Earlier text: Contained in this IssueTHE GREAT SALVATION
By Geo. W. Reaser
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." THE works of God in creation and in nature constitute a twofold agency in the plan of salvation. No spot can be found in earth, heaven, or space, where, either to the sense of sight or touch, there is not abundant evidence of the existence and power of a Supreme Being; "for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they [who refuse to accept the evidence and believe in the true God] are without excuse." "Because that which may be known of God is manifest to them; for God hath showed it unto them." The open book of Nature not only testifies to the existence and power of the true God, who gives to all life and breath and all things, and in whom alone "we live and move and have our being," but it makes emphatic declaration of the fact that "the hand that made her is divine." "The heavens declare the glory of God." We frequently measure the ability and power of man by the volume and excellency of the work which he is able to accomplish. Let us consider the Creator for a moment from the same standpoint. It is written of Him, that "the firmament showeth His handiwork." Doubtless there never was a child born into the world, who came to years of observation and even limited degree of understanding, who, on beholding the works of God in creation and nature, did not raise the query, By Whom Were These Things Made?
"When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained," the natural inquiry is, "Who hath made these things?" "How came they into existence?" When we meditate upon the illimitable vastness of space, the immensity of the various revolving spheres in space, and their velocity of orbital movement, we must recognize the fact that some unseen, intelligent, Central Power upholds them all, and that a Supreme Being must have control of the wonderful mechanism, by which they revolve in their allotted orbits. No shafting, or driving-belts, no cogwheels, or gear, no electric wiring from a central dynamo, are seen to connect the heavenly bodies with the Supply Center of all energy, yet they are connected therewith by a power a millionfold stronger than the strongest and mightiest cable ever forged by man. It is claimed by astronomers that the power required to hold the moon (always face toward us) in its orbit around the earth is equivalent to the united strength of as many rods of iron (each one-fourth of an inch in diameter) as there are square feet on half of the earth's surface. Or, to take the strength of a solid bar of iron, it would require a single bar 375 miles in diameter, to accomplish the same result. The power which upholds all things is manifest to reason's eye if not to our physical orbs of sight. The Very Recurrence of Day and Night
proclaims divine power. If, when night settles down over all the earth, it depended upon man to bring day again, the night would never terminate, the day never dawn. Man simply lies down at night, depending wholly upon the Lord to keep even his own organism at work, and to perpetuate his life, without a thought but that the Lord will uphold all things and bring the succeeding day. Therefore it is written that "day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." These evidences are abundant wherever man dwells, hence all who disbelieve God, are "without excuse." This universal evidence and constant witness should lead men to seek Him that made Orion and all they who seek Him will surely find Him for He is "not far from every one of us." Numerous instances are on record where individuals among the heathen have been led to worship the Creator thru reading the books of nature. Doubtless Abraham was one of this class. His own ancestors were idolaters, but as the eyes of the Lord ran to and fro thruout the whole world, "to show Himself strong in behalf" of those whose hearts were perfect toward Him, He beheld Abraham, honest in heart, seeking after the true God, and renouncing idolatry, and called him out to be "the father of the faithful," and to be an ancestor of the Christ. "When Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor of France, he put a man by the name of Charney into prison. He thought Charney was an enemy of his government, and for that reason deprived him of his liberty. Charney was a learned and profound man, and as he walked to and fro in the small yard into which his prison opened, he looked up to the heavens, the work of God's fingers, and to the moon and stars which He ordained, and exclaimed, 'All things come by chance!' One day, while pacing his yard, just breaking the ground near the wall. The sight of it caused a pleasant diversion of his thoughts. No other green thing was within his inclosure. He watched its growth every day. 