Earlier text: Who Killed This Man?The United States in Prophecy.
By Uriah Smith
POLITICAL corruption is preparing the way for deeper sin. It pervades all parties. Look at the dishonest means resorted to to obtain office, the bribery, the deceptions, the ballot-stuffing. Look at the stupendous revelations of municipal corruption just disclosed in New York city: millions upon millions stolen directly and barefacedly from the city treasury by its corrupt officials. Look at the civil service of this government. Speaking on this points The Nation of Nov. 17, 1870, said:— "The newspapers are generally believed to exaggerate most of the abuses they denounce; but we say deliberately, that no denunciation of the civil service of the United States which has ever appeared in print has come up as a picture of selfishness, greed, fraud, corruption, falsehood, and cruelty, to the accounts which are given privately by those who have seen the real workings of the machine." Revelations are continually coming to light going beyond the worst fears of those who are even the most apprehensive of wrongs committed among all classes of society at the present time. The nation stands aghast to-day at the evidence of corruption in high places, which is thrust before its face. Yet a popular ministry in their softest and most soothing tones, declare that the world is growing better, and sing of a good time coming. The Detroit Evening News of March 4, 1876, referring to Secretary Belknap's fall, says:— "The revelations of corruption in connection with the administration of the Federal government have gone further than anybody's worst fears, in the humiliating intelligence of Secretary Belknap's disgrace. That among the underlings there were to be found rascals these, but that a minister of the cabinet should have turned out to be nothing better than a vulgar thief is something which must fill this nation with dismay, and the civilized world with contempt. Where is all this to stop? Are we so utterly rotten as a people that nothing but vileness can come uppermost, that we cannot preserve even the great offices of the cabinet from the possession of rascals?" Further enumeration is here unnecessary. Enough crops out in every day's history to show that moral principle, the only guarantee in a government like ours for justice and honesty, is sadly wanting. An evil is also threatening from another quarter. Creeping up from the darkness of the Dark Ages, a hideous monster is intently watching to seize the throat of liberty in our land. It thrusts itself up into the noonday of the nineteenth century, not that it may be benefited by its light and freedom, but that it may suppress and obscure them. The name of this monster is Popery; and it has fixed its rapacious and bloodthirsty eyes on this land, determined to make it its helpless prey. It already decides the election in some of our largest cities. It controls the revenues of the most populous State in the Union, and appropriates annually hundreds of thousands of dollars raised from Protestant taxes to the support of its own ecclesiastical organizations, and to the furtherance of its own religious and political ends. It has reached that measure of influence that it is only by a mighty effort of Protestant patriotism that measures can now be carried, against which the Romish element combines its strength. And corrupt unscrupulous politicians stand ready to concede to its demands, to secure its support for the purpose of advancing their own ambitious aims. Rome is in the field with the basest and most fatal intentions, and with the most watchful and tireless energy. It is destined to play an important part in our future troubles; for this is the very beast which the two-horned beast is to cause the earth and them that dwell therein to worship, and before whose eyes it is to perform its wonders. And in our own better Protestant churches there is that which threatens to lead to most serious evils. On this point one of their own popular ministers, who is well qualified to speak, may testify. A sermon by Charles Beecher contains the following statement:— "Our best, most humble, most devoted servants of Christ are fostering in their midst what will one day, not long hence, show itself to be the spawn of the dragon. They shrink from any rude word against creeds with the same sensitiveness with which those holy fathers would have shrunk from a rude word against the rising veneration of saints and martyrs which they were fostering. . . . The Protestant evangelical denominations have so tied up one another's hands, and their own, that, between them all, a man cannot become a preacher at all, anywhere, without accepting some book besides the Bible. . . . And is not the Protestant church apostate? Oh! remember, the final form of apostasy shall arise, not by crosses, processions, baubles. We understand all that. Apostasy never comes out the outside. It develops. It is an apostasy that shall spring into life within us; an apostasy that shall martyr a man who believes his Bible ever so holy; yea, who may even believe what the creed contains, but who may happen to agree with the Westminster Assembly that, proposed as a test, it is an unwarrantable imposition. It is the apostasy we have to fear, and is not it already formed? . . . Will it be said that our fears are imaginary? Imaginary? Did not the Rev. John M. Duncan, in the years 1825-6, or thereabouts, sincerely believe the Bible? Did he not even believe substantially the confession of faith? And was he not, for daring to say what the Westminster Assembly said, that, to require the reception of that creed as a test of ministerial qualifications was an unwarrantable imposition, brought to trial, condemned, excommunicated and his pulpit declared vacant? There is nothing imaginary in the statement that the creed-power is now beginning to prohibit the Bible as really as Rome did, though in a subtler way." "Oh! woeful day! Oh! unhappy church of Christ! fast rushing round and round the fatal circle of absorbing ruin! . . . Daily does every one see that things are going wrong. With sighs do every true heart confess that rottenness is somewhere; but, ah! it is hopeless reform. We all pass on, and the tide rolls down to night. The waves of coming conflict which is to convulse Christendom to her center are beginning to be felt. The deep heavings begin to swell beneath us. 