Earlier text: THE IMPEACHMENT OF TOBACCOMrs. Whitney says, in one of her books, that “the things that are crowded out of a life are the test of that life,” and we believe that the saying is true in its widest sense. Examine our lives closely, and we shall find that we constantly delude ourselves with the idea that we could accomplish certain things if we had time, when in truth we have no real desire for those things. One person will say that reading is out of the question, another will bewail the impossibility of maintaining social relations, a third will avow that charitable or benevolent enterprises would delight her if she might only engage in them; and all the time the good people are comforting themselves with a fallacy. The things for which they do find time are the things they prefer. The things which are crowded out are the things they would not choose, if life lay unemployed before them. Scores of wives and mothers are busied constantly with their family cares, but not one in every score loves music enough to steal time for practice. Hundreds of young men are forced by stress of circumstances to work hard for daily subsistence, but only one in a thousand, perhaps, conquers the difficulties of his position, and makes for himself a name. This one might not have found his way easier or its upward steps less toilsome, but he wanted to succeed, and so wanting, he let nothing needful be crowded out. And what is true of things mental or moral, is true of things spiritual. If we neglect the duties that bring peace to our souls,—prayer and reading God's holy word,—we need not excuse ourselves by saying or thinking that we have “no little time.” We must find time. Hours and opportunities must yield their fruit to us; conscience must not be soothed by evasions too flimsy to bear the test of serious thought.—Christian Intelligencer. The Acquisition of Knowledge.
By Eliza H. Morton
Development is the great object for which man was created. Whatever strengthens the mind or educates the heart, ennobles, refines, exalts, and elevates the entire being. Pleasurable emotions always accompany true culture. All manly and womanly joy has its origin in earnest labor. Youth looks forward with eager eyes and high ambitions, and longs for an honored place in society; but the desire brings not the position. Yonder are “golden mountains” with “crowns of golden clouds,” but those summits cannot be reached at a bound. A steady purpose, an unflinching will, and a bold heart, are needed in the march of life. Beauty, music, balm, and flowers may at times brighten the way; but ever and anon dark shadows, gloomy clouds, and dangerous pitfalls will terrify the soul. High possibilities lie before us all, and unwise are they that flinch, turn backward, and lose the culture which otherwise might be secured. What if stern discipline be required, the result will repay the effort. A well-drilled mind, a strong, healthy body, and a sweet, loving disposition, make life a great and wonderful thing. The idea of separate individuality is a pleasing thought. Robertson says: “There is a sacredness in individuality of character; each one born into this world is a fresh, new soul, intended by its Maker to develop itself in a new, fresh way. We are what we are; we cannot be truly other than ourselves. We reach perfection not by copying, much less by aiming at originality; but by consistently and steadily working out the life which is common to all of us, according to the character which God has given us.” Mind and heart may be dwarfed until life becomes a miserable failure, or they may be expanded to the true glory of a noble existence. It is useless to be an idle “dreamer among shadows.” We may rise above the wearisome level of dull mediocrity. Positive worth and noble action will bring a reward richer than the fabled treasures of the Orient. Let us, then, aim high, and put forth that energy of mind that will at length lead us to all goodness, beauty, knowledge, and truth. A TRUE LADY.
