Earlier text: THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY—There is a prospect of war between France and Tunis. —The Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers has distributed during the last 26 years over $1,000,000. —At Jonesborough, Ark., Professor Henry Dierk, in attempting a balloon-ascension recently, fell a distance of 1000 feet. —In New York City there are 1,739 rum holes less than there were a year ago. This speaks well for the excise laws of that city. —The four western counties of Massachusetts suffered damage to the extent of over $850,000 by the terrible storm in the second week of December. —The Duke of Edinburgh has been nominated by the Czar to the princedom of Bulgaria. The object is the peaceful solution of the Eastern Question. —The recent storms have seriously affected France. The Seine is rising and several towns are partially flooded. The Loire is also rising, and great alarm is felt along its banks. —Jan. 8 and 9 mail matter delayed by the recent storm arrived at the Chicago post-office in a perfect rush,—7 carloads Wednesday and 2 on Thursday. The bulk weighed not less than 80 tons. —The South-western Advocate says that “500 Catholic ecclesiastical teachers and 2000 sisters of charity are at work among the colored people of the South, visiting from cabin to cabin.” —A Hartford librarian asserts that as a rule our boys and girls read too much. He says that in 6 months one boy drew 102 story-books from the library, and a girl 111 novels. During the quarter ending Dec. 1, 71 per cent of the books drawn by Young America were fiction. —In Brazil the ravages of small-pox are terrible. It is said that in Ceara it is impossible to make coffins to supply the demand, and the people dig ditches and tumble into them the unshrouded corpses, 8 or 10 at a time. As many as 500 or 600 die daily in the city of Ceara alone. —R. W. McCall, who has done so much in establishing evangelical missions for the workingmen of Paris, has commenced similar efforts in Lyons. His opening meeting, on Nov. 17, was crowded. Lyons, with its 350,000 inhabitants, is not only the headquarters of ultra-Romanism, but is as well a hotbed of skepticism and atheism. —The plague has appeared among the Cossacks of Astrakhan, Russia. During three days from Jan. 1-3, 143 persons died out of 195 attacked by it. The plague has now increased to a panic in Astrakhan and Saratow. The people die like flies and lie unburied in the street. General anxiety prevails throughout Russia. —The regular annual sale of pews took place in Beecher’s church, Jan. 7. H. B. Claflin, as usual, bid in the first choice pew for $620. The total premiums amounted to $27,978, which, added to the fixed rentals of $12,743, makes the total of the sales $40,721, an excess of $3,817 over the sales of last year. —The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad is negotiating with the Chief of the Signal Service at Washington for a supply of the midnight weather indications, or predictions. These will be reproduced in manifold, and sent along the line to the various stations, though in advance of this the news will be telegraphed. —The war between England and Afghanistan is probably over. England has the situation completely in her hands. General Roberts has formally announced to the Afghans that the authority of the Ameer has forever passed away, and that they are henceforth to be subjects of the Empress of India. The Ameer has fled. —Louisville, Ky., is to have a library. The city concluded to raise the necessary funds by lottery. The enterprise was widely advertised and extensively patronized, and resulted in the receipt of $6,250,000,—no mean sum. But half of this money is to be distributed in prizes, $424,396 is to be appropriated to the library, and the question to be settled is, Who has the remainder? —Professor Nordenskjold, an adventurous Swede, has succeeded in making a voyage from Hammerfest, near the North Cape of Europe, through the Kara Sea around the North Cape of Asia to the Lena River, a feat never accomplished before, although daring explorers have attempted it from the early days of extended voyages. This establishes the fact of a northern passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. —A religious drama—nay, more, a strictly Biblical one—has been played in Music Hall, Boston. “The title of the play is ‘Saul,’ and the subject is that portion of the Hebrew king’s life following his first interview with David.” We agree with the Christian Union’s Boston correspondent that “it is certainly a sign of the times that such a play should be presented at all;” but we are not hopeful of “the reformation of the stage from within.” —The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that polygamy is a crime against the laws of the United States; and that the law prohibiting bigamy, or polygamy, is Constitutional. Mr. Cannon, Mormon delegate from Utah, thinks his people will accept this decision as final; but he hopes that those who had contracted polygamous marriages before this decision was given will be allowed to continue these relations undisturbed, as to break up these marriages would destroy homes and leave women and children helpless and without protection. —The interior of Greenland is an unknown territory. Three Danish scientific gentlemen who were exploring the coast, undertook, the past summer, to penetrate the mystery, and to ascend a mountain 45 miles from the coast. They started July 14 on their toilsome journey of twenty-three days over the ice, encountering fogs and snowstorms on the way. The weather cleared July 31, when they ascended the mountain, which was 5,000 feet high. As far as the eye could reach, only ice-sheets and glaciers could be seen, and not the smallest speck of land free of ice. —During the first week in January, a heavy fall of snow obstructed trains in some of the Middle and Western States. Business on all trains centering at Buffalo was completely suspended. The weather was intensely cold, in some places the coldest known for 14 years. Some were frozen. There was almost contemporaneously a similar snow-fall