THE Washington Post speaks a sensible word about common honesty in church relationship, rebuking the common newspaper practise of making a hero of the man who throws over the doctrinal standards of his church, while still holding to his place in it. Referring to a recent specific case, and to comments by a leading journal, the Post says:—
It is certainly not tyranny or persecution for the authorities of a religious body to require common honesty in the conduct of its ministers. No secular organization permits its agents to violate its rules and impair its strength. A railroad corporation, an insurance company, or even the peanut combine, would forthwith put out of its service any agent or employee whose conduct was comparable to that which is charged against the Rev. Dr. Carter. No minister has a moral right to use the influence of his position in spreading dissension in the denomination whose commission he bears, and to whose creed he pledged fidelity as a condition precedent to his ordination. The world is wide. It has room enough for all creeds and all beliefs and their advocates. No man is compelled to belong to any church or to preach any doctrine. But an honest man, having been ordained to preach any particular doctrine, and having promised to be faithful to a particular creed, will step down and out, on his own motion, when he becomes convinced that the doctrine or creed is not true.
This standard of morality does not obtain to any great extent in the modern crusade of unbelief. There is apparently a studied purpose to sow the seeds of doubt and undermine the faith from the point of vantage within. Thus the churches are leavened, and the voice of protest smothered. It is startling to watch the sweeping progress of the new-thought ideas through the denominations. Within the last two or three years the change has amounted to a revolution. False philosophy is spreading like a plague. W. A. S.
The Report of a Great Revival
FROM an article in The Independent, by David Williams, we take the following statements descriptive of the great religious revival in Wales, the news of which has reached all parts of the civilized world:—
It was in the prayer-meetings that the movement began. There was a certain intensity of feeling, and then young men whose voices had never been heard in public began to pray, and young women began to sing and speak in the congregation. Dozens of members were added to the church; and when the good news spread abroad, the pastor and his young assistants were invited into other churches. During a service held by them at Blaenanerch, where the revival of 1859 began, a young man named Evan Roberts felt that the Spirit had descended upon him, as on the day of Pentecost. He rose up, went back to Casllwchwr in Glamorgan, where he was born, and began to preach. The revival began among a rural population, but the preaching of Roberts took it among an industrial population, and the blaze of Cardigan became a conflagration in Glamorgan.
At the present time all Wales is on its knees every night, and hundreds of day meetings are held. The people think and talk and dream of nothing else. Temperance and other religious meetings dated weeks before are changed by common consent into revival meetings. Lecturers come to fill engagements; but if they happen to be ministers, they are pressed to preach instead. Travelers gather at a station, but before the train arrives, a young woman begins to sing, and a prayer-meeting follows. Fairs are held to buy and sell, but the people remain to pray. The miners run out of trams in the pits, and a prayer-meeting is held in the depths. An accident occurs in the pits, making it necessary to bring the men to the top, and they hold a prayer-meeting at the shaft while waiting for the cages. Meetings are held in front of the taverns and the theaters before7proceeding to the churches or halls.
Of the central figure in the movement, Evan Roberts, it is stated: “Roberts is a young man twenty-six years old and single. He is the son of a pumper, and at the age of twelve he became his father’s helper in the mines.” Later he became a divinity student, and “while thus engaged, he attended the meeting at Blaenanerch, and received the message which sent him to his native place at Casllwchwr. . . . He had been a great Bible student for years, taking his Bible with him daily down into the pits, to be read during any leisure minutes offered.”
Of Mr. Roberts’s revival methods it is said:—
When Roberts enters a hall or church where hundreds await his coming, he asks for a short prayer, and on the instant some one responds. He then asks for a song, and a young woman begins singing,—some familiar air,—and the congregation joins, repeating those old Welsh tunes that combine the sublimity of the mountains and the roar of the sea. Then Roberts speaks, without a text and without entering the pulpit. He continues sometimes for an hour, frequently interrupted by part or choral singing.
He believes the movement is fulfilling the prophecy of Joel 2: 28: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions,” etc.
The following four points are emphasized by Mr. Roberts as necessary conditions precedent to the reception of the Spirit:—
Wipe out the past. Confess your sins to God, and begin anew.
Remove everything doubtful, habit, practise, pleasure, sport, or business.
