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Signs of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 21.

Editorial
Earlier text: REGENERATION

"IT'S NO USE TRYING."

By John W. Kirton, LL.D.

BY JOHN W. KIRTON, LL.D.
"I TELL you it's no use trying," said Mrs. Marsh, in a despairing voice. "I've talked and talked, and toiled and worked and slaved, till I've worn myself out, but I make no more impression upon him than if he was a block of marble. He acts as cool as a cucumber till he sees I am quite done up, and then he says in the coolest way, 'Well, I hope you're better for having let the steam off,' or some such stuff."
"But do you really try to make his home as bright and comfortable as you can?" asked Mrs. Ansted in a kindly tone.
"Bright and comfortable! I should think I do. If ever a woman tries, I do. I clean from morning to night, so that when he comes home everything is like print. Though I say it, there is scarcely a speck of dust to be seen. Everything in this room might be new, it looks so bright."
"I see that quite clearly. But you may keep the room bright and clean, and yet not make it comfortable."
Mrs. Marsh looked puzzled, and inclined to differ in opinion with Mrs. Ansted. After a moment's pause she replied very warmly:—
"I should like to know what more a working man can want than to have his house kept like a gentleman's. I am sure everything is ready for him when he comes home, and I don't go out from one month's end to another, after he comes home at night."
"That's all very praiseworthy on your part," replied Mrs. Ansted, "and I am glad to hear it, but you need more than that to make home all that it should be. May I give you my opinion frankly?"
"Certainly," said Mrs. Marsh, with some reserve, however, in her tone of voice.
"Please don't misunderstand me when I say, No wife should so set her heart upon keeping her furniture and house so bright and spotless as to give her husband reason to say, or see, that there is no place for him to lay aside his working clothes, or that he must take off his dirty boots before he is permitted to enter his own sitting room, for fear of soiling the boards."
Mrs. Marsh dropped her eyes as if she felt the cap fitted her rather closely. At length she said:—
"But you must own it's very provoking when a woman has made everything as nice as can be, and scrubbed the boards so clean that you could eat off them, it's not pleasant to have one dirty thing thrown down here and another there, and nasty, muddy boots tramping all over the place, without any attempt to wipe them beforehand."
"Yes, I quite see it is trying, if things are as bad as you seem to think. But as you have failed by complaining in the past, let me persuade you to try what loving forbearance will do. Let your husband see you are glad he has come home, and take no notice of his careless and untidy ways."
"Easier said than done, I can tell you. Why, he seems to do it on purpose to annoy me."
"Did he always do so?"
"No, not always," replied Mrs. Marsh, with some hesitation. "For months after we were married he used to praise me up constantly for the way I kept everything so clean and bright."
"Then whatever caused him to change?"
"I'm sure I don't know. It's not my fault, I know, for I've tried to be more and more clean, and as we've had no children to make any dirt, it's all the more strange."
"But do you think you may not have made it a point to be so clean and orderly yourself as to make your husband feel that he makes all the disorder when he comes home?"
"Well, I have, I must own, now and then fired up when he has made some little dirt here and there, and made him vexed."
"I thought so. You have, without thinking, been so much engrossed with your love of cleanliness and order that what in itself is a virtue has really become a fault. You have made it the worry of your husband's life, until it threatens to become the misery of your own."
Mrs. Marsh burst into tears as she said: "I see my mistake. I see where I've been wrong. Why, it was only this morning when I complained that he fired up and said I seemed to think he was only fit to live in a dog kennel, and he should have to look out for some other place to live in before long."
"Then the sooner you let him see a change in your ways the better. Remember a palace without love would be desolate, so you need not be surprised if your little home suffers from its absence."
Love, love, how strange the word, yet how sweet it sounded in her ears! She had once felt its power, and the thought of those happy days so overwhelmed her that she sobbed as if her heart would break. What was the cleanest, brightest, fairest home without love in it? Would she ever know it again? Could she do anything to bring it back? At length she said:—
"I am willing to do anything if it will only end this wretched life, and win my husband's love back again."
"We have always cause to be thankful," said Mrs. Ansted, "when our errors are made clear to us. So set about applying the remedy this very day when your husband returns."
"If it's not too late," said Mrs. Marsh gloomily.
"It's never too late to mend, if you ask God to help you."
"I will, and also let my husband see that he has the first place in my heart, instead of the home."
Poor Mrs. Marsh found it was a hard fight, but she was able to accomplish it; and as her husband day by day saw she grew less fidgety and more considerate, he also became ready to fall in with her cleanly and tidy ways; and so it came to pass that, with mutual concessions, and, better still, a fuller display of love towards each other, in time they found it is wonderful what difficulties can be overcome by trying in the right way instead of refusing and saying, "It's NO USE TRYING."—Christian Commonwealth.

