UNDER this head Elder Albert Stone gives his experience in the Advent faith, and closes with the following excellent remarks on the subject of bearing reproach for the sake of the truth:—
Dearly beloved in the Lord, let us earnestly seek that divine illumination that shall enable us to decide this question, and decide it rightly. Let us diligently search our own hearts; peradventure there is an idol set up, a stumbling-block of iniquity. If so, by reading Eze. 14 : 1-11, you may learn your danger and your duty.
The dread of reproach is an enemy that endangers the soul. Many never receive the truth on that account, and it has turned many away from the truth. In the estimation of unbelief, we, as a people, are deserving of reproach. To seek for the old paths, and walk therein, that we may find rest to our souls, is pre-eminently unfashionable in this age.
Christ, while performing his earthly mission, was the subject of continual reproach; but he did not leave his work on that account. He had harder things than that to meet on his way to the throne of David.
Reproach for Christ's sake, patiently endured, is a passport to Heaven. Moses was heir to the throne of Egypt, but he relinquished his claim, for the reason that he saw greater wealth in the reproach of Christ than in all the treasures of Egypt. Not that there is actual wealth in reproach, any more than in a railroad ticket. The traveler finds use for his ticket. It is a sign of cash deposited. So the traveler to Mount Zion is known by the sign of reproach. It is just as good at the gates of the Heavenly City, as gold at the ticket office.
O ye would-be travelers to Mount Zion in the midst of the perils of the last days, seek not to shun reproach and please the world, lest you grieve the Son of God. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked."
Laytonville, California.
By E. A. Briggs
After an absence of two months, I returned to Laytonville, and spent a couple of weeks with the believers there. During my stay four more names were added to the covenant, ten were baptized, and a church of twelve baptized members and two covenant members was organized. On the occasion of the baptism the Lord seemed specially near; and the considerable number who were present were almost all in tears. The seven brothers and seven sisters who compose this company, all seemed to be of good courage. Their Sabbath-school, which contains twenty-seven members, is animated and interesting. We trust that the Lord is there binding another bundle of sheaves for the heavenly garner.
E. A. Briggs.
A Shilling Heart.
It is rare that the growth of one's benevolence keeps pace with the growth of one's means. When persons are absorbed with thoughts of gaining, keeping, or enjoying wealth, they lose their inclination for giving, and grow narrow, sordid and selfish. A widow with a very small income was remarkable for the liberality of her gifts to religious objects. She at length became heir to a large property, and it was noticed that her contributions began to fall off. Her offerings were smaller in amount than when she was poor, and grew less; now she only gave when she was asked to give, and then she gave next to nothing at all. Once when applied to by her pastor to help a cause to which, in humble circumstance, she had always contributed a guinea, she presented only a shilling, and the good minister could not help calling attention to the change that had come over her.
"Ah!" she said, " when day by day I looked to God for my bread, I had enough and to spare; now I have to look to my ample income, and I am all the time haunted with the fear of losing it and coming to want. I had the guinea heart when I had the shilling means; now I have the guiena means and the shilling heart."
Preach the Gospel
PREACH THE GOSPEL.—Go, then, to a work so solemn that angels might tremble to bear the trust—a word so pregnant with issues for good or for evil, in time and eternity, that imagination fails to embrace their number and full significance—as becomes the children of earth. Firm yet gentle; bold to reprove, tender to restore—weak in ourselves, yet strong in the mighty God of Jacob; apply to your task. Go! despair not amid difficulties, and shrink not from toil; and though no earthly recompense is yours, at the resurrection of the just you will have a sure reward—a crown of righteousness that fadeth not away.
Teaching Children What Is Good
The affection of parents is best shown to their children by teaching them what is good and true.
"For Thine is the Power."
CAN'T do it—it's impossible. I've tried five times, and I can't get it right," and Ben pushed his book and slate away in despair.
Mrs Hartley gave a little sigh at her boy's perplexity, but only said quietly, "Then you don't believe in the Lord's prayer?"
"The Lord's prayer, mother! Why, there's nothing there to help me with this example."