Obey implicitly and immediately the promptings of the Spirit.
Confess Christ in public, profession privately being insufficient.
It is further characteristic of this revival movement, says Mr. Williams, that there is an entire absence of any effort to excite fear. No mention is made of future punishment. “It is a revival without a hell, and the love of God for his children is the great thought presented.”
The movement began last summer, and by the end of the year had added thirty-five thousand members to the churches. Of the results Mr. Williams says further:—
The movement is killing sectarianism, which has been the bane of Welsh Protestantism in the past, and all the churches are holding union meetings where necessary. . . . It is bringing an era of good feeling by healing all differences between church-members, and some of the most sensational incidents of the meetings have been the public apologies and adjustments of differences. . . . Liquor drinking has been greatly reduced in many places, and a number of taverns are closed for want of patronage. Arrests for drunkenness have been reduced fully seventy-five per cent in some towns. The theaters have been closed in the middle of the season, and many theatrical troupes have abandoned the principality. Clubs and dancing halls have been deserted. Quarreling and profanity are heard on the streets no longer, crimes and misdemeanors are rarer, and drivers in the pits and the carters are more human. . . . Churchmen agree that the movement is the greatest visitation of benign influence in the history of the island. L. A. S.
Russian Autocracy and Constitutional Government
THE RUSSIAN autocracy are as firmly convinced that the Russian people ought not to have constitutional government, and that to grant them such government would be doing them a great injury, as were ever the kings and emperors who ruled with absolute sway over their subjects in former times. So we may judge from the following statement on the subject given to the press by Grand Duke Vladimir, uncle of the czar:—
People speak of a constitution. A constitution would mean the end of Russia, as the state would be gone, anarchy would supervene, and when it ended, the empire would be disintegrated. Finland and Poland, and perhaps other frontier provinces, would have broken away. Russia is not ripe for a constitution. Go out among the peasants, who comprise the vast bulk of the empire’s population, and try to explain to them government by suffrage. The peasant knows nothing of government; he does not even know what the word means. He knows his emperor. For him the emperor is everything. Give the peasant a vote, and all would be anarchy.
The Greek Catholic Church, which is equally concerned with the autocracy in maintaining the present system of absolutism, has issued a manifesto in which it is stated that “Russia’s enemies are striving to shake down her pillars of orthodoxy and autocracy, without which Russia would come to ruin.” The reasons put forth by those who govern other people without their consent, for so doing, have been essentially the same in all countries and in all times.
Anthracite Coal Strike Rumors
By L. A. S.
THERE are rumors of another great strike to take place in the anthracite coal field. A press dispatch which speaks of the national miners’ convention that was held recently at Indianapolis, says:—
It is expected that precautionary preparations for another great struggle between the anthracite coal operators and the United Mine Workers will be laid. The convention will devote a part of its time to planning for a war footing for the organization, so that it will be able to meet and make demands of the anthracite operators on April 1, 1906. The miners want:—
1. Recognition of the union.
2. A joint contract such as exists in the principal bituminous districts, covering at least a year.
3. The adoption of the check-off system by the anthracite companies, by which they, as the bituminous operators now do, will collect the union dues at the mine.
By changing the southwestern district contract so that it will expire on April 1, 1906, instead of July 1, 1905, the miners’ organization now has its working contracts in the districts that produce fully ninety per cent of the steam and commercial bituminous coal of the country, expiring on the same day that the anthracite strike award expires, April 1, 1906. It is now in such a position that, without breaking any working contract, it will be able to pit the bituminous operators against the anthracite, or in case of a strike bring about practically a suspension of coal mining in the United States, shutting down the anthracite and bituminous mines alike.
The anthracite strike commission appointed by President Roosevelt, and its award after long and careful study of the situation, represents the utmost that human effort can do to establish peace between these great warring factions in the industrial world, and if this effort fails, there will be no other outlook but for an indefinite continuance of strife, with its unhappy consequences. All human experience has proved, and still testifies, that where selfishness rules, there can be no guaranty of permanent peace. Not until the kingdoms and governments of men give place to the kingdom of Christ will the meek of the earth be able to “delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” L. A. S.
