Endeavor Society. It is foreign to the purposes which have induced most of the young people to unite with the society. It is foreign to the work in which they, especially the young ladies, have hitherto engaged. It is a terrible fall from a work of Christian benevolence in behalf of the kingdom of heaven, to take up the scramble for office and the task of patching up the fast-decaying and soon-to-be annihilated governments of this world. Jesus Christ set a perfect example of Christian endeavor before the world, and he in no way entered the political arena, nor sought in a political way to purify the world's institutions. He sought men, to win them over to God and to his work of going about doing good. He sent out his “messengers” to be “fishers of men,” for the very purpose of bringing them out of the entanglements of this world and setting them to work in the interests of his kingdom, which is “not of this world.” The apostle Paul, who was a faithful minister of the Word, says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” In the course of Dr. Strong's remarks he said that we have no longer a “government of the people by the people for the people,” but instead we have a government of the people by the boss for the machine. This is true, the situation is all that he represents it to be; but what about his suggested remedy? Fully carried out, it would be a government of the people by the ministers for the church. It is a question for the people to consider, whether politicians who openly claim to be politicians and nothing else, are any worse as political bosses than professed ministers of Christ who step down from their high calling to entangle themselves with the affairs of this life. It is a question for Christians to earnestly consider, whether they can afford to give up their citizenship in heaven to strive for the mastery as citizens of the corrupt, dying governments of earth. No man can of right be a citizen of two kingdoms at the same time. Christ said of his disciples, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Then any participation in the world's political struggles can not be legitimate “Christian endeavor.” OUR BODIES A SACRIFICE.
By Ida M. Poch
PAUL, in his letter to the Romans, after discoursing upon the wisdom and knowledge of God through Christ, states that "for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things." Evidently with these thoughts in his mind he writes, "I beseech you therefore [for that reason], brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Rom. 12:1. In the olden time, when man offered acceptable sacrifices unto God, certain understood requirements must be complied with. In Lev. 22:19-21 we read that the lamb, to be received with favor by the Lord, must be "without blemish"—it must be perfect, with no defect at all. In every instance of this sort of service we find the same specification. Paul says it is our reasonable service to offer our living bodies. The Lord not only has a right to require it, but he has good reasons for the requirement; if this is true, it is possible for us to render the service. We are besought, earnestly entreated, implored, "by the mercies of God," to render the living, perfect sacrifice. This can but mean that we are by the goodness of God to us besought to refrain from dishonoring the image of our Maker, who intrusted somewhat of his likeness to every human being. By this trust God honored man. It is not strange then that Paul feels that it is reasonable that man should honor God by respecting this trust and the laws which tend to its best preservation. The likeness to God is not only in mental and moral endowments; for the natural body is capable of expressing every thought and emotion our minds are capable of conceiving. Upon this very body the divinest emotion is dependent for expression. If this medium fails, the thought is dead and the sentiment lost to the world; for there is no other way of expression save through the body. The perfection of man-made mechanism is an evolution through repeated failures; but not so with God's handiwork. There were no mistakes, and no improvements have been necessary. The same old pattern is still in use. Whenever man has sought to improve upon the original in any instance, there has been serious trouble. It follows then that the nearer we keep to that which in the beginning was pronounced "good," in any particular, the more perfectly we will meet the divine mind. The infinite mind of God saw where the physical by-paths would be as well as the moral ones, and so marked the path of physical rectitude by as unmistakable guide-posts as those which indicate the moral "narrow way." If we are in danger of leaving the straight way, we are mercifully warned by the much-misunderstood blessing, pain, until, by repeated lapses into sin, the physical conscience is deadened, and this warning voice is hushed. Ask almost any man who smokes and he will tell you how nature rebelled against the degradation brought upon her by that filthy and injurious habit. What a martyrdom he endured to enslave himself in that fashionable vice! Do you remember, my sister, what torture it was the first time you incased your form in the pitiless steels? Do you remember, will you ever quite forget, the misery of that hour in church when you vainly tried to fix your mind upon the sermon? What a grateful sense of comfort dwelt in the thought that soon you would be at home and then away with the torture, and welcome the loosest gown you had. Who of us that have achieved the feat of existing on the "one oat a day" of God's free fresh air, have not wandered through this experience to some extent at least? Why is it so hard?