in Europe. In Scotland the trains were generally stopped; in some places the drifts are reported to have been 12 ft. deep. In Switzerland and parts of France and Germany the storm was almost equally severe; the heaviest snow-fall for 30 years. —Herzegovina and Bosnia having been given over politically to Austria are about to be handed over religiously to the Vatican. The inhabitants are of course generally of the Greek Church; but all Greeks are pagans to the Vatican, which is accordingly arranging a Catholic hierarchy for the religious edification of those countries. Curiously, its interests make it at the same time in Italy an advocate of universal suffrage. The recent cabinet crisis in Italy depended on the question whether the suffrage should be given to every citizen who can read and write. So far as we can judge, the present cabinet is a temporary one, without policy on this issue, therefore certain to be without permanent existence. —A French engineer has made a report on the project of a railroad across the Desert of Sahara. The projected line would run from Algiers to Timbuctoo, a distance of some 1,300 miles, and would rest mainly on layers of sand, and toward the end on primitive volcanic rock, granite, etc. No mountainous obstructions would have to be encountered, and the average heat does not exceed 75° Fahrenheit. The proposed tunnel between Spain and Africa is still before the public. This tunnel, according to the plan at present contemplated, is to extend from within a short distance of Algeciras, on the Spanish side, to between Tangier and Ceuta, on the African side. The length of the submarine tunnel will be nine miles, with an inclination of one foot per hundred. The greatest depth of the sea is 3,000 feet; and as it is intended to have a thickness of some 300 feet of rock left between the roof of the tunnel and the sea bottom, the greatest depth of the tunnel will thus be 3,300 feet below the level of the sea.—Christian Union. PREJUDICE
By Joseph Clarke
This term is usually used to express a settled dislike to certain persons, objects, or opinions, which, from impressions that have influenced us and given a previous bias to our minds, we hold as unworthy of our support and confidence. Prejudice, then, is a mirror in which we see reflected early education, and all that is calculated to influence the mind against that which is good, or against those who are worthy. A well-balanced and properly educated mind will not fall in with prejudice, however common, wide-spread, and popular it may become; but will wait for authentic and reliable evidence before coming to a definite conclusion on any subject which may present itself to the mind. There is a vast field spread out before the candid inquirer after truth; and after a lifetime of study, careful research, and deep thought, many subjects will come before the mind, concerning which an impartial conclusion cannot be reached without waiting for additional evidence. There is no moral law or principle which can urge any intelligent person to form a conclusion in the absence of evidence. This is the virtue and privilege of superior and intelligent minds, to wait for evidence before making decisions; while weak and ignorant minds often rush to a decision without regard to evidence or right reason. When an opinion is formed from proper evidence, in accordance with sound reason, we do not say that this is the result of prejudice; but it is the result of investigation, thought, and enlightened judgment. Persons who are intelligent, industrious, studious, and candid in their investigations and deliberate in their conclusions, are not liable to mistakes, misfortunes, and losses in the affairs of this life or those of the next; but their path is approved of God, who orders the steps of the righteous. It is true that evils may befall good men. Even the man Job, who was a perfect and upright man, suffered misfortunes, yet his path soon led into bright and calm light. His misfortunes were not the result of his sins; but were to prove that man may not rashly judge his fellow when the chastening hand of God is upon him, and to prove to Satan that good men are not, like the fallen angels, subject to passion when troubles arise. Prejudice has its strongest hold on the minds of the ignorant and wayward, who decide without the labor of patient study, or the calm process of impartial judgment. Such people often unite great authority of manner and a wide range of opinion; and you cannot offend them more than to doubt their decisions, upset their theories, or correct their modes of reasoning. They are teachers, and as such they are determined to be regarded. But prejudice exists in various forms and degrees in many minds where we would not expect to find it. Sometimes it happens that those who are well-informed and candid on subjects in general are bigoted on religious matters. Even wise men, who would give a just decision in the courts, and in all worldly affairs would not think of deciding until they could get at the facts in the case, seem to lose all patience and candor when religious matters are discussed, and are prepared to decide without the least regard to evidence such as they would consider necessary in cases of a scientific, commercial, or legal nature. It was prejudice which caused the opposition to Galileo, when he asserted that the earth revolves around the sun. It was prejudice which caused Copernicus to be despised and ridiculed for asserting the true position of the sun amid the lesser lights. Modern teachers admit the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo; but the same obtuseness of the human mind may yet sway the modern schools, and the gravest errors may be indorsed and upheld by those who in most respects are candid and well-informed. In this connection we would ask the reader if there is not a sin, a great sin against God, which is covered up by the popular theology of the day, and a theory advanced to cover up this sin far more absurd than the theories advanced by the enemies of Copernicus and Galileo. The “Half-Way Covenant,” or Unconverted Church Members.