Oh, yes; there is help for every trouble in life in the Lord's prayer, if we only know how to get at it. I am afraid you don't yet know that prayer."
Ben flushed. If it had been anybody else that had said that, he would have been really vexed, but mother was different. Ben always tried to be sure he quite understood her, for he never for one instant forgot why her hands were never idle.
"Now, mother, you don't mean that. I have said that prayer ever since I was a baby! I couldn't go to bed or leave my room in the morning without saying it. I know I sometimes don't think enough of what I am saying, but you know, mother, I do try to mean it—I—I." But Ben stopped, his voice half choked.
The mother saw that her boy had misunderstood her, and answered quickly, "I never doubt, Ben, boy, that you are trying and praying; but I was trying a long time before I knew what the last part of the Lord's prayer really meant. I'm no minister or scholar, but I'll try and tell it to you. You know we ask God for bread, to be kept from evil, and to be forgiven, and then we say, 'For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.' It's God's power we rely on,—not our own; and it often helps me, Ben, when I have a difficult new pattern to fit. I say, 'For thine is the power—this is my duty, heavenly Father, give me thy power,' and he does, Ben, he does."
Ben sat silent. It seemed almost too familiar a prayer. And yet that time when he had to stay from school because he had no clothes, he had asked God; and the minister's wife had brought him a suit the very next day. "But a boy's sums, mother!" he said.
"I think that the sum is just as much to you as many a grander sounding thing to some one else. You say if only you get that right you will be perfect for the month. Now I care a great deal about that, but I'm sure your heavenly Father loves you more than I do. I would help you so gladly, Ben, if I could, but he can help you; his is the power; ask him."
There was another silence, and then Mrs. Hartley said, "Now, Ben, I want you to run to the store for some sewing-silk for me; the air will do you good. I believe, my son, that, if you ask, you can do that sum when you come home."
Ben started at once; his mother's slightest wish was law to him. He ran along enjoying the rest from study and the cool, fresh air. The sewing-silk was bought, and Ben started home, when he caught sight of Phil Earlie across the street. Ben gave the whistle that boys so delight in, and Phil looked back, and joined him.
"Done your lesson?"
"All but my sums."
"Did you try the fifteenth example?"
"Yes."
"Get it right?"
"No, not yet; but I will."
Phil gave a provoking little laugh.
"You will? I guess not; I've done it, but I never could have found it out alone; I had help."
Ben's heart fairly ached with envy for a moment. It was always so; Phil had his Uncle George, and other boys had big brothers or fathers to help them, only he was left quite alone. But just then he remembered his mother's words, "It's God's power we rely on—not our own. I'll get help, too," he said to himself. The boys chatted on, played leap-frog, and raced each other; but even as he raced and romped, Ben felt changed. He had begun to believe in his heavenly Father as never before, and was wonderfully happy.
After giving the silk to his mother, he picked up his slate and book, and went up to his own little room. Kneeling by the bed, he repeated the Lord's prayer, stopping at "Thine is the kingdom," and saying with all his heart, "And thine is the power, heavenly Father. I want power to understand this. There's no one to help me; please give me power."
Ben waited a moment, and then he took his slate and tried again. Do you ask me, "Did he succeed?" "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Ben had asked and God had answered. After a little earnest thought, he saw what rule he had neglected, and worked the example correctly. The next day he was "head," for he was the only boy who had "done his sums without being helped."
"Yet I was helped, mother," he said; "and I shall never forget the last part of the Lord's prayer after this."—Hope Ledyard, in S. S. Times.
Spending an Evening.
By Rusticus
I HAD just stirred the fire, put on my spectacles, and taken up my paper, when there was a rap at the door. One of the children ran to open it, and in came neighbor Slocum, as smiling as a basket of chips. "Good evening," I said; "glad to see you." (That was a fib, but it came out before I thought, from the force of habit. Yet having said it I did not want to take it back.)
"Good ev'nin' to you," he replied. "All putty middlin' well, I hope."
"Yes, thank you. How are your folks?"
"About as common. All able to take their allowance."
