The Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 12.
The Coming Religious StrugglePage 1
The Coming Religious Struggle.
This is the way the English Independent, one of the leading papers in Great Britain, views the general subject in an article on “Washington and the Vatican.” Having alluded to the tremendous convulsion which threatens European society, in consequence of Ultramontane conspiracies, the writer says:— “It is not a little remarkable that a country so free as the United States of America from the throes and agonies of religious conflict, is beginning to show symptoms of the universal malady which the Old World States have inherited in the disastrous legacies of ancient religious wars. Judging from present appearances, America may soon be as deep in religious difficulty as Germany, and President Grant, who is Protestant to the backbone, may become the Bismarck of the New World. The pope and the president, the Vatican and Washington, are just at the opposite poles. There is hardly a social and political atrocity stigmatized in the syllabus which the government and the people of the United States have not committed. The principles which are most emphatically condemned by the pope, they glory in. They are, in fact, the advanced guard of that modern civilization which the syllabus summarily characterizes as ‘of the devil,’ and by right they ought for years past to have been bearing the chief brunt of the papal war.” PREPARING FOR WAR
By S. B. Whitney
In an editorial, of a late issue of the N. Y. Weekly Times, entitled, Andrassy’s Prescription, occur the following passages indicative of the state of things in the East, and the conviction that presses upon thinking minds that “the tremendous armaments which all the great powers of Europe have been collecting” will soon be brought into requisition. “Indeed, so desperate is the case of the ‘sick man’ of Europe, that his neighbors would not scruple about stepping in and sharing his possessions if they did not fear that in the scramble for the spoils they would leave their own houses open to attack, and precipitate a quarrel which would create another ‘sick man.’ Russia is jealous of Prussia, and the latter power would not overlook any advantage which might offer for the ‘rectification’ of her boundary line on the east. Austria would like a slice of Turkey; but the sagest statesmen of that empire are convinced that the nature of the addition would only serve to increase the inclination of its somewhat overbalanced condition. “There can be no doubt that the state of Turkey is desperate. In the spring there is every indication that the rebellion will spread until the whole of the Christian provinces are involved. Count Andrassy’s remedy may postpone the fate of Turkey for a year or two if it is accepted; but the very acceptance of his plan precludes anything like a restoration of the power of Turkey in Europe. “On the other hand, if Turkey refuses to accept in good faith the offer of Austria, the opening of spring may witness the beginning of a strife which may call into action the tremendous armaments which all the great powers of Europe have been collecting. Our country is deeply interested, commercially and otherwise, in the present crisis. The latter portion of our centennial year seems likely to be as productive of startling events as the year in which our national existence began.” PERILOUS TIMES.
By R. S. Webber
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” 2 Tim. 3:1. Perilous means full of danger. Are we living in the last days? The Scriptures plainly teach us that we are, and as we look around us we can see that we are living in times that are full of danger. In Little’s “Living Age,” Vol. 5, page 515, we read that murders in England, until recently, were usually the offspring of the fierce and deadly passions, goaded and wrought upon by wrongs, real or fancied, and overbearing reason and mercy in obedience to the impulse of hatred, malice or revenge, or to the promptings, scarcely less powerful, of avarice or want. It has ceased to be so now. Crime now clothes itself with a calmness and tranquillity of character, deliberate in inception, and reckless in execution, to an extent foreign to the worst phases of English vice. Murders are now motiveless; not only are they diabolically brutal, but they seem to spring up from pure love of blood. Three-fourths of the cases tried are unprovoked, cool-faced, passionless murders. The nearest relative, or the dearest friend of the victim is usually the murderer. He says the first cause to which we attribute the growth and atrocity of murder is the deficiency of sound and religious education. How well this agrees with 2 Tim. 3:1-5. Blackwood’s (Edinburgh) Magazine, Vol. 55, p. 533, says that among the many causes of anxiety which the present state of society in the British empire must occasion to every thoughtful or reflecting mind, one of the most extraordinary and alarming is, the constant and uninterrupted increase of crime. Authentic and irrefragable evidence of the magnitude of this danger exists in the statistical tables of commitments which have now for a considerable time been prepared in all parts of the British empire. Since the year 1805 commitments have increased six-fold. They have swelled from five to thirty-one thousand. During the same period, population has advanced about six per