Note and Comment
RECENTLY the Philadelphia Record published a scathing arraignment of that city’s municipal government, charging it with complicity in the crime of traffic in vice. From statements made, it appears that the enormity of this evil in Philadelphia exceeds, if possible, its dimensions in any other American city. An investigation was started, and on February 3 the grand jury made a presentment affirming the existence in the city of a system of organized vice, and that the responsibility for the same rested on the director of public safety and other high police officials. This is but one of many indictments that have been brought at various times against Philadelphia’s city government, the corrupt character of which has been a subject of comment even in European journals. Yet it was not long ago that the mayor of Philadelphia received a delegation of clergymen, who because the Sunday laws are rigidly enforced there, congratulated him on being mayor of “the most Christian city” in the land.
MRS. E. G. WHITE
By Ellen G. White
Notes of Travel—No. 3
MRS. E. G. WHITE
(Concluded)
FROM the North Side, we drove across the city to the neighborhood of the great Chicago University, to visit Brother R. Eason and his family, who are conducting the Drexel Avenue restaurant. We were pleased to hear of the interest that some of the students who patronize the restaurant manifest in the principles and belief of those who conduct it. We had a short talk with Brother Eason’s sick daughter. My heart was made sad as I saw her unable to take part in the work in which she was so much interested. She made no complaint, but put her whole trust in the Lord, saying, “Thy will be done,” yet hoping that her life might be spared, that she might help in the work so greatly needing to be done.
Brother Eason is doing a good work, and I pray that he may see many souls converted as the result of his efforts. Already some of those coming to the restaurant for their meals are interested in the truth for this time.
It is certainly a great blessing to students for them to be able to take their meals at a restaurant where they can get pure, wholesome food, free from grease, condiments, and stimulants. Far more good may be accomplished by this line of work than is generally supposed. Those engaged in it are obeying the command to sow beside all waters.
In our restaurants no opportunity for presenting the truth should be left unimproved. Free reading-matter should be provided, and an occasional lecture on health topics should be given. The instruction that for years has been given me is that most earnest efforts should be put forth by believers for those outside the church. Not only should the truth be proclaimed from the pulpit; the Lord’s servants are to go forth into the highways and the byways, to seek for souls. Let our restaurant workers learn to make the best use of our periodicals, tracts, pamphlets, and books.
Late at night we took our places in the tourist sleeper that was to take us home to California over the Burlington, Rio Grande, and Southern Pacific Railways.
At Salt Lake we were met by several of our brethren, who urged us to remain with them for a few days. By a hard struggle the church in Salt Lake City has built a good meeting-house. In a prominent part of the city our brethren are conducting a vegetarian cafe and a health food store; and all felt the need of counsel as to how to conduct the work in Utah.
This invitation we were obliged to refuse. We had cut short our work in Battle Creek because of the sickness of Sister Marian Davis, and had to hasten home as quickly as possible on her account. Our visit with the brethren at Salt Lake was a short one, but it was cheering to hear of the progress of our work in this citadel of Mormonism.
About half an hour’s ride west from Ogden, we came to the shore of the great Salt Lake, and instead of skirting round the north end of the lake as we used to do, our train kept straight on in its westward course on a long embankment built across the lake.
From shore to shore the distance across the lake is thirty-one miles. For more than an hour the shores seemed far away and indistinct, the mountains looming up in the distance. By one hundred and three miles of new road that has been built, the line has been shortened nearly forty-four miles, and many steep grades are avoided. Three thousand men were employed on the work for more than a year, and the cost is said to have been four and a half million dollars.
All the way from Chicago the traffic along the lines seemed heavy, and from Ogden west the number of long passenger-trains and freight-trains was surprising. Waiting for trains to pass delayed us, and Friday morning we saw that we could not reach home before the Sabbath. So we stopped off at Reno, Nev., and spent the Sabbath with my granddaughters, Ella and Mabel White, who had recently gone there for the winter. Ella was teaching the church-school, and Mabel was conducting a small kindergarten. On Sabbath I spoke to our people in their little meeting-house, and met some who were at the camp-meeting which I attended in Reno many years ago.
Some of our brethren and sisters in Battle Creek and other favored centers should be working in Nevada.