'All the old signs fail.' 'God answers no more by Urim and Thummim, nor by dream, nor by prophet.' Men's hearts are failing them for fear and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth. Thunders mutter in the distance. Winds moan across the surging bosom of the deep. All things betide the rising of that final storm of divine indignation which shall sweep away the vain refuge of lies." In addition to this, we have Spiritualism, infidelity, socialism, and free-love, the trades unions, or labor against capital, and communism, all assiduously working among the masses. These are the very principles that worked among the people, as the exciting cause, just prior to the terrible French revolution of 1789-1800. Human nature is the same in all ages, and like causes will surely produce like results. These causes are now all in active operation; and how soon they will culminate in a state of anarchy, and a reign of terror as much more frightful than the French revolution as they are now more widely extended, no man can say. Such are some of the elements already at work; such the direction in which events are moving. And how much further is it necessary that they should progress in this manner, before an open war-cry of persecution from the masses, against those whose simple adherence to the Bible shall put to shame their man-made theology, and whose godly lives shall condemn their wicked practices, would seem in nowise startling or incongruous? But some may say, through an all-absorbing faith in the increasing virtue of the American people, that they do not believe that the United States will ever raise the hand of persecution against any class. Very well. This is not a matter over which we need to indulge in any controversy. No process of reasoning, nor any amount of argument, can ever show that it will not be so. We think we have shown good ground for strong probabilities in this direction; and we shall present more forcible evidence, and speak of more significant movements hereafter. As we interpret the prophecy, we look upon it as inevitable. But the decision of the question must be left to time. We can neither help nor hinder its work. That will soon solve all doubts and correct all errors.
U. S. THE following resolutions were passed by the late General Conference:— HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE ASSOCIATION.
Resolved, That in the opinion of this body it is the duty of all the members of this denomination to become members of the American Health and Temperance Association, and to use their influence in inducing others to unite in this reformatory effort. Resolved, That the officers of the several State societies of the A. H. and T. Association be requested to take energetic measures for the formation of H. and T. clubs in every church where such an organization is expedient, and urge the hearty co-operation of all members of the denomination. Resolved, That the Conference Committee of each Conference be requested to encourage proper persons to fit themselves to engage in the Health and Temperance work ; and we especially urge all ministers to prepare themselves to present the subject of Health and Temperance in an efficient and practical manner. and make it a part of their work in their various fields of labor. The committee appointed by the Conference to consider the subject of the circulation of Sister White’s writings, made the following report:— Whereas, Our past experience has fully proved that our prosperity as a people is always in proportion to the degree of confidence we cherish in the work of the spirit of prophecy in our midst; and Whereas, The most bitter opposition we have to meet is aimed against this work, showing that our enemies realize its importance, whether we do or not; and Whereas, We have found that the most effectual way to meet and disarm this opposition was either to secure the personal labors of the one through whom we believe that the Lord has spoken, or to freely circulate her writings, and Whereas, Great light has shone upon us through this channel, which not only our own people greatly need, but which would be a blessing to the world, remove prejudice, and break the force of the bitter attacks of the enemies of the truth, therefore Resolved, That we urge upon our ministers and tract societies the importance of making earnest efforts to extend the circulation of the volumes of the Spirit of Prophecy and the Testimonies to the Church among our own people, till these shall be in every family of believers. Resolved, That we recommend the Publishing Association to issue in attractive form such of her writings as would be of general interest to the reading public who are not of our faith, to be placed in public libraries, reading rooms, on shipboard, etc., by canvassers and T. and M. workers, where they, as well as our other standard works, may be accessible to the people. Resolved, That we recommend the Publishing Association to issue in as cheap a form as consistent, the matter substantially contained in volume two of Spiritual Gifts, concerning the early life and labors of Sister White, in connection with the rise and progress of this work, for the special use of our ministers in new fields, and among those first becoming acquainted with her connection with this cause. And we further recommend the publication of a small edition of her earliest writings, now out of