cent; in other words, detected crime has advanced four times as fast as the number of the people. Scotland far outstrips England and Ireland in the race of iniquity. In the year 1805 eighty-nine criminals were brought before the tribunal, supreme and inferior, in Scotland, but in the year 1842 the commitments for serious offenses were nearly four thousand. In other words, serious crimes in less than forty years, had augmented in Scotland above thirty-six fold. During the same period population has advanced about fifty per cent; viz. from 1,800,000, to 2,660,000, so that in moral, staid, and religious Scotland, serious crime, during the last forty years has risen twenty-five times as fast as the number of the people. What renders this prodigious increase of crime in so short a period in all parts of the British empire in a peculiar manner alarming, is, that it has taken place at the very time when unheard-of efforts were made in every part of the country for the moral and religious instruction of the people. Education among the poorer classes has been promoted more than in the three preceding centuries. Yet crime and a general looseness has increased without an example in the previous history of mankind. In 1842 there was one criminal to 514 inhabitants in England. Many that twenty years ago would have been deemed felons of the highest class, and punished with death, are now disposed of in the police courts, and never appear in the criminal returns at all, which proves that they are no better brought to light now than formerly, as supposed. It was said that education would lay the ax to the root of crime, that ignorance was the parent of vice; and by diffusing the school-master you would extinguish the greater part of wickedness. What has been the result? Has crime declined in proportion to the spread of education? Are the best instructed class the least vicious? Has eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge diminished the power of the tempter? Far from it. The consequences hitherto, at least, have been melancholy and foreboding in the extreme. The criminal returns in Great Britain and Ireland for the last twenty years demonstrate that the uneducated criminals are about one-third of the whole. England, Educated, 18,171. Uneducated, 9,220.
Scotland, “ 2,834. “ 696.
Ireland, “ 8,753. “ 7,152. By this table we learn that in 1841 there were in England 27,391 criminals and only 9,220 were uneducated. But the most marvelous of all is the criminal return of Prussia, the most educated country in Europe, where the duty of teaching the young is enforced by law upon parents of every description, and entire ignorance is wholly unknown. The proportion of criminals to the entire population is twenty-five times greater than in France, where education of any sort has only been imparted to two-fifths of the community. The apostle has said that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Tim. 3:12. The Scriptures cannot be broken. We will leave Europe and come to the sunny shores of America. We find the United States boasting of her free institutions, free speech, and Christianity. But what about her crimes? By looking at the statistics of the eighth and ninth census we find that there has been a steady increase of crime to an alarming rate, far outstripping the increase of population. In 1850 there were 227 detected murders, or 8 to 10,000 deaths.
In 1860 there were 528 detected murders, or 14 to 10,000 deaths. This shows two murders in 1860 against one in 1850 for the same number of inhabitants. There were about 13,000 more criminals in prison in 1860 than in 1850, and 13,815 more in 1870 than in 1860, or more than 26,000 more in 1870 than in 1850. In 1850 there were 23,191,876 inhabitants in the United States, and about 6,737 criminals in prison, or one to 3,442 inhabitants. In 1870 there were 38,558,371 inhabitants and 32,901 criminals in prison, or one to 1,171, making about three criminals in 1870 to one90 in 1850 to the same number of inhabitants. This shows an increase of crime in this country at a fearful rate. With these facts before them, and newspapers coming to their doors every day with columns crowded with the report of crimes of the darkest dye, committed in the most cruel and horrid manner that wicked men and devils can invent, men will teach that the world is growing better; that it will soon be converted, and that the millennium is about to commence. I heard a Methodist minister say that the morning star of the millennium had already arisen. If this is the commencement of the millennium, what will the end be? The apostle has said, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them. . . . Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” 1 Thess. 5:3-6. Richmond, Sagadahoc Co., Maine. “Oh! the blessed promise, given on the hills of
Galilee
To the weary, heavy laden, still is made to you and
me.
Many a heart has thrilled to hear it,
Many a tear been wiped away,
Many a load of sin been lifted,
Many a midnight turned to day. Many a broken, contrite spirit, lonely, sorrowing
and sad,
Felt the mighty consolation—heard the heavenly
tidings glad.
And the dying gazed with rapture—
Trusting in the Saviour’s name—
On the land of rest and refuge,
When the Consolation came. Lazarus lies unfed and fainting, Peter sinks beneath the wave,
Loving Mary lingers sadly near the Saviour’s
guarded grave.