Neighbor Slocum took a chair, spread his hands before the fire, and after a minute of profound meditation, continued: "It's mighty lonesome these long evenin's, and I thought I'd come over and help you to spend one."
I was just going to say, "We never have any lonesome evenings. We have books and papers that help us not only to spend them, but to improve them." But before I could muster courage enough, my wife said,
"Why didn't you bring Mrs. Slocum along? If the evenings are lonesome when you are both at home, they must be particularly lonesome for her when you are away."
My neighbor squirmed a little. Dull as he was, he saw the point. But he drawled out,
"Well, she did want to come, but you see, she hadn't got her dishes done up, and she had to set bread for to-morrow's bakin'. The fact is, she don't get any time to visit."
I saw by the flush on my wife's cheek and the flash in her eye, that she wanted to say something that would make him squirm again. But she restrained herself with an effort, and she said:—
"Nice rain we have had. I suppose you are all busy plowing."
"Well, no, we hain't plowed any yet, and I reckon we won't; we are going to let most of the place volunteer. You see, it saves a heap of work, and sometimes it does 'most as well."
"I don't know about that. You'll be likely to get at best about a ton of foul hay to the acre, when, if you plowed and sowed the land, turning the volunteer under as manure, you might get three tons of first-rate hay to the acre."
"Maybe we might," said Mr. Slocum, after a long pause, speaking with great deliberation. And then he looked at the fire for five minutes, as if in deep thought. I waited to see if he would start a topic of conversation, as the one I started had run out so soon. At length he looked up as if an idea had struck him, and said, "Rusticus, what kind of a winter do you think we are going to have?"
I replied that I really did not know. California winters were very uncertain. I had quit prophesying long ago, and made up my mind to be satisfied with just such weather as the Lord chose to send.
Mr. Slocum took a long time to reflect upon that statement. I waited respectfully for him. In about ten minutes he turned slowly to me, and said,
"Do you think the Lord has anything to do with the weather, anyhow?"
"Certainly I do. Don't the Bible say so? In the sermon on the mount our Saviour said: 'Your Father which is in Heaven maketh his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and the unjust.'"
"Is that in the Bible, do you say? Well, I never noticed it; and I always kind of thought that the rain just came when it happened to. It never seemed to me as if anybody sent it."
The older children were biting their lips, and the younger ones were listening with mouths and eyes wide open. They had never heard any such talking before. They believed that God made everything. That things just happened so was a new idea to them. For their sakes I went on to argue the matter with my visitor, but there was no chance for any discussion with him. He only replied in a languid sort of way:—
"I reckon you're right, but I never thought much about it. Maybe God does send rain. If he does, it would be nice for us if he would be more regular about it."
And so he sat, helping me to spend the evening, for two mortal hours. I couldn't read to him, for the children were studying their lessons. I couldn't talk to him, for he had no ideas. When he went away it was bedtime. The evening was spent, but it was not improved.
Now, farmers and other folks ought to be sociable. But a man should never go to visit his neighbors unless he has something to talk about. He might as well go to market with an empty wagon. When I want to get something in town, I take something from the farm to trade for it. I exchange my farm products for goods.
And it is just so in society. We cannot be sociable unless we have something to say. And we cannot have anything worth saying unless we study and think. What makes Slocum such a bore is that he reads nothing--his mind is not stimulated. He has no ideas. I hope that there are not many readers of this paper who have such neighbors to help them spend their evenings.—Rusticus, in the Occident.
Hints to Mothers.
NOTHING is more fascinating to a child than the plain, unvarnished narratives of the Bible, provided these are the first presented to him. I can not vouch for children who, from the earliest dawn of intelligence, are compelled to swallow large draughts of "Mother Goose." But if the story of Samuel, for instance, is read to a child—and do not judge me visionary if I say this may be done before three years, just as it stands recorded in 1 Sam. 3—watch his eyes, as he is evidently picturing to himself the child Samuel, his "little coat,"—the reading should begin with verses 18 and 19 of the previous chapter,—the good priest with his dim eyes, the little Samuel laying himself down to sleep, but rising with alacrity, running, when he hears himself called—you may be sure he sees all these far more plainly than we whose minds are lumbered with so many other things. A little quiet talk afterwards about the story, adding no embellishments, but often referring to the open book and repeating from it the identical words here and there, will fasten the nail in a sure place. The very quaintness of the Scripture phraseology catches and holds the attention of a child. I have known a child of but three years to become so familiar with the last chapter of the Gospel by John, through the frequent hearing of it, as to notice the omission of a single word inadvertently left out; and he was by no means a precocious child. He would call for it over and over again through the day, and never tire of it.