By Gail Hamilton
WILDNESS, is a thing which girls cannot afford. Delicacy is a thing which cannot be lost or found. No art can restore to the grape its bloom. Familiarity, without confidence, without regard, is destructive to all that makes woman exalting and ennobling. The world is wide, these things are small;
They may be nothing, but they are all. Nothing? It is the first duty of a woman to be a lady. Good breeding is good sense. Bad manners in a woman is immorality. Awkwardness may be ineradicable. Bashfulness is constitutional. Ignorance of etiquette is the result of circumstances. All can be condoned, and not banish men or women from the amenities of their kind. But self-possessed, unshrinking and aggressive coarseness of demeanor may be reckoned as a State-prison offense, and certainly merits that mild sort of restraint called imprisonment for life. It is a shame for women to be lectured on their manners. It is a bitter shame that they need it. Women are the umpires of society. It is they to whom all mooted points should be referred. To be a lady is more than to be a prince. A lady is always in her right inalienably worthy of respect. To a lady, prince or peasant alike bow. Do not be restrained. Do not have impulses that need restraint. Do not wish to dance with the prince unsought; feel differently. Be sure you confer honor. Carry yourself so loftily that men will look up to you for reward, not at you in rebuke. The natural sentiment of man toward woman is reverence. He loses a large means of grace when he is obliged to account her a being to be trained in propriety. A man's ideal is not wounded when a woman fails in worldly wisdom; but if in grace, in tact, in sentiment, in delicacy, in kindness, she be found wanting, he receives an inward hurt.—Gail Hamilton. A CONTEMPORARY says that the art of all others which most needs cultivation is the art of good speaking. We differ. The art of all others which most needs cultivation is the art of silence. There is nothing like the man—or woman—that can keep the mouth shut. Not that people should always keep the tongue still (it is made for use), but there are times when silence is the best and most effective reply. When a boor speaks roughly or uncivilly to you, when you are asked an impertinent question, when a sneer is conveyed under cover of an inquiry for information, or when, having appealed to you on a question of taste, your opinion is met with ridicule,—the best answer in these or like exigencies is a masterful silence. Silence bespeaks reserve power, conscious strength, dignity, self-command; and nothing is at times so effective as the silence which springs from contempt. We could wish some artist would make a statue of Silence, when Milton tells us she “was pleased,” and we should like to see copies in plaster placed in every home in the land. Ulysses was the most eloquent and most silent of men, and when he made his submission to Ajax in the nether world, he was received with such a silence as, the poet tells us, had more greatness in it than anything he could have uttered. The man or woman who can endure reproach silently, or can keep silent when occasion calls for it, possesses something of that quality we call greatness. So the Master was silent before inquisitive Pilate: “He opened not his mouth;” and amid scoffing, and jeers, and taunts, he kept silence, only broken on the cross to bestow benediction and blessing. There is a time to be silent, as well as to talk, and he does well who keeps closed lips before the babbling of the empty soul. Cultivate the habit of silence, and do not defer it till the time comes when the lips shall nevermore speak, and the busy tongue shall be stilled forever.—The Christian at Work. TEACHING is developing, exercising, stimulating, inciting and exciting, fostering,—blowing a spark until it develops a flame. Teaching develops strength of brain, as exercise develops muscle; teaching is kind, gentle, not puffed up with self-importance, but full of that charity that suffereth long. Nay, teaching is an exemplification of that charity so highly commended as greater than all and above all. The grandest vocation of the human race is that of teaching, and the grandest man on earth is he who comes nearest to this ideal type of a perfect manhood, as exemplified in a true teacher.—The Teacher. THESE four simple but essential rules for effective speaking were advanced by Prof. Northrop: 1. The speaker must fix in his mind some definite end as the object of each discourse; 2. He must strongly desire the accomplishment of that end; 3. He must assure his mind that the line of treatment is related and adapted to the securement of that object; 4. He must himself profoundly feel upon the subject presented. Secularization in Religious Colleges Harms Students
—In many colleges which are called religious, the process of secularization, though not yet complete, has gone too far for either the present or the future interests of the students.—Watchman. “I thought I knew it!” she said;
“I thought I had learned it quite!”
But the gentle teacher shook her head,
With a grave, yet loving light
In the eyes that fell on the upturned face,
As she gave the book
With the mark still set in the self-same place. “I thought I knew it!” she said,
And a heavy tear fell down,
As she turned away with bending head;
Yet not for reproof or frown,
And not for the lesson to learn again,
Or the play-hour lost;
It was something else that gave the pain. She could not have put it in words,
But the teacher understood,
As God understands the chirp of the birds
In the depths of an autumn wood;
And a quiet touch on the reddening cheek
Was quite enough;
No need to question, no need to speak. Then the gentle voice was heard,
“Now, I will try you again,”
And the lesson was mastered, every word.
Was it not worth the pain?
Was it not kinder the task to turn
Than to let it pass
As a lost, lost leaf that she did not learn? Is it not often so,
That we only learn in part,
And the Master's testing time may show
That it was not quite “by heart”?
Then he gives, in his wise and patient grace,
The lesson again,
With the mark still set in the self-same place. Only stay by his side
Till the page is really known;
It may be we failed because we tried
To learn it all alone;
And now that he would not let us lose
One lesson of love
(For he knows the loss), can we refuse? Then let our hearts be still,
Though our task be turned to-day.
Oh! let him teach us what he will,
In his most gracious way,
Till, sitting only at Jesus’ feet,
As we learn each line,
The hardest is found all clear and sweet. THE SANITARIUM.
