FRUIT NUTS, composed of fruits, grains and nuts, granular like granola. A perfect food, supplies all the demands of the body.
LITTLE GEM HEALTH CRACKER, crisp and delicious. A small, round cracker, nut shortened. Nothing like it on the market.
A new 10-horse-power electric motor and other machinery is being added to the bakery for the purpose of meeting the increasing demands for our foods.
Send for Price-list
GARDEN CITY SANITARIUM
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
GOOD UNTIL APRIL FIRST
$11.00 for $7.00
We will ship to any address for $7.00 CASH
GUIDE FOR NUT COOKERY
Perfected Ball-bearing NUT BUTTER MILL.
FAMILY BLANCHING MILL.
And 50 lbs. extra No. 1 Shelled Spanish Peanuts.
Without the blanching mill, 75 cents less.
The mill has been on the market for four years, and has been greatly improved. Nearly 3,000 in use.
A child can operate it. It makes fine sterilized nut butter. Guide for Nut Cookery tells how. It is a complete recipe book, showing the most healthful ways to prepare nuts, grains, legumes, and all varieties of foods.
Write for descriptive circulars, and prices on nuts and health foods.
JOSEPH LAMBERT, Battle Creek, Mich.
Persian Student Plans Missionary Work
A YOUNG man from Persia who is in attendance at Victoria College, in Toronto, often addresses meetings. He speaks of the benefits that came to us through the Gospel compared with the Mohammedan religion of his country, and believes that our privileges are great. The speaker intends to return to his native country in about a year, and will engage in missionary work.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
THE annual camp-meeting of North Pacific Conference has been set for May 17-27, at Portland, Oregon.
IT has been decided by the Chesapeake Conference Committee to hold a camp-meeting in Baltimore, Md., June 21 to July 1.
A NEW church organization has been effected in Buffalo, N. Y., known as the Second S. D. A. Church, with a membership of twenty-one.
UNDER date of March 5, Brother D. E. Scoles writes that since last October over twenty persons have accepted the faith under his labors in Missouri Conference.
A CHURCH of seventeen members has been organized at Norwich, N. Y., by Brother J. W. Raymond. The ordinance of baptism was celebrated in the First Baptist Church.
FROM Roseburg, Oregon, there comes the report of the addition of four members to the church, and a like report comes from Riddle. These reports are from Brother B. C. Tabor, in the Visitor.
THE dedication of the new house of worship at Stoughton, Wis., was attended by Brother Wm. Covert, president of the conference, and a number of other State laborers. A good interest was manifested on the part of the citizens of the place.
TWO HORSES and half the necessary money have been donated for outfitting a colporter wagon in Montana. As a session of the conference has just closed, we expect to hear that the whole enterprise has been provided for. A wagon-load of truth traveling through the country, in charge of a competent colporter, can not fail to find interested readers.
WITH one helper, Miss Sadie Needham has been selling the SIGNS in Seattle, Wash. They sold 344 copies in six weeks, going out only once a week. Sister McMartin, who labored for a time in San Francisco, has returned to Portland, Oregon, to continue the SIGNS work. She expects to dispose of 50 to 100 copies weekly. A brother in Pueblo, Colo., delivers sixty copies every week in addition to his regular work.
BROTHER D. T. FERO writes to the Visitor that Sister Woolsey's Orphans' Home at Tacoma, Wash., is in a distressing condition, owing to a visitation of smallpox. "There are over twenty small children in the home, and the source of supply is to a considerable extent shut off. Sister Woolsey has never called for help before, and would not now if she were not forced to do so. Her address is Mrs. Kate Woolsey, 1151½ Tacoma Avenue, Tacoma, Wash."
IN the Nebraska Reporter of February 14 there is a letter from Sister Annie Knight, who went to Gitano, Miss., from Battle Creek, Mich., to engage in teaching. She began work in a log cabin, something over a year ago, with twenty children, only five of whom knew the alphabet. Her letter reports the completion of a comfortable lumber house, 24x16 feet and porch, on forty acres of land of her own, which is to be used as a school farm. In her letter she returns thanks to the persons, eighty in number, who donated the means to build the house.
