The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself, and this consecration to God and separation from the world is plainly declared and positively enjoined in both the Old and New Testaments. There is a wall of separation which the Lord himself has established between the things of the world and the things he has chosen out of the world and sanctified unto himself. The calling and character of God's people are peculiar. Their prospects are peculiar, and these peculiarities distinguish them from all people. All of God's people upon the earth are one body, from the beginning to the end of time. They have one head that directs and governs the body. The same injunctions rest upon God's people now, to be separate from the world, as rested upon ancient Israel. The great head of the church has not changed. The experience of Christians in these days is much like the travels of ancient Israel. Please read 1 Cor. 10, especially from the 6th to the 15th verse.
“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. * Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.”
1 John 3 : 1. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
1 John 2 : 15-17. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
2 Pet. 2 : 2. “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.”
James 4 : 4. “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
James 1 : 27. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Titus 2 : 12-14. “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Rom. 12 : 2. “And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
John 17 : 14, 15, 17. “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.”
Luke 6 : 22, 23. “Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for behold your reward is great in Heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.”
John 15, 16-19. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain : that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
1 John 4 : 4, 5. “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them : because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world : therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.”
1 John 2 : 5, 6. “But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected ; hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.”
1 Pet. 2 : 9. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
As we read the word of God, how plain that God's people are peculiar and distinct from the unbelieving world around them. Our position is interesting and fearful; living in the last days how important that we imitate the example of Christ, and walk even as he walked. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” The opinions and wisdom of men must not guide or govern us. They always lead away from the cross.
The servants of Christ have not their home or their treasure here. Would that all of them could understand that it is only because the Lord reigns that we are even permitted to dwell in peace and safety among our enemies. It is not our privilege to claim special favors of the world. We must consent to be poor and despised among men until the warfare is finished and the victory won. The members of Christ are called to come out and be separate from the friendship and spirit of the world, and their strength and power consists in their being chosen and accepted of God.
The Son of God was the heir of all things, and the dominion and the glory of the kingdoms of this world were promised to him. Yet when he appeared in this world it was without riches or splendor. The world understood not his union with the Father ; and the excellency and glory of his divine character were hid from them. He was therefore “despised and rejected of men,” and “we did esteem him smitten of God and afflicted.”
Even so the members of Christ are as he was in this world. They are the sons of God and joint heirs with Christ ; and the kingdom and dominion belong to them. The world understand not their character and holy calling. They perceive not their adoption into the family of God. Their union and fellowship with the Father and the Son are not manifest to the world, and while they behold their humiliation and reproach, it does not appear what they shall be. They are strangers. The world knows them not, and appreciates not the motives which actuate them.
The world is ripening for its destruction. God can bear with sinners but a little longer. They must drink the dregs of the cup of his wrath unmixed with mercy. Those who will be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ to the immortal inheritance, will be peculiar. Yes, so peculiar that God places a mark upon them as his, wholly his. Think ye that God will receive, honor and acknowledge a people so mixed up with the world that they differ from them only in name? Read again Titus 2 : 13-15.
It is soon to be known who is on the Lord’s side, who will not be ashamed of Jesus. Those who have not moral courage to take their position conscientiously in the face of unbelievers, and leave the fashions of the world and imitate the self-denying life of Christ, are ashamed of him, and do not love his example.
E. G. W.
"The Adventists and the Rest of Us."
By Dudley Marvin Canright
UNDER the above heading the Examiner and Chronicle of May 6, has the following well-deserved rebuke for those who neglect and oppose the doctrine of the second advent, and spiritualize away that grand Bible doctrine. But the churches are too far gone in apostasy to heed this much-needed advice.
