Earlier text: An Atonement Consistent with ReasonSaul and David.
By John Nevins Andrews
THE conduct of Saul toward David was in the highest degree wicked and inexcusable. David was the most faithful and the most efficient of the servants of Saul. Every duty committed to his trust by Saul was at once performed without the neglect of a single thing, however small. 1 Sam. 18:5, 14, 15. Moreover, the conduct of David was so wise that all his enterprises were successful. He never turned aside from his duty toward the king, and he never permitted others to be disobedient when it was in his power to prevent their disobedience. David feared God and honored the king. He was just towards Saul in all his words and in all his acts, and he was true toward him in all the motives of his heart. No man ever served another with greater faithfulness than that with which David served Saul. 1 Sam. 18:30. Nevertheless, Saul was the relentless enemy of David. He hated him with a hatred that knew no bounds. He made it his principal object during a long period to seek the life of David. He sought his life by pretended acts of friendship, and he even attempted to assassinate him with his own hand. 1 Sam. 18:6–12, 20, 21. He never desisted from his murderous purpose till he was himself slain in battle with the Philistines. 1 Sam. 31:1–6. What was it that inspired the heart of Saul with the disposition to murder the noblest and most faithful of his servants? What prompted him to slay a man in whose conduct he could find no fault, and on whose faithfulness and perfect integrity he could always rely? It was envy, that base principle which caused the patriarchs415 to sell Joseph into Egypt, and which caused Cain to kill Abel. Acts 7:9; 1 John 3:12; 1 Sam. 18:7, 8, 12. Saul was at this time one of the most wicked men in all Israel. Having sold himself to work wickedness, he went on from bad to worse. He had ample time to reflect upon the fact that David had never done him any injustice, and that he was wholly innocent of any wrong toward the king. But he cherished murder in his heart, and he never desisted from the attempt to slay his faithful servant, though he knew that he had no provocation and no excuse for this terrible crime. When the people of Israel demanded a king, God was not willing to grant their request. He knew that when men are elevated to this high honor, and when they become possessed of absolute power over others, they are in the utmost danger of becoming lifted up with pride, and of forgetting the rights of others in the exercise of tyrannical power over them. For this reason God was unwilling to establish a royal family in Israel, but chose to govern his people by judges, whom he should choose from time to time, and who should derive their power direct from Heaven. But the people persisted in demanding a king, and God granted their request. 1 Sam. 8. God made choice of Saul to be the first king of Israel. There is no reason to doubt that he was, for his humility and general excellence, the fittest man in the whole nation to be elevated to this dangerous distinction. 1 Sam. 9:1, 15–17, 20, 21; 10:20–26; 15:17. But a few years of supreme power developed in Saul those evil principles that were, in process of time, his absolute ruin. He feared to enter upon his office of king, knowing his own weakness, and trembling lest he should forget God and fall into sin. Oh that he had always kept the fear of God before him! Oh that he had never ceased to watch and pray! But little by little he departed from God. He lost the tenderness of his conscience; he lost his sense of accountability; he lost his humility and became great in his own eyes; he lost his sense of uprightness and became tyrannical. In particular he lost his sense of dependence on God, and became rash and self-sufficient. Thus, when God wrought a great deliverance for Israel by the hand of Jonathan, Saul dared to make a rash decree, sentencing to death any that should taste food that day. And because Jonathan, who knew nothing of this decree, tasted of a honey-comb, he even sentenced him to death. 1 Sam. 14. Finally, when he was sent to destroy the Amalekites, he dared to directly transgress the commandment of God. 1 Sam. 15. Then God announced to him that he had chosen a man to fill his place, and that he would give the kingdom to that man. When, therefore, David became distinguished for his victory over the Philistines, and for his eminent services to the nation, Saul was impressed that this noble young man was the one whom God had chosen to take his place. 1 Sam. 18:5–17. Jonathan had the same convictions as his father that David was called of God to fill the throne of Israel, and Jonathan acquiesced in the choice which God had made, for he had so much of the grace of God as to be raised above the weakness of human nature. 