HOLY LIVING.

By Free Methodist

CHRISTIANS are directed so to live that others, seeing their good works, may glorify their Father which is in heaven. Christ calls his true followers the "salt of the earth," and adds, "If the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?" Too many professed Christians are, to all outward appearance, like the men of the world. This gives the enemies of the cross occasion to speak reproachfully of the cause of Christ. The Saviour is thus "wounded in the house of his friends." More holy living is the pressing need of the age. It is the will of God that with well doing his followers should "put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." A holy life is the strongest argument in favor of Bible religion that possibly can be produced. Such a life is a standing reproof to sin, and an unimpeachable testimony to the power of grace to save and keep. A steady growth will naturally follow. Love for God and Christ will steadily strengthen. Faith will increase, and attachment to the word of God will grow stronger. You will hate sin more, and love holiness better. Compare your present feelings and views with those of your past, and see if there are evidences of steady progress in your Christian life. God has rich things in store for those who, by a holy life, honor his sacred grace. To such, everything is subordinate to the divine will. The "one thing needful" absorbs all their time and powers. They do not suffer themselves to be entangled and captivated by worldly duties to the neglect of spiritual duties. They are assured that if they "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," all needed things will be added unto them. "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."—Free Methodist.

THE WORD OF GOD.

By Theodore Ledyard Cuyler

"THY words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." Jer. 15: 16. Every growing Christian is a ruminating animal; he chews Bible truths and nutritious sermons and wholesome books and other such provender, as the cow cheweth her cud. One strong Bible text lodged in the memory and turned over and over and well digested, will be a breakfast for your soul, and in the strength of it you may go through the whole day. A soldier is never in as good trim for battle as after a sound sleep and a square morning meal; it is not easy to fight or to march on an empty stomach. In like manner, every servant of Jesus Christ must recruit his or her spiritual strength by reading Christ's words, and thinking about them, by meditation, by prayer, and soul converse with God.
Martin Luther, in the thick of his campaigns with the pope and the devil, said that he could not get on without two good hours each day for his private devotions. I have always observed that the light readers and light thinkers make light Christians, and those who neglect their Bibles and their closets soon dwindle into dwarfs. Having no depth of root, their religion withers away.—Dr. T. L. Cuyler.

THE CHILD OF A KING.

By E. H. Chase

BY E. H. CHASE.
A PRINCESS! You would not have thought it, Her gown was so faded and plain; "Bound out" for her food and a shelter, And toiling in sun and in rain, Running her errands so quickly, Milking the cows in the lane, Yet happy and sweet as the morning, With no thought that she might complain.
"How is it," I asked this sweet maiden, "That you can so cheerily sing; That service so faithful and loving You are ever so ready to bring?" She looked in my face for a moment, And a light from her eyes seemed to spring; "Why should I not joy?" she made answer, "For I am the 'child of a King.'"
—Christian at Work.

THE UNDERTOW OF THE SEASHORE.

Its Treachery Even When Encountered by a Powerful Swimmer.