'How came it here?' was his natural inquiry. As it grew, other queries were suggested. 'How came these delicate little veins in its leaves? What made its proportions so perfect in every part, each new branch taking its exact place on the parent stalk, neither too near another, nor too much on one side?' In his loneliness the plant became the prisoner's teacher and his valued friend. When the flower began to unfold he was filled with delight. It was white, purple, and rose colored, with a fine silvery fringe. Charney made a frame to support it, and did what his circumstances allowed to shelter it from the pelting rains and violent winds. "'All things come by chance,' had been written by him upon the wall, just above where the flower grew. Its gentle reproof as it whispered 'there is One who made me so wonderfully beautiful, and He it is who keeps me alive,' shamed the proud man's unbelief. He brushed the lying words from the wall, while his heart felt that 'He who made all things is God.' "But God had a further blessing for the erring man thru the humble flower. There was an Italian prisoner in the same yard whose little daughter was permitted to visit him. The girl was much pleased with Charney's love for his flower. She related what she saw to the wife of the jailor. The story of the prisoner and his flower passed from one to another, until it reached the ears of the amiable Empress Josephine. The Empress said: 'This man who so devoutly loves and tends a flower can not be a bad man,' so she persuaded the Emperor to set him at liberty. Thus the flower was to him like the angel that visited Peter's prison—his deliverer from the chains of his body and his soul. Charney carried his flower home, and carefully tended it in his own greenhouse. It had taught him to believe in God, and had delivered him from prison." "There's not a plant or flower below
But makes Thy glories known." To the one who recognizes the existence and whose soul is responsive to the presence of the creative God, scarcely anything will come under his observation but by it his mind will be directed to Him who "created all things by Jesus Christ," and the sentiment of his heart is:7 "Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed
Where'er I turn my eyes!
If I survey the ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the skies." "Silence had a tongue; the grave,
The darkness, and the lonely waste had each
A tongue, and ever said, Man, think of God!
Think of thyself! think of eternity!
Fear God, the thunder said; fear God, the waves,
Fear God, the lightning of the storm replied.
Fear God, deep loudly answered back to deep!" Skeptics profess to be wise above their fellows. They do "not like to retain God in their knowledge," and therefore try to banish Him from their thoughts. God pronounces all such fools. Great Calamities in Nature
frequently cause boldest infidels and those who scoff at the idea of prayer, to loudly call upon God for mercy. The Lord has never left "Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that" "sitteth in the seat of the scornful," or of the unbeliever; for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." How much less excusable is the unbelief of the professed Christian, than the bold cavil of the avowed infidel? In the days in which the coming of the Son of Man is imminent, God will employ to herald that grand event,—even as nature, in sympathy with its Creator, was affected at His crucifixion. BY DAY AND BY NIGHT.
By Max Hill
A PILLAR of cloud by day,
A pillar of fire by night,
To guide in the desert way,
And flood all the plain with light. When down by the Red Sea's edge,
Pressed close by the cruel foe,
To Egypt's battalions a hedge,
The pillar of cloud hung low. And ever, tho dark the night,
The patriarchs pitched their tents
Secure in the glorious light,
In Jesus, their strong defense. Thus Israel of old was led
Thru seas and thru desert drear,
A sheltering cloud overhead,
A light to dispel all fear. God's children may still behold,
If faithful to do His will,
A pillar of cloud as of old;
A pillar of fire shines still. His word is a lamp of light,
A sheltering cloud His love;
These guide every step aright
To mansions of peace above.
MAX HILL. OUR FIRST LOVE.
