Earlier text: WATCH THIS PAGE FOR SPECIAL OFFERSRome's Bargain with Manila: Church Authority and Civil Power
THAT church which rests upon a principle first made conspicuous by the Roman emperor Constantine, who bargained with the bishops for their support in civil affairs in return for his support of their ambitions in the religious realm, remains true to the policy thus bequeathed it, in the course it would pursue in the Philippine Islands. The Catholic “apostolic delegate” at Manila, in a recent public address to Governor Taft, said:— It will be my first and principal thought to see that your authority is upheld and respected everywhere in the islands by those dependent on me, and I need hardly say that I expect your excellency to do the same for mine and for all the authorities of the church in general. “I will uphold your authority in the islands if you will uphold my authority and that of the Catholic Church.” This is what the representative of Rome proposed. Governor Taft in his reply showed that he fully appreciated the significance of the use of the word “authority.” In his language that term was conspicuous by its absence. He said:— The property and the rights of the church must be observed and protected by the government. What those rights are, when in dispute, unless they are settled by an agreement, must be determined by the courts of justice. The preservation of those rights is the duty of the government of these islands, not only by virtue of the Treaty of Paris, but by virtue of the Constitution of the United States and of the principles of American jurisprudence, which are so deeply seated in the political creed of every American that they cannot be departed from. “Authority,” said the “apostolic delegate.” “Rights,” said Governor Taft. The Philippine governor, and the United States for which he spoke, have nothing to do with the “authority” of the Catholic Church. Rome failed to gain a recognition of her authority and a promise to uphold it from the United States government, but she is constantly seeking for it, and will make another attempt at the next favorable opportunity. The Results of Rejecting Light
By Ellen G. White
Christ’s lament over Jerusalem was for those also who to-day have had great light, and who have seen wonderful manifestations of his power and goodness, but who have not fulfilled God’s purpose for them. Those who hear the voice of God and co-operate with him, using their capabilities in his service, will receive his blessing. But those who forget his instruction, and follow their own way, are a dishonor to him. A time will come when their wrong course of action, with its results and consequences, must be met. “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,” Christ declared, “and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” Christ uttered a fearful denunciation against those who, though privileged to have him among them, did not profit by his ministry. “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.” The calamity that was soon to come upon the Jewish people was no greater than they deserved. They had been given the best of opportunities, but they did not accept the truth that would have made them wise unto salvation. They heard the message of John the Baptist, but it did not lead them to repentance. They trifled with the things of eternal interest. Christ made every effort to bring them to a realization of their true position, that they might repent and be saved. But, filled with proud conceit, they rejected his warnings and despised his entreaties. The Jews misrepresented Christ, and John his forerunner, saying of John, “He hath a devil.” They imputed his severe denunciation of their sins to satanic inspiration, saying that he was not in his right mind, that he was a poor hypochondriac, full of fancies, led by a crazed imagination. And of Christ they said, “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” In sorrow Christ wept over those who, having the plainest evidence of his divinity, turned from him. His heart was filled with sadness as he thought of the result of their rejection of the message he came from heaven to bring to them. But he rose above his painful thoughts, and offered God thanksgiving, saying, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Christ looked up to heaven with gratitude for the security of the covenant of redemption. Looking round on the people, beyond the priests and Pharisees, he made an offer of salvation to all the children of men, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. To all he offered a balm for the sorrow and pain that are brought by sin. All are invited to unite with God in the covenant of grace. In our work to-day we shall meet with the same spirit that Christ met in his day. The world is filled with the same baleful influence that led the Jews to reject Christ. Transgression is developing in a most marked manner. We shall meet with those who have received light and