print, to bring all her writings within reach of those anxious to obtain them. Resolved, that we consider it to be the duty of all our ministers to teach the Scriptural view of the gift of prophecy among our brethren everywhere, and the relation it sustains to the work of God in which we are engaged. Resolved, that we advise that efforts be made to complete the raising of the fund of $5,000 voted at the last annual session of the Conference for the purpose of increasing the circulation of these writings; said fund to be used in placing them in public libraries, reading-rooms, and other locations where they will be open to the reading public, and in such of the families of the very poor as the officers of the T. and M. Society decide should have them. "Lord, increase our faith!" is a proper prayer for the disciples of Jesus. But where is a warrant for the prayer, "Lord, increase our funds"? Yet, the latter prayer is a great deal more common than the former. Is it a wise prayer? Is it a safe one? It was in a Bible class. The lesson for the day was "The Rich Man and Lazarus." Its discussion was after this sort, between the teacher and his scholars: Was the rich man lost because he was rich? No. Was Lazarus saved because he was poor? No. Is there any sin in the fact of being rich? No. Is there any merit in the fact of being poor? No. Ought we ever to pray for poverty? No. Ought we ever to pray for riches? The answer to that question did not come so promptly. After a little, one said, "Well, that depends—." "Why didn't the other 'depend'? You are all quick to say we oughtn't to pray for poverty, why are you less confident of the unwisdom of praying for riches?" "But we might glorify God by riches," said one. How do you know that you couldn't glorify God by poverty?" "Well, but we might do good with money. How? By giving it to the needy, and by aiding good causes. Do you know any needy persons? Do you know of any good causes which ought to receive aid? Yes, indeed. Why, then, don't you ask the Lord to send the money directly to them? Why should you want to be the 'middle man' in the transaction? Is that the way to feel and to pray? Are you to count the Lord dependent on your good offices for the supply of his needy children, or for the aiding of causes he loves? Do you now use every dollar he gives you as a trust to be accounted for to him? Would you give away every added dollar of your income, if your receipts were largely increased? or would you use the greater share for yourself, and but a small portion in charities? Is not a prayer for riches always a selfish prayer, in whatever phrase it may be shaped? If you want to do good with the powers and the funds already in your possession, do it. If you want to have others helped beyond your ability to aid them, pray that the help may come to them. Do not condition your prayer for them on a percentage to yourself of all that God sends for their relief. Your need is evidently a need of more faith, not of more funds." Is there not a lesson in this truth for those outside of that Bible class? Riches are at the best a temptation, a hindrance, an entanglement, in the Christian life. The love of them is a root of every evil. The care of them is an added responsibility, and an increase of labor. There is no such danger in faith. It is not that they who have riches are shut out from hope of salvation; but it is that they who "trust in riches" shall hardly "enter into the kingdom of God." Christians who find themselves possessed of wealth can pray for added grace in their added need. They can hope to be sustained under their pressing burden, and to be delivered out of their peculiar temptations. By faith they can so use the "mammon of unrighteousness" that it shall become a "treasure in heaven" when they have done with the things of earth. But their position is never an enviable one. Their lot is always one not to be desired. And as a rule this is manifest to the world. Dean Swift said, "We can see what God thinks of wealth by observing to whom he gives it." There are those who have both faith and funds in abundance; but they are not a common sight. In any case their faith is more to be desired than their funds; its practical value is far greater, and so is its comfort. He who thinks that riches are to be desired, to be prayed for, is in danger of trusting in riches. His peril is greater than that of the man who already has wealth. "They that will be rich"—they that would be rich; they that want to be rich; they that pray to be rich—"fall into a temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Who would deliberately pray for riches, or even long for riches, in the face of such a warning of danger as that? The mistake of the Christian who longs for riches is in thinking that money has some power in itself; or that, at all events, it can be surely depended upon as an agency for good. Of what use is a bag of gold tied to a man's feet when he is swimming for his life? How much money would buy water for a famishing man in a lonely desert? Can you name the price in dollars and cents of the word of sympathy and cheer for which a heavy heart is aching and breaking? Faith can give help in all such emergencies. Money cannot. God can be heard from the ocean, from the desert, and from the bed-chamber. He is able and ready to supply every lack of his children, when all the wealth of the world would be unavailing for their rescue and support. If it is for your own welfare and happiness that you desire wealth, you may be sure that God is to be depended on as the bankers are not; that faith is to be preferred above funds as a means of unfailing good to you. If it is for others that you want the benefits of wealth, your faith in their behalf ought surely to be worth more than their share of your annual income would be in case you had large riches. —S. S. Times. A Definite Purpose Necessary to Success.