By C. H. Bates
"I HAVE somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Never in our experience as Christians should there come a time when we can not say that we are living nearer the Lord, and our hopes are brighter, than when we were first converted. The Christian's life is a life of progress in the divine life. While he will not boast of the progress made, he will be able to look back on his past experience and see when victory after victory has been gained, every one of which has left him stronger to meet the enemy of all righteousness. The record of Demas is a sad one. Read it in 2 Tim. 4:10: "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." He was at one time associated with the apostles in carrying the Gospel to every part of the then known world; but for some reason this servant of God laid down the armor, and we are not left in darkness and doubt as to the reason. Notice the latter part of the verse: "Having loved this present world." He had lost his first love of God. What does it mean to lose one's first love? There must have been a love that we once had that we do not now possess, and can it be true that such can be our condition? Do we love our husband or wife now less than we did when we were first united in marriage? We should be able to answer, No, from the fact that we are better acquainted with each other. This being true, how much greater should be the love of the dearest Friend on all the earth, the one who gave His life for us? And this love should increase and deepen the better we become acquainted. Paul, in writing to his fellow-worker, Timothy, leaves this encouraging testimony: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." When you first gave your heart to the Lord, did you commit its keeping to Him? If you answer, Yes, then I would ask, Is He keeping it better than you could keep it? And is not your experience in the things of God richer and brighter than it once was? Remember that we only do the committing and God does the keeping. Is God able to keep us? Paul's statement abundantly proves that He is; when I think of this, I am reminded of the words of David: "My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth; He will not suffer thy foot to be moved." "Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." Do you realize, dear fellow-Christian, that the One who has promised to keep you is the Maker of the heavens and the earth? Do you think there is power, then, sufficient to keep you from falling; and not only to keep you from falling, but at last to present you faultless before His throne? Remember the One who has promised to keep us does not go to sleep and forget His poor, trusting saints here upon the earth. "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." Then let no trusting soul become discouraged. We have every reason for rejoicing. The promises of God are abundant, and if we let them, will lift us above the trials and difficulties of this life, and finally give us a home such as is described by the apostle: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." THE LOS ANGELES "TIMES" ON A "SANE SUNDAY."
By Editor
THE Los Angeles Times, which for years has posed as a champion for individual rights, for Americanism, has an editorial in its issue of the 16th ultimo entitled, "A Sane Sunday." That article belies its claims. It starts out by saying: "A number of things are happening again, concerning the manner in which the public shall be allowed to observe the first day of the week." Think, reader, of what is implied in that sentence. Who, pray, shall tell the "public" how the "public" shall observe the first day but the "public" itself, and that, too, as individuals? What right has any one to say how the "public" shall observe "the first day of the week" different from any other day of the week? It is a religious day, different in observance from other days, that is sought; for the Sunday is a religious day. But as religion is a matter lying wholly between the individual man and his God, no one has a shadow of right to usurp the place of God and to declare how man or the public shall observe the day. The Times then refers to the present revival of blue laws in Boston under which "a Boston man or woman dare scarcely more than breathe. It is made an offense to smoke on Sunday in a public place," etc. [Evidently the editor is a smoker.] Chicago is referred to as a place where men are seeking to throw off all restrictions. "What is wanted," says the Times, "is a straddle. The thing to be advocated is a sane Sunday for the people, and let the extremists on both sides make the best of it." But if Sunday observance is a matter of righteousness, there can be no "straddle," no compromise, in righteousness. More than this, it would be an utter impossibility to frame a law which would not be taken advantage of on the one side or the other; and, as the Sacramento Union truly remarks, such a law would settle no problem while it would create twenty. But whose law would be the "sane" law? Would it be Massachusetts's law? Our Puritan friends would doubtless claim that their law was the type at least of the only sane Sunday law which was effective. Even now their demand is that it be made more stringent. Our Catholic friends would contend that the only sane Sunday law is one requiring attendance at mass in the forenoon, with the afternoon given up to ordinary pleasure. Those who are contending for a Sunday-law, who believe in it enough to work for it, are those who demand the Puritan or Scotch Sunday. All others, like the Times, are endeavoring to steer their compromise craft between Scylla and Charybdis to keep their feet on both sides of the politico-religious Sunday-law fence. Will the editor of the Los Angeles Times frame for us a model, sane Sunday law? The Times thinks there should be "a wholesome respect for the opinion of the majority." Nonsense. Such a thought is un-Christian, un-American. No man is8 bound to respect the opinions of others tho he stand alone. If the Times principle be true, Jesus ought to have respected the opinion of the Jews; for they were greatly in the majority. He could thus have saved Himself from crucifixion. Martin Luther might thus have lived and died a monk in the Catholic fold. The men of 1776 need not have fought the war of the Revolution. Let us respect men, not opinions, unless in our conviction their opinions are worthy of respect. But tho their opinions in our judgment are not entitled to respect, the men themselves are; they should be respected notwithstanding their views. "Honor all men." Protect the individual in his inalienable right to disagree with us if he so elect. This is Americanism; this is Christianity. Well did George Bancroft, the historian, say of the fundamental law of this nation: "The Constitution establishes nothing that interferes with equality or individuality. It knows nothing of differences by descent or opinions of favored classes, or legalized religion, or the political power of property. It leaves the individual alongside the individual. . . . Religion was become avowedly the attribute of man and not of a corporation. . . . Vindicating the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all, the new nation dared to set the example of accepting in its relations to God the principle first divinely ordained in Judea."—"Hist. of the Const., Bk. V, Chap. 1." Under these principles there is no room for Sabbath laws of any kind, and it is political and religious and suicidal insanity to enact and enforce them. As for respect for Christianity or the religion of the majority, it will never be won nor fostered by coercion or compulsion. Men's measure of respect will be proportionate to the moral effect of the religion upon those who profess it. COUNTED WORTHY.