Blind Bartimeus, by the wayside,
Begs his bread disconsolate;
For the moving of the waters
At the pool the suffering wait. In the wilderness the lepers wander outcast in
their pain;
Paul and Silas in the prison bear the fetter and
the chain;
Mary Magdalene is weeping,
Friendless in her sin and shame—
But their burdens all were lifted
When the Consolation came. Every phase of human sorrow fills the path we
tread to day:
Harps are hanging on the willows, souls are fainting by the way.
But there still is balm in Gilead,
And though here on earth we weep,
God, within the many mansions,
Giveth his beloved sleep. On the cloud his rainbow glitters, shines the star
of faith above;
God will not forsake or leave us—let us trust his
truth and love,
And beyond the shining river,
We shall bless his holy name
That, to bear our sins and sorrows,
Christ the Consolation came.”—Sel. SIGNIFICANT ITEMS.
By F. A. Buzzell
The Rothchilds are estimated to be worth $3,400,000,000. Charles Francis Adams, says, “Three-fourths of the demand for books from the Public Library (Boston) is for the most rabid and sensational books.” What can be done to remedy the daily occurring horrors of stabbing, shooting, and kerosening of wives, husbands, and children, is a potent query here. The parliament of Prussia has received many petitions of late asking, in behalf of the working classes, for a restoration of Sunday as a legal day of rest—Morning Star. A church in Kentucky has just secured a new pastor, and one of the members writes: “We have just secured his services at a salary of $100, and are looking forward for great blessings.” Religion in America is rapidly becoming aristocratic. It is the most baleful tendency of the times. Sunday is the great “class day” of the nation, the day when the divisions of society are most plainly marked.—New York Herald. The theological candidates in the universities in Prussia were 740 in 1873 against 2203 in 1831. . . . Candidates fall off just as mills stop running—because there is no call for their products—The Churchman. Such is the condition of society, such the low state of public morals that one cannot walk the streets of even a country village without fear of molestation.—Boston Herald. One of the ablest of our contemporaries referring to the posthumous exposure of a pecuniary corruption, calls the evil a “dry rot of the time.” The description is a just one. A process of moral decomposition has been going on for years in our society.—Christian Union. A bridge which will be bigger than that now building between New York and Brooklyn, and the largest in the world, is to be built over the Firth of Forth, Scotland. The heights will be 150 feet, and the number of spans 104. The great span in the center is to be 1500, and the smaller ones 150, feet in width. It will cost about $10,000,000.—Vox Populi. I am sorry for metropolitan society, but the truth is, and we have been told it a great many times, that the way the church is managed it is doing little, mighty little, to properly cultivate the Lord’s vineyard, and it is no uncommon thing to see the wolf in sheep’s clothing prowling about the sanctuary.—Boston Herald. ROMANISM AS IT WAS AND NOW IS.
By G. W. E.
The fixed and declared purpose of Rome is to subjugate our government to the pope, to destroy our free schools, and to destroy all reverence for the word of God if possible. Let no one cry persecution by Protestants. We must not be deluded into silence. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Well did Bro. Campbell assert in his debate with Purcell that no bishop or priest can take the oath of allegiance to our government without the guilt of perjury. Such a statement should not be made without proof. That proof I will furnish from other sources as his book is not before me. “I, G. N., elect of the Church of N., from henceforth will be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the Apostle, and to the Holy Roman Church, and to our Lord, the Lord N., Pope N., and to his successors canonically coming in. I will neither advise, consent nor do anything that they may lose life or member, or that their persons may be seized, or hands otherwise laid upon them, or any injuries offered to them under any pretense whatsoever. The counsel which they shall intrust me withal, by themselves, messengers, or letters I will not knowingly reveal to any to their prejudice. I will help them to defend and keep the Roman Papacy, and the royalties of St. Peter, saving my order against all men. . . . Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord, or his aforesaid successors, I will to the utmost of my power prosecute and oppose.” I have given all that is of special interest to the people at large. This is the oath of every Romish priest in the world. Read it, Protestants. “I, A. B., do acknowledge the ecclesiastical power of His Holiness and the Mother Church of Rome as the chief head and mother above all pretended churches throughout the whole earth, and that my zeal shall be for St. Peter and his successors as the founder of the true and ancient Catholic faith against all heretical kings, princes, states, or powers repugnant to the same, and although I, A. B., may follow in case of persecution, or otherwise to be heretically despised, yet in soul and conscience I shall hold, aid, and succor the Mother Church of Rome, as the true, ancient and Apostolic Church. I, A. B., further do declare not to act or control any matter or thing prejudicial unto her sacred order, doctrines, tenets or commands without leave of its supreme power or its authority under her appointed, or to be appointed; and being so permitted then to act and further her interests more than my own earthly good and earthly pleasure, as she and her Head, His Holiness, and his successors, have, or ought to have, the supremacy over all kings, princes, estates, or powers whatsoever, either to deprive them of their crowns, scepters, powers, privileges, countries or governments, or to set up others in lieu thereof, they dissenting from the Mother Church and her commands.” Here is perjury and rank treason in our midst. Every bishop, priest, and layman of Rome is there bound. Indeed, bishops and priests are not only at liberty to swear in court, if called upon, that some things he knows as God, but not as a man. Let this be denied, and we have the proof at hand. Is it not high time that Americans should awake to our danger? We may see the fixed purpose of Rome to destroy our school system, to rob us of God's word, and thus step by step prepare us for higher acts of insult. Let us awake. Let us calmly look at her insolent and lordly claims before it is too late.—G. W. E. in Christian Review. DO BEASTS HAVE IMMORTAL SOULS?