"But some who avoid the error of the Adventists fall into a still greater one, if tried by a Scriptural standard. Too many have no faith in the Advent, and no expectation of it. It is to them at best a figure of rhetoric—to some a rejected superstition. This skepticism is not confined to Unitarians and Free Religionists. Men of reputed orthodoxy sublimate the second coming of Christ, the resurrection and the last Judgment, into poetical imagery by which the experiences of the soul in passing from this to another life are illustrated. Not a few of those who retain the Scriptural faith in their forms of doctrine, at least in general terms, give no study to the subject, and have for it no definite place in their scheme of belief. They seldom think of it. They have no particular feeling about it. It can hardly be that they have a real expectation of it. When we think of the almost total silence which prevails on this truth in the churches, it is not surprising that the preachers of premillennialism conceive themselves to be called to the prophets' work of awakening the people of God from slumber. And since there is so much testimony in Scripture that our Lord is coming again, many who do not hear the truth from sober students of God's Word receive it, with all its admixtures of error, from the fanatics of Second Adventism.
This condition of things is not to be remedied by pastors making haste to preach on the subject, and then discharging their minds of it for an indefinite time. The great expectation of the primitive believers, which illuminates the New Testament, especially the apostolic epistles, needs to be intelligently entertained and vitally cherished. The truth, known and loved, and recognized in the worship of the churches, will be the sufficient preservative against error, and will have power in producing a more unworldly piety—the character of those who "look for" and "love" His appearing."
D. M. C.
The Burden of the Gospel Is Love
The burden of the gospel is love; but it is a love which speaks the command of God with authority, and insists upon obedience to him as the only way of safety and life.
The Sunny Side.
WHY is it that the great majority of religious teachers have fallen, at the present time, into the habit of presenting only the sunny side of religion? Have they lost sight of the fact that there is a cross connected with the religion of the Bible? Do they not remember there is suffering, self-denial, and sacrifice, to be experienced as tokens of separation from, and death to, the world? Have they forgotten the words of the Master, "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Has the following language of the great Teacher faded from the memory of his professed disciples: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Matt. 16:24.
Were we left alone to the teachers of a popular religion, to learn our duty as Christians, to learn the distinguishing evidences, we must bear that divine grace has wrought such a change in our hearts and lives, that with the apostle we can say, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14), one might suppose "the offense of the cross" had ceased, and that now we can "sail to Heaven on flowery beds of ease."
In speaking of the sermons preached in New York City last Christmas by different ministers, a writer says, "It is instructive to see how modern clerical teaching dwells upon the bright side of our religion, and almost altogether evades allusion to its threats and terrors. Mr. Beecher is famous for this kind of preaching. We think of Mr. Beecher always in connection with birds and flowers and music, as if he should speak from a bower rather than a pulpit. . . . We would point out the notable fact that the regular, old-fashioned preaching of the doctrine of punishment for sin has almost entirely disappeared from the metropolitan pulpit. Our clergymen make religion so agreeable that it is really a sacrifice to remain a sinner, and we are compelled to consider those persons very foolish who avoid the churches when they might so easily obtain the assurance of heavenly joys without giving up a single respectable worldly pleasure."
BEING encouraged by seeing that some advancement has been made by our T. and M. officers and members in their mode of performing their respective tasks, we shall still patiently labor on, giving such counsel as we trust may stimulate us all to unity of action in each and every department of the work.
Bro. Haskell tells us, as the result of his experience, that "the prosperity of every tract society depends very much upon unity of action. I do not believe that any tract society can prosper unless this is the case. Each district should be engaged in the same enterprise at the same time. A united and harmonious effort should be put forth in every advance step taken. It is when we all lift together that the cause moves."
With this view of the case the T. and M. work is considered by the President and directors, and laid out before the T. and M. officers and members, and then the question should be with all, what are we called upon to do at present? Learning our duty let us do it promptly and cheerfully, then we will be ready to hail the next duties as they come. We should ever have the spirit of him who inquired, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"
Aside from our continual tract and SIGNS distribution, and obtaining of paying or trial subscribers to the SIGNS, there is introduced for present action a matter on which we have spoken from time to time. It is this: We sent last week lists of subscribers to different churches and individuals on this coast, and shall continue to send them, until we have sent out the entire list to the T. and M. workers in the various States. We made some explanation in the last paper relating to these lists. We now say further that here is a chance for immediate action, in these cases where lists have been or may be received. What is wanted is first to see if the SIGNS is being read with interest and profit by those who have been receiving it free, for three, six, nine, or twelve months.