evidence, but who in their perversity reject all that does not harmonize with their own plans, persisting in the determination to follow their own way. They refuse to receive truth themselves, and do all in their power to lead others to regard with indifference the word of the Lord. The greatest scholars, the greatest statesmen, will in these last days turn from the light, because the world by wisdom knows not God. “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. . . . God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are.” Men who are learned in the wisdom of the world may think that they can explain the mysteries of the world; but in the explanation of the mysteries of the gospel, babes and children in Christ are far in advance of them. Those whom the world account unlearned and ignorant men may be chosen by the Lord as teachers, because he sees that they are willing to learn as well as to teach. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” The power that brings success is of God. The truth is to be placed before the great men of the world, that they may choose between it and the world. God is not the author of their ignorance. He sets everlasting truth before them,—truth that will make them wise unto salvation,—but he does not force them to accept it. If they turn from it, he leaves them to themselves, to reap the fruit of their own doings. A Pertinent Question Just Now
THIS question is as old as the human race; and the question, Who ought to receive worship? is as old as the rebellion in heaven. It did not come into either heaven or earth until the justice and sovereignty of God were challenged by the father of sin. And so the controversy and conflict from then till now has been over the matter of loyalty, obedience, reverence, worship. It is as great an issue now as it ever was—indeed, it is reaching its culmination in this very age, as we shall see. The man Adam met the question, and fell before it. Disobedience was the proof of his disloyalty; disobedience showed his worship of another out of harmony with the One he should have served; obedience is one of the highest forms of worship. As all the offspring of Adam fell in his fall, so there came One who was to meet the same test, and who, if he met it successfully, would open a way whereby all men might rise and stand in his triumphant stand. He came; he met the test in the personal presence of the fallen rebel, and he triumphed9 gloriously over the common enemy of God and man. In the example of his own life, Jesus Christ answered truly and fully that question for all time. So now when voices are calling to us from every side, when scores of standards are being raised, we ought to know what is the true standard and the true voice. Otherwise we shall be deceived, and ruined eternally. As God is not a God of discord, there can be but one true standard, one true voice. All others, all that are not in perfect harmony with this standard, this voice, are false; either counterfeits of the genuine or open or secret enemies of the true. He who worships anything but God has listened to one of these voices of deception, and has placed himself under one of those false standards. It makes no difference what that other object of worship may be, to worship it is to range one’s self on the side of the enemy of God. The worship of self is such a worship, and he who performs it is on the side of Satan and against God. Self-worship is a religion that is very much in evidence at the present time. It is not confined to sect. It is manifest wherever the Spirit of God has not come into the heart to soften and subdue the elements within us that would war against God. We may be made to think we are doing God service while we are burning incense to this idol, and so serving under the banner of sin. This worship of self is not the mere serving and pleasing of self, known as selfishness. It is a specific act of worship performed as self-worship. It is the dogma of a cult or cults in which the object of worship set before the individual is the “divinity within himself,” the “good within him,” the “God within him.” The cults which teach these God-defying doctrines are becoming numerous. It is becoming “quite the thing” to be a member of one or more such. Those religions teach that we have God within us. That makes the human being divine in the mind of the believer in that doctrine, and then he is prepared for the instruction given by such a cult for his worship of himself. He is taught to sit down at some definite time each day, and slowly, carefully, and distinctly repeat to himself such sentences as these, and many more of similar import:— I am ONE with Infinite Life.
I am HEALTH, for the indwelling Life is Health Itself.
I am STRENGTH, for the Eternal Good [by which they mean God] within me is Strength Itself.
I am HARMONY, for the Divine Mind is Harmony Itself.
I am LOVE, for the Infinite is Love itself.
I am WISE, for I know that God is Wisdom Itself.