A REPORT of labor in the Workers' Bulletin says: "One prominent liquor dealer and his family have been converted, and he is now preparing to enter the work among the Germans. At the time of his conversion he had over two thousand dollars on his books which he had been trying to collect. When people who were able to pay tried to dodge their debts, he would hold malice against them. After his conversion he took his accounts before the Lord, and asked Him to take every wrong feeling out of his heart. On getting up from his knees, he said, 'Now, Lord, none of these men owe me anything, I have left it all with Thee.' After that his testimony in social meeting had the right ring."
THE Workingman's Home and Vegetarian Restaurant, recently started in Springfield, Mo., gave a free dinner to the poor of the city, March 1, which was partaken of by 300 people. Brother D. P. Zeigler, who has charge of the enterprise, says: "We came here the 1st of January, since which time seven persons have united with the church. The mission was opened to the public February 14." One of the daily papers gave an extended notice of the dinner, as also of the work of the mission. It says: "The tickets for the dinner had been distributed all over the city, the ministers, relief officer, and other persons acquainted with the needy families of the town assisting in this benevolent cause."
PROGRESSIVE work for the season has been arranged by the Texas Conference Committee. We note that a tent is to be placed in Houston, with Brother D. U. Hale in charge, and that a camp-meeting will be held there at a time yet to be fixed. Another tent goes to Marshall, under Brother J. N. Sommerville and A. G. Bodwell, with a camp-meeting in contemplation. Also that a camp-meeting be held at some point in Central West Texas, preceded by the labors of Brother T. W. Field. The regular State camp-meeting will be held at Dallas, if suitable arrangements can be made. Brother H. W. Woodruff is to continue his labors in the northwestern part of the State, where he has recently met with considerable success.
FROM the Advance, of Wellington, N. Z., we clip this bit of intelligence:—
"Dr. F. E. Braucht arrived in Auckland on February 1, and, after a short stay in that city, went to Christchurch, where his family have remained during his absence. New Zealand is to be congratulated on account of securing the services of a God-fearing, conscientious physician, one who will treat disease with rational remedies. The Foreign Mission Board and all acquainted with the work feel that the doctor can ill be spared from Samoa, where he has established a sanitarium, and secured a large practise. We can show our appreciation of his coming by our influence and means given to assist the doctor in starting his work. If any of our friends need the services of a good physician, they should correspond with Dr. Braucht. They can also recommend him to their suffering friends and neighbors. For the present, address him at 71 Hereford Street, Christchurch."
THOSE who look up the actual membership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as given in denominational statistics, in order to learn the extent of the influence wielded by the truth this people advocate, are sure to be deceived. There are a great many people not members of this church who hold to the main distinguishing views of the church, and of whom no account is taken in reports. Our laborers are continually finding them or hearing from them in places where they had not known that true sympathy existed. The last number of the Tennessee River Watchman gives reports from two isolated companies conducting Sabbath-schools and studying the truth from the Bible and other literature that has come to their hands. From one of these companies comes to the president of that conference this information: "There is some interest to hear our faith presented, and it will be no trouble to get a place to hold services in when you come."
FOR the convenience of those who supply the SIGNS from week to week to subscribers, we have arranged a little book in which the names and addresses of subscribers may be written, a record kept of each paper delivered, etc. Sent free on application. Address this office.
The Cost of Religious Converts
It is not often that religious converts are quoted in the market, but the Baptist Missionary Magazine estimates from a comparison of church statistics that Methodist converts cost, $42.08 apiece; Baptist, $47.52, while Congregationalists and Presbyterians come high, averaging respectively $176 and $232 each.—Ex.
Indians Increasing in Number
THROUGH changed conditions, it has frequently been said, the Indians will rapidly die out; but information received at the Indian Bureau shows that this is an error. There are now about three hundred thousand Indians in the United States, and it is evident that they are increasing in numbers.
Now I have mony
The
taurant free c was Zeigle "We
taurant
free c was Zeigle "We
Now
I have
mony
Now
I have
mony
The
taurant
free c
was
Zeigle
"We
The
taurant
free c
was
Zeigle
"We
The
taurant
free c
was
Zeigle
"We
Now
I have
mony
Now
I have
mony
Now
I have
mony
The
taurant
free c
was
Zeigle
"We
Now
I have
mony
The
taurant
free c
was
Zeigle
"We
Indian Missionary Giving
AN Indian mission church in Santee Agency, Neb., gives to missionary enterprises outside the church an average of more than nine dollars a member each year, and for its own home expenses, and to spread the Gospel among the Indians, more than eleven dollars a member each year.