1 Sam. 23:17. But Saul was wholly incapable of submitting to God. Evil reigned in his heart, and the Spirit of God had departed from him. When we read the long history of his wicked career, recorded in the book of first Samuel (chapters 14–31), we are astonished that a man who was once the humble servant of God could ever become so eminent in wickedness. Thus, on one occasion, he caused Nob, a city of the priests, to be utterly destroyed, with all its inhabitants and even its domestic animals, because David had received some favor in that city, though no one in the city had any thought that by this act of mercy they would displease Saul. 1 Sam. 22:9–19. The ruin of Saul is a solemn warning to us. He began well, but he ended, as we have every reason to fear, in total apostasy. He could not bear prosperity. He could not support his high honors without becoming lifted up with pride. He could not become possessed with power over the lives and the property of others without becoming a tyrant. It would be more correct to say that though he could have done all these things through the grace of Christ, he nevertheless wholly failed to do them. Phil. 4:12, 13. Many Christians when adversity comes upon them realize that it is a call from God to humble themselves before him. But there are very few indeed who understand that in prosperity there is even greater need that we should humble ourselves than there is when we suffer from adversity. Prosperity caused Saul to forget God. This was the fatal error of that unhappy king. When God poured his blessing into the bosom of Saul, the king should have said to God: “I am not worthy of the least of these mercies; teach me how to use them for the good of others.” And when God conferred on him the honors of the kingdom, Saul should have said: “O Lord I am but dust and ashes, let me never become exalted in pride.” And when he found that he had power over the lives and the property of others, he should have prayed God to keep him from becoming a tyrant. We should not be too ready to censure Saul. He yielded to great temptations, but we yield to lesser ones of the same character. How often do we forget God when he favors us with a little prosperity! How often when God confers some honor on us do we take the glory to ourselves, instead of giving it to God! And even when others are by providential events brought into our power and under our control, how apt we are to exercise tyranny over them, and to make them submit to us, however disagreeable it may be to them! King Saul was a good illustration of the character of the old man. We must never forget that those in whose lives this evil nature reigns will never enter the kingdom of God, unless the grace of God shall first wholly change their character. It seems a strange providence that permitted David during so long a period to be so cruelly persecuted by Saul. No doubt he was many times tempted to murmur against God that such calamities should come upon him. But to us the explanation is not difficult, and in it all we see the wisdom and the goodness of God. David had been chosen of God to succeed Saul in the throne of Israel. David was a mortal man exposed to temptations, and in danger of sinning against God precisely as Saul had sinned. The wisdom of God therefore permitted David to suffer from the pride, the cruelty, and the tyranny of Saul, that David might know from personal experience how terrible are the sufferings that a wicked king may inflict upon those over whom he reigns, and that he might never inflict upon others the injustice which he suffered from Saul. We have reason to believe that David profited by his bitter experience of the tyranny of Saul, and that he did not forget the lesson which he thus learned, that he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. 2 Sam. 23:3. God teaches us to be merciful toward the erring by permitting others to be cruel toward us when we commit errors. We wonder sometimes at our afflictions when we have committed faults. We think it strange that others judge us so harshly and are so exacting and so severe. God permits us to experience injustice and cruelty that we may be merciful toward others who erred. When we have erred, it is our duty to correct that error with the utmost care, and with the deepest repentance. When others have erred, it is our duty to show compassion whenever we see any signs of repentance, and to extend with tenderness a helping hand to lift up those who desire to return to God. We may be severe toward ourselves because of our faults, but we must be merciful toward others. J. N. A. Review of Sermon on the "Christian Sabbath."