I am TRUTH, for the Truth is Law of Being. And so it goes on, attributing to the finite all the attributes of the Infinite. Whatever God is, that they claim to be; whatever he has, that they claim to possess. If they are a part of God, what he is they must be; and they claim that they are, because they have him within themselves. The ascription of all those attributes to self makes self a god. The repetition of those claims at recurring, designated periods is an act of homage, worship; and the deeds which go with it testify to the reality of that worship. With such the “I” is all, and the “I” is God. This is the key and the kernel of the philosophic religions which are claiming such attention in the world to-day. Their adherents are multiplying rapidly. Every cult in which man is looked to in this way and set up in this way in the place of God is doing the work of God’s enemy, and is inspired in that work by him who sought to usurp the throne of the Most High. That one said to Christ, Fall down and worship me, and all you see shall be yours. That would have made Christ the servant of Satan, second to Satan, instead of the servant of God and Redeemer of man, and would have stamped failure upon Christ’s mission as Adam’s sin did upon his. But Christ was more than equal to the test. He answered: “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” And those words of Christ should be uttered by every man or woman to-day who is urged to turn from the worship of the true God to the worship of self, and consequently and unavoidably to the worship of Satan. The principle underlying that declaration should be made a part of the very life. That made Christ a victor, and it will make you a victor. The enemy is coming in like a flood. This is the standard which is lifted up for you in this crisis: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Allow the enemy to gain no foothold in that citadel by flattering you with the possession of the attributes of divinity in a flesh which you know to be only frailty itself without God’s sustaining grace. Whom shall we worship?—If God be God, worship him; but if man be God, there is nothing worth worshiping in the universe. There is, however; and he is the Lord of our Righteousness, our Creator and Redeemer.—Signs of the Times. The Shadow of the Rock
By Ray Palmer
In the shadow of the Rock
Let me rest
When I feel the tempest shock
Thrill my breast;
All in vain the storm shall sweep
While I hide,
And my tranquil station keep
By thy side. On the parched and desert way
Where I tread,
With the scorching noontide ray
O’er my head,
Let me find the welcome shade,
Cool and still,
And my weary steps be stayed
While I will. I in peace will rest me there
Till I see
That the skies above are fair
Over me;
That the burning heats are past,
And the day
Bids the traveler at last
Go his way. Then my pilgrim staff I’ll take,
And once more
I’ll my onward journey make
As before;
And with joyous heart and strong
I will raise
Unto thee, O Rock, a song,
Glad with praise. The Shoes for Christians
By W. T. Bartlett
EVERY man who wants to walk in safety through this present evil world must pay heed to the instruction to have his “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Eph. 6: 15. Whoever leaves these shoes off when he goes out as a Christian worker will soon find himself forgetting his mission, and wrestling with flesh and blood. As long as we have these shoes on, no matter where we go, we shall stand in peace. We may be surrounded with storm and tumult, but our feet will be resting on the peace of God, and by means of these shoes, we shall take that peace wherever we go. These shoes are a part of the armor that Christ wore, and it was these that enabled him to stand so quietly among supercilious opposers, to carry peace into the midst of roaring seas and demoniac madmen, and to stand before his unjust judges without answering their falsehoods. Nor is their virtue merely a passive one. The wearer is carried by them where the wicked are who know no rest, preaching peace to them that are near and to them that are far off. The gospel of peace is no gospel unless it be proclaimed, for gospel means glad tidings. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace.” “In Everything Give Thanks”
To give thanks to God is a duty. When we remember the multitude of his mercies, our hearts should overflow with gratitude. If our hearts are right, it will be so. Ingratitude is one of the basest conditions of mind. When one who has received many favors from a friend turns selfishly away, and forgets the interests of that friend, he is incapable of true friendship, and is lost to all noble principles. Every good gift is from God. To forget him while enjoying his benefits is a great sin. In the morning when we wake, the first thought should be a thought of the mercy which has kept us through the night. At night before we close our eyes to sleep, we should give thanks to him for the mercies of the day. At the beginning of the year we should thank God for the opportunities which lie before us. At the close of the year we should recount the mercies of the past, and sing praises to our Heavenly Father, who has lengthened out our days and supplied all our need. The Christian has special reasons for thanksgiving. He has more than the ordinary mercies of life. He has that without which life is vain. He has the Christian religion. When the apostle wrote, “In everything give thanks,” he