A little preparation is needed on the part of the mother in selecting passages, and connecting them if continuous. For instance, take the last chapter of Luke, commencing with the thirteenth verse, and read without any omissions till you come to the last two verses; omit them, but substitute in their place Acts 1 : 9, last clause, reading on through verse twelve. No attempt at simplification35will make the story more captivating. If you have never tried it, you will be astonished at the interest manifested after a few readings. Persevere, and you will soon find that the Bible is the Book of books to your child, and its words "sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb." And what better can you desire for him? Searching "the Scriptures" for this purpose, you will find more sweet morsels for your little ones than you at first imagine. In your daily reading note such passages, that you may never be at a loss. Note the story of Peter, in Acts 12 : 1-19; Moses, in Exod. 2 : 2-10; David, in 1 Sam. 17; the "holy child Jesus," Luke 2 : 40-52, etc.—The Watchman.
The Home Circle.
THE THREE WATCHWORDS.
To WATCH, to wait, to work ;
Ah, me! the fiery sun,
The level, treeless, barren, dew-drained fields--
I would the work was done!
To watch, to work, to wait ;
Ah, me! the tedious roar
Of wreck-strewn oceans over-roofed with clouds--
I would the watch was o'er!
To wait, to work, to watch ;
Ah, me! Thou absent Friend,
Comest Thou quickly? So Thou saidst--I would
The waiting had an end!
My soul, be still and strong!
Sight follows after faith,
In all advancement of the true and good;
He cometh as He saith.
My soul, be still and strong!
Here on thy Lord's estate
No place is useless, no experience vain--
Work on, watch on, and wait!
—Examiner and Chronicle.
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News and Notes.
By Editor
Des Moines, Iowa, had a $300,000 fire on the 11th inst.
There were seventy-eight suicides in San Francisco last year.
The Czar has signed a decree dissolving all secret societies in Russia.
During the year 1882 there was an average of two murders a day in the United States.
Arrangements have been made for holding an international exhibition in Calcutta this year.
A severe storm raged at Vera Cruz last week, wrecking several vessels, and destroying warehouses and harbor improvements.
The Cunard Steamship Company has decided to supply the sailors with coffee instead of grog. A step in the right direction.
A system of drill that will hasten the egress of the children in case of fire is to be introduced into the Brooklyn public schools.
Three hundred persons are reported to have perished on the 13th inst., by the burning of a circus in Berdicheff, Russian Poland.
The public schools of Roanoke County, Va., are closed, and business is at a standstill, on account of the small-pox epidemic. It is also stated that 2,000 cases are reported in Baltimore.
On the 12th inst. the last spike was driven on the railroad which is known as the "Sunset Route," by which there is direct communication between New Orleans and San Francisco.
In the town of Easton, Pa., there are three manufactories of "mineral pulp," the smallest of which produces fifteen tons per day. This mineral pulp is used for the adulteration of flour and sugar.
A Belgian physician, in an investigation made at the request of the Government authorities, has ascertained that the main cause of color blindness in his country is the very general use of tobacco.
During 1882 record was made of 1,705 fires in the United States, where the loss was $10,000 and upwards, and several thousand less destructive fires. The loss to the United States and Canada, during the year, was $92,250,000. The greater part of this loss is probably due to carelessness.
The Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice, have been investigating the office of the Clerk of the United States Supreme Court. The clerk himself testified that his receipts last year were $44,477, and that the expenses of his office amounted to only $15,000, leaving a net profit of $29,447.
