TEXT: “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph. 3:19.
To know that which passes knowledge must be to know that which is unknowable. But this would evidently be an impossibility, and Christianity is designed to do this very thing for its possessor, to enable him to do those things which from a natural standpoint are impossible. In fact, if our religion does not lead us out into the realm of the impossible, the supernatural, and the miraculous, what does it amount to? If it does not lead us to do “more than others” in this as well as in other respects, how are we any better off for having it? We will read the context in connection with this text, beginning with verse 14: “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
The apostle here prays for the Church, that they might be strengthened to do this very thing, and he states that God is able to make them able to do it.
The thing directly under consideration is the comprehending of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Many poor souls go disconsolate through life, not knowing whether God loves them or not; they also imagine that no one loves them. This is a morbid condition of the mind, and such persons need to comprehend the fact that God loves them with an infinite love, and that as far as human love is concerned, quite likely they receive as much as they bestow, and as much as they deserve.
But when we have succeeded in removing from our hearts that hallucination that we are not the recipients of the infinite love of our Heavenly Father and of our blessed Redeemer, and grasp the fact that we do share their love, have we reached the point held before us in this text? — We have only begun to realize the meaning of this Scripture. What was the love of Christ? — It was an active love. His very being was alive with unselfish devotion to the good of others. That love is to be our own, inseparably connected with our own experience. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” This love, active as well as passive, is to be ours. What is its breadth? — As broad as the universe. What is its length? — As long as eternity. How deep is it? — As deep as hell, deep as the lowest depth of perdition to which a poor sinner ever sank. How high is it? — As high as heaven. Is this an extravagant view of the subject? “It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?” Job 11:8.
“God is love,” and it is His purpose concerning us that we should be enabled to reach this divine knowledge concerning himself, by His power who can accomplish the impossible; for with God all things are possible. Through Him man is to accomplish the impossible. He is to see that which cannot be seen, the invisible. Of Moses it is said, “He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” Heb. 11:27. The same thought is expressed in 2 Cor. 4:18: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” To see the things which are not seen, the invisible, would be to see that which cannot be seen. The same experience came to the servant of Elisha. The prophet prayed that the eyes of the young man might be opened that he might see what the prophet himself could already see, the invisible heavenly host; and then the servant could see that which could not be seen by the natural eye.
But the power of not seeing the visible seems almost as astonishing as the power of seeing the invisible. “We look not at the things which are seen.” What! come right up before an object that is as plain as day before your eyes and not see it! not see such a splendid chance to speculate and make money! not perceive an insult offered to us! Remember what the prophet said of Christ: “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as He that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but He heareth not.” This negative power, if we may so call it, is given to him who is dead indeed unto sin. This power is ours. But not only is the believer to see that which cannot be seen, he is also to hear that which cannot be heard. “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” Isa. 30:21. What shall hear the word? Does it say, Thine heart shall hear? thine imagination shall hear? you will think you hear? Ah, it is more real than that. With what do we really hear anyway? — With the ear.
That is it: “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee.” It is for us to hear the unhearable — the inaudible. Paul says, “They that were with me . . . heard not the voice of Him that spake to me.” The “still small voice,” which appeals so powerfully to the listener, is not discerned by him who will not hearken to the voice of the Lord. Men may not hear the voice of Him that speaks unto us, but it is for us who have ears to hear, to hear what the Spirit says. The unspeakable words are spoken by a power that is sufficient to perform the impossible, and these unspeakable words are heard by him who hears the inaudible utterances of the divine invisible One:
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” If Christ dwells in my heart, then His love will dwell there, and that love is an active love. Let us notice the ways in which the love of Christ was manifested. First, His love for His Father. This was what led Him out into the mountain by night to commune with God. It was this intense attachment to His Father. we know the love of Christ in this respect, then, as the hart pants for the water-brooks, so our souls long for God.
