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GREAT CLEARANCE SALE
By C. H. Tyrrell
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THERE IS HELP IN GOD
This encouraging statement is clearly established in this very interesting tract.
A. G. L. No. 56. 50 cents per 100.
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WHAT THE HINDUS WORSHIP.
SOME one writing on the gods of the Hindus, remarks: “There is not an object in heaven or earth which a Hindu is not prepared to worship—sun, moon, and stars; rocks, stocks, and stones; trees, shrubs, and grass; sea, pools, and rivers; his own implements of trade; the animal he finds most useful; the noxious reptiles he fears; men remarkable for any extraordinary qualities—for great valor, sanctity, virtue, or even vice; good and evil spirits, ghosts and goblins, the spirits of departed ancestors; an infinite number of semi-human and semi-divine existences; inhabitants of the seven upper and seven lower worlds—each and all come in for a share of honor or a tribute of more or less adoration.”
Demon-worship is one form of idolatry widely practised in India. Some writer has stated that “the great majority of the inhabitants are, from the cradle to the burning-ground, haunted and oppressed by a perpetual dread of demons.” They believe that evil spirits of all kinds are ever on the watch to harm, harass, and torment them; to cause plague and disaster, sickness, famine, and trouble of every kind. They are believed to have once been human beings—especially those who have died in some mysterious manner, and are considered as having become demons. To these supposed malicious adversaries they offer sacrifices of goats, fowls, etc., to appease their anger. They hold that nightmare is always inflicted by a demon; also various other diseases have each a presiding demon.
Two Mexican Maidens.
A Hindu Worshiping the Sun and His Tools.
Thus thousands are kept in slavish fear and dread of these wicked spirits which are supposed to be lurking in trees and uninhabited places. They grope on in this sad plight, knowing not of the God of infinite love and might, before whom devils “fear and fly.” There is scarcely a village or household in India that has not some kind of deity for the purpose of preventing the evils believed to be caused by these demons, tho sometimes it is only a roughly carved image or patch of red paint on a stone.—Selected.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AND LOUISA TWINING.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE is eighty-one. Her name was a household word before many of us were born. She was one of the few notable personalities revealed to the world by the Crimean War, and it is one of the bright features of that campaign that it set the example of Florence Nightingale before the women of England, and ennobled the profession of nursing. Miss Nightingale went out to Scutari, to find twenty-three hundred sick and wounded soldiers waiting for the touch of a gentle hand, and she had been there hardly twenty-four hours before five hundred more came into the hospitals. Men lay on bare floors, dying for want of the simplest attention, and all the arrangements for the comforts of the sick, even the ordinary commissariat, had broken down.
Thus Florence Nightingale found Scutari; how she left it we all know. Ask of the men who are still left of the Crimean army. Not an angel from heaven could have been more welcome than the brave nurse who moved about day and night in the hospital at Scutari—the lady with the lamp, as she came to be known. The people of England gave her forty-five thousand pounds, which she gave back again in the form of a training-school for nurses; and Queen Victoria proposed her health in a toast. When the war was over, some soldiers at a banquet in London were asked to write down on a piece of paper the name which was dearest to them in connection with the war, and when the papers were collected there was only one name on them all. It was “Florence Nightingale.”
The great work of Miss Nightingale’s life, which will last when the generation which knew her has passed away, is that she pioneered a new era of nursing. She is the mother of the trained nurse, and it is due to her, more perhaps than to any other woman, that nursing Mrs. Gamp has been either lost, stolen, or strayed beyond recovery. Nursing in Miss Nightingale’s early days was a profession to which it was almost a shame to belong. The nurses at London workhouses were much oftener drunk than sober, which is hardly to be wondered at, perhaps, seeing that they were paid largely in beer, gin being substituted when their duties were particularly repulsive. One poor patient was in such a pitiful plight that not even a pauper nurse could be got to attend him, and finally a man in the street—he was a useful figure even in those days—volunteered to attend him in consideration of a daily allowance of two pints of beer and some gin, “with chops and ’steak for dinner.”