This move is not to cut off those who are interested in the perusal of SIGNS, but to get a report as to how the case does stand. One brother who sent us a list of over one hundred names, most of whom have had the paper free for about a year, has begun now to look them up, and finds that many of them have "moved away." Of course it is no benefit to such to send them papers only to be burned as waste paper.
Secondly, If persons have read with interest and wish to contribute to the support of the SIGNS, let them have an opportunity to do so. Thirdly, If persons do not wish the paper longer their cases should be reported. Fourthly, Those who have sent papers to their friends, either in California, or other States, who are prepared to report (as all should be) as to how these papers are received, should immediately report on the same to the SIGNS office, giving the name and P. O. address of your friends distinctly. If such wish to contribute for the support of the SIGNS, of course it is their privilege. Let it be borne in mind that each paper will cost for publication at least $2 per year. This expense will of necessity, be borne by some one. We are not for making rash moves or hastily cutting off interested readers if they have not the means with which to pay for their papers. Let what is done on these lists in calling upon subscribers, be done patiently and with the greatest kindness and courtesy.
It is the duty of the agent in each church to attend to the lists, as will be seen by the following quotation from our State T. and M. Constitution, Art. V., Sec. 3, (2), defining the duties of the director: "To appoint an agent (who may or may not be the librarian) in each church, to collect dues on periodicals which may have been stopped, and to take moneys by renewing subscriptions or by new subscribers, and the director shall furnish him with a list of subscribers for that church and vicinity only."
This defines the work of using the list sent out. Our church T. and M. business agents are the proper persons to take charge of the work, reporting through their district secretary, and paying the money collected immediately to the director.
We supposed we made the matter sufficiently plain in SIGNS No. 13, as to what was to be done with money collected, so that no business agent would spend the money for his own use, instead of paying it over to the director, and then when the church is called upon to pay its indebtedness report that "the business agent failed to pay it to the director and is cramped just now, will have to earn it before he can pay it over." "Faithfulness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever." I will state again on this point what I stated in No. 13:—
"The business agent of each church should pay all money received for periodicals to the director, and immediately send the business to the district secretary. The district secretary will charge these subscriptions to the church from which they come, and send the business for the SIGNS office to its destination, and that for the Review office to the State Secretary."
Again: "When the director of any district pays to the State T. and M. treasurer the money on subscriptions, he should immediately forward a statement of the fact; and specify the amount paid so that the district secretary may give credit to the respective churches in that district from which the money has been received. If it pertains to the publications at Battle Creek, the district secretary should forward a statement of the same to the State secretary, in order that she may give credit to the respective districts for the same."
According to the real plan of doing T. and M. credit business, it is expected that all credit accounts shall be squared each quarter. There is no reason why this may not be so with a little care, and with promptness on the part of the T. and M. officers. First, Let no business agent send an order to the Secretary for paid subscribers to the SIGNS or other periodicals until the money for the same has been paid to him. Secondly, When the name is forwarded to the district secretary let the business agent immediately pay the money over to the director. If these directions are followed the treasurer can easily obtain the money at the close of each quarter to square the whole account. We protest against business agents or secretaries ordering papers charged to their district when they have themselves received no money for the same.
We deeply regret that any should take the liberty to use for their own purposes means which should have been passed directly to the director. I hope no such license will be taken again. This is not the kind of credit business proposed to be done by the T. and M. Society.
We are now making an effort to square our T. and M. credit accounts. This week sister Bush will send each director a statement of his account with the Review office, so arranged that the director can tell what church and individual is to be looked to for the items of indebtedness.
The Secretary of the Pacific S. D. A. Publishing Association will also send a statement to each district of their indebtedness, at the SIGNS office.
What we want is for the directors and business agents to collect all these sums by the time of their district quarterly meeting so as to be prepared to square our whole credit account by the time of our State quarterly meeting. If we take hold of this with true California energy, enlivened by the Spirit of God, this object will be accomplished.