By James White
THE changes that have taken place in this institution during the past six years are highly gratifying. We have repeated it a hundred times, that it is a discredit to S. D. Adventists to do a second-class job at anything. Our publishing house, from a very small and humble beginning, has grown to great completeness and efficiency. Our College has arisen from a private school to an institution of learning of great importance to our people everywhere. The subject of Christian temperance at an early date worked its way into the minds and hearts of our people, until we became a denomination of health reformers. The need of an institution was felt, where the sick among us could be treated without being brought under the irreligious influences of existing health institutions, and where our feeble and worn ministers could find rest and relief from their arduous toils. The greatest difficulty under which we have labored, has been to secure men and women of devotion to the work, and of sufficient breadth of character to act as physicians. Those who had charge of the work at the early and unfortunate period of our Health Institute, did better than could really be expected of them, judging by their failures since they have been superseded by those of efficiency and influence. Under their management, the institution suffered in its reputation, consequently it suffered financially. We soon became satisfied that without thoroughly educated physicians, and men of superior financial ability, to stand at the head of our health institution, it could not arise to a position to meet the mind of God. But in our efforts to bring about these changes, we had to work against the narrow prejudices of those who held positions, and the discouragements of the stockholders and friends of the institution. With but little sympathy and co-operation from others, we have labored to bring about changes which are very gratifying. J. H. Kellogg, M. D., who now stands at the head of an able, refined and devoted faculty, has proved himself as true as steel, worthy of the confidence and respect of the medical and scientific men of our country, with whom he holds high rank. He has well earned the unwavering confidence and love of all our people. The future of the Sanitarium is most hopeful. God has blessed the imperfect work of our health institution in the past to the physical and spiritual good of hundreds, and its mission and important work have only begun. If there were good reasons why brethren and sisters should take stock in it in the past, the reasons why all our people should now share in the work are doubly good. The debt should be lifted by our people. When this shall be accomplished, our feeble and weary ministers can share its benefits free of charge. God has given us, as a people, the great subject of health reform, not that we should treat it in a manner to disgust the people, but that it may be a sort of John the Baptist to prepare the way for the greater light of the last message. Among the inferior benefits of change from the common habits of life to those conducive to health and happiness, is money saved. The health journal makes its monthly visits to five thousand families. And we safely conclude that four thousand of these, at least, are true reformers. These four thousand families have left the use of tobacco, tea, and coffee, the annual expense of which, in cash paid out, would be from ten to fifty dollars a family. But we will put the average cost at twenty-five dollars to each family. The money saved, then, by four thousand families of reformers, in abstaining from tobacco, tea, and coffee, alone, would be the sum of $100,000 a year. But this is not all the money saved by those who carry out the principles of health reform. The amount annually paid out to the doctors by those who adhere to old habits, is nearly as large as that paid out for tobacco, tea, and coffee. Then add to this the sum paid out for patent medicines, and the total would not be less than twenty-five dollars to a family. This, too, is saved by true health reformers, amounting, in four thousand families, to not less than a second $100,000 annually. And, again, this is not all that is saved by the reform. The vegetarian diet, consisting of the grains, vegetables, and fruits, which are indeed the fat of the land, is far less expensive than the food usually eaten, of flesh, butter, sweet-cake, and pies, lard, saleratus, pepper, vinegar, pickles, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. When we first discarded these, and purchased for our family only such articles as flour, meal, vegetables, and fruits, we were surprised to see how little it cost to live. The change was so great that we really felt embarrassed over the fact that our grocery bills were almost next to nothing. In our own family, ranging from ten to fifteen persons, we have saved annually, by adopting the reform diet, not less than one hundred dollars. But we will put the average saving in the four thousand families of health reformers, in consequence of changing to a more healthful diet, at twenty-five dollars to each family, making the third sum of $100,000. The total amount saved, in money alone, by those who have fully adopted the reform among our people, is the very handsome sum of $300,000 a year. But suppose the annual amount saved by discarding hurtful indulgences, and adopting healthful habits of living, is only one-half this sum. What a glorious offering to the Lord $150,000 would be to present before him each year for the benefit of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, which has been established by his hand. But the money saved by the health reform is not worthy to be compared with the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual benefits derived from correct habits of life. Health is man's capital, the value of which cannot be computed in dollars and cents. And self-denial of hurtful indulgences strengthens