TAKE the conversion of the great apostle. After he was stricken down on his way to Damascus, and was thoroughly converted to the gospel, he began immediately to preach Christ. What was the burden of that preaching? Was it that this Jesus was a mighty man, a great prophet sent from God, or a holy angel sent from heaven? No, something different from all that. “And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” Acts 9: 20. Here it is again stated—Jesus Christ, the Son of God. How significant are all these declarations on these important occasions! Indeed, John holds this doctrine to be so important that he predicates eternal life upon it. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” 1 John 4: 15. And further he says that the only man who will overcome the world is the one who confesses this doctrine. 1 John 5: 5.
A doctrine which is thus plainly taught by angels, by the Father from heaven, by Christ himself, by the devils even, by John the Baptist, by men at their baptism, and by all the apostles on every occasion, must be a doctrine of solemn importance. Notice that none of them ever announced Jesus as the very and eternal God, or as one of the trinity, but simply and always as “the Son of God.” Observe the following facts:
1. Jesus is said to be the Son of God. This cannot possibly mean in the accommodated sense in which angels and all holy men are said to be the sons of God; for if this was so, the title as applied to Christ would mean nothing in particular more than that he was a good and righteous man the same as Abraham, Moses and the prophets. But that he meant more than this by it is evident from the way that the Jews received this claim. They themselves claimed to be the sons of God. But now hear what they said to Christ’s claim: “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5: 17, 18. Here it is manifest that they understood him to mean that God was his Father, indeed and truly, thus making himself equal with God, that is, actually partaking of the substance and nature of the eternal God.
In the common translation of John 5: 18, we read, “But said also that God was his Father.” Dr. Macknight says it ought to be, “his proper Father.” Dr. Hopkins says, “his own proper Father.” Dr. Campbell translates the whole verse thus: “For this reason the Jews were the more intent to kill him because he had not only broken the Sabbath but by calling God his proper Father, had equalled himself with God.” This is manifestly what Christ meant, and what the Jews understood him to claim.
Again at his trial, when he confessed himself to be the Son of God, the Jews claimed that he had spoken blasphemy by making himself the Son of God. “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” John 19: 7. If he had claimed to be the Son of God in no higher sense than all God’s people333claim to be, they would never have thought of preferring the charge of blasphemy against him.
All these facts go to show overwhelmingly that the New Testament sets forth Jesus as the Son of God in the natural and proper sense of the term, that is in the same sense as I am the son of my father, begotten of his own substance and person.
2. Jesus is declared to be the first born. “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.” Col. 1: 15.
3. Jesus is declared to be the first begotten. “And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.” Heb. 1: 6.
4. He is declared to be the only begotten Son of God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3: 16. See also 1 John 5.
5. Jesus is said to be God’s own Son. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Rom. 8: 32.
“But, as has been already abundantly implied, the Word is also the Son. As applied to our Lord, the title ‘Son of God’ is protected by epithets which sustain and define its unique significance. In the synoptic gospels, Christ is termed the ‘well-beloved Son.’ In St. Paul he is God’s ‘own’ Son. In St. John he is the only begotten Son, or simply the only begotten. This last epithet surely means, not merely that God has no other such Son, but that his only begotten Son is, in virtue of this Sonship, a partaker of that incommunicable and unperishable essence, which is sundered from all created life by an impassable chasm.” Liddon’s Bampton Lectures, Lecture 5, p. 233.
7. Jesus Christ is called the Son of God one hundred and thirty-one times.
8. God is called his Father one hundred and ninety-one times in the New Testament. With all this mass of testimony bearing upon this point we shall consider it a settled fact that Jesus is the Son of God.
Now as the son inherits the nature, attributes, and the dignity of his father, so Christ being the Son of the infinite God, must himself also be divine and infinite. He is so by his very nature, derived from his Father. He is not divine simply in the accommodated sense in which angels and holy men are; but is divine in his very origin, nature and being.
And here we must notice the absurd doctrine taught by the so-called orthodox creeds. They assert that Christ is the eternal Son of God; that is, that he is just as eternal and as old as the Father. As Dr. Adam Clarke says, this is eternal nonsense. The very idea of father necessarily supposes priority of existence. A son as old as his father! It seems as though that to state this was enough to refute it. The father as young as his son! This is the height of absurdity. There is no such doctrine taught in the Bible.
