p. 53 | The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Thursday, January 22, 1880)

A TRIBUTE OF PRAISE.

By Annie Suffcool

BY MRS. ANNIE SUFFCOOL.

I wish to acknowledge the goodness of God, who has done and is doing a great work for me. I had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church eleven years; and when last June Bro. and Sr. Snow and Bro. Holmes pitched their tent in sight of our home, I was not very much interested in their doctrine. But the more I heard them unfold the truths of the Scriptures, the deeper my interest became; for I saw nothing but truth; and this truth, so different from anything I had ever heard before, was so forcible and plain that I dared not reject it, knowing that if I did I should turn from the warning voice of God. The unchristian-like spirit that our Presbyterian and Methodist elders manifested only confirmed me in the faith; for I saw that they were fulfilling prophecy, and were trying to make the people believe that the Lord had said when he had not spoken.

I cannot be thankful enough that these servants were sent here to proclaim the solemn warning. They received some unjust treatment, but succeeded in gathering a little band of commandment-keeping people, and we are laboring and praying on, holding fast to the precious truth God has given us. Three new names have been added to our covenant, and we have a bright prospect of soon welcoming more precious souls to our ranks.

Brethren and sisters everywhere, be faithful, and labor for God. Perishing souls are all around us; and if the Spirit of God is in us, we will try to rescue some from the awful doom that awaits those who do not turn to our Heavenly Father. The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Let us take hold of the work, asking the Lord to help us. He will hold us responsible in the great day of reckoning for the talents he has given us. Let us use them to his glory.

Sisters, visit the poor ones of our sex. It may be that in some lonely, desolate home, you may gather a jewel for Christ’s kingdom. You may find a mother despairing under the weight of her cares, toiling in poverty to provide for her family, and perhaps not blessed with many friends. Go to her kindly; carry the message that has made your heart glad, and try to illuminate that fireside with it. Perhaps you may find one there who, though poor in this world’s goods, may become rich toward God. Let us try to gather sheaves for the great harvest, that we may not be like the barren fig-tree. God help us to fully realize the great importance of this work, and with the beginning of the new year put on the whole armor of God, and consecrate ourselves anew to his service.

Clark Co., Wis.

TWO WAYS OF PUTTING IT.

The Sultan awoke with a stifled scream: His nerves were shocked by a fearful dream: An omen of terrible import and doubt— His teeth in one moment all fell out.

His wisemen assembled at break of day, And stood by the throne in solemn array.

And when the terrible dream was told, Each felt a shudder, his blood ran cold; And all stood silent, in fear and dread, And wondering what was best to be said.

At length an old soothsayer, wrinkled and gray, Cried, “Pardon, my lord, what I have to say; “’Tis an omen of sorrow sent from on high: Thou shalt see all thy kindred die.”

Wrath was the Sultan; he gnashed his teeth, And his very words seemed to hiss and seethe, As he ordered the wiseman bound with chains, And gave him a hundred stripes for his pains.

The wisemen shook as the Sultan’s eye Swept round to see who next would try;

But one of them, stepping before the throne, Exclaimed, in a loud and joyous tone:

“Exult, O head of a happy State! Rejoice, O heir of a glorious fate!

“For this is the favor thou shalt win, O Sultan—to outlive all thy kin!”

Pleased was the Sultan, and called a slave, And a hundred crowns to the wiseman gave.

But the courtiers they nod, with grave, sly winks, And each one whispers what each one thinks,

“Well can the Sultan reward and blame: Didn’t both of the wisemen foretell the same?”

Quoth the crafty old Vizier, shaking his head, “So much may depend on the way a thing’s said!”

— Christian at Work.

WHO IS TRULY HONORED?

By Maria L. Huntley

BY MARIA L. HUNTLEY.

THERE is, in the heart of man, a natural desire for the honor and esteem of others. This desire is of heavenly origin, and, as first given to man, was pure and elevating; but, with other precious endowments, it has become perverted. The great enemy of our race has made it an agent through which to turn the attention of mankind from that which is true, pure, and ennobling to the false and corrupting. He has made this counterfeit so pleasing and attractive that nearly the whole world is taken in his snare. Life, health, eternal interests,—all are sacrificed to secure the praise and applause of men; and with many, nothing is too precious to lay down at the shrine of this false god. But the Bible reveals this deception, and brings to view the true honor which comes from God.