By Ella Cornish
WHAT high privilege is mine!
Granted me by love divine,
Counted meet to suffer shame
For the Master's holy name. There's no merit I can boast,
Helpless, weak, undone, and lost,
Saved by grace abounding free
In the gift of Calvary. Prison bars may shut me in,
I have liberty in Him;
Slanderous tongues may evil speak,
But His favor I will seek. Cross of earth I'll soon lay down
To receive a heavenly crown,
Share with Christ a sweet, new name,
Never more to suffer shame. Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time
"Doing the right thing at the right time is the essence of all right faith." WAS THE GOSPEL TAKEN FROM THE EARTH?
By W. A. Alway
THOSE who have followed carefully the foregoing articles of this series must admit that the Gospel authority given to the church was virtually, essentially, bound into and attached to the spirit-filled word of God rather than the fallible individual. Man by submitting his own life to the conditions of this word may become the channel thru which its saving power is communicated to the repentant soul; but since the power is in the word, the man or the church that forsakes the word are at the same time deprived of their authority. It was for this reason that Paul, in 2 Tim. 4:1-4, so earnestly admonished the youthful Timothy in view of the judgment of the great day to remain loyal to the word of truth, and warned him of the approaching period of darkness when multitudes would be led astray by the fables of men. The dangers, perils, and persecutions of these coming days of darkness were often referred to by Christ and in the inspired writings of the New Testament. In his parting instruction to the elders of the church at Ephesus the apostle warned the church that immediately after his departure grievous wolves would enter the fold and by teaching perverse things draw away disciples after themselves. Referring to this same time in his second letter to the Thessalonians, he declares that before the second advent of Christ there should be a period of apostasy, termed the "falling away," in the church. This "falling away" would result in the exaltation of the "man of sin," who was to exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. 2 Thess. 2:1-4. Some persons have erroneously supposed that these scriptures pointed to a period of time when the saving power of the Gospel would be removed from the earth. This seems an impossible conclusion from the language of this scripture itself. For if the church fell away from the Gospel and did not take the saving Gospel with it, then certainly the Gospel would remain. It was not the Gospel that fell away, but the people. Other scriptures also prohibit this view with even greater clearness. In His instruction to His disciples just before His ascension, Christ left this promise of encouragement: "Lo, I am with you alway [all the way], even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:20. Again: "Upon this Rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:18. If the powers of darkness had driven the children of God with the open door of salvation from the earth, surely it would have been a signal triumph for the gates of hell. Thru the prophet Isaiah it was declared: "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isa. 55:11. Some of the purposes for which this unfailing word was sent forth are expressed in the preceding verses of this same chapter. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Verse 1. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." "Let the wicked forsake his way, . . . and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him." Verses 6, 7. If it be true that for nearly eighteen long centuries this word of Gospel invitation and promised pardon was withdrawn from the earth, so that there was no rest for the "heavy laden," and no response to the sinner's cry, could it be truthfully said that this universal invitation was accomplishing its purpose in the earth? Let us view this thought from the standpoint of the parable of the Wheat and Tares, recorded in Matthew 13. In a private interview (verses 37-41), Christ explained the wheat to be the children of the kingdom, and the tares to be the children of the wicked one; the imperative command was, "Let both grow together until the harvest," which, in verse 39, is said to be the "end of the world." But if the apostasy swept the Gospel from the earth, with all true representatives of its power, how could the wheat and tares grow together until the harvest? Consistent with this conclusion are all the admonitions of Christ relative to these evil days of apostasy. In the Lord's great prophecy recorded in Matt. 24:12, 13, the Saviour declared of this period, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many [not all] shall wax cold," and He adds for the encouragement of the faithful ones, "but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." The Militant Church and Her Refuge.
