Earlier text: THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOULETERNAL MISERY.
By C. A. Adams
My former article on this subject, signed “A Hearer,” has moved the Congregational church of this place to withdraw its fellowship from me, because I have advocated and published my views upon the subject of eternal misery. I could have been in good standing if I had only kept still. John the Baptist would not have been beheaded if he had only kept still; Christ, Peter, Stephen, and Paul would have been let alone if they had only been silent; hosts of martyrs would have been spared a terrible fate if they had kept back the truth. I united with the Congregational Church about two years ago. I had a private interview with the pastor, C. O. Brown, and told him that I did not hold the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and eternal misery. I told him that I held that the lost were punished with eternal death in the sense of extinction of life; that they sinned and suffered no more. He did not ask me to surrender my right to hold and publish my own views on this or any other subject. Not one in the church asked it. I never did, and never mean to be guilty of any such suicide. If, to belong to a Congregational church, I must seal my lips and drop my pen as regards what I think is the truth, then I no more belong to or sanction such a church. To yield my right to publish all abroad my views of Bible truth, is to barter away my birthright to liberty, and to renounce my allegiance to truth. Does any church ask me to do this? If so, that church must be as barren of true religion as an iceberg. No person can unite with such a church knowingly, unless extremely ignorant or dishonest. They bring no charge against me, except holding and publicly advocating heretical views. I claim that my views are Bible views, and that there is a mass of Scripture to support them. The Bible declares that man is made of the dust of the ground; that he is dust and shall turn to dust again. There have been millions of demonstrations of this. The Bible does not say that man is an immortal spirit,—that he shall never die. The devil and orthodoxy say this, but not God. I prefer to believe God, and not the devil. God says that he will destroy the persistent and irreclaimable sinner. (See 37th psalm.) The wicked must be punished with death, extinction of life, or rebellion must go on forever, and there can be no end of sin, and the demands of justice can never be satisfied. If the sinner is so punished for sinning that he still continues to sin, then the penalty of the law can never be fully inflicted. Queer penalty that, which an infinite God, with infinite power and resources, can never inflict in full. Such a view of God and justice is stark nonsense and entitled to no respect from any intelligent being. I prefer to be free, and obey God rather than man. I most heartily exhort all that read this to take the same position. The worst heresy is that which denies us the right to think, speak, and publish what we conscientiously believe to be the truth. —C. A. Adams, in The Sun (Rochester, Mich.) ONE day six boys, ranging in age from six to ten years, were playing in a gravel-pit. Suddenly a high bank above them fell, and covered them up. Some men who were near saw the bank fall. They had just before seen the boys, and concluding that they must be buried under the ground ran quickly to help them out. They soon uncovered the head and neck of one little fellow six years old, and were going on to help him clear out, when he exclaimed, “Here are more boys under the ground. I can stand it now until you help them out.” And so the little fellow pointed with a gesture of his head, and telling where the other boys were, bravely remained in his prison of earth until his companions were rescued from death. If that boy lives to become a man, and acts as he did when a boy, he will be brave and generous. Instead of whining about his own wants and discomforts, he will look to see if there are not others in a worse situation, and will try to relieve them. This single boy is worth a whole army of selfish fellows who cry out, “I look out for Number One first.”—Selected. RETROSPECTING
By Mrs. Wm. H. Brown
Nearly a year has passed since the convention of our Biblical Institute at Rome, N. Y., and as we review the important instructions we received at that time, and are reminded of the good resolutions then formed, we feel to ask ourselves, Have we heeded what we have been taught? and are we the better for the privileges we enjoyed? What part of the time have we improved in working for Jesus? Have we gleaned well in the Master's vineyard? Have our words been idle words? or have they been such as we shall wish to meet at the final reckoning, when all our secret thoughts shall be brought to light—when we shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body? We have indeed been profited; and let us now go forth with that living faith that casteth out fear, scattering the good seed as we journey on; for we cannot tell in what obscure corner it may spring up, and bear fruit unto life eternal. What a fearful account the slothful and ease-loving will have to render for their wasted life! As they meet the Master, who looks for perfect fruit, and receive from his lips the words of condemnation, how great beyond description will be their anguish! God forbid that we should be found with this class, but may we live so near to him that we may have wisdom to do our work energetically and acceptably. Let us not become discouraged at trifles, but let us persevere; and though we may not be able to accomplish any great work, let us be diligent in performing the humble duties that lie in our pathway. And if we meet at God's right hand even one soul saved through our efforts and influence, how great will be our joy. Let us not say there is nothing that we can do; but let us all, as the professed children of God, not become “weary in well-doing,” knowing that “in due time we shall reap, if we faint not.” MRS. WM. H. BROWN. It is strange, and yet it is true, that out of the classic cloisters of Oxford, out of the conservative and consecrated shades of the English church, came this rough, fervent, urgent child of religion. In the year 1729 existed there the “Holy Club,” composed of John and Charles Wesley—then twenty-six and twenty-one years of age—Merton, an Irish commoner, and Kirkham of Merton College. They read together, walked together, prayed together. They fasted twice a week, and received the communion once. They were a sort of monks, and in danger of becoming sick, and morbid, and foolish, and useless. But Merton inspired them to visit the sick, to go to the prison, to teach poor children, and thus laid the beginning of an active piety which never tired, and never ended, and never will end, we may hope.