—Because so strongly does nature array her forces against this evil practise, so unwilling is she to let us pass the line beyond which lies more and greater misery. Would we endure as much and as uncomplainingly in a good cause? We are seldom required to yield up our lives in the same sense to the cause of right and good, and even tho we do truly die for truth, it is but to gain life, for "he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it," says the Author of truth. But if oftener we were required to yield up drop by drop our life-blood, would we be as ready to endure equal pain and misery if the object were more worthy of the price? Would we not feel that the service is hard and at least look upon ourselves as martyrs? In the service of right every sacrifice we are called to make is but that at best some little good may give place to a greater; and the very yielding even brings an additional blessing to ourselves. Not so when we yield ourselves to wrong physical or moral habits. "The way of the transgressor is hard," does not only apply to the transgressor of the moral precepts. O, no, for did not all our physical as well as spiritual weakness come because of disobedience to the voice of God, and following the enemy of all right-doing? The story is familiar to us all. Then our first parents hid themselves from their God, because spotless purity, which had covered them like a garment, was theirs no longer, and they sought to supply the deficiency by patching leaves together, to cover not only the body, but the shame they felt that they had fallen from their high estate. So in the beginning clothing grew out of sin, and through that break in the wall, Satan has many times thrust his hand and plucked for himself the harvest of Eve's daughters, and some of her sons. Through this some in humble stations have been blinded to the "mercies of God," and his beseeching voice has fallen upon deaf ears. The sacrifice that should have been perfect has had many a blemish, not spiritual only but physical as well. The body through which the lovely Jesus wishes to express himself and make known the Gospel of his love, not only as it speaks through the care of birds and lilies, but in a special way (he calls the body his temple), has been found so bound and warped and so distorted that it is pitiful to see, even to us, and what must it be to Him who fashioned it? Surely every fiber of the being should be free to thrill and tingle and give forth the message of God's love and infinite wisdom. O, how have we fallen! By and by, on the other side, when we perfectly express that at which we bungle now, we will have perfect bodies. Why, then, is it not our duty to come a little nearer to perfection here? We dare not say it is not important to remove every restriction so that the life processes may go on without hindrance, for light shines for us and blessing will surely be ours if we walk in it. If all these causes of sickness were laid aside, we could with much greater assurance come to God with the aches and pains to which human flesh is heir, and no doubt many of them would be laid away with the corset and skirt band. This is not a light thing, for it is but the outward expression of an inner state. Let us study the anatomy and physiology of these wonderful bodies of ours. Let us observe the nicety of the arrangement and the perfect adaptability of each minute portion to its special place and form and use, and we will be led to exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" Let us have respect for our bodies, even tho they are but clay and we hope to change them for more glorious ones soon. WHO'S Somebody Else? I should like to know.
Does he live at the north or south?
Or is it a lady fair to see
Whose name is in every one's mouth?
For Meg says, "Somebody Else will sing,"
Or, "Somebody Else can play,"
And Jack says, "Please let Somebody Else
Do some of the errands to-day." If there's any hard or unpleasant task
Or difficult thing to do,
'Tis always offered to Somebody Else—
Now isn't this very true?
But if some fruit or a pleasant trip
Is offered to Dick or Jess,
We hear not a word about Somebody Else.
Why? I will leave you to guess. The words of cheer for a stranger lad
This Somebody Else will speak,
And the poor and helpless who need a friend
Good Somebody Else must seek.
The cup of cold water in Jesus' name,
O, Somebody Else will offer,
And cords of love for a broken heart
Brave Somebody Else will proffer! There are battles in life we only can fight,
And victories, too, to win,
And Somebody Else can not take our place,
When we shall have "entered in,"
But if Somebody Else has done His work,
While we for our ease have striven,
'Twill be only fair if the blessed reward
To Somebody Else is given.
—Union Signal. LITTLE SINS.
By Gospel News
It is said that a man one day was strolling along in the country, and he noticed a magnificent golden eagle flying bravely upward. He watched it with delight and admiration, and as he did so, he noticed that something was wrong with it. It seemed unable to go any higher. Soon it began to fall, and then it lay at his feet a lifeless mass. What could be the matter? No human hand had harmed it. No sportsman's shot had reached it. He went and examined the bird, and what did he find? It had carried up with it a little weasel in its talons, and as it drew these near to it for flight, the little creature had wormed itself out of them and drank the life-blood from the eagle's breast. How like this is all sin! It may appear a little thing, but it fastens upon the soul and works death and destruction.—Gospel News. CULTIVATE the habit of breathing through the nose and taking deep breaths. If this habit was universal, there is little doubt that pulmonary affections would be decreased one-half. An English physician calls attention to this fact, that deep and forced respirations will keep the entire body in a glow in the coldest weather, no matter how thinly one may be clad. He was himself half frozen to death one night, and began taking deep breaths and keeping the air in his lungs as long as possible. The result was that he was thoroughly comfortable in a few minutes. The deep respirations, he says, stimulate the blood currents by direct muscular exertion, and cause the entire system to become pervaded with the rapidly generated heat.—Sel. Nature’s Law and Human Possibility
By Young
By nature's law, what may be, may be now;
There's no prerogative in human hours.
—Young. At our birth, the satirical elves
Two sacks from our shoulders suspend;
The one holds the faults of ourselves,
The other the faults of our friends.
The first we wear under our clothes,
Out of sight, out of mind, at the back;
The last is so under our nose
We know every scrap in the sack.
—Household Words.