Death of Sister Marian Davis
Sunday evening, October 9, we reached home, after an absence of nearly six months. We found Sister Davis very sick. For twenty-five years she had been a member of my family, and a most efficient helper in my literary work. She had been with me in Texas, California, Michigan, Europe, and Australia. A year ago last May, during the General Conference at Oakland, she caught a severe cold, which led to pneumonia. This brought her very low; but during the autumn she recovered, and carried on her work during the winter. Last summer her health began to fail rapidly, and the best care of physicians and nurses could not avail to restore her to health and strength.
On our arrival home, we found her weak and emaciated, unable to eat enough to sustain life and build up her strength. When we had been at home for about a week, she rallied a little, and for a few days we hoped for her recovery. But suddenly she failed, and on Tuesday, October 25, she closed her life-work. Her sister, Mrs. W. K. Kellogg, and her niece, Miss Beth Kellogg, were with her during the last six weeks of her sickness. At the funeral Elder H. A. St. John spoke words of comfort, and we laid our faithful helper away to rest in the St. Helena Cemetery.
Of Sister Davis it can truly be said, “She hath done what she could.” All the energies of her being were freely given to the work she loved. Her quick appreciation of truth, and her sympathy for the seeker after truth, enabled her to work enthusiastically in preparing for the press the matter which the Lord has given me for his people. I miss her at the fireside, at the table, and at the family altar; but we sorrow not as those who have no hope. The time is not far when the trump of the Archangel shall sound, awakening all who sleep in Jesus to a life of endless joy.
“Not Your Own”
R. A. UNDERWOOD
“Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Was it gold, silver, or costly diamonds that was paid for the redemption of man and his lost dominion?—No, no! It cost the life of the only-begotten Son of God. The purchase price of man not only required the death of Christ, but Christ must live for man, and conquer Satan for man with all the disabilities and liabilities of a fallen race upon him. In doing this Christ jeopardized his own existence, and that of all the universe upheld by him. Heb. 1:3. Is this too strong a statement? Let us see. Christ steps into man’s place, to live, conquer, and die with his divinity clothed in “sinful flesh.” “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Cor. 5:21. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Rom. 8:3. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of9the same; . . . wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.” “For we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 2:14, 17; 4:15.
Man failed when tempted; therefore Christ, standing in man’s place, being tempted in all-points as we are, in the likeness of sinful flesh, must have placed himself where there was a possibility of failure in meeting and conquering man’s foe. Had Christ failed, he must have shared the fate of fallen man.
Comments from the writings of Mrs. E. G. White upon this point are very clear:—
“Many hold that from the nature of Christ it was impossible for Satan’s temptations to weaken or overthrow him; then Christ could not have been placed in Adam’s position, to go over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell; he could not have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. If man has in any sense a more trying conflict to endure than had Christ, then Christ is not able to succor him when tempted. Christ took humanity with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, capable of yielding to temptation; and with the same aid that men may obtain, he withstood the temptations of Satan, and conquered the same as we may conquer. . . . For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in size and physical strength and deteriorating in moral worth, and in order to elevate fallen man, Christ must reach him where he stood. He assumed human nature, bearing the infirmities and degeneracy of the race. He humiliated himself to the lowest depths of human woe, that he might sympathize with man, and rescue him from the degradation into which sin had plunged him. It is not true that humanity has trials to bear which the Son of God has not experienced. Christ’s victory may be ours; by faith we conquer in him.”
Again, from “Great Controversy,” page 503: “In the Saviour’s expiring cry, ‘It is finished,’ the death-knell of Satan was rung. The great controversy which had been so long in progress was then decided, and the final eradication of evil was made certain.”
Thus it is clear that had Christ failed, his word would have failed. He and all upheld by that word would have gone down in the wreck of death. The whole created universe was placed in the balance against one lost world of the creation. This is the “mystery” which “the angels desire to look into.” 1 Peter 1:12. This gives us a glimpse of the unfathomable love of God to man. Christ wants us to know this love, even though we can not comprehend its unmeasured limits. He asks the Father that the world may “believe that thou hast . . . loved them as thou hast loved me.” John 17:23. Eternity alone can reveal the price paid for man’s redemption. When the saved shall visit the unnumbered worlds of light and behold their glory (Ps. 19:1; Isa. 40:26; Rev. 14:4), and fully realize that the price of their salvation included all of these in the sacrifice of Christ for man, then will appear in a new light the depths of the love of God to man. Language can not express its meaning. We can only repeat, “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 “he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” If man was bought at such a price, who can but say, “Ye are not your own”?