—Selected. It costs annually $1,000,000,000 in money. It makes 50 per cent of our insane. It makes 65 per cent of our paupers. It is the direct cause of 75 per cent of the murders committed. It makes 80 per cent of our criminals. It sends forth 95 per cent of our vicious youth. It sends one every six minutes to a drunkard's grave, or 87,500 every year. In our own happy (or unhappy) America, in this enlightened nineteenth century, facts and figures show that 60,000 lives are annually destroyed by means of intoxicating drink, 4,000 commit suicide, and 200,000 orphans are made. The crimes resulting from intoxicating drink cost the country annually $40,000,000, and send to prison 100,000 persons. New York City spends annually $70,000,000 for strong drink, and only $3,000,000 for public education. In the State of New York there are 21,242 licensed dram-shops, and perhaps one-fourth of that number more not licensed, and only 7,000 churches. In the State of Pennsylvania $83,487,000 is annually spent for strong drink, and only $6,000,000 for public education. In the United States over 400,000 more men are engaged in the liquor business than in preaching the gospel and teaching the youth.—The Shaker. That was a wise father, who, on hearing his little daughter request her brother to drive a few nails in the woodhouse for her, said he would teach her how to do it herself. She was apt, and drove in all the nails successfully. So pleased was she with her success that she would have set a double row around the shed if her father had not concluded that these would answer for the present. “There, that little lesson helps to make you independent, my girl,” he said. “Now, I will teach you some day how to catch and harness up a horse. You have already learned to drive a gentle one. Learn to sharpen a knife, and whittle too, without cutting your fingers. Don’t let the doors creak for want of an oiled feather, or the little children’s boots get hard in the winter for want of a little grease.” Take a lesson from this, girls. You don’t know where you will be cast away sometime during your life. The most helpless people I ever met are those who can only do one kind of work. Learn to help yourselves, even if sometimes you trench upon “boys’ work.”—Selected. ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY BOARD.
On the twenty-eighth of June, 1810, twenty-one clergymen of Massachusetts convened in the Academy building of the quiet village of Bradford, to concert measures for the up-building of Zion. In the midst of that little band of brethren, four young men, members of Divinity College, presented themselves, and respectfully requested the attention of their reverend fathers to certain statements and inquiries. They stated "that their minds had long been impressed with the duty and importance of personally attempting a mission to the heathen; and that, after a prayerful consideration of the subject, they considered themselves as devoted to this work for life, whenever God, in his providence should open the way." They inquired "whether, with their present views and feelings, they ought to renounce the object of missions as either visionary or impracticable; if not, to what portion of the world they should direct their attention, and whether they might expect patronage and support." We scarcely need to add that the names of Judson, Nutt, Mills, and Newel were appended to this memorial, The following extract from a letter written by Rev. C. B. Boynton, D. D., to one of the members of his former church in Cincinnati, is well worth remembering: “I have no definite idea of the gifts of your pastor, but if he preaches the truth, is sincere and earnest, his ministry will not be without fruits. Make the most of him. Let him feel the cherishing of the church, which will make him do his best. It is the duty of a church to endeavor continually to bring out of a man all of good there is in him. The best ministers—those who have the finest organization—need kindly cultivation. A man of sense does not need flattery but sympathy. A noble horse, even, will be a nobler animal if he is made to feel that his master thinks well of him—likes him.” The Value of Good Character
Good character is above all things else. A revival that makes the air of Christian life too saintly to contain hypocrites is of great service. The Needed Personal Reform
THE Evangelist says: “The reform most needed in American life to-day is personal. It is not more nor better money, but more and better morality, that will bring good times. WHO knows what moral desolation is lying in ambush in a bad book, a bad companion, bad social customs—perhaps in a single glass of wine, a single visit to the play? “Beware of beginnings.” A kind word of praise, a hearty expression of good-will, a little help offered at the right time—none of these things cost much, but each may make to many a sad heart the difference between joy and sorrow. The proper time, the right time, the prosperous time, the good time, the favorable time, the sure time, the very time, the precise time, the successful time, the exact time, the golden time—any or all of these—may be said to be comprehended in the great Scriptural idea of “accepted time.” And this time is now. Walking in the Right Path
WE ought to think much more of walking in the right path than of reaching our end. We should desire virtue more than success. If by one wrong deed we could accomplish the liberation of millions, and in no other way, we ought to feel that this good, for which, perhaps, we have prayed with an agony of desire, was denied us by God, and was reserved for other times and other hands. The Work in Norway.