Again, they teach that the Father and Son are both one being, both the same, only in different offices, as the same man could be both a lawyer and a doctor at the same time. While officiating in one capacity he is a doctor, while in the other he is a lawyer. So the Father and the Son only mean different offices or relations of the same being, and there is truly only one being all the time. But this contradicts common sense and all the teachings of the Bible.
Every reader of the Bible must be conscious of the fact that it everywhere sets forth Jesus as a distinct person, a separate being from the Father. I venture the assertion that no Christian, I care not what his creed is, ever prays to God without conceiving of the Father and Son as two separate and distinct beings. I appeal to the reader if in all your prayers, you do not by faith behold the Son standing as a mediator between you and the Father, the Son an individual just as distinct from the Father as you are from your father? You see the Father upon his throne, you see the Son standing as a high priest before him; and this conception is true and well founded, because it is everywhere taught in the Bible.
Our trinitarian brethren have to maintain the absurd hypothesis that one is three and three are one. For more than a thousand years they have philosophized, and dogmatized, and split hairs, to maintain this absurd and contradictory theory; and they have never yet succeeded satisfactorily to themselves or to their disciples. It is painful to witness their desperate efforts to bolster up this great error. Says the creeds, “The Son which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting from the Father, the very and eternal God, and of
one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed virgin, of her substance and truly suffered, was crucified, died and buried.” Art. 2.
Reader, is this the truth? Was the very and eternal God born of a woman? Look at that little babe nursing at the breast of Mary. Was that the Almighty God? Was there no other God at that time in the universe except the babe? See Jesus expiring upon the cross. Is God, the source of all life and the author of the universe, is he dying? Christ died, and was dead three days. Was the eternal God dead? Was the universe without a God for three days? Strange that men ever conceived such notions. No, this is not the truth. God the Father was in heaven all the time, sitting upon his throne. It was the Son of God, who was born, who suffered, and died, and was buried. How many times Jesus prayed to his Father, not once nor twice, but frequently. It is said he lifted up his eyes unto heaven, and prayed to God. Was this all deception? Was he simply praying to himself? Was it his humanity praying to his divinity, his body praying to his soul? So it is asserted, but without proof; indeed, directly in the face of common sense and overwhelming proof against it. But how simple and plain it is when we understand that the Father was in heaven, that Christ his Son was upon the earth, and that it is the Son who prays to his Father! This is reasonable; that is what it says, and what we believe. To get out of this difficulty, the fable of the two natures in Christ has been invented, not a hint of which can be found in the Bible. It is never said that as man he did this, and as God he did that; that his humanity did this, and his divinity said that. Well might Paul ask, “Was Christ divided?” No; our Christ is a whole Christ.
“But what will our brethren do with the very man part of our Saviour, the mediator part? Will they worship it? No; that is a creature, that is human. Thus they divide the Saviour and label the parts,—this is divine, and that human; this God, and that man. This may be worshiped, but not that. Now I worship a whole Saviour. He is one undivided Saviour to me. I want none of this cutting and carving. I want no dissector to pass his knife through my Saviour severing him part from part and telling me which is divine and which human, which God and which human, which I may worship and which I may not. I am sure if we get to heaven we shall find an undivided Saviour there.” So says a spirited writer, and so we say.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
(To be continued.)
The Millennium and the Second Advent.
By James White
WHEN we were publishing at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., as early as the year 1850, we received a call from a Presbyterian minister who had been appointed to visit every family in a certain portion of that city. He inquired, “What business do you follow?” We replied that we were a minister of the gospel and a publisher. After examining our publications, and learning that we were laboring to turn men and women to the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, he remarked, “Well, sir, you have undertaken a herculean task to turn the world over to the seventh day.” We replied that we had not undertaken to convert the world to the Sabbath.
But, what was he doing? He and his brethren had undertaken to convert the world, and bring about the millennium. A herculean task, truly. Twenty-seven years have passed since that visit and conversation. We have lived to see twenty thousand turned over to the Sabbath. The wheels of Sabbath reform have moved forward gloriously, while the world-conversion car has rolled backwards. The result shows the feebleness of error and the power of divine truth. May God still speed on the good work. J. W.
Reports from the Field.
(Condensed from Review and Herald.)
Massachusetts.