Another brave woman was associated with Miss Nightingale in the work of uplifting the nursing profession, and she, too, is still living to see the happier state of things which has now been brought about. Miss Louisa Twining, who came into the world six months after Florence Nightingale, is still living at Rochester. She has transformed Mr. Bumble, as Miss Nightingale has transformed Mrs. Gamp. For nearly half a century Miss Twining devoted herself to the reformation of our workhouses, and she stood almost alone when, in the first half of last century, she began the beneficent work which has brought about such gigantic changes in the lives of the poorest of the poor.
The state of our workhouses in those far-off days was such as we can scarcely imagine now. Miss Twining remembers a master of a workhouse in London—an ex-policeman appointed by the chairman of a board of guardians in recognition of personal services rendered—who was pelted out of the workhouse with old kettles and shovels. He ruled the paupers with a rod of iron, yet he managed to secure two other posts as workhouse master before he threw himself in front of a train and relieved the world of his presence. At another London workhouse there was a medical officer whose boast it was that he did not believe in medicine, and treated the patients with nothing but water, colored according to the disease it was meant to cure, and flavored with peppermint and other essences. This philosopher thrived in his position until 1873!
Miss Twining, who will be eighty-one this year, has a volume of interesting memories. Her father was one of the volunteers enrolled during the panic caused by the expected invasion of England by Napoleon; and her brothers studied under Dr. Arnold at Rugby. She heard Mendelssohn play; saw Charles Kemble and Helen Faucit frequently when13at the height of their popularity, and witnessed the entry of Louis Napoleon into Paris in 1852. She sat by the fire in the long winter nights of 1838, waiting for “Nicholas Nickleby” to come out in monthly parts.
An odd incident in Miss Twining’s experience occurred in connection with the establishment of the first home for workhouse girls in New Ormond Street in 1861. On the birthday of Queen Victoria one year, they discovered a foundling named Victoria Queen, whom they succeeded in reclaiming from the misery of her surroundings, and who afterward married a carpenter named Albert Edward. Miss Twining tells a curious story, too, of a sermon of Charles Kingsley’s. A London vicar had invited Kingsley, Maurice, and Robertson to preach at his church, and Miss Twining was present once when the author of “Westward Ho!” was in the pulpit. When he had finished, the vicar of the church ascended the pulpit and protested against the sermon.—St. James’ Gazette.
ATTEMPT GREAT THINGS FOR GOD.
By A non.
Is this the time, O church of Christ, to sound
Retreat? To arm with weapons cheap and blunt
The men and women who have borne the brunt
Of truth’s fierce strife, and nobly held their ground?
No, rather strengthen stakes and lengthen cords!
Enlarge thy plans and gifts, O thou elect,
And to thy kingdom come for such a time!
The earth, with all its fulness, is the Lord’s:
Great things attempt for Him, great things expect,
Whose love imperial is, whose power sublime.
— A non.
HEATHENISM IN MEXICO.
By D. D. Fitch
While making a trip on horseback to the Pacific coast, it was my lot to fall in with a large number of pilgrims who were going to worship at the shrine of the senora, or lady of Talpa. This senora of Talpa is nothing more nor less than an idol about the size of an ordinary child's doll. Her abode is a Catholic church located in the small town of Talpa. Talpa is a place of ten thousand inhabitants, isolated from the railway, and much else of civilization. If any would like to locate the place, it will be found about half way between Guadalajara and the coast.
To this place were flocking the ignorant but penitent natives in families and alone, on horseback and afoot, and mothers with babies in their arms or by their side. The one idea of all seemed to be to do penance. Some must have held themselves to be great sinners by the amount of self-imposed penance they endured. As I passed along, I saw many carrying stones in their hands or on their heads or shoulders. Others had their feet shackled, so that they could step but three or four inches, or wore a crown of thorns on their heads. Another carried a large cross, his body apparently well lacerated. Others were passed who were creeping on their knees. Friends of the penitent one would fold their blankets (all Mexican men carry blankets), and spread on the ground before the latter. Many carried candles about three feet long, which were lighted as they entered the church. Others blindfolded themselves, still others went barefooted.
It was estimated that from fifteen to twenty thousand people visit the place on these occasions. I succeeded in finding a guide who led me through the kneeling worshipers to a position where I could see this image held in adoration by so many. In an alcove near by I was also shown a picture of purgatory. The rich and the poor alike were in the fiery flames. Just above was a bleeding lamb standing on a book of some sort. This is a sample of the heathenism at our very doors. D. D. Fitch.