By James White
The Review of March 6 contains interesting and startling news of the work in Norway. What a statement is this from Elder Matteson in his report from Christiana! “Wednesday evening we secured a large hall in the theater, in order to get a reply before many. About eighteen hundred crowded in, and many went away for want of room.” Eighteen hundred persons in one assembly, listening to a defense of the great truth for our time, trampled under the feet of priests, and misrepresented and slandered in the public prints! These make hard work for those who, like Paul, are “set for the defense of the gospel;” but they have a part to act in this great closing work. They advertise for us by calling the attention of the people to our doctrines and work. Without them the world would hardly know we were in it. The battle goes well. The statement of Bro. Matteson, that he had purchased real estate in Christiana to the amount of fifteen thousand dollars, really startled us at first. But as we read his explanation of the reasons for so doing, setting forth both the necessities of the case and the easy terms upon which the purchase is made, the movement appeared more consistent. We honor the judgment of our dear Bro. Matteson in deciding to labor where he can accomplish most, and appeal to our people to assist and encourage him and all others who thus labor. The terms of payment of the fifteen thousand dollars are as follows:— 1. The time. This was doubtless set by the party who sold the property—thirty-three years. Eld. Matteson is not a timist. If he were, we have no idea he would place the period of the close of the message thirty-three years distant. 2. The rate of interest. Five per cent per annum is exceedingly low. Rents for a place of worship, which they now save, added to what rent they now receive for the remaining portion of their house, would far exceed the interest on the entire fifteen thousand dollars. 3. The annual payments. For the first five years they would have to pay $266 annually. At the expiration of the five years the yearly payments would be $552. The system upon which these brethren and sisters are working to raise means is certainly a good one. Thirteen and one-third cents per week seems like a small sum indeed, but in a year it would amount to $6.93. A church of one hundred members would raise $693.33. A body of one thousand brethren and sisters would raise annually $6,933.33. The strength of united action is here seen. At first, the payment of this debt will move slowly and heavily upon the few brethren in Christiana and the Scandinavian brethren in Europe. But as their numbers increase, and the sum of their interest is diminished by annual payments on the debt, the burden will grow lighter. We set the time for the payment of this entire debt, including the cost of a complete publishing house, at five years. But in order to accomplish this, our brethren in Northern Europe must have help from America. First, the Scandinavian brethren in this country will esteem it their pleasure as well as their duty, to act a very liberal part for this mission, and, second, the American brethren, who take a deep interest in all our missions, will give of their means to assist this one also. Both are responding to our call for immediate help for Bro. Matteson. The receipts for Danish Mission in Review of March 6 alone come up to the amount of $488. We will now suppose that it will require $15,000 more to establish the press in Norway, and help support missionaries until the cause there shall be self-sustaining, making in all $30,000 to be raised in five years, or $6,000 annually. By the grace of God we will do it. And we suggest that the American brethren pay one-half this sum. As the cause is young and comparatively weak in Europe, the American brethren will have to raise the larger sum for a few years. Then as the cause in Europe gathers strength, the Scandinavian brethren will be able to come up with their half. This we represent as follows:— | YEARS. |
AMERICAN. |
EUROPEAN. |
|---|
| 1879 |
$5,000 00 |
$1,000 00 |
| 1880 |
4,000 00 |
2,000 00 |
| 1881 |
3,000 00 |
3,000 00 |
| 1882 |
2,000 00 |
4,000 00 |
| 1883 |
1,000 00 |
5,000 00 |
| Total |
$15,000 00 |
$15,000 00 |
Thus the $30,000 will be raised in five years. And of this sum Mrs. W. and the writer propose to pay $1,000 in payments as follows:— 1879, $300; 1880, $200; 1881, $200; 1882, $150; 1883, $150. We wish this article to be regarded as suggestive rather than decisive. This, and many other matters of grave importance, will come before the General Conference the 17th of April. Aside from the light shed upon the pathway of human history by the lamp of prophecy, there is not much in the outlook of to-day to cheer one who is disposed to take a calm and considerate view of the situation. “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth,” are the plain words of prophecy; and the only thing plainer is the testimony from papers, both secular and religious, that the prophecy is now passing into history, an unconscious testimony to the truth of the prediction. The Scientific American of