By Rev. S. S. Cassady
SUCCESS is never an accident. In whatever department of effort it is achieved, it is always the result of a definite purpose. The thousand failures which are made all around us show very forcibly that more than splendid dreaming is necessary to success in any cause. Men come not to the results of wealth, learning, or fame in the world by the mere caprice of fortune. The man who desires wealth, if he would have desire culminate in success, must intelligently plan and earnestly work for it. He who aspires after the palm of learning is but the merest visionary, unless he is animated by a longing for its acquisition that will brook no defeat in the execution of his deliberate purpose. And only he may hope to have his name entered upon the roll of distinction, who feels the consciousness that the end is to be reached through the means necessary thereto, and who is, therefore, intelligently and determinately resolved on success. Energy, directed by a plan to a given object, must succeed. The proverb, "By persevering we conquer all things," has its striking illustrations in every department of life. We have only to look around and see how many have acquired wealth, learning, position, and fame, in fact every thing by it, to teach us that "Perseverance is a Roman virtue,
That wins each Godlike act, and plucks success
Even from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger." A definite, earnest purpose, embodied properly in action, can do any thing in the practical world—can almost work miracles. "Where there is a will, there is a way." A great purpose is always the antecedent of a great action. Napoleon had never scaled Alpine hights with his veteran soldiery, had not a great purpose sustained the Herculean enterprise. Demosthenes had never made his fame immortal and world-wide, had not an all-conquering purpose made him equal to a triumph over almost insuperable natural defects in speaking. Franklin had never risen to proud eminence as a philosopher and statesman, had not a great purpose marked out for him, and then nerved him with the energy to fill his true niche on the record of human greatness. And thus we might continue to cite names to show that an earnest purpose is a necessary condition of success. Living examples of this truth are all around us. The men of our day who have won the prize of their ambition in the varied spheres of life, have done so by embodying a well-defined purpose in earnest, living action. If there are any exceptions to this rule, they are very few and unimportant. Intelligently-directed energy pays everywhere by an absolute law in the very constitution of things. It can not possibly fail of success, since the means are only necessary to the end, as the cause is to the effect. And the reason why so many fail in the several objects of their pursuit is easily accounted for—they have no definite plan of action before them. What they do sustains no specific relation to the result sought for. Their energy—and many who fail in their several pursuits have energy—tends to the wrong point; it is zeal in a good cause, but not according to knowledge. They work hard for nothing, because there is no actual result possible to their mode of action. In logic the conclusion must lie in the premises, otherwise the argument is worth nothing. So the result of a man's work in any cause must lie in his plan of action, otherwise he works for nothing. So work thousands of our race—literally for nothing; and all for the want of well-defined purpose in what they do. The means are not adjusted to the end; therefore failure is inevitably the result. We conclude, then, that a definite purpose is necessary to success on any field of effort. Without it a man can neither be great nor good; with it he can be most any thing in mental power and moral might. One of your best contributors, a doctor, has well said, "The will is not a sentiment, but a soldier. It pants for foes to battle with and has them. And when the issue is at hand, it knows not how to parley or to make a truce, but bravely faces the enemy, aims, fires, thunders, and then waves the bright palm of victory, shouts over and celebrates it. Understand me, I speak of the true soul. That is no soul which lacks this will. It drivels and dreams too much. It never feels the birth of an original thought. It is cowardly, sneaking, sniveling—nay,
"The most unprofitable sign of nothing." But the true man recognizes and gives practical enforcement to a better and higher philosophy. In relation to his calling in life, the improvement of his mind, or the cultivation of his heart, to him a definite purpose, energetically followed out into action, is a matter of pre-eminent importance. Such a man does more than merely breathe, move and live. He acts, and leaves behind him the record of vigorous and enviable manhood. Ere he quits the stage of action, he puts the seal of his intellectual and moral individuality upon the world's history that posterity may know that he once lived and acted among men. Live, then, reader, for actual, positive results. Have a deliberate purpose before you in all you do. We live but once on earth; how important, then, that we live for objects which are harmonious with our welfare and immortality! As your highest interests lie in religion, let your purposes and activities work out a true result for yourself and the world. "Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storms of time can never destroy. Write your name by kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of those you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten. No, your name, your deeds will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind as the stars on the brow of evening. Great deeds will shine as brightly on the earth as the stars of heaven." To the young man before whom life is just opening up, and who has his fortune to make both in this world and the world to come, we would especially utter a word of counsel, and that word is, have a definite purpose before you. Noble is that spirit and grand is that philosophy that dares to say,