wrote to those who had been converted, for the most part, from heathenism. They had experienced a wonderful change. They had, indeed, been brought from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the living God. But we were never in darkness as they were. We were born in the light. We opened our eyes in a land where Christian truth reigns. From the first we have known much about God and Christ and the gospel of salvation from sin. The Christian walks in the light, and rejoices in hope of the glory of God. How can a Christian be ungrateful? But we are commanded to give thanks in everything. It is easy enough to give thanks when everything goes well. But when afflictions come upon us, are we thankful? Can we give thanks in the fires? This is a test of our faith. In nothing, perhaps, does the difference between a Christian and others appear so clearly as in his behavior in affliction. No philosophy ever taught men to rejoice and be thankful in the fires, and no man by nature ever rose to this exalted experience. But a Christian does not look on affliction as others do. He sees in it a blessing. “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.” “All things work together10 for good to them that love God.” Therefore we glory in tribulation also. We do not have to wait until the day of eternity dawns to discover that tribulation is a blessing when sanctified by prayer and the Holy Spirit. We have the experience here and now. Some of the richest fruits of life have ripened on these branches. Some of the noblest traits of manhood have been developed in the fires. Men and women who have passed through sore afflictions have become more tender-hearted, more considerate of others, more charitable, more unselfish, more sympathetic, more humble, and more heavenly minded. By the grace of God they have learned lessons, won victories, and acquired dispositions in their trials which they never knew before. Good men would not exchange the good which they have gained through trial for great riches. Their losses have proved to be their greatest gains. What they feared most has become their strongest ally. A hymn from the Scottish Free Church Hymn Book expresses this thought with rare beauty:— “My God, I thank thee, who hast made
The earth so bright,
So full of splendor and of joy,
Beauty and light;
So many glorious things are here,
Noble and right. “I thank thee, too, that thou hast made
Joy to abound.
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round,
That in the darkest spot of earth
Some love is found. “I thank thee more that all our joy
Is touched with pain;
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain,
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain. “For thou who knowest, Lord, how soon
Our weak heart clings,
Hast given joys, tender and true,
Yet all with wings,
So that we see gleaming on high
Diviner things. “I thank thee, Lord, that thou hast kept
The best in store.
We have enough, but not too much
To wish for more;
A yearning for a deeper peace
Not known before. “I thank thee, Lord, that here our souls,
Though amply blest,
Can never find, although they seek,
A perfect rest;
Nor ever shall until they lean
On Jesus’ breast.” — The Christian Advocate. The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin
SOME religious teachers make light of sin. According to their view, sin is not the most dreadful thing in the world. They tell us that it is only an infirmity, the result of ignorance, and may turn out to be a benefit rather than a curse. But this is not the doctrine of the Bible. This is not the verdict of an enlightened conscience. According to the Bible, sin is an evil for which it is not easy to find a remedy. The wisest men of all the ages have made diligent search for an adequate remedy for sin. Sin is corruption. What can wash away the dismal stain and make the guilty conscience clean? “The wages of sin is death.” What shall deliver us from the body of this death? Sin is an evil so dark and destructive that nothing less than the blood of the sinless Son of God is sufficient to save the soul that has been tarnished by it.—Selected. Words to the World
By C. D. M. Williams
“He that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.” John 8:26. In these last days some are saying that we have no right to use the teachings of Christ in the four Gospels for doctrine. Only the epistles are for doctrine: Christ, in his earthly ministry, taught only the Jews under the old dispensation. Therefore we have no need to take heed to his teaching unless the same thing is taught in the epistles of the apostles. But Christ says, “I speak to the world.” “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Then while he was in the world, he was the light, not of the Jews only, but of the world, and the words that he spoke were to the world. “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. . . . I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” From these passages of scripture it is very plain that Christ had a message not only for the Jews, but for the world. And that the world will meet his words in the great day of judgment. Let us consider some things that God sent his Son to proclaim to the world: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27, 28. By this we know of what Sabbath Christ is Lord. It is the Sabbath that, at that time, had been made for man, which can be no other than the seventh-day Sabbath. He does not claim to