Here follow some good illustrations of this point of animal character:— ““I have heard of one instance where the man in charge of the cows would not allow the ‘ganger,’ as the head cow is often called, to go out first. The result was that she refused to go out at all; and, in order to get her out of the yard, the man had to drive all the other cows back again, so that she might take her proper place at their head.”” ““One of the most striking characteristics of the mule is his aversion to the ass, and the pride which he takes in his relationship to the horse, which instincts are met with obtrusiveness in the ass and by indifference in the horse. If an ass at any time, urged by the vanity peculiar to its race as related to the mule, happens to fall in with a drove of mules, he will, in all probability, be kicked and lamed by his proud relations. A horse, on the contrary, takes a distinguished position in a drove of mules. The latter crowd around him and follow his movements, exhibiting a violent jealousy, each striving to stand nearest to their distinguished relative.”” ““This instinct is employed to keep together a drove of mules on a journey or at pasture, by putting a mare to the drove, with a bell around her neck, and called the “Bell Mare;” by the Mexicans, “Layegua Madre,” i. e., the mother-mare. This animal is led day and night by a cord, and the whole drove is thus kept under control, and will not leave their queen. It is, therefore, very difficult to separate the drove. The man who leads the mare is instructed, in case of an attack from the Indians, to leap instantly upon the back of this animal, and take refuge in the wagon encampment, whither the drove is sure to follow him.”” ““Any one who has seen a peacock in all the glory of his starry train will recognize the intense pride which the bird feels at his own splendor. He does not only display his magnificent train for the purpose of attracting the homage of his plainly clad mates, but seems to be just as proud of the admiration bestowed by human beings as of that offered by his own kind.”” ““Nor does he despise the homage of birds whom he considers his inferiors. Only a few hours before writing these lines I saw a peacock, with his train fully spread, displaying all his grandeur around a dozen barn-door fowls. He stalked majestically among them, scarcely deigning to look at them, but turning round and round so as to display his grandeur to the best advantage, and apparently as satisfied with the effect which he produced as if he had been surrounded by his own kind.”” ““Then there is the turkey, whose movements are so grotesque when he is strutting about in his nuptial plumage, and who surveys himself with ludicrous complacency. Taking the well-known whidah-bird (or widow-bird, as it is often called), we see this trait of character highly developed. He is wonderfully proud of his beautiful tail, and, as long as he wears it, loses no opportunity of displaying it to every visitor who approaches his cage. But when the moulting season comes, and he assumes for a while the plain, tailless suit of his mate, his manner is as changed as his appearance, and, instead of exhibiting himself in all his pride, he mopes about with a dull and listless demeanor, and seems absolutely ashamed of his mean condition.”” ““Jealousy is of two kinds, one connected with the love of some other being, and the other depending on the love of self. The former is thus defined in Webster’s Dictionary: ‘That passion or peculiar uneasiness which arises from the fear that a rival may rob us of the affection of one whom we love, or the suspicion that he has already done it.’ The latter is thus defined: ‘The uneasiness which arises from the fear that another does or will enjoy some advantage which we desire for ourselves.’ We will only deal with the former of these traits of character.”” ““In the first place, it is evident, from the definition which has just been given, that jealousy implies the power of reasoning, and that any creature by which it is shown must be able to draw a conclusion from premises. Perhaps the animal is wrong in its conclusion; but the process is still one of reasoning, however incorrect that process may be.”” ““The power of jealousy and anger is well shown by the following anecdote of a pet dog. I knew the animal well, and his mistress wrote the little history at my request:— ““One of our pet dogs, of a mixed breed, with long white hair, was, in common with most pets, of a very jealous disposition, always showing displeasure if any other living thing obtained a share of that attention which he considered exclusively his own.”” ““One wintry morning a poor little infantine duck that had been injured was brought into the house to be nursed and tended. The dog watched all the attentions bestowed upon it, was evidently annoyed at the intrusion of a rival where he had ruled supreme, and vowed vengeance.”” ““After a few days the duck mysteriously disappeared. The dog was suspected, but neither dog nor duck