"WHEN you have seen a strong man fight for his life against the treacherous undertow, you have looked upon a picture that will never fade from your memory. I stood on the extreme end of Howard's ocean pier at Atlantic City when three strong swimmers dived under the outer roller and began to disport themselves outside the surf," says a writer in the Detroit Free Press. "The tide was then running out, and a fresh breeze was rolling a sea in—just the conditions required to make a dangerous undertow. Two hours previously, as I stood in the surf only waist deep, I felt the deadly clutch so strong that I became frightened and gave up my bath.
"I could look right down upon these swimmers as they cleared the surf. They were powerful men, each in the prime of life, and they arose to the seas coming in as if it was no effort to keep afloat. They were cautious in their rashness. They had passed the danger line, but they meant to keep near the pier.
"And as I watched them, I saw the undertow as it plotted their destruction. It came sucking back from the shore in swirls and eddies—it crept along under the froth and foam as a panther creeps—it parted to the right and left of the swimmers and sent up great bubbles of warning. It was a lumpy sea coming in. It was vexed and harassed, and it flung the swimmers about and tested their strength more than they dreamed of. And little by little—literally foot by foot—the octopus of the undertow was reaching out its feelers and pulling them further from the sea. It was a drift which they did not notice nor feel until too late.
"Of a sudden, almost like the spring of a wild beast, the undertow brought its currents together, rushed to the surface, and two lives were doomed.
"I had my opera glass up. I could see each face as plainly as if only five feet away. There was a look of terror on each countenance. Each man gasped—cried out—lost his strength for a moment, and then came a change. Courage and determination had taken the place of terror and despair. They would make a brave fight.
"If it ever comes to you to see a strong man battle with the water for his life, you cannot turn away. There is a horrid magnetism which fastens your eyes on him, and holds them there. Your throat is dry, your tongue parched, and you are lost to all around you. So I stood and watched, hearing never a shout, although a thousand people were shouting.
"The three men turned their faces leeward, and put forth every exertion. There was more than the natural fear of death to urge them on. There were wives and children and happy homes—friends—years to live.
"It was grand, but it was horrible. I could see the muscles play, the lips compress, the eyes gleam with the fire of determination, and the hundred of us nearest them prayed God to let them gain the victory. But it was not to be. The undertow is merciless. It is greedy. Once it fastens upon a victim, his fate is sealed.
"Inch by inch the swimmers gained—foot by foot they lost. There was no one to aid them. The lifeboats were beached, and the life guards away. There were chairs and benches on the pier, but the men were too far away. Now, as I watched, I saw despair and terror come back to their faces as they felt the clutch anew. With one last vain outlay of strength, one of the three sprang breast high out of the water, turned over on his face, and drifted hither and yon, a corpse. The one nearest him was unnerved in a moment. I saw his face upturned to heaven through the froth and the foam, and then he raised his arms and gave up the fight. Twice he reappeared for an instant and then sank, to be sucked out to sea by the pitiless undertow—yet unsatisfied.
"A puff of wind—a change of a point—a new set to a current—something no one could fathom, saved the third man. He had ceased swimming, but a current bore him to the surf, dashed him through it, and he was flung among the piles of the pier and rescued."

NOVEL READING AND ITS EFFECTS.