be Lord of a sabbath that is to come, but of one already in existence. God, foreseeing that there would arise a power that would think to change his law, that part of his law that related to his Sabbath; and foreseeing that this same power would try to make man believe that Christ was Lord of a sabbath that man had made, sent his Son to proclaim to the world that the Son of man was Lord of the Sabbath that God had made for man. This was a warning to man that he might not be deceived by any false sabbath that might arise. So all man has to do when a false sabbath, or Lord’s day, does come up, like the Friday of Mohammed or the Sunday of Rome, is to say, Is that the message which God sent to the world by his Son? Had men always gone back to this for authority, no Mohammedan Friday or Roman Sunday would ever have been acknowledged by Christians as the Lord’s day. When God sends a message to the world through his only Son that Christ is Lord of the Sabbath that God has made for man, what right has man to send back a message to God that Christ is Lord of a sabbath that man has made for God? Whose words are we to meet in the judgment? Shall we meet man’s testimony as to what day is the Lord’s day, or shall we meet the message that God has sent to the world through his Son? Christ says, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” Dear reader, how shall we stand in the judgment? “I THINK a Christian can go anywhere,” said a young woman who was defending her continued attendance at some very doubtful places of amusement. “Certainly, she can,” rejoined her friend; “but I am reminded of a little incident that happened last summer when I went with a party of friends to explore a coal mine. One of the young women appeared dressed in a dainty white gown. When her friends remonstrated with her, she appealed to the old miner who was to act as guide of the party. “‘Can’t I wear a white dress down into the mine?’ she asked, petulantly. “‘Yes’m,’ returned the old man. ‘There’s nothin’ to keep you from wearin’ a white frock down there, but there’ll be considerable to keep you from wearin’ one back.’” There is nothing to prevent the Christian wearing his white garments when he seeks the fellowship of that which is unclean, but there is a great deal to prevent him from wearing white garments afterward.—The Lookout. For the Master’s Use
By Frances Ridley Havergal
“KEEP my lips that they may be Filled with messages from thee.” The days are past forever when we said, “Our lips are our own.” Now we know that they are not our own. And yet how many of my readers often have the miserable consciousness that they have spoken unadvisedly with their lips! How many pray, “Keep the door of my lips,” when the very last thing they think of expecting is that they will be kept! They deliberately make up their minds that hasty words, or foolish words, or exaggerated words, according to their respective temptations, must and will slip out of that door, and that it cannot be helped. The extent of the real meaning of their prayer was merely that not quite so many might slip out. As their faith went no further, the answer went no further, and so the door was not kept. Do let us look the matter straight in the face. Either we have committed our lips to our Lord, or we have not. This question must be settled first. If not, O, do not let another hour pass! Take them to Jesus, and ask him to take them.— Frances Ridley Havergal. Opportunities, Improved or Neglected
By Lenora A. Bolles
We find Jesus, when only twelve years of age, earnestly engaged in conversation with Israel’s learned men, and all who heard him were astonished at his wisdom. To his mother, who was surprised at finding him thus employed, he said, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” He felt the importance of improving every opportunity. Jesus had been carefully trained by godly parents. His brain was not dwarfed nor benumbed by evil habits. His eyes were not blinded by sin. He was ready to see, ready to think, ready to act. One of the greatest opportunities is given to man when a little life, fresh from the hand of God, is placed in his hand to train, to mold, to shape. Natural tendencies may be strong, but far better risk naturally evil tendencies, carefully trained, than the best of tendencies in a child turned loose to develop at will. The latter is the devil’s opportunity to ruin the child. Nothing but divine power can inspire the parents to lead, not drive. None but God can give the tact to reach the soul of the child. Not all at once can the character be formed, but little by little, precept upon precept. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Somewhere, sometime, the heart will be touched by the remembrance of the patient teaching and the earnest, faithful prayers. Next in importance to the parent’s opportunity is the teacher’s. It seems natural for the child to copy the teacher. Her ways are his ideal. We find him imitating the tone, the dress, the walk, of the teacher. What an opportunity for doing good! The child-mind, plastic, unaffected, natural, is a fruitful soil in which to sow seed. Teachers, parents, be not discouraged. Faithfully sow the seed, even though you may not realize such results as you desire. There will be happy surprises in heaven. If a desire to do good comes into the heart, remember that it was planted there by God himself. He who numbers the hairs of the head does not give the desire to do