March 22, 1879, has an article entitled “The Menace to Europe,” treating upon the danger anticipated from the plague which has broken out there. After stating that in the epidemic five hundred years ago, when Europe was not so densely populated as now, the plague swept off not less than 25,000,000 people, it refers to circumstances which are now especially favorable to the development of an irresistible scourge; such as the greater facilities for rapid communication, by which means a victim of the disease might traverse the entire breadth of the continent between the time of his exposure and the development of the disease, thus scattering its seeds all along his path; the impossibility of circumscribing it; the scarcity of medicines and physicians; and the state of desperation and despair upon the verge of which such multitudes stand to-day; and says that under these circumstances the plague “may diminish the population of Europe by one-half within the next five years.” Of the state of affairs in Eastern Europe we quote its own words:— Consider the situation of affairs in Eastern Europe. Turkey is a chaos, and the military power which keeps a semblance of order there would soon break down with the plague in its camps. The local governments have neither the power nor the intelligence required to successfully combat an epidemic. The spread of the plague is little hindered by climatic conditions. Russia seems to be unable to stay its progress. The Russian people are already upon the brink of desperation and revolt through poverty and military oppression. Let the controlling arm of the government, the army, be paralyzed, as it is liable to be by the plague, and Russia will present scenes of disorder and death appalling to think of. On such food the plague fattens. The government would be blamed for every disaster, and mobs, crazed by fear, and revenge, and hunger, and blood, would do their fatal work in every city. All who could command means of flight would fly, and carry the infection into adjoining lands in spite of the strictest sanitary regulations. Germany is almost ripe for revolution. Add to existing hard times and financial disorders the business derangements which precautions against contagion must entail, and a general lack of food and remunerative labor would necessarily ensue. Under such conditions, socialistic outbreaks would be inevitable. The experience of Russia would be repeated, and the steady advance of the plague over Western Europe would certainly follow. Once under way, the wave of death would sweep over Europe as surely and as destructively as it did in the fourteenth century. Do we, therefore, predict a repetition of those terrible times? By no means. We have only shown that they are possible; that Europe presents conditions which, with plague upon its border, must be considered, to say the least, as decidedly menacing to the entire continent, if not to the entire civilized world. If reports are true, and the plague is steadily approaching the heart of Russia, the promptest, most rigorous, and most thorough-going measures to stay its advances are imperatively needed. Indifference and inaction now will entail the most fearful consequences. Of the distress in Berlin, the capital of the German empire, which ought to be the most prosperous nation in Europe, another paper says:— NEW YORK, MARCH 12.—The Times says: Probably in no city in Europe is there so much financial and social distress to-day as there is in Berlin. The milliards which Germany exacted from France after the war, would, it was thought, greatly benefit the city; but just the contrary has happened. Things seem, in the last eight years, steadily to have gone from bad to worse. Apart from the number of unemployed persons there, estimated at 40,000, hundreds of men have been ruined by speculation, and there is more or less suffering among all classes. Well-educated citizens who before the war had an income of 80,000 to 90,000 marks, who fared sumptuously and were among the envied of society, are now impoverished, and compelled to earn a pittance as legal copyists. The condition of things, judging from private letters, is very painful and is deteriorating rather than improving, and the political troubles add materially to the prevalent distress. In our own country the prospect is by no means encouraging. Strong fears are expressed that the terrible scourge of last year but waits the coming of a little higher temperature to break forth in all its former malignity. Another presidential contest is approaching, which all thoughtful men regard with serious forebodings, as they consider the trouble and revolution which may attend it, from which we so narrowly escaped three years ago. Meanwhile the utterly unprincipled, selfish, and reckless course pursued by many State legislators and members of Congress, is unsettling the confidence of the whole country, and begetting in many hearts a willingness to exchange Republicanism for some other form of government. The Presbyterian is said to express “the sentiments of the best citizens,” when it gives utterance to the following vehement words:— It