All are agreed that the future history of the church with its trials and conflicts was the subject of the symbolic prophecy recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Revelation. After the ascension of Christ, the man Child, to God and to His throne (See Rev. 19:11-15; 3:21), the dragon is represented as turning in wrathful persecution upon the woman, the church, who still remains upon the earth. Verse 13. In verse 6 the church is represented as fleeing to the wilderness, an earthly not a heavenly retreat. Even admitting this language to be symbolical, it would be inconsistent to represent heaven as a wilderness. Then, too, the dragon, or Satan (verse 9), whose abode is upon the earth (Job 1:7), sent out a flood9 after the church who must still have been upon the earth; for verse 16 declares that the earth helped the church and swallowed up the flood. Verse 17 reveals the remnant church still in deadly conflict with the devil in this present evil world. We have therefore in this chapter the whole earthly history of the church revealed from the time of Christ's first advent to the end of the world. This period of bitter persecution, during which time the church was to remain in obscurity, is designated in verse 6 as 1,260 prophetic days, or literal years (Eze. 4:6), and covers that long night of papal supremacy known in history as the Dark Ages. It was the children of God, who still held to the simplicity of Gospel truth, that were torn by satanic oppression and compelled to seek the seclusion of the wilderness and mountain fastnesses. There they preserved the simple truth of the living word in those obscure retreats. Christ, in referring to this experience of His church, said: "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Matt. 24:21, 22. Note that it was the "elect" who were suffering at this time and for whose sake the "days" were "shortened." But how could there be an "elect" in those days if it be true, as some believe, that there was no Gospel on earth to produce them. Is it possible that the multitudes, who, in those dark days marched heroically to the stake, whose faces shone with a heavenly radiance, as they laid down their lives for Christ, whose expiring words were sweet with the fragrance of the divine spirit of forgiveness to their enemies, is it possible that those people lived such lives of self renunciation, and died such triumphant victors and were yet strangers to the power and consolations of the Gospel? It was not the intention, neither was it the promise, of Christ that, when the way grew rough and thorny and the days dark with error and evil, that people should be taken out of the world and its conflicts; for in earnest prayer Christ said: "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me thru their word." John 17:15, 20. Could language be more conclusive to show that Christ intended to preserve an unbroken chain of witnesses to the saving power of the Gospel to the end of time? [This article will be followed by one entitled, "Submission to the Sin-Condemning Word versus Commercialism."] HOW A CONVERTED INDIA WOMAN VIEWED CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
SOME years ago the well-known Pundita Ramabai, a converted woman of India, came to this country. The following are her impressions after hearing about "Christian Science:" "On my arrival at New York last spring, I was told that a new philosophy was being taught in the United States, and had already many disciples. The philosophy was called Christian Science, and when I asked what its teachings were, I recognized it as being the same philosophy that has been taught among my people for four thousand years. . . . As I was born and educated in this philosophy, having taken my degree of pundita in it, I am acquainted with both its literature and its influence on my people, and I want to witness to its degradation. . . . You are to take the whole universe as nothing but falsehood. You are to think it does not exist. You do not exist when you realize that; that is philosophy. "You, Christians, are a people of some feeling. Everything is real. You feel when other people are starving you ought to give them something to eat; but out in India, they do not feel that. Men do not feel any sympathy for others. They do not feel for people who are starving or being killed in war. In our late famine our philosophers felt no compassion for sufferers, and did not help the needy. Why should they help them when they claimed the suffering was not real, neither the dying of children real? The first results, then, of this philosophy is the basest cruelty and selfishness; no compassion for sufferers, and supreme egotism." SYMPATHY.