Danvers.—Elder D. M. Canright writes: “The Lord is still prospering the work here and beyond our expectations. We now count between eighty and ninety adult Sabbath-keepers who are fully settled in the truth. We have begun to have prayer-meetings every evening around at the houses. These are very precious seasons. Each evening some one takes hold who had not done so before, and many have begun to pray who never prayed in the past. We have had two baptisms. Last Sunday there were about fifteen hundred present. Thirteen have been baptized. Last Sabbath there were ninety-six in our Sabbath-school, and new ones are coming every Sabbath. We have raised about $50 in money for books and papers to make our Sabbath-school interesting. In the afternoon there were over one hundred present at the social meeting. We have a pleasant hall, well located; and Sunday afternoons and evenings it is crowded, though it is a good large one. Indeed, I can see no dropping off of the interest. We find families every day who are interested, of whom we had not known before. Our meeting-house is shingled, and the work is going on well. Opposition sermons are preached about every Sunday by some one, but none of our friends pay attention to the many more. They hardly occasion a remark. All the papers have something to say, more or less, every week. They publish whatever we write.”
Wisconsin.
Pardeeville.—Meetings were held at this place over six weeks. Thirty signed the covenant to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The influence of these meetings extended to other neighborhoods, and calls were made for meetings. Brother Smith went to one school-house five miles north of Pardeeville, and Brother Olds to another three miles south-west, where short courses of lectures were given. Brother Smith reports that ten or twelve have decided to obey the message where he is holding meetings, and Brother Olds thinks a few, at the place where he is, will decide for God, making over forty in the vicinity of Pardeeville. They sustain weekly prayer and Sabbath meetings.
Indiana.
Thorntown and Darlington.—October 13, Brethren Lane and Bartlett held meetings at Thorntown. Ten were baptized; and a church of twenty-one members was organized at this place. Meetings are now being held at Darlington, where the tent labor has recently closed. At present there are nearly fifty Sabbath-keepers in this part of the State, where July 1, there were none.
Peoria.—At this place, fifteen have commenced to keep the Sabbath, ten of whom have signed the covenant. Probably others will soon.
Minnesota.
State Center.—The church at this place had a good quarterly meeting. Five followed their Saviour in baptism. Eight were added to the church.
Texas.
Peoria.—Of the interest at this place Elder R. M. Kilgore writes: “Since writing my last report, I have received a note from the sheriff of Hill county, stating as follows: ‘You shall be protected by law so far as lies in my power.’ With this note there came also the following petition from Hillsboro, the county seat of this county: ‘We, the undersigned citizens of Hillsboro and vicinity, most respectfully request Rev. Kilgore to preach a series of sermons at Hillsboro after he has ended his engagement at Peoria.’ This is signed by thirty-six of the most prominent and influential citizens of that place, which is but six miles east of Peoria. A very strong appeal comes from Towash, twelve miles west of this place, for me to give lectures there, and another from Prairie Valley, all of this county. These are all excellent openings for the truth; but how can I be at all of these places at the same time? I wish I could be, and still be efficient. The interest here is healthy, and I hope permanent good may result. I do not know how many are already keeping the Sabbath, but a very large number are under conviction. My courage is good. We have meetings every evening in the week except Monday, and two meetings on Sabbath and Sunday. The threat which I received on Sunday night, that I should be killed if I did not leave in twenty-four hours, has increased the number of our true friends. We hope on, pray on, and labor on; and we trust our brethren pray for the cause in Texas.”
Denmark.
By John G. Matteson
It is two weeks since I wrote last. Our meetings in Saltum on Sunday were well attended. In the afternoon I preached a thanksgiving sermon for the harvest-home. About three hundred persons met, and as the house was not large enough to accommodate all these, I went out into the open air, and spoke. But the weather was chilly, and I contracted a severe cold, from which I have not yet rallied.
Tuesday and Wednesday evening I preached in O. Hjermeslev, and Thursday evening in Stenum. In the former place many were obliged to stand outside both evenings, as there was no room inside the house. I believe that the Lord will bless the word spoken, and not let it return empty. It will rejoice my heart, if the seed which has been sown with weeping and under many difficulties, accomplish the good pleasure of the Lord.