God is the most exalted being of which we can conceive. We can but faintly comprehend his exaltation and glory, and to become connected with him is the most honorable position to which we can attain. To be engaged in his work is to be engaged in the most noble and exalted work on earth. We thus become associated with the angelic host and with the Lord of glory in a work so important, so elevated, that it was worthy of the death of the Son of God. Let us consider the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, the ministration of angels for six thousand years, and then, if possible, imagine a more exalted position for fallen man than that of having some part in such a work, with such associations. Wonder, O Heavens, and be astonished, O Earth! not only at the amazing love of God to man, but at his condescension in thus exalting him.

No one can say, This is not for me. No; while the most gifted, the most learned, have not the attainments appropriate to such an exalted position, in themselves considered, God will accept the weakest, the most ignorant, if they give him the best, and all they have. This is not a work in which the strong may glory in their strength, or the wise in their wisdom; it is rather by the love with which one works that his work will be approved; it is God that gives the increase.

True nobility is measured by character. The king on his gilded throne, if not a child of God, is less honored than the least of those who are daily attended by the heavenly messengers sent forth to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation, or those little ones whose angels do always behold the face of our Father.

The time is near when this vail of deception will be removed. Then, those who have connected themselves with God and his work, will be seen in their true light, as the truly honored of earth. The present is the time to secure this honor, to suffer with Christ that we may also reign with him. Ample opportunities are now afforded us for engaging in the work of God, and thus securing for ourselves the true riches and true honor, which will be as enduring as eternity.

Morning and Evening Prayer as Keys

—IN the morning, prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under his protection and safeguard.

THE HEART AS A MACHINE.

THE heart is probably the most efficient piece of physical apparatus known. From a purely mechanical point of view it is something like eight times as efficient as the best steam engine. It may be described, mechanically, as little more than a double force pump, furnished with two reservoirs and two pipes of outflow; and the main problem of its action is hydro-dynamical. The left ventricle has a capacity of about three ounces; it beats 75 times a minute; and the work done in overcoming the resistance of the circulating system is equivalent to lifting its charge of blood a little short of ten feet (9.923 ft.). The average weight of the heart is a little under ten ounces (9.39 oz.). The daily work of the left ventricle is, in round numbers, ninety foot-tons; adding the work of the right ventricle, the work of the entire organ is nearly one hundred and twenty-five foot-tons. The hourly work of the heart is accordingly equivalent to lifting itself twenty thousand feet an hour.

An active mountain climber can average 1,000 feet of ascent an hour, or one-twentieth the work of the heart. The prize Alp engine, “Bavaria,” lifted its own weight 2,700 feet an hour, thus demonstrating only one-eighth the efficiency of the heart. Four elements have to be considered in estimating the heart’s work: (1.) the statical pressure of the blood column equal to the animal’s height, which has to be sustained; (2.) the force consumed in overcoming the inertia of the blood-vessels; (3.) the resistance offered by the capillary vessels; (4.) the friction in the heart itself. This, in a state of health, is kept at its minimum by the lubricated serous membrane of the pericardium.—Scientific American.

A PLEASANT PICTURE.

ONE of our exchanges furnishes us this: “There is a man,” said his neighbor, speaking of a village carpenter, “who has done more good, I really believe, in this community, than any other person who ever lived in it. He cannot talk very well in prayer-meeting. He is not worth two thousand dollars, and it’s very little that he can put down on subscription papers for any object. But a new family never moves into the village that he does not find them out to give them a neighborly welcome, and offer any little service he can render. He is usually on the lookout to give strangers a seat in his pew at church. He is always ready to watch with a sick neighbor and look after his affairs for him; and I’ve sometimes thought he and his wife kept house plants in winter just for the sake of being able to send little bouquets to invalids. He finds time for a pleasant word for every child he meets, and you’ll see them climbing into his one-horse wagon when he has no other load. He really seems to have a genius for helping folks in all sorts of common ways, and it does me good every day just to meet him on the street. Ah! this genius for helping folks—what a rare sort of genius it is! Why can’t we understand that there is no such way of becoming strong ourselves as by helping to strengthen others?”