"I would not waste my spring of youth,
In idle dalliance. I would plant rich seeds
To blossom in my manhood, and bear fruit
When I am old." How to Meet Temptation
By W. D. Walker
MEET it as Christ met it, with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. When our Lord was an hungered after his miraculous fast of forty days, the devil, taking advantage of his need (and who so well knows how to take such advantage?) said; "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." 'Prove to me that thou art the Christ is implied in this. But Jesus must make no vain show of his power, and he replies: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone." He, as man, may not do this miracle. The sword of the Spirit is mighty, and Satan cannot stand before it. The second time the wily one makes use of the word himself, for his strength lies in adapting the temptation to an individual's nature and disposition. But Christ uses no other weapon than at the first, and no other was needed, for the temptation was immediately withdrawn. And at length, when the devil would have worship from the Lord himself, he is vanquished by this same mighty sword, and leaves Christ for a season. Here is our example; the Psalmist says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee." We have found the word mighty when striving against Satan. Wherewith shall we cleanse our way? by taking heed thereto according to the word of God (Psalm 119:9). The word and prayer will vanquish sin and Satan so that they will at least depart for a season; and shall not, when we are weary with the conflict, angels come and minister unto us? We believe it will be so. But let us always remember that our great High Priest was in all points tempted like as we are,383 and fought the tempter with the sword of the Spirit. If Satan tempts us to covet over-much the bread that perishes, let us boldly tell him, "Man shall not live by bread alone." If he strives to lead us to risk health or life to gain applause of men, still we can say, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." If he sets before us in beautiful array all the riches of the world, and promises to give us freely of them if we do but serve him, "Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve;" also, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" When tempted to anger, let us remember, "The servant of the Lord must not strive." To make this mighty sword an effectual weapon, it must be used with Divine help. Christ, who is our example, sought help through the word and prayer; and we may vanquish Satan by the same means. Let us then ask for the Holy Spirit to aid us to use the sword of the Spirit.—W. D. Walker. WE do not say that there are no honest doubters of Christian truth, or that there are no skeptics who are good men. But we do say that more religious skepticism arises from moral obliquity than from all other causes. And if reputedly honest doubters will recall the period when they began to dissent from Christian truth, they will probably remember that it was not the time when they were most faithful to the light they had, or most obedient to their convictions to God and man. The unbelief which may be honest now, may not have been honest at its initial stages. It may have begun in some conscious sin, which gave a false bias to the mind; and though, in after years, the sin may have been outgrown, or abandoned its evil fruit, the unbelief still remains. No man, while he is true to himself, true to his moral nature, true to the voice of God in his soul, can fall into any dangerous skepticism. The fact that such skepticism is usually found in association with positive vices, compares with the Scriptural genesis of it, to induce the belief that it is not or has not always been honest; that it began and grew in practical disloyalty to the truth, in conscious violation of known obligation.