By Anna Northup

I BEGAN reading novels and story papers at an early age, and, although my mother objected to it, I had such a longing for such reading that I would read them. I used to borrow books and papers and hide them in my room, and after the rest of the family were asleep, I would read until a late hour. It had the effect of making my mind very unsteady and imaginative. I had unreal views of life, and felt dissatisfied with my lot, and would sometimes weep and sometimes feel angry to think I was not born rich and beautiful so as to have an experience like some of the heroines I read about. I often felt reproved by the Spirit of God, but would stifle my convictions and plunge into some high-colored romance to drive away sober thoughts.
When I married I found my husband quite as fond of such reading as myself, and we spent all we could spare for books and magazines and began to accumulate a library. Gradually, as I indulged my mind thus, I came to look upon religion as a sham. I was a church member, but many a time when God would talk to me in the night seasons, I would reason away death and the judgment, and even seriously question the existence of God. I was feeding my mind with what I knew was false, and I lived in a very bewildered, unsatisfied state. I thought I was much better than I was, and that those with whom I associated did not appreciate my worth, etc.
But God brought me face to face with the awful facts of death and eternity, and I saw myself a poor, wretched, lost soul, and I cried to God for mercy and sought him earnestly, and one day while in secret prayer I asked God to make me a woman that would have a godly influence over my family and associates. He said, "What about those books?" and I saw it all so plain, plainer than words could make it, the poison that was in them, and that I could not be a godly woman and follow up this practice, I said, "Lord, I will never read them any more, and I will put them away from off my center table and from off my shelves, and out of sight up in the attic."
"To be found there," said conscience, "sometime with your name in them for some of your children to read and perhaps treasure up for your sake?"
"Well," I said, "I have some young friends who will read such books anyway; I will give them to them."
"And by so doing be as bad as 'he that putteth the bottle to his neighbor's lips,'" said conscience.
"There is a way," said I, "to get rid of them, and I will."
I rose from my knees and gathered them up and carried them down to the kitchen stove and laid them in, nicely bound volumes of Dickens, Scott, Mrs. Holmes, etc.; Demorest, Ladies', and Peterson's Magazines, New York Ledgers, Saturday Nights, Youth's Companions, and even the novel Sabbath School Weekly Magnet, etc. I made a clean sweep, and such exquisite pleasure it was to see them burn, I would gladly have laid one thousand more on the fire if I had had them. They had been prized by me very highly, but when I saw so plainly that they were an offense to Him upon whom depended my only hope of salvation, I cheerfully gave them all up.
I have never allowed any questionable book or paper in my house since that time.
I want to say to the glory of God that I have never since that time had one desire to read anything of the kind, and anyone who has ever been in the habit of reading novels knows that no one, of themselves, can cease to desire it any more than a drunkard can cease to desire whisky. Not only is the desire gone, but, blessed be God, the effects on my mind are gone. My memory is stronger and more retentive; my mind is clear, sober, and practical, and no longer inclined to skepticism. I love to read religious books, and, above all, the blessed Bible is a continual source of comfort and knowledge. To Him who saved me I give all the glory.—Anna Northup.

CHEERFULNESS.

By Theodore L. Cuyler

MUCH depends upon a cheerful start for the day. The man who leaves his home with a scowl on his brow, and a snap at his children, and a tart speech to his wife instead of a kiss, is not likely to be pleasant company for anybody during the day; he will probably come home with the temper of a porcupine. Wise plans should be laid for every day, so that it be not an idle saunter, or an aimless bustling to and fro. Yet to make good speed on the right track, we must not start overloaded, not too many things to be undertaken, lest they prove a hasty botchwork. The journey is not made in a cushioned car, but on foot, and the most galling is vexatious and worrying care. One step at a time is all that the most busy Christian can take, and steady walking ought not to tire any healthy body or soul. It is overstrained rush, whether in business or study, that breaks people down; especially the insane greed for wealth, or the mad ambition goading brain and nerves to fury. The shattered nerves and sudden deaths in all our great business centers tell a sad story. A good rule is to take short views. Sufficient to the day is the toil thereof; no man is strong enough to bear to-day's load with to-morrow's load piled on top of it. The only look far ahead that you and I should take should be the look toward the judgment seat and the offered crown at the end of the race. That is the way to get a taste of heaven in advance.
—Rev. T. L. Cuyler.

TO BOYS WHO SMOKE.

If boys who smoke would only be sensible and see the folly of it, how much better it would be for them and others! Can you not see, do you not know, that you are going through a great deal of misery to do something you do not really like? You are enduring, with a patience worthy of a better cause, the suffering of a martyr, in order to acquire a useless, bad habit, and trying to cultivate a taste that makes you sick. Why should you treat yourself so meanly? You know perfectly well that you do not smoke because you enjoy it. It is only when you think someone (but assuredly not your parents) is looking at you. You always do this with an air of intense self-consciousness. Everybody, including yourselves, knows that you are on exhibition. And it is such a pitiable, cheap show, too. You think people are admiring you, which they are not. Why, so far from exciting admiration in the minds of the beholders, if you boys could hear the remarks which people make when they see you smoking, you would never again try a cigarette where human eye could perceive you. Moreover, it makes you disagreeable company.
When you bring into society the horrid taint of stale tobacco in your hair and clothes, your absence is always more gratefully welcome than your presence. So don't smoke, boys. It makes you stupid, so it does not help you in your studies. It is injurious for the heart, so it does not aid you in athletic sports. It does not do you one particle of good; it makes you appear silly and ridiculous; it is as disagreeable and offensive to yourselves as it is to anybody else; you do not get a bit of comfort and real pleasure out of it, and you all know it, so pray do not smoke.—Hall's Journal of Health.