SPEAK gently! ’tis a little thing,
Dropped in the heart’s deep well;
The good, the joy, that it may bring,
Eternity shall tell.
— G. W. Langford.
O Lord, Thou Art My Guide
By L. F. Deutzman
O LORD, thou art my guide,
My strength and all my force,
My inspiration and my soul,
Without thee, life were loss!
Thou art my truest friend,
My only love sincere,
Small wonder that my love should trend
To one so very dear!
And none can love as thou,
Or love me as I love.
The piercing thorns upon thy brow
Make me my pain above!
My burden seemeth light
Before thy tender gaze,
But I need strength to win my fight,
And high thy standard raise!
— L. F. Deutzman.
A Simple Solution of a Great Problem
By H. W. COTTRELL
H. W. COTTRELL
The world has an approximate population of sixteen hundred million people, eighty-eight million of whom may be found in North America. Three fourths of one sixteenth of the entire number constitute the population of the United States of America.
Seventh-day Adventists arose in America with a world-wide mission. The Lord requires at our hand the work of delivering the everlasting gospel in the setting of the third angel's message of Revelation 14. We have been sixty years at our charge. It is a lamentable fact that nearly all our efforts to extend the light of saving truth have been among the people constituting the three quarters of the one sixteenth of earth's inhabitants.
We should have as many active missionaries to-day scattered among the world's population outside the United States as we now have adherents to the faith in those countries, though every soul who has accepted the truth for this time God calls to service. As, in the parable, Christ represents the householder going out at the eleventh hour and finding many standing idle because no man had hired them; so to-day, in this eleventh hour of probationary time, hundreds of strong, cultured and consecrated people stand ready to go into distant and difficult fields of labor, but are left idle because the funds in the treasury are not sufficient to transport them and provide for their support.
The Lord has not called every one to leave home and go into distant countries to extend the gospel light. He permits some of us to remain at home, to enjoy the association of loved ones, and to reflect him before them around our own hearthstone, performing our little tasks for him there, and thus far all share in the one great blessing of giving the closing message.
While we have missionaries in almost every country, they should be greatly multiplied. Why, then, are they not multiplied? The treasury replies, 'For the lack of funds.' There is an abundance of money in the world, yes, even among Seventh-day Adventists, to carry forward this glorious work to completion; but in order that the necessary money may reach the treasury, we should educate ourselves to a system of giving regularly. A very feasible plan of systematic contributing is the ten-cent-a-week envelope plan. There are a number of churches to my knowledge that have adopted this method of giving, and their offerings to foreign missions have been multiplied.
The average Seventh-day Adventist can contribute ten cents a week without much sacrifice. Many can save this amount each week by careful thought in curtailing needless expenditures. Others, to save those poor people in heathen lands who know nothing of a divine Saviour, can give a much larger weekly amount than ten cents. It is certainly clear to every one that the eighty thousand people of this denomination can contribute weekly, by this method, an amount that would average ten cents a week for each individual. The reader may draw his own conclusion as to the amount this simple plan would place in the hands of the Mission Board, with which to do aggressive work in foreign fields.
Macedonian calls are coming to the Mission Board continually. On the other hand, persons are continually offering themselves for life service in these fields. Shall not these persons whom God is calling be permitted to go? Shall a depleted treasury compel them to remain at home?
While the Lord calls upon some to go to other lands and bear the message, he asks others to assist in their support. Seventh-day Adventists are a liberal people, but we have lacked system in our ingathering for foreign work. If each church and each individual in every church will adopt and carry out weekly the ten-cent-a-week plan, the difficult financial problem will be solved. The envelope plan is an incentive to each one to contribute weekly, and will in no way interfere with the securing of funds to carry forward local conference work, but will rather increase the spirit of liberality. Each Sabbath the envelopes, prepared for the purpose and furnished free to the churches, should be distributed. In the large congregation a good plan is to distribute them at the door as the people pass out. Some one should be appointed to receive the contribution on the following Sabbath. Care should be taken not to pass by the minister in the desk when the offering is taken up.