REVERENCE

In our day, this old-fashioned and most beautiful grace is less practiced than it should be by the young. Independence is so praised and so sought after that we sometimes forget that it may be elevated into a mistaken importance. No young lady can have a well-balanced character who has not ingrained within her reverence, first for God, her Creator and Redeemer; next for her parents, and afterward for all that is lovely and of good report. We should feel and practice reverence toward the aged. They have borne life's heat and burden. They have experience which we lack. True reverence will make us patient with their infirmities, and gentle toward them in their declining years. We should regard the Bible with veneration and listen with respect to all who teach it, especially to ministers, whose office it is to tell the good tidings of life. You may depend upon it that the young girl who is habitually flippant, and who laughs at things which the common consent of the world holds sacred, is not a gentlewoman. She lacks reverence.—Christian at Work.

Discretion: Addison on the Value of Good Judgment

DISCRETION.—There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there are none so useful as discretion; it is this indeed which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper time and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.—Addison.

CONSISTENCY

By G. C. Tenney

BY ELD. G. C. TENNEY.

THERE is a consistency which necessarily pervades the whole realm of truth. And this absolutely forbids that any fact or principle should be in any wise contradictory to any other facts or principles in nature or obligation. The distinction which is sometimes made between sacred and scientific truths, between moral obligations and those of nature, is not always a most wise one. All truth is divine; God is its author. The idea or theory which in one particular conflicts with a well-established truth in any branch of knowledge, cannot be true, since it lacks that perfect consistency which must always characterize truth. Thus the truths of religion would correct our scientific conclusions, and banish speculative ideas which are opposed to the truths of revelation; and at the same time science would aid us to obtain correct and rational religious theories.

We may not consider ourselves in harmony with the great principle of truth while rejecting either. Nature’s laws are God’s laws as really as are the ten commandments. And the rules which govern life and health must be entirely consistent with those which control the moral nature. That theory which enjoins only the culture of the soul, and ignores the welfare of the physical system, may be seriously called in question as being defective in not possessing that necessary element of truth, consistency.

THE CLOSET'S REWARD.

“He that seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

“WHAT profit shall we have if we pray unto Him?” This question, which fell from Jewish lips, betrays a heart that is a stranger to some of the richest developments in Christian experience. Living within the veil pays down. There is a reward of the closet in the closet. Curtained from the world, we have what our inner nature craves, soul-rest. We should not shirk any of the responsibilities of our daily calling; we must be “diligent in business.” But there are times when we want to get away from bustle and business; we want quiet for calm contemplation, for heart-work, which is often hard work, and which can best be done in the closet. Here we can wait upon God without distraction. There is no restraint from the fear of man that brings a snare, no captious ear, no carping critic to listen to our crude utterances. Earnest wrestling, flowing tears, deep-drawn sighs to relieve the heart’s agony—the world may call it all weakness—but they are unseen by the world. The stammering tongue may plead with a power like that of Moses which can move the Almighty.

Rome says, “Confess to the priest.” The closet is the true confessional, the safe retreat for a confidential talk with the Searcher of hearts. We can there make that frank and full confession which we would not, perhaps ought not to, breathe into the ear of the best earthly friend. We can tell of trials and of heart-aches when alone with God, with a freedom which the sacred solitude of the closet only can give. And how instantaneous often is the relief! Before we rise from our knees! While pouring out our complaints, the stream of blessed influences comes pouring in. “While they are yet speaking, I will hear.” The darkened cloud withdraws. The place becomes radiant with the Saviour’s presence, and fragrant with the spirit of Heaven. It is our Peniel, where we see God face to face; our Pisgah, from which we get a bright view of the “better land.” The burden we brought to the closet, we do not know where it is; it is gone. The soul, eased of its load, mounts on the wings of faith, singing as it soars:—

“What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!”

“I would not,” says one, “be hired out of my closet for a thousand worlds. I never enjoyed such hours of pleasure, such free and entire communion with God, as I have here.” “In prayer,” says Martyn, “I had a most precious view of Christ as ‘a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.’ I hardly know how to contemplate with praise enough his adorable excellences.” How many closet-lovers could give a leaf from life’s journal that would tell the same sweet truth!