ANNUAL MEETING.
THE regular annual meeting of the Society of the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Oakland, Cal., will be held at the house of worship, corner Twelfth and Brush Streets, Wednesday evening, April 4, 1900, at 7:30 o'clock. A general attendance of resident members is desired. By order of the president.
E. A. CHAPMAN, Secretary.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
THE annual meeting of the stockholders of the Pacific Press Publishing Company, a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of California, will be held at the office of the company, corner of Twelfth and Castro Streets, in the city of Oakland, county of Alameda, State of California, on Monday, the 23d day of April, A.D. 1900, at 9:30 A.M., for the purpose of electing a board of seven directors, and transacting any other business that may properly come before the meeting. By order of
C. H. JONES,
President of Pacific Press Publishing Company.
T. A. KILGORE,
Secretary of Pacific Press Publishing Company.
CHARACTER BUILDING.
By Frederick Griggs
In considering the subject of child training, the parent and teacher should stand in much the same relation to the child. The child's first teacher should be the parent, who should continue to be his teacher long after he has ordinarily been turned over to the school.
There is no individual in the world who has more opportunities for properly directing the development and growth of the child, than has the parent. If he be a thoughtful parent, who is a student of his own nature and disposition, he can readily see in the child the great effects of heredity. Not only this, but he can also understand and direct the environments and influences surrounding the child, as can no one else. It should be borne in mind that heredity and environment are the two great features which go to determine the character of the child. By heredity is meant those tendencies of mind and body which are given to the child from many ancestors, through his parents. By environment is included every external influence which touches the life of the child in any way. Until the child goes from under the parental roof, the parent has almost absolute control of his environment.
The majority of children are sent to school years before they should be. It is a serious matter to let a little child go out from the sacred influences of his home to mingle with the influences coming from many other homes.
The children coming from any home are, generally speaking, a faithful representation of what that home is, and when parents send their little ones to the school, it is very much like sending them into other homes to receive their mould. Some one has said that we send the children to school to be instructed by the teacher, but they are taught by their mates, and never truer words were uttered. Of any one individual in a school, of course the teacher has by far the greater influence, but when you come to weigh against the teacher's personality, precepts, and life that of a great many of these little people, the balance turns in favor of the child's schoolmates, for they are living in the same plane with him, and are in touch with his life in a sense which the teacher is not nor can be. We may have teachers whose characters are spotless, whose influence is always helpful, whose control over her children is magnificent, and yet the good work of this teacher will be practically undone by the bad influences and examples of the child's playmates. How necessary it is then that before the child shall go into such an arena as the school, his character shall have become so strong that he is reasonably sure of maintaining a successful contest against those forces which tend to drag him downward.
Character is quite often not very clearly defined. As a result, there is a great deal said about character that is indefinite. In a way, we all have a common understanding of what is meant by a good or bad character. People in general recognize that certain principles of honesty, purity, kindness, and many others which might be mentioned, are necessary elements of what is meant by a good character, and that the lack of these elements results in what is generally denominated an evil character.
Elements of Character.
Now character is very concrete, and possesses no abstract elements. I wish to give what seems to me to be the important elements of character, into which all other elements may come. They are—
health,
knowledge,
perseverance,
judgment,
right motive.
The definite order in which they are here named is, to my mind, the natural one in the development of the child. But it is the order of time, not of importance.
Of course we all recognize that the first element in importance in the character of the child is that of right motive. It is so important that it of itself is often considered the sum and substance of character. If one has a right motive, it is generally considered that he has a good character. But character involves the whole being. It is that which enables an individual to successfully meet and overcome the obstacles in life's pathway, and to live a practical life full of usefulness. It must be apparent, then, that something else is necessary other than right motive, for there are a great many people in the world whose motives are most excellent, but yet they do not accomplish very much that is of any special value, either to themselves or any one else. So, while "right motive" is here placed at the last of the list of elements of character, yet when we rank it in the matter of importance, we must place it first.