Then Christ’s love for the holy angels, those invisible companions who are constantly about us! We are not much acquainted with them yet, but they are well acquainted with us, and we hope soon to be with them. But while we have not seen them, yet it will be a species of love whose reflex action will give us comfort and joy in this vale of tears to consider all the information the Holy Scriptures have given us about these celestial beings, and it is our privilege to let our affection, though not our adoration, go out toward those ministering spirits.
Next notice the love of Christ for His brethren, for the Church. All His intercourse with them is a constant proof of His undying love for them. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Notwithstanding He knew they were about to deny and forsake Him, yet His love continued the same to the end. How long does our love for the brethren continue? Is it simply till some difference of opinion arises? till they do something that does not suit us? That is human love, that is not the love of Christ. He loved them to the end. Do we know that love?
Then there is the love for the poor apostate, the backslider. It seems as if such were made the special objects of Christ’s love. Listen: “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you.” What wonderful love in the many invitations extended to the backslider! Are our feelings toward the prodigal those of the older brother in the parable, or do we know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge toward the backslider?
Last of all, let us notice the Saviour’s love for the whole world outside in darkness and wickedness. Did love divine extend so far? “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And the Son shared in this love. It is for us to know this unspeakable love that passeth knowledge, that it may lead us to the same missionary interest and effort that He showed, for the world around us.
With love going out in so many directions from our hearts, will not our lives be lives of love, and will not this love, the love of Christ, put into the shade all our petty trials and difficulties? — Indeed, it will. And then to crown it all, toward our blessed Redeemer himself, who has brought us into this blessed experience, and is the bond of all love and perfection, shall a constant stream of love flow from our hearts, refreshing our lives and our pathway, and making them blossom like the garden of God.
Sabbath-school Work
By George W. Amadon
A SKETCH OF THE BATTLE CREEK SABBATH-SCHOOL FROM ITS COMMENCEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME.
The beginning of our Sabbath-school work in this city dates from the autumn of the year 1855. In the month of October of that year the small plant of the Review Office was moved from Rochester, N. Y., to the village of Battle Creek. There were fourteen persons, in all, who then came to this place. Elder James White’s family numbered seven, and there were also Brother J. W. Bacheller and his mother and sister, Brother and Sister Belden (the parents of F. E. Belden), Brother Uriah Smith, and the writer, all of us making the fourteen already mentioned.
At that time there were ten families of Sabbath-keepers living in this place, and in these families there were about twenty children and young persons, who, with their parents, made forty Sabbath-keepers. These, with those who came from the East with the press, constituted the charter members of the original Battle Creek church, as follows:—
Cyrenius Smith,
Delphia J. Frisbie,
Louisa Smith,
Zerah Brooks,
William Smith,
Mrs. Z. Brooks,
Martha L. Smith,
David Hewitt,
Lorinda Smith,
Olive Hewitt,
A. A. Dodge,
Walter Grant,
Caroline Dodge,
Nancy Grant,
Henry Lyon,
S. B. Warren,
Deborah Lyon,
Mrs. S. B. Warren,
J. R. Lewis,
J. P. Munsell,
Mrs. J. R. Lewis,
Matilda Munsell,
J. B. Frisbie,
Mrs. Mary E. Tozer.
At that time there was no church building here for believers in “the present truth,” and our meetings were often attended by fifty persons or more. This congested condition of the meetings immediately led to the erection of a small chapel, which stood about a dozen feet south of the flat which is now in process of erection on the west side of Cass Street near Champion Street. This small church building, 18 x 24 ft., was put up in the fall and winter of 1855-56, and was without doubt the first meeting-house erected by Seventh-day Adventists.
At this early date, and before any place of worship was constructed, the Sabbath-keepers then living here had a Bible class study and a small Sabbath-school. The one brother who had a burden in this matter, and who led out in forming the nucleus of a Sabbath-school, was Brother Merritt G. Kellogg. He was the oldest brother of Dr. J. H. Kellogg, and has long been a faithful medical missionary among the islands of the Pacific.