But the closet door is not the limit of the closet’s reward. There is an outflow into the life. “Thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” He who lives within the veil, carries with him that which is “known and read of all men.” Moses went down from the mount a walking advertisement. The shining of his face showed that he had been with God. His burning zeal against the idol worship of his brethren, at the foot of the mount, was born of this communion.

Look at Jacob. There comes his bloodthirsty brother, four hundred swordsmen with him. With his halting thigh, Jacob limps along. But see, Esau’s angry brow relaxes! How his face lights up! Down drops his sword. The brothers are locked in a loving embrace! Ah! Jacob had wrestled at the brook of Jabbok. He had prevailed with God, and now he prevails with man. “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

An Eastern king is troubled about a forgotten dream. He threatens Daniel’s life if he does not tell it. “There is a God in Heaven,” says Daniel, “that revealeth secrets.” He goes within the veil, gets the secret, and tells the king his dream. What follows? Daniel is loaded down with gifts, made ruler over the whole province of Babylon, prime minister of the East! But he clings to his closet, although at the peril of his life. He prays himself into the lion’s den; yes, and he prays himself out again. Praying breath charms the lion into a lamb. It brings a body-guard from Heaven. “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” The man who is true to his closet, has God’s best providences. “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.”

How many have been snatched from frightful dangers, from threatened bankruptcy and want, or from the grasp of cruel oppressors; how many, from degraded manhood or womanhood, have been raised to high social position in having their natures Christianized, and have started on a career of usefulness, by going to their closet more than by all other means combined!

The closet is the secret of spiritual strength, which makes the man of prayer a marvel. He is panoplied with helmet and sword and shield. Fiery darts fall harmless at his feet. Calamity comes: the world looks on to see him fall. There he stands, self-poised, buoyant, master of the situation. Emergencies are sprung upon him; for the moment the balance trembles, but the equilibrium is not lost. How can he pass so composedly through the checkered scenes of life? His closet tells the secret. Shut him out from this, and he is Samson shorn of his locks.

The crowning recompense of the closet will be its final award. “The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. Before him shall be gathered all nations.” It will be the “Grand Review.” The books will be opened. Every prayer in secret, every tear that bedewed the place of kneeling, will be remembered with a recompense worthy of God. Blessed transition! From prayer to praise, from agony to ecstasy, from clouds and darkness to eternal sunshine.—Christian at Work.

A MINISTER’S MANNER.

The following is from the fourth lecture by Howard Crosby, D. D., before the Yale divinity students, published in the Independent of Dec. 25, 1879. Ministers should study it for their own practice; and the people should study it the better to be able to judge between the true gentleman and the boor.

“Leaving, now, the psychical disposition, we look to the outward manners of the preacher, some of which are natural and are traceable to birth or education, and some assumed from notions of effectiveness. Manner has so much to do with attracting or repelling men that it carries with it an importance greater than its intrinsic worth. It is only the exceptional and philosophic mind that looks beneath manner and judges directly by the character and disposition; and, hence, he who would have a passport to all men’s hearts must wear the outer garments of propriety in his intercourse with others. He is not a wise man who cares nothing for appearances, any more than he who makes a false presentation of himself to his fellow-men. The manners of a preacher should ever be harmonious with the sacred character of his office and the consistencies of a holy life. In describing these manners, we must keep before us the great aim of the preacher as the representative of the Lord and proclaimer of his gospel. He is to sink himself in his Master’s cause and in his love for souls, and he is to mold self according to the demands of the highest philanthropy.

“Manners are so largely a matter of choice and determination that no preacher can avoid the responsibility of conducting himself with seemly behavior before his people and the world. We might almost sum up all we have to say on this head in the one sentence that a minister ought to be a perfect gentleman. The word ‘gentleman’ may be hard to define in phrase, but yet it is well understood by all. It is a word that has regard chiefly to manners, and describes one who is acceptable in all his social contact. Whatever may be his real character or tone of mind, he controls himself to such an extent as to fit in gracefully in all the movements of society, and so to approve himself to all. He covers the mistakes of others by calling attention to a new subject, and commends their successes by fixing attention upon them. He looks to see what others like, and then adapts himself to their tastes while he is in their company. He is never boisterous or rude in his speech, however resolute and determined he may be in his character. He knows that power is not seated

in noise or boorishness, and that an iron hand is best used in a velvet glove.