We present this item and urge promptness in its execution as we expect at our next State quarterly meeting to introduce a change in the mode of doing business with the SIGNS office. Of this we shall have more to say at the proper time. What we urge now is a proper closing up of the old account before we commence on the new plan.
J. N. L.
Gilroy.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
As THERE was no suitable place opened for the tent in the vicinity of Stockton, we decided to begin in this part of the State for the following reasons: There are several villages near enough together to strengthen each other should churches be raised up in each place. Gilroy has a population of about two thousand, exclusive of Chinese and Spanish. Hollister is only fourteen miles south, with a population of about a thousand I am told. Watsonville is only twenty miles southwest, with a population of about fifteen hundred. We have several Sabbath-keepers there now. San Juan is a small town about as far off as Hollister. Santa Cruz, with a population of thirty-five hundred, is only about twenty miles northwest from Watsonville, while Salinas, with about twenty-five hundred, is about the same distance south of Watsonville. San Jose, where we have a church, is thirty miles north of Gilroy and about the same distance from Santa Cruz.
We have scattered brethren in all these places. Here is work enough for two years to come, all within a radius of a few miles. All these places lie along and near the coast and hence are very healthy. The land is fertile and seldom fails of a crop.
We only regret that we did not begin here on the start this spring. Everything opened well here. Our expenses will not be so much now, as the friends near can help us much with provisions, &c. We have our tent well located and the meetings well advertised. Except at Oakland and San Francisco, we have not had so good an interest and so large a turnout in any place where I have been in the State. We feel confident that we moved right in coming to this field. If we get but a few in a place, we can be near by to follow it up and make the most of it. We are in good health and feel the peace of God in our heart.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
May 30.
Health Department.
By Editor
"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 3 John 2.
Physical Degeneracy.
WHEN editors, physicians and ministers begin to see the physical degeneracy of our world, and to speak out as they ought on the subject, the people will awake. Too many, we say it in sorrow, do not undertake the business of thinking for themselves. They trust it to their minister, their doctor, or their editor. Hence, the importance that these should be right. But woe to them, if the people get right first.
The subject of physical degeneracy is one of the first importance to the community. There can be no doubt, that the rising generation are not so robust—and not so healthy, as those that have preceded them. The cause, to our mind, is obvious. We have departed from the simple habits, and laid aside too much the athletic exercises of our ancestors. And in proportion as we have so departed, are we visited with debilities and disorders, which weaken and derange the system. Simple diet, and plenty of exercise in the open air, is what nature requires. Deprive her of this, and she deprives you of the energy, elasticity and activity of frame and of mind, for the mind is more or less influenced by the health of the body. We highly appreciate the efforts which some physiologists are making to bring back society to those simple and frugal habits, which can alone insure that vigor and capability to endure hardships, which as a people we ought to possess. The evil is not confined to one239sex—both alike, are guilty of the errors which are bringing about the degeneracy of which we speak, and perhaps the ladies carry things to greater extremes than the gentlemen. At any rate, they are more addicted to tea and coffee intemperance.
What is to become of this world? exclaimed a worthy woman to us not long since. There is not a young girl of my acquaintance, continued she, that is learning to spin or weave, and a great many of them think it a disgrace to be seen at the wash-tub. For my part, I think, said she, the rising generation will be more idle and effeminate than the present, and if they are, the Lord have mercy upon them. We could not help smiling at the good woman's earnest exclamations—but there is too much truth in her remarks.
Why do our bills of mortality show that so many have died who belonged to the middle-aged? Is not one cause, a neglect of that coarse, plain, but substantial diet and clothing, and the industrious habits used and practiced before the American Revolution?
The present system of high living, which is now becoming fashionable, is not such as is dictated by nature, nor is it such as you would prescribe for your horse or for your hog. Why do you not provoke their appetites by all the niceties of cookery, with mixtures of sweet, and salt, and sour, and pepper, and spice, etc., etc. You dare not risk your horse under such treatment. Yet you do risk yourselves, and are anxious to risk yourselves and families under such a regimen. You encourage cooks to vie with each other, in making mixtures of food to please the palate and lure to destruction.