By Eliza H. Morton
If your soul were in my soul's stead,
O say, would you speak as you do?
If your heart felt all my heart's pain,
O think how 'twould seem unto you. If your feet stood where my feet stand,
How firm do you think they would be?
If your home were just like my home,
O, what would you say then to me? If your soul were in my soul's stead,
Are words that to you have been given,
Let your voice be sympathy's voice,
And 'twill be an echo from heaven.
ELIZA H. MORTON. THOUGHTS ON TEMPTATION.
By Henry Wm. Rose
No one can go thru life without meeting temptation. It is inseparable from the Christian's experience, and is a matter that compels earnest consideration. We must recognize, first of all, that temptation is an inducement to do something which is intrinsically wrong. Therefore, the very thought of being tempted should put us on our guard, and is to be looked upon as a danger signal. And should we be led to ask, Would it be a sin to do so and so, we may generally take it for granted that the better and safer course is to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. Nobody was ever "tempted" to do what is right. We perhaps sometimes flatter ourselves that we, professed Christians, resist temptations to do many things which would shock us; yet, the truth is, they are not really temptations to us, because we have no inherent desire to do them. It is no credit to a Christian that he does not steal or murder, or do other atrocious things. But it is a credit to the child of God if the temper is controlled, the passions subdued, if the subtle, minor sins are fought against and overcome. We are deluded if we think that it is a victory over the tempter when we merely abstain from doing what it would be distasteful to do. While temptation is commonly viewed as a terrible thing, possibly we do not often think of it in the light of an opportunity to gain a victory. Yet the greater the temptation, the larger may be the victory. And each victory makes another easier, just as each defeat makes the next one more certain. We can not conquer temptation by dodging it, or trying to. To go around the corner is different from meeting a foe and vanquishing him. When temptation comes, let us bravely meet it, and take a firm stand, and be "more than conquerors thru Him who loved us." We especially need to overcome the hidden temptations that are not open to every one's gaze; those "little favorite temptations," so deadly in their effect; in short, "the sin that doth so easily beset us." It is worth remembering that a good many victories are only known to the individual and to God. As Burns so beautifully puts it,
"What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted."
So if we fall, and others see it, let us be cheered and encouraged to get up and try again, bearing in mind that perhaps for one time we fell there have been ninety-nine when we successfully resisted, tho none knew it. Again, temptation is an opportunity to show one's colors. If the tempter finds that we are strong on any particular point, he will cease to attack us there, but will search for the weak spots in our armor, and deal his blows at them. So we need ever to be on the alert, and "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." When Jesus was severely tempted, He won the day by using the sword of the Spirit, the word of God; so can we. A text of scripture quoted in the hour of temptation will work wonders—if it be appropriate. The devil, we are told, "can quote scripture for his own purpose." Then surely the Christian should be able to use it for his purposes, too. The well-known hymn says, "Yielding is sin." Remember, the fact that we are tempted is not of itself sin, but the yielding to it is. If we learn to instantly recognize temptation, no matter in what form, however alluring it may come, it will be much easier to resist it. One good way to get a victory is to take action the very first moment the temptation appears—nip it in the bud. To dilly-dally and compromise is almost certain to end in defeat, none the less complete because it came gradually. When tempted, say "No!" and having said it, do not retract one inch, but hold your ground. We should not run into temptation, nor go to places where we are sure we shall meet it; that would be seeking it, the first step toward yielding to it. No; but being in the face of temptation, make it plain that our position is that of one who can say "No!" and mean it. Perhaps we mistake God's trying us for the devil's tempting us. This is a vital point. Our faith will often be tried; Satan will never cease tempting. But God never seeks to induce one of His children to sin; Satan is everlastingly trying to do that. Let us each endeavor to cultivate discernment so that we may know when we are tried and when tempted. Conquering temptation depends upon having power that God will give us, if we want Him