—North-western Advocate. A Christian woman in a town in New York desired to obtain a school-house for the purpose of starting a Sabbath-school, but was refused by a skeptical trustee. Still she persevered, and asked him again and again. "I tell you, Aunt Polly, it is of no use. Once for all I say you cannot have the school-house for any such purpose." "I think I am going to get it," said Aunt Polly. "I should like to know how, if I do not give you the key." "I think the Lord is going to unlock it." "May be he will," said the infidel, "but I can tell you this, he will not get the key from me." "Well, I am going to pray over it, and I have found out from experience that when I keep on praying, something always gives way." And the next time she came, the hard heart of the infidel gave way and she received the key. More than this, when others opposed the school, he sustained her, and great good was done for perishing souls. "Something gives way." Sometimes it is a man's will, and sometimes it is the man himself. Sometimes there is a revolution, and sometimes there is a funeral. When God's spirit inspires a prayer in a believing Christian's heart, omnipotence stands ready to answer it. "Something gives way." ONE of the special dangers and defects of preaching in this country is connected with the popular liking of oratory in the pulpit, a demand for what is called eloquent preaching. The common American idea of pulpit eloquence is low and sensational. It means chiefly rapid and emphatic utterance of sonorous sentences, with something extreme, violent, and paradoxical in the thought presented, though not much thought is required. People demand of the preacher that he shall arouse and excite them, and they enjoy with a kind of voluptuousness, the temporary stimulus and thrill of emotion which the preaching always causes. It results from the law of mental action that preaching of this kind does not inspire consciousness nor tend to practical moral activity. It necessarily produces and fosters mental conditions which are extremely unfavorable to spirituality of character and life. This appetite for eloquence, working with other tendencies of the age, has helped to make preaching in this country dramatic and entertaining, but, in a large measure unspiritual. This, I think, can be rightly regarded only as a calamity, a tendency opposed to the interests of religion, adapted to weaken and subvert it, and to lead the people who are influenced by it into a region where religion will be impossible or regarded as unnecessary. This is one of the most important among the unfavorable tendencies of the age. It has made preaching more attractive and interesting to the masses, but this has been accomplished by sacrificing much that is essential in religion itself.—Atlantic Monthly. The Home Circle.
By Waif Woodland
I AM resting for a moment
"In the broad bivouac of life,"
For my heart is getting weary
With the clamor and the strife;
Looking backward through the tangled
Mazes that my feet have come,
Looking forward for the glimmer
Of the golden lights at home; Through a green and pleasant valley,
Up a steep and rugged hill;
Through a hot and arid desert,
By a sweet and silver rill;
Scrambling over thorny hedges
Stretching over flowery plains,
With a touch of blinding sunlight
And a dash of cooling rains; Through the sloughs of deep despondence,
Through the swelling tide of grief,
With a little whispered comfort,
And a little kind relief;
In a calm and in a tempest,
Now a joy and now a care,
And a little tearful tugging
At the golden oar of prayer; With a getting, and a giving,
And a taste of transient bliss,
And the soul's incessant yearning
For a something more than this;
So we pilgrims thread the journey
With a weak and wise intent,
While God's angels keep the record
Of each day's accomplishment.
— Waif Woodland. MANY a mother has wept over the sins of her child, little dreaming that while she was pursuing her round of idle pleasures, that child was taking its first lesson in sin from a vicious nurse. The truth is, parents take upon themselves too many unnecessary burdens, and consider themselves bound by duty to perform too many tasks, which are of much less consequence than the teaching and training of their children. The father has his trade or profession, and his few leisure hours he must spend in social pleasures. The mother has her household cares and the comforts of her family to study, and besides this, there is much time to devote to fancy work, to visitors, and to amusements of one kind and another. Her children are mere secondary considerations, and depend upon the kindness of hirelings. Their dresses may be miracles of puffing, ruffles and embroidery, but what does that count when their minds are dwarfed through neglect? Her house may be a model of neatness, her bread excel that of all her neighbors, her jellies and preserves enough to tempt the most fastidious; but if, in all this, she has kept aloof from her child, has chided his heart toward her, what does it count? Carry the radiance of your soul in your face; let the world have the benefit of it. Let your cheerfulness be felt for good, wherever you are, and let your smiles be scattered like sunbeams. Such a disposition will yield you a rich reward, for its happy effects will come home to you and brighten your moments of thought. Smiles are the higher and better responses of nature to the emotion of the soul. Let the children have the benefit of them, those little ones who need the sunshine of the heart to educate them, and would find a level for their buoyant nature in the cheerful, loving faces of those who lead them. Let them not be kept from the middle-aged, who need the encouragement they bring. Give your smiles to the aged. They come to them like the quiet rain of summer, making fresh and verdant the long, wearisome path of life. Be gentle and indulgent to all; love the true, the beautiful, the just, the holy. One Side of Christian as Described by Rose Terry Cooke.