I have visited some friends in Frederikshavn, and Elling parish, who have read our paper. Yesterday I held a meeting in Stranby, and am now in Jerup, where I also intend to hold a few meetings, and then return to Aalstrup. I attended the confirmation exercises in the church yesterday. The minister delivered a very able sermon on the law and the gospel. I have received six subscribers for the Tidende.
There are many difficulties in connection with our labor here; but I feel willing to leave myself in the hands of the Lord and labor as long as he gives grace and strength for the work.
In a strange land, among strangers, far away from the loved ones at home, and deprived of the comforts and blessings accustomed there to enjoy, we have realized more than ever before that we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth.
The only article of fuel used in this part of the country is turf. Wood is not to be seen. And a great deal of the turf is under water in the moor, so that it cannot be gotten up. Although the weather is very cold and damp, we have not yet been able to obtain a room with a fire-place or a stove in it. Many of the people are, because of their poverty, obliged to suffer a great deal from cold and dampness, while others prefer to do this rather than burn their fuel.
But the Lord be praised that he gives grace to be exercised in patience; and the desire and prayer of my heart is that all these things may serve to make us more spiritually minded, and prepare us to be better able to work in harmony with our dear brethren in other countries, to the glory of God, and to prepare the Lord a people who shall walk in the footsteps of Jesus and await his glorious appearing.
JOHN G. MATTESON.
Scripture Reference.
THE SANCTUARY.
“And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. viii, 14.
The subject of the Sanctuary is the center of the grand system of redemption through Jesus Christ. It gives a definite idea of the mediation of Christ in both the holies of the heavenly Sanctuary, and explains the nature of the dis-appointment of Adventists in 1844. For a clear and full exposition of this important theme see works treating upon it for sale at the SIGNS OF THE TIMES Office, Oakland, California.
15. From Rev. xv, 8, we learn that when the plagues, threatened in the third angel’s message, Rev. xiv, 9–11, and described in chap. xvi, are poured out, there will be no ministration; therefore they are “poured out without mixture” as the mediation of Christ will then have ceased, and mercy will no more be offered to sinners.
God’s Unchanging Love
Man’s love to his God is like the changing sand; God’s is like the solid rock. Man’s love is like the passing meteor with its fitful gleam; His is like the fixed stars, shining far above, clear and serene, from age to age in their own changeable firmament.
Anticipated Troubles Are Hardest to Bear
ANTICIPATED troubles are harder to bear than real ones, because Christ does not support us under them.
The Little Weaver.
By M. A. Davis
At a great sacrifice, a little maiden was once rescued from cruel bondage by a noble and powerful king. Many others had been ransomed in like manner, and the monarch extended to them all an invitation to unite in a grand jubilee to celebrate their liberation.
These captives wrought at the loom, and the king bade each weave a beautiful robe to wear at the great feast. If the work was faithfully performed, he promised to receive them into his own palace, as members of the royal family.
Filled with love and gratitude to her deliverer, the little maiden eagerly began her task. Day after day, the shuttle flew swiftly to and fro, weaving, in a pure white groundwork, beautiful figures of bright blue and shining gold.
As time passed on, she grew weary; the syren’s song fell sweetly on her ear, and soon she left her toil to join the giddy throng worshiping at pleasure’s shrine. But she found their fair exterior covering oft an aching heart; sharp, cruel thorns were hidden ’neath the roses wreathed around her brow, and the silver-hued illusions vanished from her grasp. Then she remembered him who had redeemed her at so great a price and turned back to her task again. Alas! an enemy had been at work. There were dark stains on the white groundwork, and the golden threads were tarnished. With bitter tears of penitence she confessed her wanderings and hastened to the fountain where the soiled fabric might be made pure once more. No longer could the gayety around attract her notice, for beyond the distant hills her fancy saw the sunlight gleaming on the palace-walls, and with new courage she plied the shuttle.
Sometimes her cunning foe would steal the golden thread and substitute a false tinsel, but it was detected by the test—the precious guide book which the king had given—and she carefully removed it, for a single thread would mar the garment and bar her forever from her promised home.
In every time of need the king provided help, and still she persevered. Others who had dropped their shuttles, now resumed them, once more sought the golden thread, and washed their defiled garments in the all-cleansing fountain. A few of the gay revelers, attracted by her glad songs and cheering words of the bright land afar, turned from their folly and joined her in the service of the master.