“A gentleman is not to be confounded (as so often he is) with the man of fashion, who has learned the lying grimaces and small talk of the salon, and who invests his soul, as well as his body, at the tailor’s. A gentleman assumes his manners because they are right in themselves or advantageous for society; but the man of fashion assumes his manners because they are in the fashion. The gentleman is, probably, what the Greeks denoted by καλοκἀγαθός, a word which implies a moral worth beneath the agreeable manners. There have been preachers who affected clownish manners, through a strange infatuation that these added to their power, because, forsooth, they added to their notoriety. In their garments, or walk, or methods of address, they have played the fool, and only their undoubted talent has saved them from universal reproach. Young preachers who imitated these eccentricities, but who had not the talent of their patterns, have speedily gone under. Eccentricities are never enjoyed by others. They are only endured. There may be a sense of humor temporarily excited by the sight of an eccentricity in a minister, but it can never be a permanent source of pleasure to a parish. The man who helps himself first, the man who stands in another’s pathway, the man who throws his person into ungainly postures, the man who affects an uncouth dress or walk, the man who monopolizes the conversation, the man who delights in mortifying others, the man who indulges in any filthy habit,—such as these have no place under the category of ‘gentleman.’

“Next to this comprehensive characteristic of manner noted as gentlemanly, we may mark those forms of manner which are used in the pulpit for emphasis, or to produce the greater impression upon the audience.

“In all addresses to our fellows there must be art, which is only to say that there must be adaptations in manner consciously exercised. No man can be so lost to himself as to conduct an hour’s service in complete unconsciousness of his manner. He may at times lose himself in his discourse, forgetting everything but his message and the persons he addresses; but such a rapt state cannot continue long. As conscious of his manner, he is an artist, so that when we say the manner in the pulpit must be artless we are not using exact language. The danger lies in pushing art to an exaggeration, either beyond the point of just influence or beyond all harmony with the actual feelings of the preacher. In the former case the art may be of complete accord with the preacher’s feelings, and yet be so extravagant to the audience’s cooler state of mind as to disgust and repel; while in the latter case the insincerity is sure to show itself and produce a like result. The preacher, therefore, has two errors to guard against in respect of manner in the pulpit—one involving the moral element of insincerity, and the other evidencing a want of control over his impulses. With regard to the former, we need only remark that, whatever the manner, it is to be condemned. It is an imitation of the stage, and the stage and pulpit have nothing whatever in common, notwithstanding the popular idea that they are run in the same mold. The stage has as its object to amuse, and it has as its uniform method exaggeration; but the pulpit has as its object to instruct, and it has as its method the simplicity that becomes the delivery of truth. Young preachers who go to the stage for an example of manner or utterance are on the high road to ministerial ruin, although they may make a newspaper fame. The stage-actor is etymologically and classically the hypocrite, and has, so far as he is a stage-actor, no sympathy with the preacher and his solemn duties. He will teach the foolish preacher who goes to him for instruction poses, gestures, tones, and grimaces that have no more to do with a minister’s person than Hamlet or Romeo has to do with his theme.

“The other error of overwrought manner in the pulpit, as we have said, shows a want of proper control over the preacher’s impulses. He intensifies his voice to a scream or a roar, according to its tenor or bass nature. He moves about the platform like a caged lion, to the dread of all weak nerves in the congregation. He pounds the desk or Bible with doubled fist, and flings his arms at every point of the compass. His excessive emphasis becomes no emphasis at all. His sermon is italicized in every word. In this case, art should use a repressive influence, should hold in check the headlong energy, should modulate cadence and temper movement, and so bring the thought into proper relief. A power that is held in continues to exert its influence over the audience, but in a different way from its action when unchecked. In the latter case the audience is carried away by it as the forest’s debris is carried away by the torrent; but in the former the audience is awed with a sense of a force reserved. The experience is varied, but the influence is unbroken. The earnest, energetic preacher who in this way restrains his vehemence is ever en rapport with his hearers. In the case of the stage-preacher, any abatement of his exaggeration is absolute flatness, making a ruinous contrast with his mask and buskin. The earnest preacher’s effort is only to hold his horse in; the stage-preacher’s effort is to whip him up to regulation speed. The one has to control a power; the other to constitute a power. We can readily see how very different must be both their experience and their influence. The one has the pleasant duty of directing, the other the painful task of inventing; and the one supplies his auditory from his abundance, while the other can rarely avoid exhibiting the scantiness of his theatrical wardrobe.