is the behavior of our rulers that oppresses the nation. They bury hope in the breasts of those in whom the fires of patriotism are kept alive. But for the Christian sentiment of the nation it would be only an uncaged menagerie. And now, when hopefulness is so necessary to our relief in our deplorable financial condition, and also that the hopefulness should first come from the best classes, in order to the sense of security in the ventures of enterprise, we hear them say, “We have no confidence in our rulers. We cannot trust money in legitimate trade under the rule of such a Congress. They are more harmful than the wildest caprices of trade, and have no regard for God or the best interests of the nation.” Every man who fears God or believes in his providence is afraid. The “hearts of men fail them” through fear of such rule. What motives have men to go into, or continue in business? It is a fact that the cold sweat comes over the faces of the best business men when either Congress or State Legislatures meet, and they accordingly determine to stop all progress until they see the end. So for half the year business stops, waiting until the intolerable National and State Legislative nuisances are over. We could put up with them if they would only squander the money; but they do nothing but convince the nation of their disregard of all that is sacred, and initiate scenes leading to moral and financial despair, until the prayer of the nation in the morning is, “Would God that Congress and the State Legislatures were adjourned,” and at night, “Would God that Congress and the State Legislatures were over,” and in the daytime, “Would God that they never could meet again.” In these experiments of human government and misrule, all of which have proved such conspicuous failures, the child of God cannot take much interest. But we can rest with increasing satisfaction upon the assurance of the prophecy, “The morning cometh.” “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” The “One whose right it is” is soon to reign; and his government shall be righteousness, and shall fill all the earth. WHY DO MEN DIE?
By Robert F. Cottrell
Much fault is laid upon the God of the Bible because he lets men suffer and die, and this, in many instances, by those who extol the god of Nature. To those who reject the God of revelation, and defy Nature or any other fancied god, it is a sufficient answer to say that the god they admire is just as cruel—that he permits just as many to suffer and die—as the God of the Bible. As I was speaking recently of the mercy and tender compassion of the Lord, that “like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,” I was met with this objection: Thousands upon thousands have been and are suffering and dying of famine. The Almighty God of the Bible could, if he would, prevent all this by a single word of his power, and give them food; but he does not; therefore— Now the great aggregate of all this suffering is indeed terrible to contemplate; but, as individuals, each one only suffers all that his nature is able to endure, and is relieved by death. And such has been the lot of all the countless millions that have lived from the beginning of the world to the present generation, with but two exceptions. The question, then, is resolved to this: Is it right for God to permit men to die? Our Bible informs us that God allowed our race to choose between obedience and life, and disobedience and death. Our first parents sinned, and death followed. “The wages of sin is death.” At this point God might have given over the race to death and oblivion; but his tender mercy devised a way to redeem man from death by a resurrection, and the Father accepted the voluntary offer of the Son to assume our nature and die for us; so that, being redeemed from the death into which we had fallen, we might, as individuals, have another probation, that by faith and obedience and patient endurance we might have everlasting life in a world to come. “God so loved the93 world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The provision is made, and all are invited freely to come. We may become the children of God by faith in Christ. We are saved by faith in Christ. We are saved by faith and hope. Death still is the lot of the righteous, as well as the wicked. It is at the resurrection of the just that the saints are actually redeemed from death. “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible; . . . then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” It will be seen in the end that God has dealt with our race in great mercy. He withheld not his Son, but gave him up for us all. We are his children by creation, but have become the children of the devil by doing his works. Still we may become the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. “Behold, what manner of love the—Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” God has done, and will do, the very best for us that he can. He gives us the privilege of becoming sons of God and heirs of eternal life. And, “like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.” THE PACIFIC COAST.