Brother Kellogg at first did not have the assistance that he should have had in the Sabbath-school work, but there soon came an admonition from the Lord which prompted others to take hold and assist.
In starting the Sabbath-school work, the one great embarrassment was the lack of suitable lesson helps, as we have at the present time. And in the absence of such assistance, lessons were generally given out from some portion of the Bible; verses were committed by the children, and questions were asked on them by the teachers. There had previously been printed a few Sabbath-school lessons in the Youth’s Instructor, in Rochester, N. Y.; but as they were not issued in book form, these lessons were not generally available at this early date.
For the use of young people and adults, there had been prepared in 1855 a series of fifty-two Sabbath-school lessons by Elder R. F. Cottrell, on the “Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.” These were issued in a neat little volume called the “Bible Class,” by Elder James White, and for years this book was the basis of Sabbath-school study by the young people and the older ones. But as Elder Cottrell’s excellent book was run from type, and no plates were made, after a while the edition was exhausted, and the study of this book necessarily ceased. Hence for a number of years lessons had to be improvised for the school as the tact of the leaders and workers could suggest. In prosecuting the work after this method, quite a number of the books of the New Testament, and several in the Old, were gone through in our Sabbath-school study.
But notwithstanding the several inconveniences under which the work was carried on, the Sabbath-school gradually increased in interest and size, and this was especially so as people began to move to Battle Creek. In 1855 our school numbered fifty persons, divided into ten classes, and Brother John P. Kellogg, the father of Dr. J. H. Kellogg of the Sanitarium, was superintendent.
In 1863 there were seventy-five souls in our Sabbath-school, the same number that went down to Egypt in the days of Joseph. In 1870 the school had increased to one hundred persons. In the year 1877 was created the “General Sabbath-school organization,” which gave a decided impetus to the work; and from that time to the present there has been a more intelligent and definite purpose before the school, which has not only told in Battle Creek, but throughout the world where the truth has gone. From this date also there has been no lack of suitable lesson helps for both young and old.
In the earlier period of this work there were no regular Sabbath contributions as at present, but funds were frequently raised to assist the needy, and to furnish our youth’s paper to those unable to subscribe. From time to time more or less of this benevolence was connected with our Sabbath-school work. When Brother G. H. Bell became connected with the Battle Creek Sabbath-school, about 1868, a much greater effort was made to raise funds than previously.
Mention has been made of the embarrassment in Sabbath-school work on account of having no lesson helps for the young children. To supply this great lack, in 1863 a sister by the name of Adelia P. Patten, now the wife of Elder I. D. Van Horn, began a series of Sabbath-school lessons in the Youth’s Instructor, entitled “Bible Knowledge for Little Children.” There were one hundred and four of these excellent lessons, and they treated upon Old Testament history, beginning with the book of Genesis, and ending with the teachings and life of the Saviour. These important lessons were a great blessing in Sabbath-school work in Battle Creek and in the cause at large.
During the years 1861, ’62, and ’63, a series of “Miscellaneous Bible Questions” for children and youth was furnished by the editors of the Youth’s Instructor, through the columns of that paper, which tended to create a lively interest in Sabbath-schools wherever they were in existence. This was learned by the frequent letters that came to the Review and Herald Office.
Up to the year 1878 there had been one serious hindrance in Sabbath-school work, not only in Battle Creek, but elsewhere, in the lack of a suitable song book in connection with our schools. But about this time it pleased God to raise up Brother J. E. White, who, with the aid of Brother F. E. Belden and others, brought out the Sabbath-school song book entitled “The Song Anchor,” which had a remarkable circulation, and which has stimulated the zeal of multitudes in this blessed line of work. Before this we had only a little primer of hymns printed in Rochester, N. Y., a compilation of about eighty pages of words only, without music, to which tunes were adapted when the book was used. But this little book was only a stepping-stone till something better was provided. It may also here be added that “The Song Anchor” has been followed by other excellent books of a similar character, which have been a decided blessing in Sabbath-school interests.