The tyrant fashion prompts to the practice of these follies. There is not moral courage enough to stand against the pressure of public opinion in this respect, although it is bringing misery upon us. One does it, another must, and such has been the blind deference paid to the dictates of this spirit, and so guilty is every one in regard to it, that the stage, the press, and the pulpit, have refrained from attacking it as they ought. But very few have dared to lift up their voices against it, and they have been hissed at, and stigmatized by the names of Graham-ites, cold-waterites, &c., &c.
A vitiated public opinion, backed by intemperance and gluttony, must be stronger and more invincible than Goliah with all his armor. In vain may the gospel be preached—in vain may we remonstrate with a man besotted by gluttony and other species of intemperance. The man is gone, irretrievably gone, there is, there can be no hope, unless we first make a rational man, as it regards diet and regimen—and sound in the principles of temperance in all things.
Are not our temperance societies and papers very much to blame for not occupying the whole grounds? Some give themselves up to appetite? They say that they have but one life to live, and are determined to enjoy that. What sort of enjoyment can a glutton or drunkard have? What sort of enjoyment does an idle spendthrift have? If they will not be reclaimed—if they will hurry on to death, let them die, for the world loses nothing by their death; but when a rational, sane, and good man drops off prematurely, the world sustains a loss indeed.
There might be many other causes mentioned which aid in producing the degeneracy of which we complain. But we have named the principal and chief cause. It is time to pause and look around for the remedy. Look back to our forefathers and practice the simple habits which they did.
Study well-written books on dietetics—make the preservation of your health a religious study. Learn to conquer your passions as you go through this world. All good people have made a duty so to do. I would recommend a total shift of habits from those practiced at the present day, as the only remedy. It is a subject of the first earthly importance, for if health be lost, what of worldly nature can be enjoyed, and even the mind will suffer, when burdened with an en-feebled body. Woman, thou arbiter of Fashion, I call upon you to assist in this reform. Do you wish to be widows? But widows, a greater or less number of you must be, unless there shall be a change of habits of life. This will appear abundantly evident, if you examine the cause and see how many middle aged men have died, who have left families either destitute, or without a guide and protector. And this mortality, I contend, is brought about by foolish and unpardonable indulgence in the fashions of the day.—Health Journal
The Healing Fountain.
By A. G. C.
"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4 : 14.
I SOUGHT for a healing fountain,
Such as the ancients knew;
Where the water gushed forth pure and free,
And bright as the morning dew.
I was sick with sin and sorrow,
And blind with the dust of years;
My heart was crusted o'er with doubt,
And filled with unspoken fears.
Where were the flowing waters—
The Siloam, the Bethsaida?
Were they but myths from a dreamer's pen—
Or a treasure hid for ages?
Alas, for the weary seeker,
For the hidden wells are deep!
And the curb is overgrown with weeds
Where poisonous vapors sleep.
Still I sought—and the weeds are scattered,
The "enchanted" sleep is o'er,
And the spring of truth is opened wide—
I may drink and thirst no more.
Yes, I feel that a well of water
Is springing up within;
And I will not wander sick or blind
With the lotus-leaves of sin.
A. G. C.
Church Officers and the Signs.
By John Norton Loughborough
IN looking over our lists, as we sent them out last week, I discovered that some of our church officers do not take the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. We are saying something in almost every number, either to our churches or missionary members, that it is important that all of our officers should know, if they would each act well their part in this great work. I trust these instructions and suggestions are read with profit by most of our subscribers. I have good evidence that in some cases they are passed over. Let our directors, at the quarterly meetings, see that all our members, and especially our church and missionary officers, are taking the SIGNS. And let us all inform ourselves thoroughly so as to perform faithfully our part in the T. and M. work.
J. N. L.
Oakland.