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
A FEW weeks since we received a copy of the Stockton (Cal.) Independent, which contained the synopsis of a sermon on "The Christian Sabbath, and the Abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath," by Rev. W. T. Fleenor, pastor of the First Baptist Church of that city. Having received several requests to review the sermon, we decided to do so, but have been hindered hitherto by press of other matter. We offer no apology for the number of articles that appear in the SIGNS, nor even for repeating arguments again and again; for we believe the Sabbath reform is the message for this time, and we know that "precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little." The most unpleasant part of the work, is that of reviewing articles or sermons in opposition to the truth, because (1) The arguments urged against the Sabbath are so weak and puerile, and so self-contradictory that it seems almost a waste of time to notice them; and (2) We do not like to seem to be finding fault with others, when we have no personal feeling in the matter at all. We do so, however, because arguments that appear very weak to those familiar with Bible truth may seem [page-break] strong to others, who have heard little or nothing of the evidence in favor of the Sabbath of the Lord. And these arguments, weak though they may be, often afford an excellent opportunity to bring out the straight testimony of the Bible. But that we may save space, in this instance, we will not repeat all the arguments which the speaker brought forward, but will simply present the Bible evidence in favor of the truths that have been assailed. There is no fact more susceptible of proof than that the Sabbath began at the close of the creation week, and that the first Sabbath commandment was spoken at that time. Notice the following points: 1. "Sabbath," as is generally known, means "rest;" it is nothing more than the Hebrew word for "rest." 2. When God had completed his work in six days, and pronounced everything very good, he rested on the seventh day. Gen. 2:1–3: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended [ceased] his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." If "Sabbath" means "rest," then this text plainly declares that God made the Sabbath at the close of the first week of time; for he not only rested, but he blessed the day of his rest and sanctified it, or set it apart for a holy use. 3. Our Saviour declared that "the Sabbath was made for man;" it was not given to man centuries after it was made, but it was made for him; it was designed for his especial use. Again, to sanctify is to set apart. God sanctified the seventh day; from what did he set it apart? From the other days of the week. This was a part of the work of making the Sabbath. Now to say that the Lord made the Sabbath for man, and set it apart for his use, and yet told him nothing about it, is to charge God with folly. We do not see how the evidence could be any clearer than it is, that in the beginning, in Eden, God commanded man to keep the Sabbath. The "Speaker's Commentary" says on Gen. 2:3: "The natural interpretation of these words is that the blessing of the Sabbath was immediately consequent on the first creation of man, for whom the Sabbath was made." The record says that "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Our objector says: "The seventh day of what? Not of the week, for the days of creation were long periods of time. No one can keep that day." We say that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day of the week, and none other. The commandment, Ex. 20:8–11, teaches us that we are to keep holy the Sabbath-day, because God rested upon and hallowed it. We are to rest upon the same day upon which God rested. What day of the week this was may be learned from Luke 23:54–56; 24:1. The women who followed Jesus to the tomb "returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment." Then whatever day of the week they kept, was the day of the week which the commandment enjoins. That must be admitted by all. The very next day (Matt. 28:1) they came again to the sepulcher. This visit was made on "the first day of the week;" consequently the day previous—the Sabbath according to the commandment—was the seventh day of the week. The days of creation were literal days of twenty-four hours each. 1. They were days composed of an evening and a morning. Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31. 2. They were days over which the sun and moon were made to rule. Gen. 1:16. 3. As above stated, God commanded man to rest upon the day that he did. To claim, then, that that day was a long, indefinite period of time, is to charge God with trifling with man. The theory of an indefinite period of time for creation, is the offering of "science falsely so called" to the cause of infidelity. No proof for such a theory can be brought forward; it rests solely on infidel conjecture. It is urged that we do not find the patriarchs keeping the Sabbath; that for a period of 2500 years no mention is made of the Sabbath. The men who make this objection seem to think that the book of Genesis is a diary kept by the patriarchs, and that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, each contributed the complete history of his own time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The book of Genesis contains the history of 2500 years, written by Moses after the events had all taken place. It was written to show God's plan in regard to mankind, and to trace the genealogy of Christ. The record does not state that Enoch, or Noah, or Abraham refrained from blasphemy and theft, but we do not therefore conclude that these men were thieves and blasphemers; neither have we any reason to conclude that they were Sabbath-breakers, because particular mention is not made concerning each one that he kept the Sabbath. God had given the Sabbath commandment; to say, then, that a certain man was a good man is equivalent to saying that he kept the Sabbath. Of Enoch and Noah it is said that they "walked with God," and of Abraham that he kept God's commandments, statutes and laws. But even if no one from Adam to Moses had observed the Sabbath, it would not have affected God's commandment in the least. We close for this week with the following testimony from Dr. Scott, comment on Gen. 2:3:— "The sacred writer here both records the appointment of the Sabbath, and assigns the reason for it: 'Because that in it the Lord rested from all his work.' This is evidently historical, and not by anticipation; for the reason subsisted from the beginning, and was more cogent immediately than it could be at a distance of more than two thousand years, when the command was solemnly renewed from Mount Sinai, long after sin had marred the beauty of the great Creator's work; and it concerns the whole human race, as much as the nation of Israel. . . . And the silence of Moses concerning the observation of the Sabbath by the patriarchs, so far from proving that they were not commanded to observe it, will not render it so much as probable that they did not actually keep it, to those who attentively consider how much darkness rests upon many similar subjects, in the Scriptural history of the Church. Yet some intimations are given in this book, which show that the patriarchs divided the time into weeks, and observed the seventh day." E. J. W.