The curse of the church in all ages has been unconverted members. The “mixed” multitude among the Israelites soon began to murmur and then to rebel. These half-hearted and worldly members have been a hindrance and a weight to the church’s power and progress. In our anxiety for numbers we have not been sufficiently guarded as to quality, and the church is full of unregenerated persons, who have more affinity for worldliness than for Christ, and whose religious duties are a bondage. Every revival of religion reveals this fact. When the church is alive and holy, then souls are saved. And the great work of reform must always begin in the church. Such members are hard to manage. They demand Sunday entertainments, lose a relish for Bible truths, absent themselves from the house of God, oppose spiritual Christianity, and, like dead branches on a tree, hinder the vitality and growth of the whole body. Joseph Cook, in one of his Monday lectures, ascribed the origin and wide prevalence of loose religious opinions in New England to this fact of the admission of unconverted persons to membership in the churches. He gives the following description of the trials of Jonathan Edwards in his endeavor to establish the rule that evidence of conversion should be an indispensable pre-requisite to church membership:— “I know where, in Massachusetts, I can put my hand on little, irregular scraps of brown paper, stitched together as notebooks, and closely covered all over with Jonathan Edwards’ handwriting. Why did he use such coarse material in his studies? Why was he within sight of starvation? Because he had opposed the half-way covenant. Why did that man need to accept from Scotland funds with which to maintain his family? Because he opposed the half-way covenant. Why did his wife and daughters make fans and sell them to buy bread? Because he opposed the half-way covenant. Because he defended with vigor, as Whitefield did, the idea that a man should not be a minister unless converted, or a church member unless converted, and so set himself against the whole trend of this huge, turbid, hungry, haughty wave of secularization that had been rising since 1631. Of course, he was abandoned by the fashionable. Of course, his life was in some sense a martyrdom. His note-books were made from the refuse of brown paper left from the fans. There is nothing Massachusetts so little likes to be fanned with as those fans Jonathan Edwards’ wife and daughters made and sold for bread. Yes, you starved him; but Scotland fed him, thank God. When Edwards was dismissed, it was proposed that there be a council of ten pastors, and he, of course, claimed the right of choosing five; but he was obliged to go beyond the broad bounds of old Hampshire county in order to find five who agreed with him in opposing the half-way covenant.”—Selected.
THE MORNING.
By Eliza H. Morton
Lo! the dawn is nearing,
Morning bright;
See the signs appearing,
Cheering sight.
Long dark night
Almost gone;
This is now the Christian’s song. Hark! the cry is sounding
O’er the land,
Jesus soon is coming;
Near at hand,
The angel band.