Giving, in the proper spirit, to the cause of God is a part of divine worship, and every individual, even the children, should be educated to share in this part of the service. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
The Accusation of God
By W. F. Hastings
W. F. HASTINGS
“If all the brethren would pay an honest tithe, there would be no lack of means in the Lord’s treasury.” The wicked and the worldling often accuse God’s people of dishonesty. We believe in most cases the accusation is false; we wish it were always false. But here comes an accusation against God’s people from a different source. All courts of law regard robbery as the worst form of dishonesty, and punish it accordingly. Yet the God of heaven declares that this people are actually robbing him. What a work of repentance, of humiliation, of restoration, awaits this people!
The tithing system is from God. If we do our best, and do not get anything, we have nothing to pay with, and nothing is required. If we make ten cents, one cent is the Lord’s; if ten dollars, one dollar is the Lord’s. How simple, how beautiful, how equal, how perfectly adapted to every case! Not one can say he can not pay it. Truly the stamp of divinity is written all over it.
What a mountainous load will be lifted from the hearts of those in responsible positions when the brethren—shall I say, begin to do their duty?—No; when they cease to commit this awful crime.
“But,” says a brother, “I help the poor a great deal, and am doing considerable benevolent work, and I pay my tithe that way.” Let us examine that position a moment. Suppose a man owes you one hundred dollars, and the success of your business depends on his making prompt payment when due. You go to him for your money, and he says, “I am giving quite a little in benevolence lately; in fact, I have given about one hundred dollars the last year, and I’ve concluded to turn it on what I owe you, and call that hundred dollars paid.”
His inconsistent position is precisely parallel with that of the brother who pays his tithe some other way. “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
What folly, nay, what presumption, to be looking and praying for the latter rain, with a record like this hanging over the church! I wish that every conference president, every minister, every laborer, would lay his hand on the diseased spot, and lift his voice and teach the people that they can not be Seventh-day Adventists and robbers at the same time.
O that the brethren, each and every one, might realize for themselves what a blessed privilege it is to become active treasurers for God!
The State Agent, and the Basic Principles of His Work
Men who will not talk about the work, but who will go into the work,—plain, hard-working, practical men who will go into the field and say, “Come boys,” instead of, “Go, boys,”—men who know God and a few things about their books, and know them well. We do not need State agents who are great talkers. They may forever keep off the rostrum, and still make a success of their work.
Planning duties in a critical way for the conference president is no part of the State agent’s work. The biggest criticism a State agent can bring upon himself is to find fault with the president.
Holding institutes is not his primary work. During the best six years of my work as a State agent, I never held a general public institute. They are right in their place, but they are not often essential.
An Ideal Plan
The experience of — is to my mind an ideal one. At the time to which I wish to refer he was the only canvasser in —. The conference had about eight hundred Sabbath-keepers. The records had been destroyed. The debt upon the tract society was three thousand five hundred dollars. He selected four boys, and went out with them. He received no salary. He began at the south end of his field, and worked thoroughly toward the other. He got his men together Sabbath and Sunday, and filled them with enthusiasm. He would not leave them, even when solicited to do so by the president, until after their first delivery; then they were ready for him to leave. Then he chose four more men. Within fourteen months he had fourteen men in the field, and had not lost a single one. During the first three years of his work he kept his number good, and at the same time twenty agents were developed and sent to another field; the debt at the tract society was paid, and they had seven hundred and fifty dollars on hand. He taught his men to discard the idea that they could not sell a book in territory where it had been sold before. “Great Controversy” and “Bible Readings” were their chief books.
Principles
Take first for your motto, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Take an unconquerable attitude toward God’s work. As a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If you think that you can, you can, particularly if you know you can. There are no deserts, no Jordans, no Alps to a man when God is going before him. Do you think for a moment that the fact that a man takes up self-supporting work deprives him of the power of the gospel? Did the fact that Stephen engaged in attending to the business of the church deprive him of power? See Acts 6: 5-8.
Success in Hard Times
It does not make so much difference what is on the outside if the inside is all right. “Let not your heart be troubled.” Keep the citadel strong. “The gold and silver is mine,” and the Lord says, “Ask, and ye shall receive.”