But it should be borne in mind that what is first in importance is not always first in time. We recognize this continually in our intercourse one with another, for we often keep back the most important item in a transaction until we have prepared the way for it by presenting others; so in ranking these elements of character in the child, we must recognize that certain subordinate elements are necessary to produce this, the most important of all, "right motive."
A First Consideration.
The health of every child is of the first consideration in the building of its character. If this is kept in mind, we have at the outset a concrete conception of character. With stomach disordered, nerves unstrung, and the physical energies of the child in general depleted through a lack of fresh air, bright sunshine, good food, abundant exercise, and perhaps, above all, a cheerful home atmosphere, the mental organization of the child is bound to be awry, and he can not have a good motive. I do not think that it is putting it at all too strong when I say that with these unhygienic conditions of health, it is utterly impossible for the child to possess, in any satisfactory degree, any one of the other four elements of character.
Knowledge—What and How.
No discussion is necessary to convince the majority of thinking people that knowledge plays an exceedingly important part in character building. But of course by knowledge is meant good knowledge, that which is wholesome, elevating, and pure, and none other than this should ever be presented to the child. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts, but not only are the facts themselves of value in establishing a right character in the child, but the manner in which these facts are gotten is also of much importance.
It makes a great deal of difference whether the child is getting these facts to pass certain examinations and to meet certain definite requirements of the school or of society, or whether he is getting them as the result of a natural interest; whether they are to him isolated facts which he must in some way cram into his mind, or whether he sees that they all bear certain definite relations to each other; and, above all, whether he sees God and manifestations of His love in all things which he studies. I say that this very largely determines the effect of knowledge upon character.
Perseverance—Execution.
A child may have knowledge, health, right motive, and good judgment, but if he has not perseverance, these other elements are of but little value. By perseverance I mean not only the keeping at a thing, but the getting at it, the starting. That characteristic of the individual which enables him to not only plan wisely because of his knowledge and judgment, but to execute his plans after they have been made. Generally speaking, the child has little perseverance. He flits from one thing to another. His attention is easily diverted. It is therefore of the utmost importance that great care should be taken to have him persevere and complete his undertaking.
Good Judgment.
Judgment is the result of thoughtfulness, which in its turn comes from knowledge that has been rightly acquired through observation and comparison. Those who are older often forget that children readily observe, compare, and make deductions, or form judgments of his own. Because of this, the child should be taught to think and act for himself.
While we speak of these elements of character separately, yet it must be borne in mind that they are connected in various ways in nearly every act of the child. The character of the child is determined largely before he reaches the age of eight or ten years, and he should not be placed under the influences of others outside the home, as in schools, until that time when he can independently act upon right principles.
Parents and teachers have a serious work; for what they sow, the child reaps.
FREDERICK GRIGGS.
THE NOBLEST MEN.
THE noblest men that live on earth
Are men whose hands are brown with toil;
Who, backed by no ancestral graves,
Hew down the woods and till the soil,
And win thereby a prouder name
Than follows king's or warrior's fame.
The workingmen, whate'er their task,
Who carve the stone or bear the hod,
They wear upon their honest brows
The royal stamp and seal of God;
And worthier are their drops of sweat
Than diamonds in a coronet.
God bless the noble workingmen,
Who rear the cities of the plain,
Who dig the mines, who build the ships,
And drive the commerce of the main!
God bless them! for their toiling hands
Have wrought the glory of all lands.
—Teacher's World.
THE CHILDREN.
By G. C. Tenney
IT is not an uncommon thing to hear people say that they have no love for children. Many more people are ready to declare boys an unmitigated nuisance, a necessary evil, perhaps, for the world in general, but creatures for which they have no use. In many families children are unwelcome. All sorts of expedients are adopted to prevent the advent of children into the family circle, even to murder of the innocent lives. Before birth an enmity is indulged toward children, and it is the first thing they have to meet when born. It may be assuaged to some extent by the appearance of the little helpless creature, but often it is allowed to remain in the form of cold-hearted indifference, if not in open hostility.