Nails are now being manufactured quite extensively of steel. A company with $750,000 capital has recently been organized in Pittsburg for this purpose. The steel article is stiffer and tougher than the iron nail, and so much lighter that the added cost per pound will be more than balanced by the increased number.
The steamship City of Brussels, that was recently sunk by a collision, had on board forty-one bags of letters and eighty-six bags of newspapers for delivery at Queenstown, England. There were 30,604 letters, 2,419 of which were registered. Everything was lost, and the passengers barely escaped with their lives.
There are some excellent things in the Penal Code lately adopted in New York. One feature is the law to punish dishonest plumbers. A plumber who left the ends of several pipes open in the cellar of the house, was fined $50. The Judge intimated that if another case of the kind came before him, he would send the offender to the penitentiary.
Although the floods in Europe have subsided, the distress occasioned by them has not, and appeals are being made for help for the sufferers. The Emperor of Germany has granted 600,000 marks of the Imperial Treasury funds, and large sums have been sent from the United States. Over 20,000 people have been rendered homeless by the floods.
The reports of an early rising of the Mussulmans of the mountain districts of Eastern Roumelia are confirmed. The authorities have received several cases of Martin rifles, sent by the "Young Turkey Committee" of Constantinople to the committee in Philippopolis. Turkish troops are clandestinely massed on the Eastern Roumelian frontier.
The Interior Department will soon open up for settlement the reservation in Washington Territory now occupied by Chief Moses and his Indian tribes. The reservation contains 3,000,000 acres of land, much of which is said to be exceedingly rich in mineral deposits, and will doubtless be "grabbed" as soon as it is declared open for settlement.
The London Economist estimates the cost of all the great wars of the world for twenty-five years, from 1852 to 1877, including the Franco-German war and our own civil war, over $12,000,000,000. The cost of intoxicants in the United States for the same period is more than $15,000,000,000, or $3,000,000,000 more than all the wars of the world.
The burning of the Newhall House at Milwaukee, Wis., Jan. 9, was most terrible in its results. The hotel was a six-story building and was crowded with guests, of whom no less than seventy are supposed to have perished. The means of escape were very meager, and a thorough investigation is promised, which it is to be hoped will result in legislation that will compel hotel managers to provide sufficient means of escape from burning buildings.
It is almost sickening to read the accounts of crime chronicled in the daily papers. The most brutal "sport" of which we have any knowledge, was engaged in by two brutes in human form, in Camden, N. J. It consisted in kicking each other's bare shins, each combatant being shod with heavy boots. All the disgusting details of this affair were telegraphed across the continent, and will doubtless appear in every newspaper in the land. The fact that such things are printed at all is evidence of a depraved taste on the part of those who read, for newspaper managers know what the people want. And the worst of it is that those whose character is forming, very soon acquire a taste for just such stuff. And yet we are on the eve of the millennium!
Religious Notes.
By Editor
—The Baptists of Liberia number more than 2,000.
—"The lesson of a year," which the Independent teaches, after considering the year just passed, is that everybody should insure his life.
—A Baptist missionary at the Tennessee State Convention reported three churches that paid their pastor the munificent sum of six dollars.
—Thomas Sherman, son of Gen. W. T. Sherman, was recently ordained priest in the Catholic Church, and lectured on that occasion on "The Inquisition." He evidently has great faith in the infallibility of the church, or he would not defend an institution so odious to all lovers of liberty as is the Inquisition.
—All the Methodist Churches in Chicago, all the Baptist, also all the Congregational Churches except two, have discarded fermented wine, and use in the sacramental services only unfermented juice. The others think that the simple "fruit of the vine" is insufficient to represent the blood of Christ, and prefer alcohol.
—About the worst instance of wresting Scripture from its obvious meaning, is found in a sermon printed in the Christian Statesman. The preacher claims that the conquest of Rome by the barbarians was a fulfillment of Rev. 6 : 12-16. This, however, is on a par with the rest of the sermon, which teaches that "the kingdoms of this world" are to become the kingdoms of "our Lord and his Christ," by means of civil enactments.