Home, Heaven,
Blessed rest, will then be given. The modern lie, says Prof. David Swing in the Alliance, glides from the tongue with the lightness and gracefulness of a joke. It is said that an eminent clergyman, having taken refuge in bankruptcy, and having in a few months been seen again with his former carriage and span, explained that he indeed went through bankruptcy, but that his wife drove the carriage around. The falsehood of to-day is so sugar-coated with laughter that even a presbytery or a council cannot do otherwise than hear the dear brother and then take a laugh all around. The Quakers exclude a Christian who would deceive a creditor, but this comes from the fact that the Quakers have never cultivated laughter, and hence they are unable to see the humorous side of such things as the Myers bank or the State savings institution; but we know of no other sect or society which treats what is called falsehood with such undue solemnity. It is well known that there is a society in New York in whose sessions no member is permitted to tell the truth, but on the contrary each member must tell one large un-fact or non-fact or anti-fact at each meeting. If such a society has been formed, they may just as well consider all other societies in the land and all corporations as branch associations. The body need not solicit members—the living generations were born into it. A pastor named Augustus Schultz, residing near Berlin, had a small salary. But when occasion offered to give to the poor, he gave liberally, and seemed to be rich. Some said that he was extravagant in his charities. Perhaps there was some foundation for this reproach; but if he gave too much, he acted from love to God, and God did not forsake him. It happened one day—and this was not the first time—that there was not a morsel of bread in the house, nor money to buy any. Schultz asked his wife to set the table as usual. “But, my dear,” said his wife to him, “you forget that we have nothing to eat.” “Be easy,” answered the faithful servant of God, “the Lord is able to give us what we need.” The table was then set out, and the cloth spread, but there was nothing upon it. The pastor and his wife prayed. During the prayer a loaded wagon stopped before the door of their house. It was filled with bread and other food which some Christian friends had sent the good pastor, whose beneficence they knew. The servants of Christ then realized that the Lord never forgets those who really trust in his goodness. THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST.
By Editor
A BROTHER sends us a long communication on this subject, designed to refute the idea that Free Masonry is the image of the beast spoken of in Rev. 13. The occasion of his writing, he says, is the fact that some of our brethren have taken up this idea from some publication advocating that view, and are laboring with people from house to house, to induce others to receive it. We do not publish the communication, as it does not seem to be necessary. It is simply astonishing that any one who professes to be a believer in the third angel’s message as held by S. D. Adventists, should be deluded into such views concerning the image. We can account for it only on the ground that some people do not seem to be capable of comprehending the relation which some subjects bear to other subjects, or which the different parts of a subject bear to one another. Look a moment at a few points: The image appears among the last acts of the two-horned beast, who himself appears after the leopard beast of Rev. 13:1 has received its deadly wound, or has been led into captivity. Verse 10. The third angel’s message appears as a warning before the image is made and its worship enforced. But when did Masonry become a powerful secret organization? Masons claim that the system dates as far back as the building of Solomon’s temple. It can certainly be traced back into the Dark Ages. Now if this is the image which the two-horned beast makes, the two-horned beast existed before this. Then this beast is not a symbol of the United States; and the leopard beast of Rev. 13:1-10 is not the papacy; and the dragon of chapter 12 is not Rome pagan; and the third angel’s message was given ages ago; and the claim that we are giving this message now is a fallacy and a fraud. Thus should we be left, knowing not what anything means nor having any indications of where we are. The system of present truth is complete in itself, harmonious, inseparable, invulnerable. People can claim that Masonry is the image of the beast if they choose; but let them understand that if they do, they must surrender the third angel’s message and all its associated truths, in toto. For this, to the praise of God’s providence be it spoken, cannot be linked to any other creed, and will not mix nor mingle with any other system. Under this heading, the Illustrated Christian Weekly presents the following gloomy picture of the state of religion in this country at the present time:— “In one view of the case the outlook is discouraging. The year that is past was not marked, as its predecessors, by any considerable ingathering. As a rule, the reports of our several denominations on the state of religion, have not revealed any aggressive movement of marked success, while benevolence has fallen off, and many of our great mission societies and agencies are struggling with curtailment and debt. “On the other hand, wickedness abounds. It is a time of depressed moral standards, of abounding public iniquity, of widespread doubt and worldliness. There is a well-nigh universal lack of confidence in and even distrust of our fellows. The revelations of defalcations and breaches of sacred trusts show a deplorable state of public honesty. Even