An Experience
I had worked four days in a town called Sodom, and in some way the name of the town seemed to have got on the inside, and I was obtaining no orders. Friday morning I went to a little brook in a secluded spot, and there on my face before God I took the orders for the day. After that I went back to town, worked all day, and obtained an order in every house but one. During that hour I succeeded in getting Sodom on the outside.
Territory Is Never Worked Out
Territory that is worked six or eight times is really better than ever before. The records of our best agents are that the sixth or seventh book used sells in the largest quantities. The following is the official record of a little town in Australia, Bendago, by name: First canvass, 250 copies; second, 350; third, 500; fourth, 600; fifth, 850; sixth, 1,000. And yet, after that sixth canvass, agents said the field was no longer good. By what process of reasoning do you suppose they arrived at that conclusion?
Prejudice Will Not Hinder
Don’t believe the things people tell you that are not so. Don’t believe anything that is told you, and only half that you see. The Bible says, “Who is so blind as my servant?” Prejudice is not to be feared. The men who have triumphed in the ages past have been men who were not afraid of all the powers in heaven or hell.
Brethren, help us in every way you can. Talk courage. Books can be sold to-day just as well as at any time in the past. Let us do it.
The One-Talent Man
He couldn't sing, and he couldn't play.
He couldn't speak, and he couldn't pray.
He'd try to read, but break right down,
Then sadly grieve at smile or frown.
While some with talents ten begun,
He started out with only one:
“With this,” he said, “I’ll do my best,
And trust the Lord to do the rest.”
His trembling hand and tearful eye
Gave forth a world of sympathy.
When all alone with one distressed,
He whispered words that calmed that breast,
And little children learned to know,
When grieved and troubled, where to go.
He loved the birds, the flowers, the trees,
And loving him, his friends loved these.
His homely features lost each trace
Of homeliness, and in his face
There beamed a kind and tender light
That made surrounding features bright.
When illness came, he smiled at fears,
And bade his friends to dry their tears.
He said, “Good-by,” and all confess
He made of life a grand success.
— Presbyterian Journal.
The Power of Patience and Purity
“SUNSHINE is mightier than thunderstorms; and patience, meekness, and purity accomplish more than enthusiasm, assertiveness, and passion.”
The Revival of Our Religious Liberty Work
By Arthur G. Daniells
A. G. DANIELLS
One year ago a very obnoxious Sunday bill for the District of Columbia was presented to Congress. It was quietly and quickly put through the House, and passed on to the Senate.
This aroused the officers of the Religious Liberty Department to earnest action. Elder Moon, the chairman, came to Washington and began active, consistent opposition to this Sunday bill. The committee in whose hands it was placed, failed to agree to report it to the Senate. Hence Congress adjourned without making the bill a law.
Since then, the Religious Liberty Department has been active in its protest against this proposed Sunday legislation. Most excellent work has been done by the chairman and the secretary in the District of Columbia. Petitions of protest have been prepared, circulated, and presented to Congress. Tracts covering various features of the great question of religious liberty have been written and printed. Congressmen have been interviewed, articles have been written for the Washington papers, and public meetings have been held to define our position.
In addition to the work done in the District of Columbia, correspondence has been held with union and local conference officers with reference to securing signatures to petitions of protest which have been sent to the various States. These petitions are now coming in from all parts of the country, and are being presented to Congress.
This revival of our work in behalf of religious liberty now calls for the active, earnest co-operation of all our people. The work is too great for the officers of the Religious Liberty Department to carry on alone. They can stand as sentinels on the towers, watching the movements of the enemy; they can sound the alarm, prepare effective literature, and suggest work to be done; but they can not do all the work. Every conference officer, minister, church officer, and believer in the third angel’s message, must unite in earnest efforts to warn the people against the evils of religious legislation, which, in the end, will form the image to the beast, and give life to the beast itself. The third angel’s message can not be given clearly and fully without this.
I would not forget to express deep gratitude for the interest manifested by our people in this line of work during the past year. We greatly appreciate the very hearty co-operation given the officers of the department. This has helped them much in their work in Congress.
Let all keep a close watch on present-day movements, and read the articles and tracts on this subject as they come from the press, and then respond quickly to the call for action. This will help to keep us alive as well as to warn and instruct the world. This work, done in the fear of the Lord and with a deep love for the souls of our fellow men, will bring the Master’s blessing to many.