At last the work was done. The king, with all his retinue, came to receive his faithful servants. With joy, and yet in fear, the maiden went to meet him. Deeply she felt her own unworthiness, and timidly advancing fell at his feet as he received the fabric she had wrought. He gazed with loving tenderness on the bowed form before him, and gently bade her rise again; “Thou hast done well the work which I commanded, and behold, I have received thee;” then he passed his hand over the garment, and the tears that had fallen here and there became pure, shining pearls.
Throwing over it a transparent, silvery covering of dazzling brightness, he cast the robe around her, placed in her hand a harp, and on her brow a glittering crown, where, for every one whom she had led to serve the king, a star shone now.
Oh! pen may not describe, or artist picture, the beauty of that land which was to be the home of the redeemed; and as they reached its shining portals, the king himself threw back the palace gates and bade them enter in, amid the glories there, to dwell forevermore.
Dear reader, this is no fancy sketch. We are all working at the loom. Let us weave, for our robe of character, the spotless white of purity, the clear, bright blue of truth, and the golden thread of love to God and man. Let us beware of the tinsel of selfishness, for it can never enter the holy City. Only a character formed by a life of faithful obedience to God and cleansed by the atoning blood of Christ, can receive that glorious covering—His righteousness.—M. A. Davis.
The Use of Learning.
“I am tired of going to school,” said Herbert Allen to William Wheeler, the boy who sat next to him. “I don’t see any great use, for my part, in studying geometry, and navigation, and surveying, and mensuration, and the dozen other things that I am expected to learn. They will never do me any good. I am not going to get my living as a surveyor, or measurer, or sea captain.”
“How are you going to get your living, Herbert?” his young friend asked, in a quiet tone, as he looked up into his face.
“Why, I am going to learn a trade; or, at least, my father says that I am.”
“And so am I,” replied William; “and yet my father wishes me to learn everything that I can; for he says that it will all be useful some time or other in my life.”
“I’m sure I can’t see what use I am ever going to make, as a saddler, of algebra or surveying.”
“Still, if we can’t see it, Herbert, perhaps our fathers can, for they are older and wiser than we are. And we should endeavor to learn, simply because they wish us to, even if, in everything that we are expected to study, we do not see clearly the use.”
“I can’t feel so,” Herbert replied, tossing his head, “and I don’t believe that my father sees any more clearly than I do the use of all this.”
“You are wrong to talk so,” his friend said, in a serious tone. “I would not think as you do for the world. My father knows what is best for me, and so does your father know what is best for you; and if we do not confide in them, we will surely go wrong.”
“I am not afraid,” responded Herbert, closing the book over which he had been poring reluctantly for half an hour, in the vain effort to fix a lesson on his unwilling memory; and, taking some marbles from his pocket, he began to amuse himself with them, at the same time that he concealed them from the teacher’s observation. William said no more, but turned to his lesson with an earnest attention.
The difference in the character of the two boys is too plainly indicated in the brief conversation we have recorded, to need further illustration. To their teacher it was evident in numerous particulars—in their conduct, their habits, and manners. William always recited his lessons correctly, while Herbert never learned a task well. One was always punctual at school, the other a loiterer by the way. William’s books were well taken care of, Herbert’s were soiled, torn, disfigured and broken.
Thus they began life. The one obedient, industrious, attentive to the precepts of those who were older and wiser, and willing to be guided by them; the other indolent, and inclined to follow the leadings of his own will.
As men, at the age of thirty-five, we will again present them to the reader. Mr. Wheeler is an intelligent merchant, in an active business; while Mr. Allen is a journeyman mechanic, poor, in embarrassed circumstances, and possessing but a small share of general information.
“How do you do, Mr. Allen?” said the merchant to the mechanic, about this time, as the latter entered the counting-room of the former. The contrast in their appearance was very great. The merchant was well dressed, and had a cheerful look; while the other was poorly clad, and seemed troubled and dejected.
“I cannot say that I do very well, Mr. Wheeler,” the mechanic replied, in a tone of despondency. “Work is very dull, and wages low; and, with so large a family as I have, it is tough enough getting along under the best circumstances.”
“I am really sorry to hear you say so, Mr. Allen,” replied the merchant, in a kind tone. “How much can you earn now?”
“If I had steady work, I could make nine or ten dollars a week. But our business is very bad. The substitution of steam engines on railroads for horses on turnpikes has broken in seriously upon the harness making business. The consequence is, that I do not average six dollars a week, the year round.”