could be found. Just before dark a more minute search was made in the house and garden, and at last something was visible under a large rose-tree. There stood the culprit, shivering with cold, his nose and paws all covered with mud, and at his feet was a half-filled grave, in which was deposited the body of the murdered duck.”” ““His long hair had become entangled in the thorns of the rose-tree while he was engaged in burying his victim, and fear of detection and reproof had caused him to remain a silent captive for so many hours. His pitiful condition disarmed our censure, for he was so firmly fixed that the gardener had to cut off the rose-branch, so that it might be more leisurely disentangled in the house. Before this event the gardener had not been a favorite with the dog, but ever afterward it seemed to feel itself owing a debt of gratitude to its deliverer.”” ““The dog in question lives at Canterbury, where his intellect and accomplishments have made him well known.”” ““We see in the behavior of the animal, not only jealousy, but memory, hatred, and revenge, and a sense of moral responsibility. The remembrance of the favors lavished on his rival rankled in his memory, and the result was hatred culminating in revenge when he found an opportunity. Then he knew that he had done wrong in killing the duck, and, just as a man would do who had committed a murder, tried to conceal the evidences of his crime by burying the body of his victim. So deeply was his conscience pricked, that when he found himself arrested by the bush, he ran the risk of dying of cold and hunger rather than allow himself to be discovered.”” ““Take the following story, which is related in Bennett’s ‘Wanderings in New South Wales,’ transform the actors into human beings, and see how exactly the birds acted like human beings, and how the plot of a powerful drama might be constructed from the story. The birds in question were the beautiful little ‘Mandarin’ ducks, which even in China are exceedingly valuable. They are proverbial for their conjugal fidelity, and in marriage processions a pair of these ducks are carried about as emblems of the love which ought to animate the newly married couple.”” ““The following circumstance of fidelity was mentioned to me as having occurred in two birds of this species:—”” ““A drake was stolen one night, with some other birds, from Mr. Beale’s aviary. The beautiful male was alone taken, and the poor duck was left behind. The morning following the loss of her husband, the female was seen in a most disconsolate condition; brooding in secret sorrow, she remained in a retired part of the aviary, pondering over the severe loss she had just sustained.”” ““While she was thus delivering her soul to grief, a gay, prim drake, who had not long before lost his dear duck, which had been accidentally killed, trimmed his beautiful feathers, appeared quite handsome, and pitying the forlorn condition of the bereaved, waddled toward her, and, after devoting much of his time and all his attention to the unfortunate female, he offered her his protection. She, however, refused all his offers, having made, in audible quacks, a solemn vow to live and die a widow if her mate did not return.”” ““From the day on which she met with her loss she neglected her usual avocations, forsook her food and usual scenes of delight, where she loved to roam with him now absent, and to excite his brave spirit to drive away all the rivals that might attempt even to approach them. But those fleeting hours of enjoyment had passed, perhaps never to return, and no consolation that could be offered by any of her tribe had the least effect. Every endeavor was made to recover the lost bird, as it was not expected that the beautiful creature would be killed.”” ““Some time elapsed after the loss, when a person, accidentally passing a hut, overheard some Chinese of the lower class conversing together. He understood sufficient of their language to find out that they said, “It would be a pity to kill so handsome a bird.” “How, then,” said another, “can we dispose of it?” The hut was noted, as it was immediately suspected that the lost Mandarin drake was the subject of the conversation. A servant was sent, and, after some trouble, recovered the long-lost drake by paying four dollars for him. He was then brought back to the aviary in one of the usual cane cages.”” ““As soon as the bird recognized the aviary, he expressed his joy by quacking vehemently and flapping his wings. The interval of three weeks had elapsed since he was taken away by force; but when the forlorn duck heard the note of her lost husband, she quacked, even to screaming with ecstasy, and flew as far as she could in the aviary to greet him on his restoration. Being let out of the cage, the drake immediately entered the aviary, and the unfortunate couple were again united. They quacked, crossed necks, bathed together, and then are supposed to have related all their mutual hopes and fears during the long separation.”” ““One word