In glancing over the past history of our Sabbath-school in this place, it must not be neglected to state that in no small degree the success of the work depended on the energy of our secretaries. A good system of reporting greatly tended to the upbuilding of the work. And on this point honorable mention may be made of such faithful secretaries as Mary Kelsey White, Mina Fairfield, Jennie Tremblay Richards, Winnie Loughborough Kelsea, Maud Sisley Boyd, and very many others. Some of these are now sleeping, but they will surely come forth when the trumpet sounds, and share in the great recompense.
It is a pleasant point here to state that in the diversified history and varied experiences of the Battle Creek church during the past forty-six years, the Sabbath-school work has been continued with no serious interruptions nor long vacations. In summer and in winter, in heat and cold, during rain and shine, the Sabbath-school work has gone forward with no serious break.
One more item in this connection it is proper to not pass over, and that is the superintendency of the Battle Creek Sabbath-school. As already mentioned, the first superintendent, in 1855, was Brother M. G. Kellogg. He served awhile, then this mantle of responsibility rested upon his father, John P. Kellogg. Later on the writer looked after this interest awhile, and in 1865 Brother G. H. Bell, in the Lord’s providence, was raised up to put his shoulders to the Sabbath-school wheels. As time proved, he was the man for the place. He printed valuable Sabbath-school lessons in our youth’s paper, for children and young people, and later, these were carefully revised and placed in permanent book form, and constituted the eight valuable series of lesson books known as the “Progressive Bible Lessons.”
Brother Bell’s health not being good, he was succeeded in the superintendency by Brother Wm. K. Loughborough, who had already served as Brother Bell’s assistant. And these two brethren, far more than others, stood at the head of the Sabbath-school work in this city. For years Brother Loughborough especially was connected with our school. Being a master mechanic, and a man of taste, if we had an outing for the school, or special exercises for the holidays, this brother was the one to step forward and spend much time and means in making things interesting for the school.
But it is not best for the same one to carry a particular burden too long, and so after a long service Brother Loughborough was succeeded by Elijah Gaskill, now a faithful ship missionary in Cape Town, South Africa.
Before finishing this history of the Sabbath-school work in Battle Creek, we will give a list of the names of the persons who have acted as superintendents or assistants from the time of Brother Gaskill down to the present.
They are as follows:—
Brother C. W. Stone,
C. D. Rhodes,
Prof. A. B. Oyen,
Homer Aldrich,
Dr. J. H. Kellogg,
Frederick Griggs,
Wm. C. Gage,
F. W. Howe,
G. W. Morse,
F. E. Belden,
Moses E. Kellogg,
C. J. Hibbard,
A. F. Ballenger,
W. H. Saxby,
E. S. Ballenger,
J. W. Collie,
L. T. Nicola,
C. F. Marvin,
and the present incumbent, Brother H. E. Osborne.
This sketch would be somewhat incomplete if no mention was made of the various places in which the Sabbath-school work here has been carried on. As previously stated, our first little schools were held in private houses; then two months later in the humble chapel erected on Cass Street. But as the Review and Herald Office attracted believers to this place, the small 18 x 24 ft. building became too strait for us; and in 1857, two years later, another church building, 26 x 42 ft., was built on Van Buren Street, and dedicated and used by our people as a place of worship, and for Sabbath-school. But the word of God grew and multiplied, brethren and sisters continued to move to Battle Creek, and at the end of eleven years it became necessary to have a still larger house. Then twelve vacant lots just west of the Public Square were bought, and a commodious house, 44 x 60 ft., was erected, the house on Van Buren Street being sold to the colored people. This last place of worship, and for Sabbath-school, served us well until the year 1878 when a much larger house for worship and for our large Sabbath-school seemed absolutely necessary. Then this third church building was moved against the south side of the Review Office, and incorporated into that institution. And in the memorable year 1878 began the construction of this commodious Tabernacle, which for a period of twenty-three years has served its part in this closing work.