—England has proposed to receive the representatives of the Pope, on the same footing as the representatives of any European Government, a proposition which the Pope approves, as a matter of course. The Monitor sees in this step an indication that "the Papacy is still a power in the world, and that it is now beginning again to resume that prominence in the affairs of the world, which gave it such prestige under the popes of past ages."
—The New York Tribune says: "That the world actually moves is a fact demonstrated by the discussion of the Methodist ministers in this city yesterday. Not only was the system of itinerant ministry attacked, but a prominent clergyman actually had the temerity to declare that the Methodists of John Wesley's time did not know as much as those of the present day." This is nothing strange. It is no uncommon thing to find ministers who think that their knowledge exceeds that of Paul himself, to say nothing of Bible writers of lesser note.
—The Christian Union well says that "the opinion is now entertained by some scholars that man is not immortal by nature, but possessed only of the possibility of immortality, and that immortal life is wrought in him only through faith." We would only add that a man does not need to be a scholar in order to entertain this opinion. If he be possessed of average sense, an unprejudiced mind, and the ability to read King James' Version, he will arrive at no other conclusion. In proof of this we refer to a few texts. Rom. 2 : 7; 6 : 23; 2 Tim. 1 : 10; John 3 : 16, 36; 1 Cor. 15 : 16-18, 52-57.
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"Sabbatarians."
By Editor
WE are under obligations to the New York Examiner (Baptist) for emphasizing a distinction that is thought of by but few. Speaking of certain papers which had characterized the New York Sunday movement as a "Sabbatarian movement," it says:—
"They ought to know that the only Sabbatarians in this country are the people who observe the seventh day of the week, and the chief among them are the Jews and the Seventh-day Baptists. We have heard of no public movement to promote the observance of Saturday as the Christian Sabbath."
The Examiner omitted Seventh-day Adventists, but it was not to this oversight that we designed to call attention, but to the conclusion deducible from its statement of fact. Sabbatarians are those who keep the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. This is substantially Webster's definition. Very good. Then no one is a Sabbatarian, or Sabbath-keeper, who does not keep the seventh day. This is what we teach as a Bible doctrine. We teach the commandment, and leave others to make the application, which the Examiner has done in this instance, by confessing itself to be among the Sabbath-breakers.
Again, many people delight to excuse themselves from keeping the Sabbath, by saying that they are not sure which day is the seventh day. The Examiner has no doubts on this point, but says that it is the day which the Jews and Seventh-day Baptists keep. Now how can the Examiner, and the Baptist denomination, which it represents, excuse themselves for not keeping the Sabbath of the Lord? The commandment is plain: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." If they were consistent with their profession to abide solely by the Bible, there would be no such distinction as Baptists and Seventh-day Baptists. To be sure, they might be "stigmatized" as Sabbatarians, but what of that? It is no uncommon thing for a person to be stigmatized for doing right, as the Baptists themselves can testify.
The Signs Canvass.
By Editor
CANVASSERS for the SIGNS have begun to work, and orders are coming in. There has been a little unavoidable delay in furnishing the premiums, but this will not occur again. In a few days we shall be able to fill orders to any extent, so let them come in. We are determined to have five thousand new subscribers this year, and if all the friends of the SIGNS will help, this can easily be done. It shall be our aim to make the SIGNS such a paper that it will be a positive necessity to everybody. Our constant study is to improve.
Of the merits of the premium which we offer to new subscribers, there can be no doubt. Conybeare and Howson's Life of Paul is not a new and untried book, but one that has passed through many editions, and has always been received with favor. It is an absolute necessity to one who would thoroughly understand the life of the great apostle. It is unsectarian, and commends itself to all.
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Healdsburg Sabbath-School
By Editor
The Healdsburg Flag devotes about two-thirds of a column in its last issue to the Sunday-schools of that place, the Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath-school receiving its full share of attention. From this we learn that the membership and attendance of the Adventist school are more than twice that of any other school in the place. The number of pupils is stated to be 172; average attendance, 150; number of teachers and officers, 30. The Flag speaks very kindly of the College, and of our people. We hope that it may never see occasion to recall any of its words of commendation.