God accepts the responsibility of fatherhood to every creature born into the world, even when in the eyes of the law they have no right to be. In His book all their members are written. Under His eye the embryotic being is formed, and He intends that all, since they are thrust out upon the stage of human action without their consent or knowledge, shall share the full measure of parental love and protection. To deprive any child of these is a sin against God. It is most unfortunate to the welfare of society that an innate enmity should be fostered toward children by parents before their offspring comes into the world. While a great many parents will not know of what we speak, we speak of what we know when we say that a vast number of the children born in the world in these days come as unwelcome guests into the families which they invade. In such cases it will be a rare thing if the child ever gains the measure of love to which he is entitled, and the result will be a mutual estrangement between parents and child.
What wonder, then, that in recording the character of the times in which we live, the apostle should foresee and declare that children should be "disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy," and that there would be an absence of even natural affection!
To insure a successful life it is essential to start right. But the child that is received ungraciously as he enters life, does not have a fair start, and it will not be strange if he turns out an Ishmaelite whose hand is against every man.
But while it is true that the prevailing pride and wickedness of this age are separating far apart the parents and their offspring, it is also true that the God who has foretold this state of things has also said that by the outpouring of His Spirit at the same time He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest He come and smite the earth with a curse.
Now is the time for Christian fathers and mothers to think of their children, and to seek their eternal welfare as never before. It always requires a much stronger effort to move in a right direction when the tide runs in the wrong direction. So now, when the hearts of many parents and children are sadly estranged, and a wide gulf is separating them, it will require an especial effort on the part of wise parents to stem the current and save their children. In my younger experience I can well remember having met a few parents who were, as I then thought, too solicitous for their children. They took, as I thought, too much pains to watch every feature of their lives. But time has shown me the wisdom of that course in every case where the watchcare was exercised with love. Children whose paths are carefully guarded by parents who are jealous for their lasting welfare, may be led at times by associates who are not thus blest, to chafe under the restraints. But let the godly parent persevere.
The time is coming when the children will call you blessed for doing what may now be sometimes a painful duty.
It is true that children have rights. They have a right to receive a careful training. This they can not have while they are allowed to have their own way. So the rights of children do not embrace the right to their own wills and ways. That is generally the wrongs of children and not the rights. But there are rights which justice ascribes to children. The principle of justice should never be violated to the injury of the smallest or weakest living creature. The parent who will trample underfoot the rights of his little children because he has the advantage of them in power or authority, is no better than a coward and a tyrant. How many children are compelled to submit to unjust punishment to satiate a parent's anger, when every principle of justice is violated by the punishment!
God will surely render for these things. He hears the sob of outraged fairness and the harsh tones of unreasonable command and fiendish scolding under which many a child heart is being turned to adamant.
Ah, here we have the root of the great overtopping evils of an age that is fast approaching the record of Sodom! It is probably too late to hope for a reform all along the line before Jesus comes. But it is not too late to let our influence for good be felt, first in our own family circle, and then, if it be felt there, it will extend in blessings to others around us.
In many respects the world needs reforming, but in none so sadly as in the neglect of parental child training. G. C. TENNEY.
Prophetic Lights
By E. J. Waggoner
By Pastor E. J. Waggoner
Of London, England
A real help in the study of the prophecies
Deeply interesting
Numerous illustrations, several of which are striking full-page representations of prophetic symbols
180 pages, 6x9 inches
Price, in paper covers · · · 50 cents
With "SIGNS" one year $1.25
GIVEN FREE for one new yearly subscription and one renewal, or for two new subscriptions at $1.00 each.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Oakland, Cal.
Everybody Knows
WHAT A BIBLE DICTIONARY IS
But no one knows, till he sees it, how good the one we offer is
After having the book for some time, one says:
"The Bible Dictionary you sent me as a premium was received the 19th of November. I can but express my thanks to you, as it is the most complete and comprehensive of any I have ever seen. I do not see how you can afford to offer such a valuable and costly book at so low a figure as for six new subscriptions."
See anybody below
A Standard Book of Reference
A Library of Useful Information
A Valuable Assistant in the Study of the Scriptures.
1017 Pages, Illustrated, Cloth Binding
Publisher's Price - - - - - - - $4.50
Sent post-paid with "SIGNS" one year $2.25
SENT FREE for five new yearly subscriptions and one renewal, or for six new subscriptions at $1.00 each
Address: SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Oakland, Cal.
OLD PEOPLE AND HIGH ALTITUDES.