Guadalajara, Mexico.
Love and Sacrifice
LOVE will make men dare to die for their beloved—love alone.—Plato.
What Florence Nightingale Did When a Girl.
We have just read a most interesting account of an incident in Florence Nightingale’s girlhood.
Some boys had thrown stones at a valuable shepherd dog belonging to an old Scotch shepherd and broken its leg, and it was decided that it would be a mercy to kill the poor animal, when Florence Nightingale came upon the scene, and here we begin the story:—
The little girl went fearlessly up to where he lay, saying in a soft, caressing tone, “Poor Cap, Poor Cap.” It was enough; he looked up with his speaking brown eyes, now bloodshot and full of pain, into her face, and did not resent it when, kneeling down beside him, she stroked with her little ungloved hand the large, intelligent head.
To the vicar he was rather less amenable, but by dint of coaxing at last allowed him to touch and examine the wounded leg, Florence persuasively telling him it was “all right.” Indeed, she was on the floor beside him, with his head on her lap, keeping up a continuous murmur, much as a mother does over a sick child.
“Well,” said the vicar, rising from his examination, “as far as I can tell there are no broken bones; the leg is badly bruised—it ought to be fomented to take the inflammation and swelling down.”
“How do you foment?” asked Florence.
“With hot cloths dipped in boiling water,” answered the vicar.
“Then that’s quite easy. I’ll stay here and do it. Now, Jimmy, get sticks and make the kettle boil.”
There was no hesitation in the child’s manner; she was told what ought to be done, and she set about doing it as a simple matter of course.
“But they will be expecting you at home,” said the vicar.
“But if you tell them I’m here,” answered Florence; “and my sister and one of the maids can come and fetch me home in time for tea; and,” she hesitated, “they had better bring some old flannel and cloths, there does not seem to be much here; but you will wait and show me how to foment, won’t you?”
“Well, yes,” said the vicar, carried away by the quick energy of the little girl.
And soon the fire was lit and the water boiling. An old smoke frock of the shepherd’s had been discovered in a corner, which Florence had deliberately torn in pieces, and to the vicar’s remark, “What will Roger say?” she answered, “We’ll give him another.” And so Florence Nightingale made her first compress, and spent the whole of that bright spring day in nursing her first patient—the shepherd’s dog.
In the evening, when Roger came, not expecting to find visitors in his humble cottage, and dangling a bit of cord in his hand, Florence went up to him.
“You can throw that away, Roger,” she said; “your dog won’t die; look at him!”
And Cap rose and crawled toward his master, whining with pleasure.
“Deary me! deary me! what have you done with him? He could not move this morning when I left him.”
Then Florence told Roger and explained the mode of treatment.
“You have only to go on to-night, and to-morrow he will be almost well, the vicar says.” And smiling brightly she continued, “Mrs. Norton has promised to see to Cap to-morrow when you are out, so now you need not kill him; he will be able to do his work again.”
“Thank you kindly, Missy, I do, indeed,” said the old man huskily. “It went hard with me to do away with him; but what can a poor man do?” And putting out his hand he stroked the dog.
“I’ll see to him, Missy, now as I know what’s to be done,” and he stood his crook in the corner and hung his cap on the peg.
Then Florence took her leave, stroking and petting the dog to the last, and those who, standing in the cottage door, watched her disappear, little thought they were gazing upon one whose mission would be to tend the sick and wounded on many a battle-field, and how, in years to come, men dying far away from home would raise themselves upon their pillows to “kiss her shadow as it passed them.”—Our Dumb Animals.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
The addition of two members, by baptism, to the church at Arcadia, Neb., is reported by Brother G. H. Smith.
Our brethren in Milwaukee, Wis., are conducting two church-schools,—one in the Fifth Street Mission building and one on the South Side.
The State of Alabama has been organized into a conference, with headquarters at Birmingham. Brother W. L. McNeely has been chosen president.
Many students from the Nebraska State University take their meals at the Hygienic Café conducted by Brother H. A. Hebard, in Lincoln. So says the Reporter.