COFFEE DRUNKARDS.

The Graving for the Beverage Becomes Incurable after a Time.

"In the course of his studies Dr. Mendel found very few instances in which the confirmed coffee drunkard was ever cured," says the London Standard. "The symptoms constantly grow worse, and are only to be relieved by large quantities of the beverage the abuse of which has caused them. In this way the victims go from bad to worse, for, though well aware of the mischief being wrought, they suffer so severely that they are afraid to abandon the habit lest death should end the agony they experience.
"After beginning with the agreeable infusion of the roasted berries, they are driven, in their search for something more powerful, to swallow the tincture, which, though it operates for a time in the direction desired, soon loses its efficacy and has to be swallowed in greater and greater quantities, the evil influence of the coffee being, of course, heightened by the alcohol used to extract its essential ingredients. When brandy is taken, only temporary relief follows, though not infrequently the intoxication produced by the latter is eagerly welcomed in order to deaden the anguish caused by the inordinate indulgence in the former.
"This last stage of this peculiar disease shows itself in the sallow face and chilly hands and feet of the victims, coupled with an expression of dread and agony which settles over the countenance—a form of melancholia, alternated by hysteria, only to be temporarily relieved by repeated application to the coffeepot or to a strong tincture formed by steeping the crushed berries in spirits of wine. Meantime the diseased state of the body is demonstrated by the acute inflammation, which is apt to supervene at any moment. A bruise, a cut, a prick, or a sting, which in a healthy person would be scarcely noticed, is the starting-point for inflammation of an erysipelatous character, so that it seldom happens that the coffee inebriate is long lived.
"Coffee drunkards are more common among people of a nervous temperament than in the ranks of the stolid, phlegmatic folks, not easily moved by any stimulus, or who, like many Germans, prefer eating to drinking."

LIGHT IN THE HOME.

LET your light shine in your own home; don't be afraid it will become too bright. Don't be turning it down all the time, as you do the gas. Some people are very economical in the use of gas. They are always turning it down, and trying to see how little they can get along with; and a good many of us are just that way about our religion at home. We try to see how little we can get along with. Let your light shine at home. Turn it on full head, and let all the children have the benefit of it. If you keep your light shining brightly at home, God will light a good many other candles from your taper. It is because you shine so feebly and so inconstantly that your children and your husband have not been converted long ago, it may be. Remember that you are their Bible.—United Presbyterian.

NEVER BRING YOUR CARES INDOORS.

An aged believer, whom I have just seen on what is probably his dying bed, remarked to me that he had no cares, "and," added he, "I never have fretted, for I made it a rule never to bring my cares indoors." His house stands within his timber yard, and I smiled to think of his home as being a sacred inclosure, around which care might wander, but into which it could not enter. It might deal with the deals and concern itself with the planks, but could not come upon the carpet. How fine it would be if, when we scraped our boots, we cast care under the scraper; and, by a believing prayer, left it with the dust, which is the serpent's meat, and not ours! What is the use of fretting! It never coined a penny for our poverty, nor prepared a slice of meat for our hunger. It is a killing thing, and should be avoided by all who love life. We do not waste strength by labor, for there is a recuperative power within which restores us after activity; but we lose life by anxiety, and lose it fast. Worry is a form of suicide. Don't repine, for it takes so much out of you. A calm, contented life is worth far more to the insurance office, as the tables of probabilities go, than the life of one who drains his soul away by anxiety. Besides, a believer glorifies God by being always restful in faith. His peaceful life is a sermon with a quiet but irresistible eloquence in it, which wins men to a desire after its holy secret.—Selected.