By John Norton Loughborough
At our meeting in Oakland, Sabbath, May 29, our hall was nearly filled with attentive hearers, mostly Sabbath-keepers. The Lord gave especial freedom in speaking the word. At the close of the discourse four more were received into the church; one by letter from the Napa church, two by vote, and one, a Dane, on profession of the truth and baptism.
At the close of the service we repaired to Merritt's Lake, East Oakland, where six were buried with Christ in baptism. Two of these were cases of re-baptism, and four, those who had recently embraced the truth, one of them the Danish brother mentioned above. And thus the work is gaining ground at this important point.
J. N. L.
Stockton, Cal.
By James H. Waggoner
After the tent was removed from Stockton I remained there nearly a week. This was necessary as some of those who had embraced the truth had not had opportunity to hear on all points. One signed the covenant before I left. The brethren and sisters there seem to be inquiring the way to the kingdom, and I became much attached to them before I left.
I feel confident that, if the little company in Stockton are faithful to their duty, there will be a large work yet done there. We have learned in this experience that a “central location” for a tent is where the people are who will attend the meeting. In the center of business, surrounded by shops, groceries, saloons, &c., is not always the best location for a work like ours. All of our interested hearers came from that portion of the city entirely outside of the business center.
We shall remember this “little flock” with much solicitude and many prayers, and exhort them to be helpers of each other’s joy, to build one another up, and to grow in grace and in knowledge.
We learn from Bro. Canright that the prospect is every way encouraging in Gilroy, where I expect to join him the last of the week.
J. H. W.
Oakland, May 31.
The Cause in the East.
By Editor
A brother writes from Ft. Dodge, Iowa, that four of them, Sabbath-keepers, have started Sabbath meetings and a Sabbath-school, and that they are going to canvass that city to obtain subscribers to the Advent periodicals. This calls to mind a case in Michigan, where three sisters held Sabbath meetings together for one year before another joined them. They moved on by faith. The very fact of their perseverance under difficulties had its effect upon others. After a while a brother joined them, then one after another came in, and the interest increased. A course of lectures was called for and given, and several embraced the truth. A second and third course has since been given, until now they have a good-sized church organization, and a commodious meeting-house. Much of this result is due to the perseverance of the three sisters who first took hold of the work.
The four above mentioned in Ft. Dodge, moving humbly, with faith in God, with publications made ready to their hand, can make a wake in that city. We shall watch to see what results from this small beginning. Success to the persevering.
Bro. Goodrich reports several additions to the company in Richmond, Maine, as the result of about three weeks' meetings in that place.
Bro. J. H. Cook writes of meetings held with Bro. Rogers; that at Lincoln, Mo., ten had already taken their stand upon the truth, and the opposition were trying the lock-out argument, by closing the school-house. But it is the wrong season of the year to use the lock-out argument, in a conference that has some four tents.
He speaks also of interesting meetings at Pleasant Ridge and Rockville, four being baptized in the former place, and union and harmony being restored in the latter, where previously some confusion had existed.
They also held meetings at Nevada and baptized four. A year ago a church was organized there with nine members. They have had bitter opposition to meet, but have moved steadily forward, continually increasing their numbers, until now they have a church of over thirty, with a gaining influence all around, and a growing interest in the truth.
He also reports meetings at Scott, where several souls had lately been brought to decide on the truth by the T. and M. work. Two took their stand for the truth while he was there, and four were baptized.
One of the Missouri tents was to be pitched at Neosho Falls, Kansas, about the 15th of May. Thus steadily the light of truth is scattering its rays all over the land.
Poisoned to Death.
YES, poisoned to death legally! We are horrified when we are told that in China 400,000 natives die every year, of opium poisoning; that in India 20,000 die annually of serpent poisoning. But what of civilized Christian America, where over 100,000 die each year of alcoholic poisoning? Five times as many die by the snake in the glass as die by the snake in the grass! They die in their darkness and ignorance. We kill off our people lawfully, complacently, and scientifically in the broad clear light of advancing day. Liberty with a vengeance! When will the people repent, shake off apathy, wake to their danger, and strike down the enemy? It lies in their power to do it. Heaven asks when?—D. T. Taylor in World's Crisis.