A new church building was dedicated at Grand Island, Neb., on the 13th ult. Brethren N. P. Nelson, R. F. Andrews, and J. H. Wheeler officiated in the services.
The Atlantic News says that the New England Conference Committee has asked all the laborers in that Conference to work five days each week for three months selling books.
The North Pacific Conference workers, says the Visitor, are entering heartily upon the work of canvassing for “Christ’s Object Lessons.” One reported nine orders the first day out.
Twenty persons have accepted the Sabbath of the Lord at Catcher, Ark., as a result of Bible work by Brethren Sidney Scott and S. S. Ryles.
At the last quarterly-meeting of the church at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, two members were added to the roll. Brother G. W. Angleberger, who is canvassing there, says, “I find a great many who are ‘deeply interested.’”
At Boonesboro, Mo., after two months’ labor, Brother W. S. Cruzan reports seventeen who have covenanted to keep the commandments of God. He also reports the addition of three members to the church at Armstrong in connection with the last quarterly-meeting.
The Reporter says that Brother Luther Warren commenced a series of meetings in the Conservatory of Music at Lincoln, Neb., on the evening of the 20th ult., and the attendance was so large that many turned away for lack of room. The subject presented was “The Eastern Question.”
At the recent camp-meeting held at Carthage, Mo., five candidates were baptized. The latter days of the meeting were rainy and cold, but a sufficient interest was aroused to warrant a continuation of labor after the camp-meeting. Brethren H. K. Willis and D. E. Scales remained to carry on the work.
Brother Carl Rasmussen has established a vegetarian restaurant at 170 Fulton St., Brooklyn, N. Y. It is only five minutes’ ride from the New York City Hall. An elaborate bill of fare is provided, of fruits, nuts, and grains. Within four days after opening, his patrons reached the number of forty.—Atlantic News.
On the 26th inst., Brother J. B. Montrose, one of the original members of the San Francisco church, and one of the original incorporators of the Pacific Press Publishing Company, died in this city, of pneumonia, aged 81 years. Funeral services were conducted in the Oakland Church, by Brethren J. N. Loughborough and J. O. Corliss.
A good work at Eldorado, Mo., is reported in the Record, by Brethren H. K. Willis and W. T. Millman. Fifteen persons have accepted the faith, and with some who had formerly belonged to churches at a distance, an organized church has been formed with twenty-seven members. A location has been secured, and money raised for a new house of worship.
On the 12th ult., a church of fourteen members was organized at Middlefield, Ohio, by Brother A. G. Haughey. The next day another member was added by baptism, and four others were keeping the Sabbath of the Lord, and expected soon to unite with the church. This interest is the fruit of tent labor by Brethren C. C. Webster and B. L. House. Funds are being raised for a house of worship.
Dr. O. C. Godsmark and wife have located in Louisville, Ky., and report encouraging prospects. In the Review they say: We have now secured the lease of a brick church building, with stone foundation, thirty by sixty-five feet, having two Sabbath-school rooms, besides an entry and a good-sized chapel. . . . We are rapidly making the necessary repairs, and our people are gladly sacrificing to make it a suitable place in which to present the precious truth for these times.
We notice the following departures for foreign fields in the Review of October 22: Dr. A. L. Gregory and wife, to Rio Janeiro, Brazil; Brother L. O. Corwin and wife, of New Orleans, to Utilla, Bay Islands, to engage in school work; and Sister Thekla Black, of Battle Creek Sanitarium, to Denmark, later to go on to India. Dr. Gregory and wife are California laborers, who combine Gospel labor with medical work and dentistry. Sister Gregory is the daughter of Brother J. O. Corliss, now pastor of the church in this city, and well known to the readers of the SIGNS.
A very important part of our work is the publication of wholesome, life-giving literature. The holiday season is a time when people in general look about for books to be used as presents to friends—especially to young people and children. A great deal of trash, in pretty bindings, is imposed upon persons who do not know exactly what they want, and their money is worse than wasted. As time draws near to its close, and the public ought to be reading and contemplating more serious things, there comes an ever-increasing deluge of trivial and even vicious reading matter to fill the minds of the young. Before you spend your money for holiday books, send to one of our publishing houses for catalogs of good as well as attractive books. There are a goodly number of such books that you and your friends—old and young—actually need. They will prove not only a pleasure but a benefit.