By James White
Much labor and means have been expended on the Pacific coast. Oakland, Cal., is a beautiful city of 45,000 inhabitants. In the center of this city is our Pacific Publishing House. On that goodly building is a gilt-sign, “The Pacific Press.” In that building are eight presses moved by steam, first-class printing material, complete bindery and type-foundry. Oakland and San Francisco will ever be regarded as the head-quarters of the cause on the Pacific slope. The California Conference is without an acting president, for reasons we will not here explain. At the session of the General Conference last October, it was decided that Elder E. W. Farnsworth should take the California field. He will probably go there immediately after the General Conference meets, April 17. And there are reasons why Elder S. N. Haskell should spend at least six months in the Pacific coast States and Territories:— 1. That is a grand missionary field. There is a reading, thinking population where men move slowly and cautiously in religious matters. There very much must and will be accomplished with our periodicals and general publications; and as Bro. Haskell is eminently qualified for this important work, and has not labored in this vast field, it seems very proper and necessary that the cause there should have the benefit of his labors. 2. Eld. Haskell is a practical man, and knows how to lift at the great financial wheel, where and when the load moves heavily. The debts must be lifted from the Oakland house of worship, and from the Pacific Press during the year 1879, and our people on the Pacific coast need his counsel and labors. 3. Bro. H. is one of God’s humble working-men, and will be of inestimable value to the cause on the Pacific coast as a practical preacher and laborer. Though the prophet said of the papacy that they should “take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end,” Dan. 7: 26, it would hardly seem necessary that every power in Christendom which had ardently supported it, should, to fulfill the prophecy, withdraw its support and leave the papacy to itself. And if all these powers should take this course, every one would say at once that the prophecy was surely and emphatically fulfilled. Well, precisely this is the condition of the papacy to-day with respect to the powers of Europe. There is not one which can really be counted on as a supporter of that power. The following from Harper’s Weekly of March 22, 1879, is a testimony worth marking on this point:— Are there any longer “Catholic states” in Europe? is a question of moment to the secular as well as the religious world. It has been said in this journal that the Catholic powers are slipping out of the hands of the Chief Pontiff, and the fact is now reluctantly admitted by Church writers. The London Tablet confesses, with regard to France, Austria, Spain, Italy, Bavaria, Belgium, and Portugal, that whatever propriety there may have been in designating them as “Catholic” in former times “has almost entirely disappeared.” The only one of them all in which the government is influenced by the Church is Spain, and even there, says the Tablet, “the Catholicism of the state is superficial and formal; and nothing like a warm support of Catholic interests at home or abroad is to be looked for from those in power.” In France, once called “the eldest daughter of the Church,” five of the present ministers of state are Protestants, and of the remaining four not one “is a practical Catholic.” Since Austria, says this same paper, became a constitutional state, “the government can no longer be said to have any particular religious character.” Portugal, from the days of Pombal, has jealously watched the Church; the same may be said of the policy of Bavaria; and the Belgian liberals have made a successful campaign against Catholic control of the government. The Tablet takes, therefore, a gloomy view of the prospects of Europe. Whether this apostasy of the Catholic powers “is a precursor of the last days of the world's history” it does not know, but fears that the end is coming. More likely the signs indicate the end of the Church of Rome as a political power, but not necessarily the termination of its energy as a spiritual force. WILL WE DO IT?
By S. N. HASKELL
Much has been said in regard to our brethren raising means for the Dime Tabernacle and the Oakland meeting house. Both of these houses of worship are at central points in this work, and are of great importance. The debt upon them must and will be lifted. Some of our churches have done nobly. The members first gave their ten cents monthly, one dollar and twenty for the year; then as a Christmas Offering they donated again; and at New Year's they did something more. Others have not manifested so much interest. Now who will bring an offering for these houses of worship at the coming quarterly meeting? Some were too conscientious to have a Christmas-tree. We expect that all such will show in a practical manner that it was conscientiousness that held them back at that time. When there is a crisis, a financial battle to be fought, those who make a sacrifice to give of their means will not lose their reward. Shall we not hear from every company of Seventh-day Adventists at the time of the April quarterly meeting, even if the sum is small? Those who have not paid anything will then have an opportunity to assist in these enterprises. Those who have made partial payments will then have an excellent opportunity to make another payment. And whoever has a willing heart, let him make an offering to the house of the Lord.