(To be Continued.) Who Should Attend the Healdsburg School?
By S. N. Haskell
THERE is at the present time no question of more importance than this. We are not looking forward to the future like those who do not believe in present truth. Our school is a missionary school, and its object is not merely to throw good influences around our children and youth, but to educate men and women to labor in the cause of God. There are scores of persons who feel the burden of the work of God upon them—those who have borne the responsibilities of life, and have matured judgments—who should attend the school at Healdsburg. A special course of instruction is given for the benefit of that class. It is not expected that such will take a regular course of study in common text-books, like the youth and ordinary students, but they will be instructed how to hold Bible-readings, and to do colporteur work. Instruction will also be given in the home missionary work, such as will be adapted to the wants of the people. As far as possible the school will be patterned after the school of the prophets. There persons received instruction for a short period, and then went out to labor. If they found themselves deficient and unqualified, they returned to the school. Priests, ministers, and prophets were connected with that school. It is such a school that is designed, with the help of God, to be held at Healdsburg. Habits of industry, the art of reaching the hearts of the people, and the best manner of instructing them in the things of God, will be taught. While at Reno, Nevada, a few weeks ago, two brethren spoke of attending the school for the objects above mentioned. We believe that this is right, and that God will bless them in it. There should be not less than fifty men and women of the same class from California, and half as many more from Oregon and Washington Territory at the school this coming winter. The next spring they should go forth to labor in the great harvest-field. The judgments of God are already in the earth, and when they begin to come they will not return. The prophet says: "Behold, the plagues are sent, and shall not return again, until they come upon the earth. Like as an arrow which is shot of a mighty archer returneth not backward; even so the plagues that shall be sent upon the earth shall not return again. Behold, famine and plague, tribulation and anguish, are sent as scourges for amendment." The present season has been especially marked by the judgments of God. Not a week passes during which some terrible calamity does not come upon some portion of this country, by cyclones, tornadoes, and storms, upon land and sea. A captain who has followed the sea from his youth said last spring in New York that there never had been a time in his experience when he dreaded to cross the Atlantic Ocean as now. The earthquake in Oceanica exceeded in destruction any of which we have any record. It is now estimated that the number of lives lost will reach one hundred thousand. The effect of the tidal wave accompanying it was felt in the Bay of San Francisco six thousand miles distant. This has followed close upon the destructive earthquake which occurred upon the Island of Ischia a few weeks ago. These indications of God's wrath increase in terribleness and frequency. What we do for the salvation of our fellow-men must be done quickly, and God's providence has given us a place and teachers to qualify men for this work. We have no time to lose. If we had fifty years in which to labor, we could wait until ordinary circumstances would lead individuals to attend the school. But men are wanted who can appreciate the importance of the present work, men who will make circumstances conform to the duties of the present hour. Teachers are also needed in our various churches, to take our children and lead them to a more thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, and educate them for Heaven; also to give instruction in the missionary work. The common schools of the present day, where the Bible is excluded, cannot meet our needs, neither can the teachers who are educated in them appreciate our wants, without special training. It is the instruction received from a school adapted to this special work which is needed to qualify men and women for usefulness in a time like this. We should feel the importance of availing ourselves of these privileges, and engage in the work of enlightening others. We are thankful to see a school established on the principles that govern the school at Healdsburg. The Missionary.
By S. N. Haskell
Sale of Scriptures by the Waldenses.