SENTINEL LIBRARY.

No. Price.
1. The National Reformed Constitution... 3 cts.
2. Religious Liberty... 1 “
3. Evils of Religious Legislation... 1 “
4. The Blair Sunday-Rest Bill... 7 “
5. The Blair Educational Amendment... 3 “
6. Purity of National Religion... 1 “
7. National Reform and Rights of Conscience... 2 “
8. The American Papacy... 2 “
9. The Salem Witchcraft... 1 “
10. National Reform In Church and State... 2 “
11. What Think Ye of Christ?... 1 “
12. Bold and Base Avowal... 2 “
13. The National Reform Movement an Absurdity... 2 “
14. The Republic of Israel... 1 “
15. National Reformed Presbyterianism... 4 “
16. A Lutheran View of the National Reform Movement... 3 “
17. Religion and the Public Schools... 4 “
19. Rev. W. F. Crafts against the Editors of the American Sentinel... 10 “
20. Romanism and Civil Liberty... 4 “
21. Why We Oppose Religious Legislation... 3 “
22. The American Sabbath Union and Human Rights... 1 “
23. A Civil Sunday Holiday... 1 “
24. Blair’s Sunday-Rest Bill and Joint Resolution Introduced December 9, 1889 (exact copies, with notes)... 1 “
25. Civil Government and the Decalogue... 1 “
26. National Reform Success Means Religious Persecution... 1 “
27. The National Sunday Law; revised... 25 “
28. A Religious Political Movement... 1 “
29. Arguments on the Breckinridge Sunday Bill... 10 “
30. A Civil Sabbath... 1 “
31. Union of Church and State... 1 “
32. Civil Government and Religion; revised and enlarged edition... 25 “
33. The Edmunds Resolution... 2 “
34. Government and the Sermon on the Mount... 2 “
35. A Dangerous League... 2 “
36. The Churches and the Public Treasury... 4 “
37. An Attempt to Christianize the Government... 2 “
38. Congress and Sunday Legislation... 2,
39. God and Cæsar... 1 “
40. A Union between Protestants and Catholics... 1 “
41. The Sunday-Law Movement... 1 “
42. Sunday Laws of the States and Territories... 20 “
43. Should Church Property Be Taxed?... 2 “
44. “We Declare!” and “We Demand!”... 2 “
45. An Unbiased Arraignment... 1 “
46. The Importance of Maintaining Our Principles... 2 “
47. Should Sabbath Observance Be Enforced by Civil Law?... 3 “
48. Religious Toleration vs. Religious Rights... 1 “
49. The Prohibition Party and Freedom of Conscience... 1 “
50. Not a Christian Nation... 1 “
51. Results of Church and State Union... 1 “
52. Jesus, the Church, and the World’s Fair... 2 “
53. The Union of Church and State in the United States... 15 “
Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUB. CO., Oakland, Cal.; Or, 43 Bond Street, New York City.

CHRIST IN THE GOSPELS,

—OR—

The Life of our Lord in the Words of the Evangelists,

BY JAMES P. CADMAN, A. M. Is, as its Name Indicates, a Compilation in which the four Narratives of