more on the unfortunate widower who kindly offered consolation to the duck when overwhelmed with grief. She, in a most ungrateful manner, informed her drake of the impudent and gallant proposals he made to her during his absence. It is merely supposition that he did so; but, at all events, the result was that, on the day following his return, the recovered drake attacked the other, pecked his eyes out, and inflicted on him so many other injuries as to occasion his death in a few days. Thus did this unfortunate drake meet with a premature and violent death for his kindness and attention to a disconsolate lady. It may perhaps be correctly written on his grave, “A victim to conjugal fidelity.”” ““The very same feelings which would have actuated human beings under similar circumstances influenced these birds. There is conjugal love affected by sudden and violent separation; there is conjugal fidelity in absence; there is sorrow for the loss of one who is loved; there is joy in reunion; there is jealousy at an attempt to steal the affection of a partner; and, finally, there is revenge swiftly taken upon the offender. There also is the power of language, as, without a very definite language of her own, the duck could not have told her partner of a particular drake, and so drawn upon him the vengeance of her husband.”” A Misapplied Text at a Jesuit Altar
Rev. J. H. Williams, missionary among the French Canadians,—on visiting Montreal, went into the church of the Jesuits and there saw, blazoned forth from its walls in golden letters over the altar of St. Joseph—(the Joseph to whom this altar was consecrated was the husband of Mary, a scrap of a text from the Latin Bible, “Ite ad Joseph”—go to Joseph. Now this proof text for the worship of Mary’s husband is taken from the Old Testament, and is part of a direction to go to Joseph in Egypt and purchase wheat!—Watchman & Receptor. One of the most deplorable things in the present history of the church is its tendency to link hands with the world by lowering the high and holy standard of Christianity to meet the groveling desires of the multitude. In this manner the flood-gates of iniquity are opened upon the church, and it becomes freighted with corruption which it does not seem to have the power or disposition to throw off. The truthfulness of the above is painfully apparent to every candid observer, and has become the object of criticism, by every class of people. While laboring in New England recently, there was a man who, in connection with four or five others, bitterly opposed the teaching of God's commandments, although a regular member of a church. The reason soon became obvious to my mind; for, in conversation with one of his brethren, I learned the following facts: This brother said he had occasion to deal with this man shortly after his connection with the church, and was to receive from him a young cow in exchange for a sleigh. After the exchange was made, he found that his brother in the church had turned over to him an animal much older, and of less value than what he had bargained for. But judge of his surprise on going to the village, to find that the brother had been there before him boasting that he had filed the wrinkles from the cow's horns, to give her a young appearance, and thereby make the deception complete. This is by no means an isolated case; on the contrary, go where you will, the same complaint reaches your ears—the dishonesty of church members in their dealings with the world, and their selfish, unsanctified life in general. The question naturally comes up (and a pertinent one it is, too), What can be done to remedy this condition of things? We answer: Strike directly at the sin whatever it may be, and deal unsparingly with it; but deal gently and kindly with the individual who has fallen into the sin. The following from the Central Presbyterian, published in Richmond, Va., is right to the point:— “The most successful mode of preaching is that which aims at thorough and radical convictions of sin. The law must be applied with power to the conscience, or the preciousness of grace will be very inadequately known. The superficial piety of the present day is in a large degree owing to feeble impressions of the malignity of sin. That complete breaking up of the fallow ground of the heart, that groaning under bondage, that deep sense of weakness and nothingness which characterized the experience of the past generation, are unsuited to the haste and bustle of this stirring age. The transition from absolute indifference to cordial reliance on Christ must be now made in an instant. One gush of sorrow, one leap of joy, and the work must be done. Such converts can know but little of the law, little of Christ, and less of themselves. Men must be soundly instructed by Moses, if they would know the sweetness of the liberty of Christ.” J. O. CORLISS. Self-Deception Through Masquerade
WE are so accustomed to masquerade ourselves before others that we end by deceiving ourselves.—Rochefoucauld.