and elevates the moral powers, while the mental and spiritual become clearer, with an improved physical condition. The real health reformer, who is true to the principles he adopts, enjoys a comparative freedom from pain, a clearness of thought, a calmness of nerve and temper, a release from dark forebodings and the horrors of a diseased conscience, which freedom constitutes, in a very great degree, the pleasure of existence. His senses are clear and keen, and he enjoys the glories of nature wherever his eye meets them, and the delights of a restored taste in a proper use of healthful food. Such a one finds himself, as it were, in a second Eden, almost in the enjoyment of the blessings of the first, when “out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.” True, we are not really in Paradise restored to its Eden glory; but having it in full prospect, soon to be given to the pure, we really do not see the need of passing an imaginary and self-made purgatory in reaching the heavenly plains. Thousands of health reformers know, by happy experience, the things of which we speak. To those who do not, we would say, Change from your gross habits of life, wash up, and cheer up. God lives and reigns, and wills that you be well and happy, and make the best of the ills of this mortal life; and, if true to God and yourselves, he will, ere long, give you life eternal. Health reform, with the money saved, and all its inestimable blessings, is a godsend. We appeal especially to our friends who rejoice in the reform: What shall we render to the Lord for these benefits? Shall we covetously invest the money saved, in lands, houses, horses, carriages, furniture, fine clothing, and the like? Or, shall we consecrate it to the cause of health reform, as a thank-offering to God for the good we have received? Those who love self supremely will do the former. Those who love God and humanity will sacredly consecrate to the Battle Creek Sanitarium the money saved to them by adopting the health reform. J. W. HAVE SNAKES IMMORTAL SOULS?
WE herewith present from the Forest and Stream a remarkable account, by an eye-witness, of the fishing exploits of the water moccasin, which implies not only a knowledge on the part of the snake of the operations of nature, time, and locality, but a regular process of philosophical reasoning based thereon. We do not argue from this that snakes have immortal souls, but only present it to our friends who hold the heretofore popular view of the immortality of the soul, as a problem for them to solve according to the premises which they maintain. If such evident operations of mind prove an immortal soul for man, what do they prove for the snake? The narrative says:— For a number of years past it has been my custom,361 because unable to find any better way to dispose of my summer leisure, to do a good deal of fishing in the Potomac River, sometimes in the immediate front of the city, sometimes at the Little and Big Falls above, and sometimes at the Four Mile Run below. I have generally used live bait, there being minnows in any quantity along the edges of the river. Three summers ago I went to catch minnows at the mouth of a small run called Gravelly Creek, situated on the west bank of the river, just at the foot of the Arlington estate. A short distance north of the run is the once quite celebrated Arlington Springs, which is still a place of resort for large numbers of Sunday visitors from the city. To reach the springs, except by boat, it is necessary to cross Gravelly Creek near its mouth, or go quite a long distance around the creek. To enable parties to cross the creek at the mouth, a passage-way has been made by a kind of loose dam of stones. At low water the creek here is some forty feet wide, but at full tide it is fully sixty feet, and four or five feet deep. The loose stones form quite an impediment to the tide, so that, when the tide is rising, the water on the river side of the dam is several inches higher than the water on the other side, and flows through and over the loose stones quite rapidly, and the reverse is the case when the tide is falling. Vast numbers of minnows are to be found at all times in the marsh along the river banks, and as the tide rises they seek the runs to be found here and there to avoid the white and yellow perch, which prey upon them, and it is while they are making up the creek that I catch the quantity I want. One day, while catching minnows as usual, I noticed a number of snakes, the common water moccasin, approaching the dam or footway of stones. The water yet lacked several inches of reaching the top of the stoneway, although it was rushing in quite rapidly and carrying with it many bull-minnows and small white perch that were unable to resist it. Watching the snakes, I saw one after another reach the dam and take their station upon it, submerging themselves all but their heads, which were raised about an inch above the water and pointed in the direction of the incoming tide. In this position I counted seventeen snakes, arranged at uneven intervals, in a space of less than sixty feet. I came to the conclusion at once that they were fishing, and watched them with a good deal of interest. Pretty soon I saw one head strike forward, going under the water, reappearing in a moment with a very large bull-minnow in its mouth. The snake immediately loosened its hold upon the rocks and swam for the shore, reaching which it disappeared in the bushes; and this was repeated at intervals by each of the seventeen snakes. When they returned from the bushes, having made short work of their “catch,” each snake sought his own particular location on the rocks, there being no clashing of interests there. Now, how is this for reason or instinct? How do these snakes know where to locate themselves, and the particular stage of the tide at which to start on their fishing excursion? How do they know that a number of minnows will be swept over the