THE LIFE OF CHRIST

ARE WOVEN INTO ONE CONNECTED STORY, MAKING A COMPLETE HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS IN THE EXACT LANGUAGE OF THE SCRIPTURES.
THE text is that of the Revised Version, and while every word in the four Gospels appears, the work is so arranged that the reader can tell at a glance the words used in each Gospel. Those who have tried to gather all the facts concerning some miracle, or other event, and at the same time properly locate and credit the various parts of the narrative, will appreciate this book, which is the very best of its kind and gives evidence of an immense amount of careful and painstaking labor.
The book is fully indexed so that any text or subject can be readily found; and the maps, notes, and diagrams which it contains are alone well worth the price of the volume. The following partial (less than half) TABLE OF CONTENTS will give an idea of the scope of the work:—
Index to chapter and verses; Life of Our Lord (333 pages); Index of persons, places, and subjects, with dictionary of proper names; Explanation of maps and diagrams; Map of the pathway of Jesus; Diagrams illustrating the principal events of crucifixion week.
This work is invaluable, and all who love the Bible should have a copy. It contains 394 pages, is well printed on good paper, and is neatly and substantially bound in cloth. Price, post-paid, - - - - - $1.50 With gilt edges, - - - - - 2.00 Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.
THE TALENTS. By M. C. Wilcox. A brief essay on "The Parable of the Talents," showing that the talents represent the various gifts of the Spirit which God bestows as he will upon those who are consecrated to him, with the duties and blessed privileges involved therein. Bible Students' Library, No. 77; 16 pp., price 2 cents.

Coolie Emigration to American Colonies

The emigration of coolies from India to the American countries and colonies, averages twenty-two thousand annually, there being now about two hundred and fifty thousand in the various West Indian Islands. There are 116,000 Chinese in Cuba alone and 60,000 in Peru.

Loftiest Volcanoes

The loftiest volcano is Cotopaxi, Ecuador, 18,800 feet high; last eruption, 1855. The loftiest active volcano is Popocatapetl, Mexico, 17,720 feet high.

TOBACCO A DEADLY POISON.

By Dio Lewis

LET us make an experiment. Here is a boy, ten years old, who has never used tobacco.
"Charley, will you help us to make an experiment?"
"I will, sir."
"Here is a piece of plug tobacco as large as a pea. Put it into your mouth, chew it. Don't let one drop go down your throat, but spit every drop of juice into that spittoon. Keep on chewing, spitting, chewing, spitting."
Before he is done with that little piece of tobacco, simply squeezing the juice out of it, without swallowing a drop, he will lie here on the platform in a cold, deathlike perspiration. Put your fingers upon his wrists. There is no pulse. He will seem for two or three hours to be dying.
Again, steep a plug of tobacco in a quart of water, and with the mixture bathe the neck and back of a calf troubled with vermin. You will kill the vermin, but if not very careful, you will kill the calf too. These experiments show that tobacco, in its ordinary state, is an extremely powerful poison.
Go to the chemist's; begin with the upper shelves and take down every bottle. Then open every drawer, and you cannot find a single poison (except some rare one) which, taken into the mouth of that ten-year-old boy and not swallowed, will produce such deadly effects.
No devotee of the weed has ever graduated at the head of his class, at Harvard, or any other college where statistics have been preserved, notwithstanding the fact that a large majority of college students are smokers.—Dr. Dio Lewis.

Modern Missions in India

By Elder S. N. Haskell

INDIA. NO. 6.

Modern Missions in India.