“Another set of false pulpit manners may be grouped around the general charge of recklessness. It is either a lack of art or a purposed despising of art on the part of the minister. He enters the pulpit either on a run, or, perhaps, in a sauntering way. He tosses his hat under the seat. He turns over the leaves of the Bible as a child would look for pictures in a book. He looks all over the congregation while they are singing God’s praise. He prays in a mechanical way, and turns toward his seat before he has finished his ‘Amen.’ He does not believe in ceremony; but has he never heard of the apostolic rule of decency and order? Does he not see that the associations of the pulpit ought to be sober and solemn, not common-place and even ludicrous? Is there not a certain natural dignity that becomes the position and function of an ordained preacher before the people committed to his spiritual care? Surely, there are instinctive proprieties that we must not rudely violate, in an iconoclastic hatred of priestcraft and ritual. There is such a thing as sacredness of association, although we do not believe in any sacredness of locality, and he is really sacrilegious who would defile a holy association. There certainly should be a gravity and orderly demeanor in the person of him who delivers God’s revealed truth to a waiting congregation. Recklessness is no more proper in the case of a Christian preacher than it would have been in the case of Moses with his message to the people from Sinai, or in the case of Paul when telling the curious Athenians of the ‘Unknown God.’

“The preacher of reckless manner gives out the hymn as if he were simply directing the choir to sing, when he should be guiding the congregation into the real meaning of the lyric by his earnest and interested reading. He reads the passage of Scripture with no preparatory study of its full significance, and so with no hearty use of the sacred words. In both cases he is unwittingly teaching the congregation to be formal and mechanical in their worship. The preacher should feel that every minute he has in the pulpit is precious and privileged time, offering him opportunities to reach the hearts of many, opportunities never in the case of some to be repeated, and when the mind is generally in a peculiarly receptive attitude. He should be fully charged with this feeling, and every exercise should be all brimmed with solemn earnestness. A reckless manner in such a position betrays a lamentable lack of appreciation of the preacher’s responsibility, and shows the hireling in the place of the pastor.”

A HYMN OF GRATITUDE.

By Mrs. L. D. A. Stuttle

BY MRS. L. D. A. STUTTLE.

GREAT deeds I may not do, Nor costly presents give; But I can watch and pray, And, in my humble way, Can do what good I may, The while I live.

To some are given gold And glittering hoards of wealth; Yet I will thankful be, For God hath given me This talent, rich and free, The boon of health.

Yes, life and strength are mine; These blessings have I shared, While some more just than I On beds of suffering lie; Bright buds of promise die, While I am spared.

Lord, may my life be spent In leading souls to Heaven. Oh! keep me near thy side, Lest, in my foolish pride, The talents I should hide Which thou hast given.

Vernon, Mich.

THE WORD OF GOD.

By Eld. J. G. Matteson

BY ELD. J. G. MATTESON.

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is himself the Word. John 1 : 1. He united with the exalted Father in the great work of creation. When the Father prepared the heavens, and appointed the circuits of the innumerable mighty globes which fill the universe,—when he laid the foundations of the earth,—then the Word was there. Prov. 8 : 27, 29. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33 : 6, 9.

In this Word is life, and it is that light which shineth in darkness. This Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. The glory of the godhead was clothed with human form. Omnipotence was united with human weakness. Eternal love descended to this earth to help and save the fallen. The Son of God dwelt among us. His presence was a gracious ray of light from the blessed home in Heaven, where sorrow never can enter. It will continue to shine with friendly light before many tired pilgrims in this land of bondage, until the Lord shall come.