GEO. W. AMADON.
GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITIES.
By David Paulson, M. D.
DAVID PAULSON, M. D.
(December 1-7.)
God not only imparts to us strength according to our days, but He also gives us opportunities, whether we recognize them or not, that are precisely adapted to our capacity. “A man’s gift maketh room for him.” Prov. 18:16. If we have but small opportunities, it is because God cannot safely trust us with greater ones. The common notion that some one is hedging up our opportunities is altogether a delusion of the devil. Thousands of people go through the world so blindfolded that they fail to recognize the marvelous opportunities with which God is surrounding them, yet they are all the time longing to do some great thing; and because they cannot do this, they are not willing to do that which the Lord does give them an opportunity to do.
Some argue, “It is utterly useless to try to help So-and-so. If I had some promising cases to deal with, I would try to help them;” but if God brings us in contact with only unpromising cases, it is because He knows that we have not yet learned how properly to co-operate with Him in saving the promising cases, even if He should give us a chance; so He permits us to work only on unpromising material until we shall have been trained sufficiently to make it safe for Him to trust us with those who can be saved.
In order for us to know whether we have any opportunities to do good among our associates, it is necessary for us to come very close to them. This will require divine tact and wisdom. We have been admonished that “we should not try to see how different we can be from others, but how near we can come to those whom we wish to influence, that we may help them to the position we ourselves so highly prize. Such a course will commend the truths we hold.”
There are many who seem to think that if they agree with another, even on points that are truths, they will thereby compromise their own position. On this point the following quotations are certainly helpful: “In order to reach those who are in the darkness of error and false theories, we must approach them with the utmost caution, and with the greatest wisdom, agreeing with them on every point that we can conscientiously.” “Agree with every one on every subject you can. Admit it when he is right; for the acknowledgment will greatly help to draw him nearer to you. He will then have no occasion to think you consider your own opinions infallible, or that you look upon him with contempt.” “Agree with the people on every point where you can consistently do so. Let them see that you love their souls, and want to be in harmony with them so far as possible.”
Christ came close to the people. He not only enjoyed himself at the simple wedding gathering of his friends, but He also felt perfectly at home at the festal board of the publican; but He went to neither place simply to indulge His appetite or to let himself down to a cheap level. It has been said of Him that He “reproved self-indulgence in all its forms, yet He was social in His nature. He accepted the hospitality of all classes, visiting the homes of the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, and seeking to elevate their thoughts from questions of commonplace life to those things that are spiritual and eternal. He gave no license to dissipation, and no shadow of worldly levity marred His conduct; yet He found pleasure in scenes of innocent happiness, and by His presence sanctioned the social gathering.”
How many have tried to have a sweet, wholesome social gathering in their house, to which some of the people in the neighborhood could be invited and be made to feel at home? The importance of this is emphasized in these words: “We are not to renounce social communion. We should not seclude ourselves from others. Through the social relations Christianity comes in contact with the world.” “Social power, sanctioned by the grace of Christ, must be improved in winning souls for the Saviour.” When these social gatherings, however, are characterized by the spirit indicated in the following quotation we may be sure they are fitting no one for translation: “To encourage an unbecoming familiarity in the association of men and women, boys and girls, under the pretext of seeking conversion and sanctification, is to foster an evil whose influence is of the worst character.”
There are some who think that because we have a truth which should make us intensely in earnest, it is a virtue to go with the head bowed down like a bulrush. Such sadness suggests that the more holy we become, the more miserable we are. Let such draw a lesson from the following quotation: “Let those who are striving for the glorious inheritance with the saints in light, not present a forbidding, cold, unsympathetic aspect. Let them not act in such a way as will lead the youth to avoid their society.”