miniature falls made by the rocks? These are questions that go beyond my comprehension, and I leave them for others to answer. But the facts remain, and any one who will take the trouble may verify them at any time during the summer by a visit to Gravelly Creek. A VERY apt illustration of the Bible idea of election seems to be furnished us in the experience of Gideon and his army. In Judges 7:4 we read: “And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there; and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.” It would be very easy to infer from this that the Lord was about to take the decision of individual cases into his own hand, and designate the persons by name who were to go with Gideon, and who were not. But when the time for the decision came, it was accomplished in this way, as the next verse records: “So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself, likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.” These men that lapped were to go with Gideon; so the words in the preceding verse, “Of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee,” did not refer to any particular individuals, but only to a class who should comply with certain conditions. It was not, Here Asa, and Joel, and Asaph, and Ethan, I have decreed and decided that you shall go with Gideon, but simply whosoever, whether Asa, or Joel, or Ben, or Jeiel, or Eliab, lappeth water like a dog. Just so of the final salvation. Of whom God has said that he shall be saved, he shall be saved. But of whom has he said this? Not (omitting the exceptions) of any individuals, but of a certain class; that is, whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not say to James, John, Thomas, and Ezra, I decree and elect that you shall be saved; but he does say to all men, without distinction, I decree and elect that if you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved; just as the Lord said to Gideon, “Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue like a dog.” We know of no expression in all the Bible which gives to the doctrine of election a more individual or personal application than Judges 7:4 gives to the decision to be rendered in the case of Gideon’s men. Yet in this case the decision was not rendered concerning individuals as such, but concerning a class who would perform a certain act. So in the other case, no man is predestined or elected to be saved as an individual, but it is the immutable decree of God from the beginning of the plan of salvation, that a certain class, namely, whosoever will believe in the Lord Jesus, shall be saved. This, and this only, is the election which the Scriptures teach, as we understand them. PAUL'S ALLEGORY.
By R. F. C.
A correspondent desires an explanation of the bond-woman and the free of Gal. 4:21-31. The apostle uses facts of the history of Abraham and his family in an allegorical manner; that is, he applies them to another subject, to which those facts bear a resemblance. He says, “Which things are an allegory,” “are allegorized,” or “are used as an allegory,” as given by different translators. The apostle had fear concerning some of the brethren in Galatia, because they desired to be under the law. It is evident that this has no reference to their desire to keep the commandments of the moral code. No apostle or prophet, nor any other good man, ever had any fear of evil consequences resulting from having no God but Jehovah, making and bowing down to no images, refraining from taking the name of God in vain, honoring one’s parents, refraining from murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and covetousness. And as for the Sabbath day, which I have omitted in this enumeration, it is not named nor alluded to in the whole book of Galatians. But circumcision is repeatedly mentioned and its further use condemned, and the conclusion directly drawn from the subject allegorically illustrated is, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.” Chap. 5:1-3. Circumcision was the badge of the Hebrew people and of the system of worship which God delivered to them. Therefore those who were circumcised were held as a consequence to perform all the rites of the ceremonial law—all things that were “written in the book of the law.” See Gal. 3:10. The book of the law was written by Moses. The “law of Moses” was something besides the ten commandments which God wrote in tables of stone, namely, all that system of the service of the sanctuary which typified the offering of Christ and his service in the priesthood in the sanctuary in Heaven. Indeed, the writings of Moses in general were designated as “the law.” This is evident from the apostle’s introduction of the subject, “Tell me,” says he, “ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written [in the law], that Abraham had two sons.” Where is this written? Not in the tables of stone, but in the historical part of the book of Genesis. The two women, Hagar and Sarah, allegorized, represent the two covenants. The “first covenant” was made at Mount Sinai, where God spoke his law from Heaven, and also instructed Moses concerning the sanctuary and all the ritual of its service. Says Paul, “The first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.” Heb. 9:1. It was by being circumcised and practicing the rites of the ceremonial law that the Jews, who did not believe in Christ as the “mediator of a better covenant,” hoped to be “justified by the law of Moses,” that is, obtain remission of sins by obeying those rites. This service could not justify the sinner—could not take away sin. See Heb. 9:9, 10. Hence those who sought justification by the law were fallen from grace. But by Christ “all that believe are justified from all things [all their past sins], from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Acts 13:39. This justification signifies the forgiveness of sins. The law of ten commandments was not given as a means of procuring pardon; and no sane man ever obeyed any one of its precepts with the hope that future obedience would insure pardon for past transgressions. “The word Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.”