During the sixteenth century many noble spirits gave their lives for the truth they had professed. Many who were engaged in the common avocations of life, felt the burden of selling the Scriptures and other Protestant publications, and often it cost them their lives. The monks lay in wait for those who dared to preach the truth and distribute portions of the Scriptures. One Barthelemy Hector "would take his seat on the slopes of the mountain, and gathering the herdsmen and agriculturists of the Pra round him, would, by reading passages to them, induce them to buy his books. Portions of the Scriptures also would he recite to the grandames and maidens, as they watched their goats or plied the distaff. His steps were tracked by the inquisitor, even amid these wild solitudes. Barthelemy Hector was dragged to Turin to answer for the crime of selling Genevese books." "You have been caught in the act," said his judge, "of selling books that contain heresy. What say you?" "If the Bible is heresy to you, it is truth to me," replied the prisoner. "But you use the Bible to deter men from going to mass," urged the judge. "If the Bible deters men from going to mass," responded Barthelemy, "it is a proof that God disproves of it, and that the mass is idolatry." The judge, deeming it expedient to make short shift with such a heretic, exclaimed, "Retract." "I have spoken only truth," said the bookseller, "can I change truth as I would a garment?" He was placed for months in prison, in the hope that his recantation would save them the necessity of burning him. At last, despairing of his abjuration, they brought him forth and consigned him to the flames. His conduct at the stake "drew rivers of tears," says Leger, "from the eyes of many in the popish crowd around his stake, while others vented reproaches and invectives against the cruelty of the monks and inquisitors." Thus the papists singled out the champions of the truth, and many were put to death in various ways. Some had their entrails taken from their living body, and a fierce cat thrust in their place to torture them further. Women were buried alive; bound hand and foot to perish by cold and hunger; others were gashed with sabers and had the wounds filled with quicklime, and thus perished in agony; some had their tongue torn out for having praised God; some were covered with sulphurous matches, which had been forced into417the flesh under the nails, between the fingers, in the nostrils, in the lips, and over all the body, and then lighted; some had their mouth filled with gunpowder, and then lighted, which blew their head to pieces. "Maria Monnen, taken at Louisa, had the flesh cut from her cheek and chin bone, so that her jaw was left bare, and she was thus left to perish. Paul Garnier was slowly sliced to pieces at Rora. Thomas Margueti was mutilated in an indescribable manner at Miraboco, and Susan Jaquin cut in bits at La Torre. Sarah Rostagnol was slit open from the legs to the bosom, and so left to perish on the road between Eyral and Lucerna. Anne Charbonmer was impaled and carried thus on a spike, as a standard, from San Giovanni to La Torre. Daniel Rambaud, at Paesano, had his nails torn off, then his fingers chopped off, then his feet and his hands, then his arms and his legs, with each successive refusal on his part to abjure the gospel."—Muston, Israel of the Alps, Chap. 2. But these were those who were standard-bearers. Many very interesting incidents are mentioned, showing that at certain times, when the papists decided to persecute them relentlessly, and they would make sport of the devotion of the Waldenses, God, at such times, in a most marked manner, would vindicate his chosen people. At one time, when the enemy had made much advance upon the Waldenses, had driven them back upon the side of the mountain, and both parties were wearied with skirmishing, and had camped for the night, suddenly the people were startled by a derisive shout that arose from their enemies. What caused these shouts of derision? In the heights above them they saw the figures of the Vaudois upon their knees, and the Waldensian warriors were supplicating the God of battles. Hardly had the scoffs died away when a drum was heard to beat in a side valley. A child had gotten hold of the instrument and was amusing itself with it. The enemies, in their imagination, saw the whole army rushing upon them. The Waldenses imagining that their enemy was coming upon them to attack them, seized their arms. The result was that great confusion came into the ranks of the enemy and they fled, throwing away their arms, chased by the Waldenses, and thus losing in half an hour the ground that it had cost them a day's fighting to gain. Weapons of warfare were much needed by the fugitives, and this gave them an excellent opportunity to supply themselves. As the result of this battle the Waldenses lost three, while the others had sixty-seven men slain. They saw the fires of persecution again kindling upon them; but intrigues that were laid by their enemies proved oftentimes successful in bringing destruction upon themselves Finally the heads of families assembled, and, standing upright, with their families kneeling around, they pronounced these words:— "In the name of the Vaudois churches of the Alps, of Dauphiné, and of Piedmont, which have ever been united, and of which we are the representatives, we here promise, our hands on our Bibles, and in the presence of God, that all our valleys shall courageously sustain each other in matters of religion, without prejudice to the obedience due to their legitimate superiors. "We promise to maintain the Bible, whole and without admixture, according to the usage of the true Apostolic Church, preserving this holy religion, though it be at the peril of our life, in order that we may transmit it to our children, intact and pure, as we received it from our fathers. "We promise aid and succor to our persecuted