A genuine personal interest in others, combined with a true sympathy, will marvelously assist us in helping them. We are told that “Jesus met the people at their daily vocations, and manifested an interest in their daily affairs. He carried His instruction into the household, bringing families in their own homes under the influence of His divine presence. His strong personal sympathy helped to win hearts.”
There are many excellent people who are saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus;” but the feeble, waning piety, the church trials, the lack of Christian courtesy and sympathy, the broad condemnation of other professed Christians, have been such as to impress them unfavorably with the glorious truth which God has committed to us in this generation. It has been pointed out that “God has jewels in all the churches, and it is not for us to make sweeping denunciations of the professed religious world, but in humility and love, present to all the truth as it is in Jesus.”
There are thousands of people outside our ranks who have not yet had a chance to accept precious light which has been given us in such abundance, as the following quotation clearly brings out: “Many outside the ranks of Sabbathkeepers, who have not had the light, give more promise of becoming children of God, joint heirs with Jesus, than do those who have had the light of truth, and who have not appreciated it, but have walked in the sparks of their own kindling.”
But we are not simply to be good; we must be inspired from above actually to do good. Our sisters everywhere ought to let the suggestion contained in the following quotation sink deep into their hearts: “Let them be prepared to attend mothers’ meetings, or other meetings in which they can speak words for the Master. But enter into no opposition, create no controversy.” It will be useless to read papers in mothers’ meetings unless these papers are filled with good, wholesome instruction for mothers. Those mothers who themselves are bringing up a well-ordered family, and so have learned from the Master how to keep the spirit of wrangling and controversy out of their own homes, will not be likely to introduce a spirit of opposition and controversy in one of the outside churches if God should open the way for them to read papers there.
While it may not be our duty to link up with other temperance organizations, yet much good has come to humanity from the educational efforts of these good people; and we have lost many opportunities to do good by neglecting to hold out a helping hand to those who are leading out in these movements, and to encourage temperance work more with voice and pen, as the following quotation clearly indicates: “In other churches there are Christians who are standing in defense of the principles of temperance. We should seek to come near to these workers, and make a way for them to stand shoulder to shoulder with us. We should call upon great and good men to second our efforts to save that which is lost.” —“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 110.
We cannot expect these people to stand shoulder to shoulder with us unless we have studied this subject so thoroughly that we are able to present it in a clear and lucid manner. We should do definite work, and bring people to a positive decision on the temperance question. From the following suggestion it is evident that we have only begun to take hold of the temperance movement: “We should present to the people the principles of true temperance, and call for signers to the temperance pledge. Careful attention should be given to those who are enslaved by evil habits. We must lead them to the cross of Christ.” —Id.
Persons who possess a rare tact, coupled with a deep Christian experience, should, as the way opens, attend meetings in other churches, and by the fragrance which Christ has put into their lives, win their way to human hearts. The day of the Lord alone will reveal how many good opportunities we have lost because we have failed to act on the following suggestion: “Let some of the workers attend religious gatherings in other churches, and as there is opportunity, take part in them.” —Id., page 75. There are various more or less imperfect organizations for young people, yet they have undoubtedly saved thousands from going to destruction. We may not approve of all their methods, yet the Lord knows that we have been very slow in organizing anything, even among our own youth, to say nothing of the thousands of young people about us to whom we owe an almost equal obligation. Since we have done so little, let us be slow to condemn the feeble efforts others are putting forth in that direction.
May the Lord deliver us entirely from condemning and judging the motives of those men and women who are attempting in various ways to make the world better, even if they fall far short of reaching their ideal. We ought to be helping every such movement, encouraging every such part of it as we know to be good, and be slow to condemn or criticise that which does not meet our approval. Upon this point we have recently been told that “judicious young men should be encouraged to attend the meetings of the Young Men’s Christian Association, not for the sake of contention, but to search the Scriptures with them and suggest helpful questions.”