—American Bible Union. “The name Hagar denotes Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she answers to the present Jerusalem.”—Campbell. In the application of the figure Mount Sinai, where the system of the sanctuary service was ordained, represents Jerusalem, the central place of that form of worship; and her children are all those who still adhere to circumcision and expect justification, pardon, salvation from sin, by the means of those rites, instead of accepting of the new covenant by faith in Christ its sacrifice and mediator, and thus becoming children of the heavenly Jerusalem, the free woman, the mother of all that believe in Christ. The Son having made them free, they are “free indeed.” And therefore Paul exhorts them to stand fast in that liberty, and not be entangled again in the yoke of bondage, a yoke which, in the language of another apostle, “neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.” Acts 15:10. This language was called forth by the fact that some of the Pharisees who believed had said of the believing Gentiles, “That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” Some from Judea had taught the brethren, “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” This shows how the apostles harmonize on this subject. Acts 15:1, 10. Trusting for remission of past sins through faith in Jesus Christ, while yielding obedience to the moral law, the transgression of which made an offering for sin necessary, is one thing; and being circumcised and trusting for remission in those typical rites which only pointed the faith of the people forward to Christ, and were taken out of the way, being nailed to the cross, is quite another. These two positions cannot harmonize. To hold to the old covenant with its ordinances and sacrifices is to reject the new. The blood of those sacrifices could not take away sin; the blood of Christ can. Hence the “better promises” of the new covenant are, 1. The writing of the moral law in the heart; 2. The taking away of sins, the transgressions of that law, so that they shall be remembered no more; and, 3. The giving of an “eternal inheritance” to all who are truly its subjects. Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:6-12; 9:15; and 10:1-4, 14-18. These promises compared with those of the covenant at Sinai, namely, making the Hebrew people a peculiar treasure above all people, giving them an inheritance in one of the best portions of the earth, and making them a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, are indeed better promises. Casting out the bond-woman and her son, refers to the rejection of Jerusalem and her children, who cling to the old covenant with its ritual, and reject or ignore the new. They are in the bondage of their sins; for sins can only be remitted through Jesus, the mediator of the better covenant. THE KANSAS CAMP-MEETING.
By George I. Butler
This meeting was held at a small country station on the Atchison and Santa Fe Railroad, about fourteen miles from Topeka. The grounds were more pleasant than those of any previous camp-meeting that I have attended in this State. The weather was mostly very favorable. About two hundred of our people were in attendance, just about half as many as at the Emporia camp-meeting last summer. Services commenced promptly Wednesday night. Through the efficiency of the President, the business of the State Conference, and of our various societies was dispatched quite rapidly, so that it was not in the way of the closing meetings. Friday afternoon, Eld. Corliss came from Colorado, and took hold with earnestness to help make the meeting profitable. His labors were acceptable to those in attendance. On the Sabbath our meetings were quite interesting and profitable. A solemn feeling pervaded the grounds. About forty came forward for prayers in the afternoon. Good confessions were made, and we trust much good was done. Our social meeting, about the close of the Sabbath, was a very precious occasion, and there was evidence that the good Spirit of the Lord was present in power. On Sunday we had a tent full of interested listeners, who paid the best of attention. Everything seemed favorable for a most profitable meeting Monday; but when morning came, quite a number left for home, and this affected the interest very unfavorably. However, we did the best we could; and about as many came forward for prayers as on the Sabbath. Six were baptized. Our meeting closed Tuesday morning, with the ordination of Bro. W. E. Dawson to the work of the ministry. It was one of the most precious seasons of the kind I ever enjoyed. The Lord came very near, and witnessed by his Spirit to the act which was being performed. It was good to be there. The people left for home in good spirits. This Conference is making a steady growth. It numbers seven or eight hundred in its membership, and is in a better condition financially than ever before. It is able to pay its laborers better than it has previously done, and has money left in its treasury after paying all claims and the tithe to the General Conference. Kansas is a good field for labor, and persons are more easily brought into the truth here than in many of the older Conferences. Many Sabbath-keepers have moved to the State, and there is no good reason why it should not become a strong Conference. The brethren seem to be of good courage. The wants of the College and Sanitarium were presented, and pledges were made to the amount of several hundred dollars, and partly paid. This meeting left a good impression upon the minds of the brethren concerning the importance of our institutions, and the relation our people should sustain to them. Many who stayed at home suffered a great loss in not being present at this good meeting. Salisbury, Mo., May 27, 1880.