“Is it possible that railroads have wrought such a change in your business?”
“Yes; in the harness making branch of it, especially in large cities like this, where the heavy wagon trade is almost entirely broken up.”
“Did you say that six dollars a week was all that you could average?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How large is your family?”
“I have five children, sir.”
“Five children! And only six dollars a week?”
“That is all, sir; but six dollars a week will not support them, and I am, in consequence, going behindhand.”
“You ought to try to get into some other business.”
“But I don’t know any other.”
The merchant mused awhile, and then said: “Perhaps I can aid you in getting into something better. I am president of a newly-projected railroad, and we are about putting on the line a company of engineers, for the purpose of surveying and locating the route. You studied surveying and engineering at the same time I did, and I suppose have still a correct knowledge of both; if so, I will use my influence to have you appointed surveyor. The engineer is already chosen, and at my desire he will give you all requisition, until you revive your early knowledge of these matters. The salary is one hundred dollars a month.”
A shadow, still darker than that which had before rested there, fell upon the face of the mechanic. “Alas! sir,” he said, “I have not the slightest knowledge of surveying. It is true I studied it, or rather pretended to study it, at school; but it made no permanent impression on my mind. I saw no use in it then, and am now as ignorant of surveying as if I had never taken a lesson on the subject.”
“I am sorry, Mr. Allen,” the merchant replied in real concern. “If you were a good accountant, I might, perhaps, get you into a store. What is your capacity in this respect?”
“I ought to have been a good accountant, for I studied mathematics long enough; but I took little interest in figures, and now, although I was for many months, while at school, pretending to study book-keeping, I am utterly incapable of taking charge of a set of books.”
“Such being the case, Mr. Allen, I really do not know what I can do for you. But stay; I am about sending an assorted cargo to Buenos Ayres, and thence to Callao, and want a man to go as supercargo, who can speak the Spanish language. The captain will direct the sales. I remember that we studied Spanish together.
Would you be willing to leave your family and go? The wages will be one hundred dollars a month.”
“I have forgotten all my Spanish, sir. I did not see the use of it while at school, and therefore it made no impression upon my mind.”
The merchant, really concerned for the poor mechanic, again thought of some way to serve him. At length he said: “I can think of but one thing that you can do, Mr. Allen, and that will not be much better than your present employment. It is a service for which ordinary laborers are employed, that of chain carrying to the surveyor to the proposed railroad expedition.”
“What are the wages, sir?”
“Thirty-five dollars a month.”
“And found?”
“Certainly.”
“I will accept it, sir, thankfully,” the man said. “It will be much better than my present employment.”
“Then make yourself ready at once, for the company will start in a week.”
“I will be ready, sir,” the poor man replied, and then withdrew.
In a week the company of engineers started, and Mr. Allen with them as a chain carrier, when, had he, as a boy, taken the advice of his parents and friends, and stored up in his memory what they wished him to learn, he might have filled the surveyor’s office at more than double the wages paid to him as chain carrier. Indeed, we cannot tell how high a position of usefulness and profit he might have held, had he improved all the opportunities afforded him in youth. But he perceived the use and value of learning too late.
The writer earnestly hopes that none of his young readers will make the same discovery that Mr. Allen did, when it is too late to reap any real benefit. Children and youth cannot possibly know as well as their parents, guardians, and teachers, what is best for them. They should, therefore, be obedient and willing to learn, even if they cannot see of what use learning will be to them.
Cheap Pleasure.
Do you ever study the cheapness of some pleasure? asks some writer. Do you know how little it takes to make a multitude happy? Such trifles as a penny, a word, or a smile, do the work. There are two or three boys passing along—give them each a chestnut, and how smiling they look! they will not be cross for some time. A poor widow lives in the neighborhood, who is the mother of half a dozen children. Send them half a peck of sweet apples, and they will be happy.
A child has lost his arrow—the world to him—and he mourns sadly; help him to find it, or make him another, and how quickly will the sunshine play over his sober face. A boy has as much as he can do to pile up a load of wood; assist him a few moments, or speak a pleasant word to him, and he forgets his toil, and works away without minding it. Your apprentice has broken a mug, or cut the vest too large, or slightly injured a piece of work. Say, “You scoundrel,” and he feels miserable; but remark, “I am sorry,” and he will try to do better.