THE BEST DAY.
By Priscilla Leonard
Some skies may be gloomy, some moments be sad,
But everywhere, always, some souls must be glad;
For true is the saying proclaimed by the seer—
“Each day is the best day of somebody’s year!”
Each day finds a hero, each day helps a saint,
Each day brings to some one a joy without taint;
Tho it may not be my turn or yours that is near,
“Each day is the best day of somebody’s year!”
The calendar sparkles with days that have brought
Some prize that was hoped for, some good that was
sought;
High deeds happen daily, wide truths grow more
clear—
“Each day is the best day of somebody’s year!”
No sun ever rises, but brings joy behind;
No sorrow in fetters the whole earth can bind;
How selfish our fretting, how narrow our fear—
“Each day is the best day of somebody’s year!”
—Priscilla Leonard.
Footprints of God in the Sunset
An Arab guide was leading a French infidel across a desert, and ever and anon the guide would get down in the sand and pray. It disgusted the French infidel, and after awhile he said, “How do you know there is any God?” And the guide answered, “How do I know that a man and a camel passed by our tent last night? I know it by the footprints in the sand. And you want to know how I know there is any God? Look at that sunset! Is that the footstep of a man?” And by a similar process you and I have come to understand that this is the footstep of a God.
HOLMAN BIBLES
Family editions in six languages. Pronouncing Teacher’s Bibles in great variety. Catalogue free. A. J. HOLMAN & CO., 1222-1226 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa.
1 “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took 2 to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son; and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, 3 she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and 4 laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood 5 afar off, to know what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river side; and she saw the ark 6 among the flags, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. And she opened it, and saw the child; and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, 8 that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's 9 mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And 10 the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water.”
Golden Text.—“Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Prov. 22:6.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) What is said of a certain man and woman of the house of Levi? What were their names? Verse 1. Note 1. (2) What was one result of this marriage? What did the mother do to preserve the child's life? Verse 2. Note 2. (3) What did she do when she could no longer hide the child? Verse 3. (4) Who was set to watch what would become of the little one? Verse 4. (5) Who discovered the ark in the flags? Verse 5. (6) How was she affected when she saw the child? What did she say? Verse 6. (7) How did she decide what to do with the child? Verses 7, 8. (8) What arrangement was made for the care of the child? Verse 9. Note 3. (9) In course of time, what further disposition was made of him? Verse 10. Note 4.
NOTES.
1. The name of this man was Amram, and the woman whom he took to wife was named Jochebed.
2. The child was hidden three months because of the king's decree that all the male children of the Israelites should be killed at birth. See Ex. 1:15-19.
3. God had heard the mother's prayers; her faith had been rewarded. It was with deep gratitude that she entered upon her now safe and happy task. She faithfully improved her opportunity to educate her child for God. She felt confident that he had been preserved for some great work, and she knew that he must soon be given up to his royal mother, to be surrounded with influences that would tend to lead him away from God. All this rendered her more diligent and careful in his instruction than in that of her other children.
She kept the boy as long as she could, but was obliged to give him up when he was about twelve years old. From his humble cabin home he was taken to the royal palace, to the daughter of Pharaoh, “and he became her son.” Yet even here he did not lose the impressions received in childhood. The lessons learned at his mother's side could not be forgotten. They were a shield from the pride, the infidelity, and the vice that flourished amid the splendor of the court.
How far-reaching in its results was the influence of that one Hebrew woman, and she an exile and a slave! The whole future life of Moses, the great mission which he fulfilled as the leader of Israel, testifies to the importance of the work of the Christian mother. There is no other work that can equal this. To a very great extent, the mother holds in her own hands the destiny of her children. She is dealing with developing minds and characters, working not alone for time, but for eternity.—Patriarchs and Prophets.
4. At the court of Pharaoh, Moses received the highest civil and military training. The monarch had determined to make his adopted grandson his successor on the throne, and the youth was educated for this high station. “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” His ability as a military leader made him a favorite with the armies of Egypt, and he was generally regarded as a remarkable character. Satan had been defeated in his purpose. The very decree condemning the Hebrew children to death had been overruled by God for the training and education of the future leader of His people.—Id.