By Rose Terry Cooke
Now Lydia Crane was not naturally inclined to be querulous or selfish; she had been duly converted during the process of a revival in Lyndon, and joined the Church during Parson Bench's lifetime. She read her Bible daily; said her prayers—I use the phrase advisedly—and was a punctual attendant on all the means of grace. She was the head and front of the Church sewing-society, and secretary of the Foreign Mission Circle, yet in the living of her life she became, at the age of thirty-five, fretful, self-centred, opinionated, and domineering; but perfectly certain that she was an exemplary Christian. Charity, sympathy, tenderness, do not grow in such solitude as hers; it is not good for men or women to be alone; and if to be a Christian is to wear the image of Christ, as the gospel seems to imply, there was very little obvious likeness in Miss Lydia to the Master whose name she wore. Yet she was a thoroughly honest woman, anxious above all things to do right; ready to give to every "object" that impelled the long-handled contribution boxes, with deacons at the other end, through every slip on every other Sunday, though she had not even a kind word for the beggar at her door; for begging implied "shiftlessness," and that was unpardonable.—Sunday Afternoon. What Wine has done for Women.
By Ada D. Buckingham
WAR is not so sore an evil as intemperance, for some virtues can flourish on the battle-field, and some humanities can find a place of rest upon the point of the sword, but there is no room for virtues in the cup, or for humanities in the bowl. Of the worst foes that women have ever had to encounter, wine stands at the head. The appetite for strong drink in man has spoiled the lives of more women, ruined more hopes for them, brought them more sorrow, shame, and hardship, than any other evil that exists. The country numbers tens of thousands of women who are widows because their husbands have been slain by strong drink. There are hundreds of thousands of homes in which women still live lives of torture, going through all the changes of suffering that lie between the extremes of fear and despair, because those whom they love, like wine better than they do the woman they have sworn to love. The sorrows and the horrors of a wife with a drunken husband, of a mother with a drunken son, cannot be described. The shame, the indignation, the sorrow, the sense of disgrace, the poverty, (and not unfrequently the beggary,) the fear and fact of violence, the lingering and life-long struggle and despair of countless women with drunken husbands, are enough to make all women curse wine and engage unitedly to oppose it everywhere as the worst enemy of their sex. — Ada D. Buckingham. IT is the sad, sorrowful moods, the natural yet evanescent periods of depression, that foolish men and women fly to alcohol for relief. For a time the stimulant quickens the circulation of the blood, and does often seem to cheer. But remember that it does nothing more. It does not help to remove from the body the exciting causes, those agents which can only be removed by brisk exertion and active waste of the body. On the contrary, alcohol locks up the secretions; causes accumulations of the products of excretion; makes the breath heavy and disagreeable, arrests the action of the liver, and, in the most favorable seasons, leads to the very evils it is so often taken to relieve or remove. — Dr. Fooi's Health Monthly for October. 384BLEEDING from a wound on man or beast may be stopped by a mixture of wheat flour and common salt, in equal parts, bound on with white cloth. If the bleeding be profuse use a large quantity, say from one to three pints. It may be left for hours, or even days, if necessary. Reports from the Field.
By J. L. Wood
Los Bolsa and San Pasqual, Cal.
SINCE my last report four more have signed the covenant in the Los Bolsa neighborhood. The tithing system has been adopted, a set of Sister White's works been bought by the church, and the majority have signed the teetotal pledge. Bro. A. F. Brown has been chosen leader and Sister E. B. Marden church clerk. The Sabbath-school has been fully organized, and several have become members of the T. and M. Society. Nov. 29 and 30 I met with the few Sabbath-keepers in San Pasqual and Bear Valley, San Diego county. Found them all holding on and trying to walk in the light. In San Pasqual and Bear Valley there are several families of Adventists, some of whom moved from the Northern churches and some came out from reading. They are somewhat isolated, but the Lord will hear prayer made in the wilderness, and will answer the prayers of those who keep his commandments. 1 John 3 : 22. Our visit seemed to encourage them; the Lord blessed, and we had a good meeting. The tithing system was adopted, and twenty-three signed the teetotal pledge. Anaheim, Dec. 8, 1879. J. L. WOOD. Star Valley, Cherokee Co., Kansas.
By L. D. Santee
I AM still continuing the work here. I cannot speak all the time now, for other appointments have been thrown in, first by a Mormon, then by a Presbyterian, and lastly by a Baptist minister. I think all have one common desire,—to overthrow the Sabbath. We have now held our first Sabbath meeting. About thirty were present. Quite a number expressed themselves firm in the truth. Tomorrow I take up the subject of the nature of man. I think this will be a central point for meetings, as there are three churches within ten miles of this place, north, south, and west. We expect to visit faithfully, and hold what we have gained.
L. D. SANTEE.