brothers, not regarding our individual interests, but the common cause, and not relying upon man, but upon God." They thus consecrated themselves anew to God, and when called upon to make a choice between mass and the penalty, they were prepared to stand for the truth. The next day they were invited to go into a neighboring church, one which had been taken from them, and say mass. The papists had decked the altar and lighted the tapers for the Vaudois to hear their first mass. They entered the building, and for a moment they stood as though greatly dismayed at what their church had undergone; but instead of saying mass, they extinguished the tapers, pulled down the images, and swept into the street the rosary and crucifix, and all the other paraphernalia of the popish worship. This was but the work of a few moments. The minister then ascended the pulpit and read his text from Isaiah 45:20: "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations; they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save." This sermon struck the key-note of a coming campaign. Success began again to crown the arms of the Vaudois, and they labored with the zeal of men who feel that their cause is a great and righteous one, and were prepared to sacrifice all for it. On one occasion six Waldensian warriors took their stand in a narrow pass, determined to stand as immovable as their own Alps. They not only checked the advance of an immense host, but drove them back in a panic-stricken mass. At another time, when the numbers of their enemies were immensely greater than their own, and every precaution had been taken to bring great destruction upon the Waldenses, they cried as a signal; "Haste, haste! Angrugna is ours." The Vaudois, starting up and crying out, "It is you that are ours," rushed upon them, sword in hand. Their persecutors were so completely discomfited and destroyed, it is said, that many more would have been slain had not the leading men of the Waldenses, who were witnessing the scene, cried for their brethren to retreat, as the others became helpless, for they had made it a principle not to take life or bring any subjugation by force of arms when their enemy had no means of escape. All through these terrible conflicts their valleys resounded with the voice of prayer and praise far more than with the din of arms, while their opponents came from cursing, from blaspheming, from murdering, to engage in battle. The Waldenses would arise from their knees to unsheath the sword and wield it in a cause which they firmly believed to be that of Him to whom they had been in supplication.
S. N. HASKELL. New England Camp-Meeting.
By I. D. Van Horn
THIS meeting was held at the time and place appointed. The site was on the Agricultural Fair-ground in the city limits, and hence accessible to the inhabitants of the flourishing city of Worcester. About four hundred of our people camped on the ground. The outside attendance each evening was between one thousand and fifteen hundred. On Sunday afternoon, when Sister White spoke on Christian Temperance, it was estimated that there were about four thousand out to hear. Some thought there were many more. At night there was about the same number. The outside attendance was much larger here than at any other meeting we have yet attended this season. The influence of the meeting on all from the very first was good. Good order was maintained throughout the meeting, and much kindness and courtesy was shown us by the officials and influential citizens of the town. Sister White endured the journey to us much better than she expected, and after arriving on the ground was able to do her share in the labor of the meeting with her usual buoyancy of spirit. Very much of the good results of the meeting was due to her words of good cheer, courage, and hope. The efforts put forth for sinners and backsliders, were crowned with some success. Some precious seasons were enjoyed, and some burdened souls were set free and found favor with God. The sweet melting spirit of the Lord came into the meeting at times, and all hearts were made to rejoice. Good freedom was enjoyed in all the preaching services, and seasons of social worship. The business of the Conference, Sabbath-school Association, and Health and Temperance Association was done with union of feeling. The resolution on the selecting of men and women to canvass and do colporteur work drew out some excellent and powerful remarks from Eld. Butler and Sister White. Many hearts were stirred, and resolutions were made to go to work in this branch of the cause with greater determination and zeal than ever before. On Monday morning Bro. Butler set forth in a clear manner the onward progress of the Third Angel's Message, and the wants of the missions in Europe and the International Tract Society. Sister White also spoke with much freedom upon this point. After this pledges were taken to the amount of $2,160. Surely the Lord is in this work, opening the hearts of his people to advance his cause. We rejoice to see the tokens of prosperity and progress to the closing message of mercy everywhere. May God speed on the work, and may every jewel soon be found, purified, refined, and fitted for the heavenly kingdom. May the rich blessing of the Lord rest upon the New England Conference, and may the cry for laborers that is going up from this field be answered by many young men and women giving themselves wholly to the Lord and his work. I MET with the brethren and sisters in Eddington, Aug. 25, 26. Our meetings were good and encouraging to those who attended. On first-day two of the youth were baptized. It is encouraging to see the young take hold in the service of God, and strive to overcome. The tide of iniquity is setting strong and will sweep the youth down to destruction unless a strong effort is put forth on their part to overcome through the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (if obeyed) will prove to be a shield and buckler. They who love the truth better than they do this world, and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, will soon know what it is to see and be like Jesus, the one that died for them. May God save our children in this trying hour. "THE Liberty Question," commonly so-called, as an argument against the legal suppression of the liquor traffic, affords an example of a perverted truth. We claim liberty of thought and speech and action. Our claim is a sound one, but we must remember that liberty can only be secured by the suppression of tyranny. Liberty for that which is good can only be attained by restricting the liberty of that which is bad. Honest men can freely walk the street in safety, because law prevents the dishonest man's interference with another's purse in life or character. Here law protects liberty, by restricting liberty. You do not plead for freedom for the poisonous snakes in the grass on which your children play. You want no liberty for wild beasts or mad dogs about your home; but you protect your children's liberty by destroying what would interfere with its exercise. If the strong drink traffic hinders and counteracts the purifying and ennobling work of church and school and home, then you can have liberty for church and school and home only by destroying what militates against their success, hampers every step they take, and undoes what they have already accomplished. We plead for prohibition in the sacred name of liberty. Good and evil are eternally antagonistic; one can exist only at the other's expense, and freedom for the right means suppression of the wrong; liberty for virtue means prison bars for crime; and when the grandest ideal of freedom prevails supreme, every man will have the right to do what he chooses only as far as he chooses to do what is right.—Canada Citizen. DR. ANDREW MCFARLAND writes thus: "It is your stout old hero who goes to bed every night with liquor enough under his belt to fuddle the brains of a half dozen ordinary men, and yet lives out his threescore years and ten, that will be found at the head of the stock that pours into the world generation after generation such a crop of lunatics, epileptics, eccentrics, and inebriates as we often see. The impunity with which one so constituted will violate all physical law gets its set-off in a succeeding generation, when the great harvest begins. That 'the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children,' that 'the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth have been set on edge,' are truths that no scripture is needed to teach; in other words, he who sins through physical excess does not do half the harm to himself that he does to the inheritors of his blood. The penalty must be paid as surely as there is a seed-time and a harvest." RECENT statistics based on the census show that in Milwaukee, where more beer is made and drank than in any other city of equal size in the world, there are twice as many suicides as in any other municipality of the same population. This induces one of the leading German papers of the West to admit that in all the cities of the country the Germans are, in proportion to their numbers, twice as well represented among the suicides as any other people, and the excessive use of beer is assigned as the cause. "There is no doubt," says the journal referred to, "that the moderate use of beer brightens up and cheers men; but there is also no doubt that too much beer stupifies and demoralizes the drinker, and, if its use is persisted in, makes him melancholy and weak-minded. It is apt to result in certain attacks of melancholia, which comes upon the beer-topera, and in which he bewails himself and his fate, pities himself as a wretched being, and finally lets his heavy head and weeping eyes sink languidly on the table." The same authority, however, considers beer a beverage of exceeding virtue in comparison with spirituous liquors, which, it contends "transforms a man into a blood-thirsty wild beast and violator of the laws." In 1882 the average number of men each month employed in this State by the Central Pacific Railroad and its leased lines was 12,300, and the amount of money paid to them, exclusive of the president's and director's salaries, was $7,920,000, or an average of over $640 each. During the same year there was about an equal number of men keeping the licensed and unlicensed gin-mills in the State, depending chiefly upon the laboring men of the State for their support. Thus in ten years the Central Pacific Railroad will have paid to labor the sum of $79,200,000, while the gin-mills during the same time will have consumed at least $210,000,000, and turned out upon the streets of San Francisco, to be arrested by the police, 160,000 drunkards, and God only can tell how many paupers, and lunatics, and broken-hearted women, and starving children. These figures are true. They cannot be denied or refuted. Almost every State and city has a similar record. If the civilization of the age could take hold of such an argument as is involved in this simple statement, and carry it into practical politics as a dollars-and-cents question, great results would soon be obtained.—S. F. Argonaut. MILLIONS of drunkards.
Millions of paupers.
Millions of criminals.
Millions of needless taxes.
Millions of wasted lives, and wasted dollars, and lost reputations and characters.
Millions of desolate homes and broken hearts and disregarded vows.
Millions upon millions of unhappy creatures, all made so by the use of rum; and the system that mixes the poisonous concoctions, distributes them over the country, puts them in the reach of every one, presses them into the hand and to the lips, protects and empowers the infernal traffic in all its hideous phases! This is the system which great masses are contentedly perpetuating, that delusive phantom, the license system.—Sel.