THE London Lancet has sounded a note of warning against the dangers of high altitudes for elderly people. If at a height of more than 4,000 feet to 5,000 feet above the sea-level, a certain amount of strain is put on a normal heart, and by a rise of pressure indirectly also on the large peripheral arteries, must not this action be multiplied in the cases of heart troubles or in the cases of arteries with thickened or hardened walls? It is specially the rapidity of the change from one altitude to another, which must be considered as a call made upon the contractibility of the small arteries on the one hand, and on the amount of muscular force of the heart on the other hand, and if the structures in question did not respond to this call, rupture of an artery or dilation of the heart might ensue. In the case of people totally unaccustomed to high altitudes, it is desirable to take them by degrees, in two or three stages, with a stay of one or two days at the intermediate places.—Scientific American.
Marriage and Money
MR. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW tells, through the New York World, of the sacrifices his wife made when he was a poor young man. He says: “In those times the girl would give up something to the man she loved. She’d make sacrifices; she’d accept chances. In these days, owing to the society usages, ‘the higher ideals,’ the general extravagance of New York life, she is greedy, grasping, selfish. Her eyes, her heart, are centered on money, money—nothing but money. The evil is growing. The days when a girl of society or of the upper class married a poor man because she loved him appear to have gone forever—except in the country towns.”
1 "JUDGE not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment 2 ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, 3 it shall be measured unto you. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam 4 that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is 5 in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
6 "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.
7 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; 8 knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that ask-eth receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that 9 knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; 10 or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye 11 then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give 12 good things to them that ask Him? All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them; for this is the law and the prophets.1513 "Enter ye in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be 14 they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straightened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it."
Golden Text: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Matt. 7: 12.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) In the Saviour's instructions to His followers, what command does He give? Why? V. 1. Note 1. (2) What will be the result to the one who judges another? Upon what does our treatment by another in great measure depend? V. 2. (3) In what way does the Saviour show the folly of criticising one another? V. 3. (4) In what other way does the Saviour express the same thought? V. 4. (5) What is a person who would attempt to do such a thing? What is his first duty? Having done this, what work may he then attempt? V. 5. Note 2. (6) Against what does the Saviour warn His followers? What might be the result to one who would attempt to satisfy swine with pearls? V. 6. Note 3. (7) What three things will the follower of Christ do? V. 7. (8) What will result to the one who asks? To the one who seeks? To the one who knocks? V. 8. (9) What two illustrations does the Saviour use to emphasize God's willingness to give what His children ask? Vs. 9, 10. (10) How does the Saviour apply the illustration? V. 11. Note 4. (11) What grand rule does Christ give us for the treatment of our fellow-men? V. 12. (12) What is the only safe gate for the Christian? To what does the other lead? What is said of this gate? V. 13. (13) For what reason are so many going in at the broad gate? What is the peculiarity of this gate? V. 14.
NOTES.
1. Judge not.—"Do not think yourself better than other men, and set yourself up as their judge. Since you can not discern motive, you are incapable of judging another. In criticising him, you are passing sentence upon yourself; for you show that you are a participant with Satan, the accuser of the brethren. The Lord says, 'Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.' This is our work."—Desire of Ages. "It means to impute wrong motives, to put the worst and not the best construction on the actions or words of others. This command forbids us to sit in judgment upon the conduct of others, forming and expressing opinions upon that of which it is impossible for us to know all the facts."—Peloubet.
2. Then shalt thou see clearly.—Having had experience in getting rid of his own sins and faults, he is better able to help another in getting rid of his. In other words, his vision is not distorted or discolored by viewing his brother's faults through the spectacles of his own sins.
3. Neither cast your pearls before the swine.—"There are those who will only make a misuse of the highest and holiest things in religion. Their natures are so sensual, their hearts so hard, that they can not understand or appreciate the best things of God. It does not follow that we are to do nothing for them. There are some things even they can understand,—sympathy, loving-kindness, aid in temporal things, the love of Jesus Christ. By these we are to seek to change them into sincere men and Christians, and then they will understand the holy things and appreciate the pearls."—Peloubet.
4. How much more.—The difference is infinite. In Christ, God gave heaven's choicest gift. Then may we not expect that He will "with Him freely give us all things"? The greatest and best gift presupposes all the lesser ones.