good, and then withhold the opportunity to do something for him. We must put away our own ideas of what this work shall be. The very thing from which we are praying to be delivered, may be used by the Lord to give us the discipline we need. The joy of serving God is hidden from us until we are willing to serve him, willing to give him our powers, our talents, our strength. We say, Yes, there are opportunities, but the obstacles are mountain high. Let us scale the mountains. Determination in the Christian life is fully as important as in the business life. We often fail to accomplish the desired object because we lack Christian courage, zeal, and energy. We must cry to God to anoint our eyes that we may see, and to quicken our understanding that we may know, and that we may be energized by the needs about us. Home duties need not prevent work for God. Are there in our homes those who know not God? Do they find in us those Christian graces which speak silently of God and his power to keep us sweet always? or do they find us fretful and impatient? A failure in the Christian life means neglected opportunities. What a difference between the bright, cheery, Spirit-filled life, happy because of the joy and peace found in serving God, and the life that finds no joy, no peace, only hardness and strife! One improves his opportunities in work for God, and the other, through lack of willingness to accept the terms of the gospel, fails. Our opportunities are not measured by the amount of work we do. If they were, we might be led to wonder what could have been the purpose in our creation. The opportunity for advancement may appear many times, yet not until we seize it is it ours. Success or failure depends upon that which is within us, rather than our surroundings. Teach the children to make use of opportunities. To the youth as well as to the older ones I would say, An opportunity for doing good once gone is gone forever. The great Burden-bearer, the giver of opportunities and responsibilities, is ever near. Let us lay hold upon his strength, power, and wisdom, and rooted and grounded in the faith, we cannot fail. “WHEN we come to count over the qualities that endear our friends to us, almost all of us think first of cheerfulness,” says a writer in a contemporary. Sunshiny men or women, who bring a bright thought or word, or even a glad smile with them, are always welcome as the first flowers in May. Each heart knows its own bitterness; each soul has its own troubles and trials and vexations; and so we turn to the one who can lighten our sadness with the radiance of a cheerful spirit. Sunshine of the soul is largely a matter of cultivation; for there are few so fortunate as not to have some grief. The selfish sit down and brood over their sorrows. They give themselves up to fits of despondency and moodiness, and are a kind of moral wet blanket on the pleasure of all with whom they come in contact. They tell you their sorrows and bedew you with tears until it seems there must be a kind of luxury of woe in which they rejoice. After all, the cheerful spirit is but an example of “that brave attitude toward life” of which Stevenson wrote. It is the courageous bearing of inevitable burdens, a determination not to fret, and not to add to the sorrows of the world the griefs of one’s own heart. A woman who had many sorrows and heavy12 burdens to bear, but who was noted for her cheerful spirits, once said in explanation: “You know I have had no money; I had nothing I could give but myself, and so I made the resolution that I would never sadden any one else with my troubles. I have laughed when I could have wept. I have always smiled in the face of every misfortune. I have tried never to let any one go from my presence without a happy word or a bright thought to carry with him. And happiness makes happiness. I myself am happier than I would have been had I sat down and bemoaned my fate.” This gospel of happiness is one that every woman should lay to heart. What it means to a man to come home at night to a cheerful wife no one but he who has to fight the hard battle of life knows. If he is prosperous, it is an added joy; but it is in misfortune that it shines like a star in the darkness. A complaining wife can kill the last bit of hope and courage in a sorely troubled heart, while a cheerful one gives new courage to begin the fight over again. The mother who lets her children grow up to be moody and discontented, subject to blues and sulks, is failing in her first duty. She is handicapping them in the race of life. Cheerfulness is one of the prime requisites to success and happiness. The sunshiny man or woman has every one for a friend, for this sad old earth must borrow its mirth; it has sorrows enough of its own.—Selected. Let Something Good Be Said
By James Whitcomb Riley
WHEN over the fair fame of friend or foe
The shadow of disgrace shall fall, instead
Of words of blame, or proof of thus and so,
Let something good be said. Forget not that no fellow being yet
May fall so low but love may lift his head;
Even the cheek of shame with tears is wet
If something good be said. No generous heart may vainly turn aside
In ways of sympathy; no soul so dead
But may awaken strong and glorified,
If something good be said. And so I charge ye, by the thorny crown,
And by the cross on which the Saviour bled,
And by your own soul’s hope of fair renown,
Let something good be said! The Children and the Sabbath
By L. R. A.