The Son of God dwelt among men a short time—oh, how short! He has again returned to his Father in Heaven. What have we now to guide us until he returns? We have the word of the Lord. The Holy Scriptures is that precious gift which our Saviour left in our hands when he left us. And he has purchased this gift for us by his own blood. Dear reader, do you make a good use of this gift? Do you love it? Do you prefer the word of God to all other books on earth? Do you read in it every day, and pray God to guide you in understanding it aright? Oh! do this. Let no day pass by without communing with your best friend. You can speak to the Lord in prayer. He speaks to you in his word. Obey his voice. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and follow him, then he will save you.

WILL IT STAND THE TEST?

By E. T. Bedee

BY E. T. BEDEE.

This question often arises in connection with the work of God. We, as participants in the Sabbath-school work, have a part to act in the third angel’s message. But what are our motives? Why do we seek to labor in this cause? Oh that we may examine the mainspring of action, remembering that the Lord trieth the secret intents of the heart. Let us try our motives, and see that we do not work from a selfish standpoint. It is not to glorify self, to become exalted in the eyes of men, that we should seek to benefit humanity. Rather, let us work for the souls of men; try to lead others in the narrow way, because we love them, and want to have them saved in the kingdom of Heaven.

The word of God shows that the time will come when our work will be tested. Yes; the work of to-day is for us to meet in the Judgment. The God of Heaven will not take men into his kingdom, without first testing them. We must all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ.

The responsibility of the teacher is great. He should feel that it is a solemn thing to instruct minds in the truths of these last days. Oh that we may love the work, and feel that burden for its prosperity that we should. It is not simply to succeed in establishing Sabbath-schools that we should labor so earnestly, but because this is a means of gathering precious souls into the fold of Christ. As we engage in the work, let us remember that the record is either for or against us. May we ask ourselves the question, “Am I doing this so that I shall stand acquitted in the day of Judgment?”

May God help the officers, teachers, and pupils of our schools to do their work so faithfully that when they pass the final examination, the blessed Saviour will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

NEW YORK S. S. ASSOCIATION.

By M. H. Brown; Mrs. N. J. Walsworth

The second annual session of the New York Sabbath-school Association was held in connection with the annual meeting of the tract society, at Adams Center, N. Y., Dec. 21-28, 1879.

The first meeting was held Dec. 21. After the opening exercises, the minutes of the last annual meeting were read and approved. Eighteen schools were represented by delegates. Interesting remarks were made by Elds. Haskell, Whitney, and others, upon the object and importance of the Sabbath-school work.

A second meeting of the association was held Dec. 28, at 4:30 P. M. At this meeting, resolutions were passed,—

Expressing confidence in the Sabbath-school work as the work of the Lord, and pledging earnest efforts in carrying out the plans recommended by the General S. S. Association.
Urging Sabbath-schools to provide themselves with helps to the study of the Bible, such as maps, Bible Dictionaries, etc.
Requesting all Sabbath-schools to order their supplies from the T. and M. society, through the Librarian.
To retain nine-tenths of their donations to pay for the supplies thus ordered.
That each school forward a tithe of its donations at the close of each quarter to the Secretary of the State Sabbath-school Association, in connection with their quarterly report, to meet the necessary expenses of said Association.
Indorsing the penny-donation plan.
Urging uniformity of lessons among all our schools, as far as practicable.
Urging each school to maintain its organization through the winter, and members of the school not in attendance to hold regular recitations at home.
Recommending the organization of family Sabbath-schools to report quarterly to the State Secretary.
Urging all to put forth earnest efforts in increasing the circulation of the weekly Instructor, and calling the attention of parents to the prizes offered to children for obtaining subscribers to the same.

The Constitution of the Association was amended so as to make a school of ten members entitled to one delegate.

The number of the Executive Committee was increased from three to five.

The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Eld. M. H. Brown; Secretary, Mrs. N. J. Walsworth; Executive Committee, M. H. Brown, G. D. Ballou, C. C. Lewis, J. E. Robinson, and T. A. Hall.

Meeting adjourned.

M. H. BROWN, Pres.

Mrs. N. J. Walsworth, Sec.

God With Us in Redemption

—In creation and providence, God is above us, but in redemption he is God with us.

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