in our churches there seems to be a chafing in the harness of creeds and confessions, a disposition to ignore or to question the ancient verities, and a strong inclination to waste the precious time and strength of the church, which is needed for the evangelization of the world, in debating questions which can only disturb the peace and harmony of believers.” But it claims that there is one view which is not so discouraging, and sets to work to array before us the redeeming features of the prospect. And what are they? Simply these: that “God has power” to bless the church; that “serious moral defection and great wickedness” such as we now see need not hinder it; that “Omnipotence finds no barrier in anything which it makes the objects of its power.” Yes; but does not God suspend his interpositions in behalf of men upon conditions? and are the churches complying, and will they comply, with these conditions? Then what is there to hope for? It seems to us that the Christian Weekly presents but a sorry showing in its efforts to balance the discouraging side with the hopeful. On the one hand, we have spiritual death and wickedness, accomplished realities, appalling facts. On the other we have nothing that is, but something that may be, if— The truth is, the ignorance of Christendom God has long winked at; but now he commands all men, church and world alike, to repent of their sin of Sabbath-breaking; of ignoring his institution, in deference to one which the hands of men have endeavored to erect in the temple of his truth. He has waited from generation to generation for men to read the simplest declarations of his word aright. But they still interpret that word in the light of the Dark Ages. (Pardon the contradiction.) Now he calls upon them to take their feet off from his ancient and holy Sabbath, to restore the seal to his law, to lift up the fallen claims of his immutable commandments, and to let the demands of that law, laid upon the naked conscience, convict a man of sin before he claims to be converted. He calls upon all in thunder tones, by the fulfillments of his word and by the messengers he is sending to the world, thus to prepare for the soon-coming of his Son from Heaven. This is God’s message to the world to-day; and we are firmly persuaded that outside of this message no permanent religious reform can be effected. The success we here speak of is success in reaching the hearts of those to whom we would be good, and winning men to Christ. One of the great secrets of success in this work is to come near to your hearers, put yourself in sympathy with them, make them feel that you have interests in common with them, and that you are laboring unselfishly for their good. Our readers will thank us for giving them the following profoundly impressive article on this point. It is an extract from Bishop Simpson’s “Yale Lectures on Preaching,” published in the N. Y. Independent of Jan. 9, 1879:— “For some cause, literary men do not always draw the masses. Their language is too learned, or their sympathy is not apparent. It not unfrequently happens that some man of the common people, some day-laborer, perhaps, will gather around him an audience of attentive listeners where a scholarly orator will utterly fail. The reason is that his audience understand him. His language is the language of their lives; he knows their habits of thought; he seems to sympathize with them, and draw their souls to him. “I call your attention to this, though I may have occasion to refer to it again, because the times require that true ministers should not only be in sympathy with the masses, but that the masses should feel that sympathy. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the wall of partition is rising higher and higher between the educated and the uneducated, between the capitalist and the laborer; and there are no men who can stand in the breach, none who can serve as agents of union, but the ministers of the gospel, and on them in this country, now and for years to come, rests and will rest a fearful responsibility. No other class, I repeat, can stand between the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the virtuous and the vicious. They must follow the example of the Lord Jesus and stoop to the lowest depths of degradation, and yet keep themselves unspotted from the world. The minister must ever give a helping hand to his brothers, and, while he looks with affection upon the wretched outcast, he also looks heavenward, whither he draws his erring brother; and while he struggles to save him from destruction, the Saviour’s hand holds him and draws him nearer to himself. It is safe to reach with one hand to rescue the fallen sinner from the verge of hell if with the other he can grasp the hand of omnipotent and boundless love. The office of the true minister is to stand between God and sinful man; to listen to the whispers of divine love and repeat them in the ears of the erring, holding the cords of love and letting them fall deeper and deeper and deeper, to reach the vilest outcast of earth, while he himself is bound by the cords of adoption to the Father’s throne. How deep he may go, who can tell? He may go so low that the astonished angels shall exclaim: ‘Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!’ “I shall never forget a certain exhibition I once attended. Shortly after schools for the imbecile were commenced in Europe, a young man, moved with benevolence, crossed the ocean to examine their mode of operation and success. Assured of their utility, he returned to this country and commenced a similar institution. He advertised for the most idiotic and helpless children that could be found. Among those brought him was a little boy five years of age, who had never made an intentional act, had never spoken a word, and had never given any look of recognition to a friend. He lay on the floor, a mass of flesh, without even ability to turn himself over. Such was the student brought to this school. The teacher made effort after effort to get the slightest recognition from his eye or to produce the slightest voluntary movement; but in vain. Unwilling, however, to yield, he had the boy brought to his room, and he lay down beside him every day for half an hour, hoping that some favorable indication might occur. To improve the time, he read aloud from some author. One day, at the end of six months of unavailing effort, he was unusually weary and did not read. He soon discovered that the child was uneasy and was trying to move itself a little. The thought flashed across his mind: ‘It misses the sound of my voice.’ He brought his mouth near the child’s hands, and, after repeated efforts, the little one succeeded in placing his fingers on the teacher’s lips, as if to say: ‘Make that sound again.’ The teacher felt that from that moment his success was assured, and, by careful manipulation of his muscles, he soon taught the child to walk; and when I saw him, at the end of five years, he stood on the platform, recited the names of the presidents of the United States, and answered a number of questions correctly. I looked on with astonishment, and said to myself: ‘Was there ever such patience and such devotion? How strong should be the love of that little boy for his teacher! Was there ever an instance of one stooping so low and waiting so long?’ Then I said: ‘Yes; there was one instance. The Son of God came down from21 Heaven; laid himself down beside me, his great heart by my heart; watched me with perpetual care; infused into me his own life; and waited for nearly twenty years before I reached my finger to his lips and said: “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”’ What condescension! What love to fallen man! Christ stooping so low authorizes us to stoop and wait on and wait ever. Some of these wretched ones around us have been suffering for more than eight and thirty years; have been lying at the edge of the pool, waiting for us to come and help them into the troubled waters.” It appears from the Christian Statesman of Jan. 2, 1879, that the Religious Amendment movement has made substantial progress the past year. Ten Methodist Conferences have unanimously and heartily indorsed this movement within the period specified. One powerful agency which has contributed to this result has been the distribution of copies of the Statesman for one month, to five thousand two hundred clergymen. They propose, accordingly, to send this paper for one month, and other documents expressly prepared for the purpose, to twelve thousand clergymen of different denominations the coming year. A special fund of $1500.00 is called for for this purpose, nearly $300 of which is already raised. The corresponding secretary reports that in no previous year has so much been done in the way of disseminating printed matter issued by the National Reform Association, and advocating their cause. Another item showing the spirit of this work is the suggestion of a State Convention of the friends of Sunday in Harrisburg while the legislature is in session in that city, and the bill for a more stringent Sunday law is pending. The friends of the Sunday have prepared a bill to be presented to the legislature in behalf of that day, which has doubtless before this been presented. The first section is a supplement to existing Sunday laws, giving them a wider application. The second affixes a penalty of not less than twenty-five nor more than one thousand dollars, with or without imprisonment for twenty days, at the discretion of the court, together with forfeiture of license, and of the charter of any incorporated body so offending. It then extends the penalties of this act to all existing Sunday laws, and empowers the courts to enforce its provisions by injunction. “If this law can be passed and maintained,” says the Statesman, “it will place the Sabbath [Sunday] on a secure legal basis in Pennsylvania.” But it is probably thought that the flimsy backbones of some of the senators and representatives may need a little stiffening to secure the passage of the act. Hence the State Convention in behalf of Sunday during the pendency of this measure, is suggested. What the Sunday would be in Pennsylvania, if placed on this basis, Bro. Waldo, the S. D. Baptist, full well knows, and any one may without difficulty understand. Such they would have it become throughout the length and breadth of the Union. The Boston Herald of Dec. 16, 1878, publishes a discourse by one of Boston’s ministers, Henry Morgan, giving an exposure of the terrible iniquity of Boston in the line of gambling. Five acres of gambling hells, it seems, are spreading their ruin and devouring their victims in that city. In graphic language he pictures the victims of the gaming table driven to delirium, theft, murder, suicide; breaking the hearts and blasting the prospects of parents, companions, children and friends; and turning happy homes into haunts of darkness and despair. Then in scathing language he charges upon the professed church the sin of abetting and fostering this terrible iniquity. “It is sad,” he says, “to see men throwing dice for the garments of the Son of God, but not sadder than to see under the altars of Christ’s sanctuary church lotteries and raffling. Is money wanted for a church? Fancy articles are set up for shares, raffles, risks, and lotteries, from a bed-quilt to a minister’s surplice and slippers. To sell them, interesting damsels, book in hand, greet you at every step: ‘Take a share, sir? Good cause, sir; for the church, orphan children, and the sewing circle.’ Like ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ the beast is caught by the beauty.” He adds: “Let the church be pure. Let gambling be done away with.” This sin on the part of the church has in Wisconsin been taken in hand by the law of the State, and has been denounced from the platform and by both the religious and the secular press. But what has been the effect? When was there ever more of this thing than to-day? And what must be the condition of a church which, under these circumstances, will not renounce and restrain a practice over which so many are stumbling to ruin. Verily, those prophecies which shadow forth a great religious declension in the last days are only too accurately fulfilled. The Berlin correspondent of the Christian Union gives in the issue of that paper dated Jan. 1, 1879, a significant article entitled, “Berlin in Joy and in Fear.” It is a description of the celebration in honor of the recovery of the Emperor from the wounds inflicted by a would-be assassin some months ago, and of his return to resume the duties of his office as the head of the nation. But just as this season of joy was at its height, Berlin was startled by the proclamation that the city was in a state of siege, a martial measure to guard against impending danger. Under this measure all persons not included in certain specified classes are forbidden to carry arms, and any person deemed dangerous to the public safety may be summarily ejected from the district thus put under control, or fined and imprisoned. The gay capital is thus put at the mercy of the demon of suspicion; for if the police for any cause suspect any one, it dooms him to imprisonment or exile without redress. The reason for this is that the government has found traces of secret societies which are conspiring against the State. This writer says: “There is in Europe a widespread secret conspiracy, and all governments and peoples are alike interested in putting it down. Here, in Germany, every day witnesses the suppression of journals, pamphlets, meetings for the advancement of socialism, and the arrest of individuals obnoxious to the penalties of the new laws.” The efficacy of this method of suppression is doubted by many. It is having one effect at least,—that of scattering some of these firebrands over our own country; and they will be no better here than there; for it is the opinion of this careful observer of socialism in its native haunts, that “no measure of liberty satisfies these wretches, and no measure of repression can restrain them.” “It is now believed,” he adds, “that secret clubs like those of the Nihilists of Russia are spreading like a network over the whole country.” Thus with all the people of the world there lurks danger in every shadow, intangible, undefined, and hence all the more fear-inspiring. Men look for the assassin’s dagger, the torch of midnight arson, the upheaval of the social fabric by communism, they know not when, nor how, nor where. The people of God have occasion to pray that these threatening winds of strife may be restrained, that peace and quiet may continue, till they have finished the work which is given them to do. BOWLING GREEN, OHIO.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
After an absence of seven weeks, I returned to Bowling Green Jan. 2, where I have spent one week. I am very much encouraged by the condition in which I now find things here. With one exception, all who made a start at our previous meetings are doing well. Prayer meetings, the Sabbath-school, and all the meetings, have been much more largely attended and have greater interest than before. The Sabbath-school has adopted the penny contribution upon the Sabbath, and hence already has on hand funds for various purposes. The school will now be supplied with maps, blank books, bell, and other conveniences. The tract society has done good work. A large number of reports were brought in, showing much accomplished the last quarter; and with only one or two exceptions each report showed a donation of from five cents to one dollar. This is as it should be. Over three hundred dollars S. B. has been paid in during the last quarter, which is considerably more than was received during the whole of the previous year. The brethren and sisters here are all adopting the tithing system. It is doing them good, and bringing into the treasury far more than we previously had. In this church we have the Conference treasurer, the State T. and M. secretary and treasurer, the district secretary, church clerk, church librarian, S. B. treasurer, Sabbath-school secretary, and some other officers. I have spent a large share of my time in trying to straighten out their records, and get them started in good shape. All are now provided with blank books properly arranged, and I feel pleased to know that the books are in pretty good shape. Not a word nor a figure has been made in any of these books which I have not gone over personally several times. With this instruction, I hope the records will be better kept than they have been before. Best of all, the brethren seem to be in good courage and are in harmony with one another. We had an excellent meeting on the fast-day. About seventy-five responded to their names with cheering testimonies. Then we celebrated the ordinances. Four were disfellowshipped. These are cases of long standing, which we have not been able to help. If there is not a reformation on the part of several others by the time of the next quarterly meeting, they will also be disfellowshipped. We meant to have a clean record and a working church, and by the help of the Lord and the co-operation of all the brethren it will be done.