As the cold weather comes, the children will be obliged to spend most of the day in the house, and the question of occupation for the day becomes an important one to mothers. My children enjoy drawing on the blackboard or tablet from nature or from the illustrations in their Sabbath books. Then we find a Bible verse that the picture suggests, and write the verse by the picture. A “cozy corner” for the day gives them much pleasure, and they can be taught very young that certain books are right for the day, and that others are not. Most of our books are Sabbath books. During our quiet Sabbath walk, we take turns in naming an object in sight that reminds us of a Bible verse. The rest of the family guess what the verse is. Many beautiful verses are often repeated before the right one is guessed. Sometimes we describe Bible characters without giving the name, and the rest guess the name. It is a pleasure to see the interest the children take in this exercise. What a wonderful book the Bible is! We never tire of its stories! Our neighbors generally speak of the day as “your Sabbath,” so I am particular to teach the children that it is the Lord’s Sabbath not ours, and that he gave it to us for our good, and that when we let him rule our hearts, we shall find “delight” in the day. WHILE the question of the cause of that dread and increasingly prevalent malady—cancer—remains still unsettled, the investigations which are constantly being made with a view to its solution contain much to warn us against the free use of common salt. One of the latest testimonies on this point is mentioned by the London correspondent of the Melbourne Age. He says:— “The earnest appeal made by the king a short time ago for increased efforts to discover a cure for cancer is producing a variety of strange theories and experiments. A Leeds physician, Dr. Braithwaite, has just advanced the startling suggestion that the common salt which we all use so freely in our different foods is one of the leading causes of the terrible disease. He puts his theory this way. Salt, he says, is an essential factor in the origin of cancer, but it is inoperative without at least one, probably two, out of three other factors. These he names as (1) overnourishment, especially from meat; (2) an impure condition of body, owing to the non-use of food eaten, and to an indolent condition of life; and (3) some local irritant, such as would be caused by a blow, or some micro-organism. The idea came to Dr. Braithwaite from noticing that cancer is seldom met with among the Jewesses who are treated in the women’s department of the Leeds infirmary. The difference of diet as between Jews and Gentiles is the absence of bacon and ham from the diet of the former; and as, according to Professor MacFadyean, principal of the Royal Veterinary College, the pig is the only domestic animal in which no case of cancer has been met with, it must be the salt, not the flesh of the animal, which is to blame. Jews also eat less butchers’ meat and more of fowl and fish. The late medical officer of the Jewish Hospital for Incurables says he has never seen a case of cancer among Jews. Other points mentioned by Dr. Braithwaite in support of his theory are as follows: Savages, as far as is known, never suffer from cancer. They get no salt. All domestic animals except the pig are subject to cancer, and salt is given to sheep, cows, and horses, but never to pigs. Wild carnivora with a pure meat diet are exempt. On the other hand, when confined to zoological gardens, they are given salt, and become subject to cancer. Another doctor points out that men in the merchant service suffer from cancer considerably above the average of outdoor workers. Out of every one thousand deaths of men between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five cancer is responsible for forty-seven. These men are large eaters of salt meat.” There are many strong objections to a meat diet, and one of them is that such a diet is naturally conducive to the use of a large amount of salt. The true remedy for cancer is undoubtedly to be found in a reform of diet. People, however, do not want to reform their diet; they want to continue eating as before, and then have something discovered that will nullify in their systems their transgression of natural law. But nature does not work on this plan; which is to say that the Creator has made no provision for immunity to the transgressor of his laws. He has no plan but that men shall live rightly; and if men will not do this, then there is nothing left for them but to discover that the law is inexorable which declares, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”