You employ a man; pay him cheerfully, and speak a pleasant word to him, and he leaves your house with a contented heart, to light up his own hearth with smiles and gladness.
As you pass along the street, you meet a familiar face; say “Good morning,” as though you felt happy, and it will work admirably in the heart of your neighbor. Pleasure is cheap. Who will not bestow it liberally? If there are smiles, sunshine, and flowers all about us, let us not grasp them with a miser’s fist, and lock them up in our hearts. No, rather let us take them and scatter them about us, in the cot of the widow, among the groups of children in the crowded mart, where men of business congregate7in our families, and everywhere. We can make the wretched happy, the discontented cheerful, the afflicted resigned, at an exceedingly cheap rate. Who will refuse to do it?
The Loom of Life.
All day, all night, I can hear the jar,
Of the loom of life, and near and far
It thrills with its deep and muffled sound,
As the tireless wheels go always around.
Busily the wheels turn, early and late,
And the woof is wound in the warp of fate.
Click, clack! there's a thread of love wove in!
Click, clack! and another of wrong and sin;
What a checkered thing will this life be,
When we see it unrolled in eternity!
Time, with a face like a mystery,
And hands as busy as hands can be,
Sits at the loom with its warp outspread,
To catch in its meshes each glancing thread.
When shall this wonderful web be done?
In a thousand years? Perhaps in one;
Or to-morrow. Who knoweth! Not you nor I,
But the wheels turn on, and the shuttles fly.
Ah, sad-eyed weaver, the years are slow,
But each one is nearer the end, I know.
And some day the last thread shall be woven in,
God grant it be love instead of sin.
Are we spinners of woof for this life-web—say?
Do we furnish the weaver a thread each day?
It were better then, oh my friend, to spin
A beautiful thread, than a thread of sin.
RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—The American Missionary Association convened at Syracuse, New York, October 23.
—Six hundred missionaries sent by Christian churches, it is said, have died in India, and the present number is exactly 600.
—The property of the Methodist church in New Jersey is estimated to be worth $5,000,000. There are 500 churches and 200 parsonages.
—The Philadelphia Chronicle says: We have been sending missionaries to the Indians for years, and yet late evidence goes to prove that the post-traders and Indian Agents are the ones who need the missionaries the most.
—The Hermannsburg Mission, of Germany, is doing very effective work in Africa. It was begun in 1853, and has now fifty stations and sixty missionaries, and 3,000 communicants in Africa. It has also eight stations in India, and two in the interior of Australia.
—An exchange says: “The native Christians of South Africa are learning the lesson of self-support. At Healdtown they raise $1,000 a year toward the support of their ministers, $500 for missions, and $250 for church purposes. They have erected a memorial chapel to the chief, Kama, for the building of which they raised $10,000.”
—An exchange says: “The Roman Catholics of Scotland are less than one-twelfth of the population. Yet this one-twelfth furnishes one-third of the criminals. In England and Wales the Roman Catholics are one-twentieth of the population; but the Roman Catholic prisoners are one-fourth of the prisoners. In Ireland the Roman Catholics are three and a half to one of the population, but six to one of the criminals. Authority, official reports, quoted by the “Monthly Letter of the Protestant Alliance.”
A general summary of the missions of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, for 1877, makes the following showing: Number of missions, 17; number of stations, 81; number of out-stations, 531. Ordained missionaries, 151; female assistants, 227; native pastors, 125; native preachers and catechists, 255; native school-teachers, 522; other native helpers, 270. Total connected with the missions, 1,563. Number of churches, 256; church members, 13,435; added during the year, 1,882. Whole number of pupils in schools, 26,962.
—English papers have the following: “Private information has reached London from a person of the highest rank in Rome that a new Pope has definitely been elected. The new Pope is to be Cardinal Panebianco, and he was elected in pectore at a secret conclave of Cardinals, summoned in consequence of the dangerous condition of the Pontiff’s health. According to precedent the Pontiff has informed him of his appointment, and officially requested him to resign the office of Grand Penitentiary before his accession to the chair of St. Peter, as he relinquished the office under similar circumstances. Cardinal Panebianco is a very old man, being within a year or two of 70, but he is described as being likely to continue the policy of Pope Pius.”—Daily Alta California.