to. This strength may be had by living in close touch with heaven; by constantly maintaining an attitude of willingness to be led of the Spirit. Remembering what the consequences of yielding will be should prove an effectual safeguard. We ought to profit by the sad experiences of those who have fallen. Temptation may indeed be a source of strength to the Christian if he gets victory out of it. Let us see to it that we will be master over the things that trip us up; we can be, and why should we not be? And, for our encouragement, it is written that we have a Saviour who was "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." Thank God for the One who has gone the way before us, and promises to help us when we are sorely tempted. WHEN DAY IS DONE
By Mrs. Flora E. Yergin
“OPEN your heart every morning to Christ. Let Him enter and repair the strings that sin has broken, and sweep them with His skilful fingers, and you will go out to sing thru all the day. Only when the song of God's love is singing in the heart are we ready for the day.” THE day is dead, and even’s holy stillness
Falls like a mantle over earth and men;
The winds are hushed, and birds have ceased their warbling;
Night gently covers every hill and glen. And who can doubt that at the day’s departing
The Lord God walks o’er moor and hill and fen,
And calls, as once He called in Eden’s bowers,
To hold sweet converse with the sons of men? O Father, let me hear Thee when Thou callest,—
That after winter’s cloud, or summer’s sun,
I may with Thee leave all my heavy burdens,
And find sweet rest and peace when day is done.
Mrs. Flora E. Yergin. ONE OF THE GREATEST NATURAL WONDERS.
IN the heart of South America, at the meeting place of three republics, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, nature has chosen the site for a masterpiece of scenic grandeur to be compared only to the mighty Niagara in majesty, and pronounced by some of the few travelers who have seen it to be even greater than its North American counterpart. The Falls of Iguazu occur at the junction of Iguazu River with the Upper Parana, in a territory famous as the original locality of the Jesuit missions, established in the sixteenth century, the ruins of which may still be seen by those who visit the falls. About twelve miles above the falls the River Iguazu makes a sharp bend, almost at right angles, giving them greater extent and more varied character than those of Niagara, which to some degree they resemble. As the river makes the sharp bend already mentioned, the main volume of water rushes around the inner bank and is discharged into a long, narrow gorge, at one point making a clear plunge of 210 feet. Not all the volume of the river is received at this place, however, the rest of the water running out past it into the wide elbow formed by the bend, and circling along the further shore among many rocks and islands before reaching the edge of the cliff, over which the descent is made in two great leaps of a hundred feet each, in a vast semicircle of 3,000 feet. The total length of Iguazu Falls, if measured at the upper edge of the cliff, thru their broken contour, including intersecting islets, is twice as great as that of Niagara, including the intersection of Goat Island.11 The double fall of Iguazu is the most striking feature of that cataract, the rocky shelf or platform that divides the leap being in some places more than fifty yards wide and in others only a few feet. The roar of the waterfall is more impressive for the solitude of the spot and the eternal silence that reigns in the dense forests that mark its border, into which the white man has scarcely penetrated. For several miles before the falls are reached the river is a mass of huge, frowning boulders and whirlpools. It must be seen from different points to be appreciated in all its beauty.—National Geographic Magazine. THE JEWELS OF THE SEASONS.
THE emeralds brighten the Springtime ways,
The rubies and pearls make the Summer rose.
The opals are dreaming of Autumn days.
The diamonds are gleaming in time of snows.
—Woman's Tribune. WE'LL BE GATHERED HOME.
By Margaret E. Sangster
WHEN the tasks of life are over,
And the Master calls us in,
When the final strife is ended,
And we cope no more with sin,
In the kingdom of the holy,
Where no evil thing may come,
There with all the saved forever,
We'll be gathered home. Only blessing in that country,
Only happiness and love;
Only learning of His sweetness,
In the land of all above, Never pain that place shall enter,
Never sorrow there shall come.
And redeemed from death forever,
We'll be gathered home. Multitudes whom none can number,
Every age and every clime;
Saints of Jesus safely harbored,
Far beyond the waves of time.
There, where all is joy and gladness,
There where none shall seek to roam,
In the kingdom of the Father,
We'll be gathered home.
—Margaret E. Sangster.