Undoubtedly there will be some who, instead of carrying out this instruction in the spirit that it intends, will stir up a spirit of contention. We should have nothing to do with condemning the world, nor should we dwell particularly on its errors. We are to lift up the truth, but we are not to present it under such circumstances as is mentioned in the preceding quotations any faster than God helps us to create an appetite in others for it. We have no right, unless God especially lays the burden upon us, to create a controversy or dissension, and this is especially true when attending meetings that are held under the supervision of others. It is not right for us to take advantage of such occasions to raise disputed questions, for the cause of truth is rarely advanced in the least by so doing. We expect others to accord us this courtesy when they visit our meetings, and they have a right to expect the same from us. There are proper times and places for us to unfold the great truths that have caused us to differ so largely from the great religious bodies about us.
(Concluded next week.)
SLEEP
He sees when their footsteps falter, when their hearts grow weak and faint;
He marks when their strength is failing, and listens to each complaint;
He bids them rest for a season, for the pathway has grown too steep;
And folded in fair green pastures
He giveth His loved ones sleep.
Like weary and worn-out children, that sigh for the daylight’s close,
He knows that they oft are longing for home and its sweet repose;
So He calls them in from their labors ere the shadows around them creep,
And silently watching o’er them,
He giveth His loved ones sleep.
He giveth it, oh, so gently, as a mother will hush to rest
The babe that she softly pillows so tenderly on her breast!
Forgotten are now the trials and sorrows that made them weep,
For with many a soothing promise,
He giveth His loved ones sleep.
He giveth it! Friends the dearest can never this boon bestow;
But He touches the dropping eyelids, and placid the features grow;
Their foes may gather about them, and storms may round them sweep,
But guarding them safe from danger,
He giveth His loved ones sleep.
All dread of the distant future, all fears that oppressed to-day,
Like mists, that clear in the sunlight, have noiselessly passed away;
Nor call nor clamor can rouse them from slumbers so pure and deep,
For only His voice can reach them,
Who giveth His loved ones sleep.
Weep not that their toils are over, weep not that their race is run;
God grant that we may rest as calmly when our work, like theirs, is done!
Till then we would yield with gladness our treasures to Him to keep,
And rejoice in the sweet assurance,
He giveth His loved ones sleep.
— The Chamber of Peace.
HOW PARENTS HINDER THE SALVATION OF THEIR CHILDREN.
By G. B. Thompson
ELDER G. B. THOMPSON.
A young man, when approached by a Christian worker and asked to give himself to the Lord and obey His commandments, said: “I do not care to become a Christian. I do not want any of father's and mother's kind of religion. They profess to be Christians, keep the Sabbath, and are looking for the Lord to come, but they are unkind to each other. I hear them give back sharp, angry replies to each other daily, argue, dispute, and sulk over the most trivial matters. I try to please them, work hard, and endeavor to be obedient, but can do scarcely anything right, receive no encouragement, and they get cross and angry with me. I have become discouraged, and do not care to be a Christian.”
We hope this is an isolated case. It is certainly a sad one. Many say, “I wish you would pray for my boy,” or “my girl,” when they have a work to do in removing the stumbling blocks which they have placed in the way. This is illustrated by the case referred to. The parents, by unconsecrated lives, were in the gateway, blocking the entrance to the kingdom. If their son is lost, they will not be clear of his blood.
If the sharp, angry words and strife could be banished from homes, it would mean the salvation of many children. These things are from Satan, and how pleased the Lord would be to remove them from the heart.
Many a boy who is discouraged and in a back-slidden condition would be reclaimed if father and mother would but confess to him their unfaithfulness, would tell him how sorry and ashamed they are for their harsh words to him and to each other, and then, in the secret place, pray with him. Parents, show your child you are an overcomer. Don't find fault with him, nor murmur and complain at all he does, especially when he has done his best. This brings discouragement and alienation. Commend his faithfulness. Encourage him in every way you can. Bind him to your heart by love. This will bring a blessing to your own soul, and salvation to your child.