BY ELDER S. N. HASKELL.
THE outpouring of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, and the preaching of the gospel to every creature under heaven, in the first century, was the beginning of a still greater work of the same nature in the closing of the gospel dispensation. The Spirit of God will again be poured out with far greater power and will accomplish a far greater work in the world than at the first advent. Upon this point the prophet Joel says, "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fat shall overflow with wine and oil." Joel 2: 23, 24.
This is also shown by the fact that when the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come. And again, when "they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory," he will "gather his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." Matt. 24: 14; Mark 13: 26, 27. In Revelation 14: 6-12 we have a wonderful prophecy, in which it is stated that the everlasting gospel would be preached "unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." And it should be remembered that this prophecy was given twenty-eight years after the apostle declares, in Colossians 1 and Romans 10, that the gospel had gone into all the world, even to every creature. It also connects the preaching of the gospel with the hour of God's judgment, which event takes place at the time of the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. 4: 1.
From this and a multitude of other texts which might be adduced it is evident that when we reach the closing scenes of this world's history, the work begun by the apostles eighteen hundred years ago will again be taken up and be carried forward with far greater power than at the beginning. These two periods are distinctly pointed out by the inspired penman, as being special periods, both as to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the extent of its operation.
It is a fact that stands before the world that the nineteenth century has no parallel in the spread of the gospel, except the first century of the Christian era. With the increased facilities by means of the printing press and modes of travel, and the open communication with every portion of the globe, and the open doors for the gospel which exist to-day in every portion of the world, the way is prepared for ten times as great a work to be accomplished in a briefer period of time as was accomplished in the first century.
The nineteenth century is a century of missions. Denmark has the honor of opening up Protestant missions in India. It was the Danes that sent Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau, in 1705, to Tranquebar, in South India, and they thus became the pioneers of the great missionary army which has since been sent to India. It is only since the year 1800 that Protestant churches of Europe and America caught the enthusiasm of sending missionaries to take possession of every foot of territory in that country.
It was in 1814 that the strong hand of England, by an act of Parliament, legalized evangelistic operations among that people. It is only since then that the work of missions has been prosecuted in India with anything like vigor and success. And the extent of the mission work in that country, and the open doors that now exist for the missionary to enter, is so vast that it would be impossible to give a correct idea to the reader so he would appreciate the circumstances, unless he could visit the field himself.
Said Dr. Pentecost, the 28th of August last, at Northfield, Mass: "There is not a city, or town, or village, where a Christian missionary lives and has preached the gospel, but there are, besides the open converts, great numbers of secret Christians. I speak from experience, that among the high-caste men there are more secret Christians than among the low-caste men. In Calcutta I found a great many Christians among the high-caste men. They did not come out from their caste, but they openly confessed Jesus Christ."
There are as great miracles of grace in India, both as to individual experiences and to the progress of some missions, as are recorded since the days of the apostles. We speak of one mission only, at Ongole, where for many years the seed was sown, and nothing was seen of its fruit. It was only thirty-nine years ago that when a missionary and his native preachers entered that place, they were driven from the place, being reviled and stoned. Twelve years later another attempt was made, and the second missionary remained and became a resident. In 1867, two years later, there were eight members. In March, 1878, eleven years later, there was a membership of 110, and many others requiring baptism. Three months later, in June, Mr. Clough, the resident missionary, and his native assistants, in one day baptized 2,222. In less than one month from this time they had baptized 8,691. Tinnevelly, in the extreme southern part of India, was the scene of a like marvelous movement. After twenty years of preparatory toil, in seven months more than 16,000 souls placed themselves, voluntarily, under instruction with a view of Christian baptism.
Nor does this tell the story. These men have come from every class and caste of society. Thousands of schools and colleges have been opened, and it is statistically reported that over 1,000,000 have renounced their idolatry and taken their stand for Christ. There is not a foot of land in India but what is occupied by some mission. Shall we not say that God has wonderfully wrought for that land? Zenana schools, where secluded females are instructed, present open doors for thousands of lady missionaries to-day. These are an oppressed people.
Surely the time has come for the truth of God to enter these open doors, to gather for the heavenly garner those who will be represented in the kingdom of God. It is not a question whether we shall pray that God will open doors before us, but that he would pour upon his people his Holy Spirit, to enter through the doors that are open, and gather up the ripe fruit lying there.

THE MISSIONARY.

By Nathan Brown

I WILL go. I may no longer doubt To give up friends, and home, and idol hopes, And every tender tie that binds my heart To thee, my country. Why should I regard Earth's little store of borrowed sweets? I sure Have had enough of bitter in my cup To show that never was it His design Who placed me here that I should live in ease Or drink at pleasure's fountain. Henceforth, then, It matters not if storm or sunshine be My earthly lot, bitter or sweet my cup; I only pray, God fit me for the work; God make me holy, and my spirit nerve For the stern hour of strife. Let me but know There is an Arm unseen that holds me up, An eye that kindly watches all my path, Till I my weary pilgrimage have done; Let me but know I have a Friend that waits To welcome me to glory, and I joy To tread the dark and death-fraught wilderness. —Rev. Nathan Brown.

Doors Outward to the Secret Place

By George MacDonald

ALL the doors that lead inward to the secret place of the Most High are doors outward—out of self—out of smallness—out of wrong. — Geo. Macdonald.
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