Earlier text: CHRIST'S CRITERIONCAST THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS.
By Jay Rivers
Cast thy bread upon the waters,
Teachings pure and true impart
To the youthful mind still plastic,
To the tender youthful heart. And though worldly gloss may cover
Early teachings for a time,
Or the good seem wholly hidden
’Neath a dark career of crime; Yet the bread upon the waters
Ne’er shall sink beneath the tide;
After many days thou’lt find it,
E’en where stormy billows ride. Cast with lavish hand thy riches
On the sea of human woe;
Lift the burdens from the needy,
Gleams of happiness bestow. Cast abroad thy store of blessings,
Soothe the hearts of those who mourn,
Let a constant stream of kindness
Gladden all the weak and worn. Cast thy bread upon the waters,
Thou shalt surely find again
E’en the tiny crumb thou scatterest,
O’er the darkly rolling main. Though the waves seem black, engulfing,
Still the bread will come to thee;
Doubt not, faithless ones, the promise,
Did not God himself decree? SABBATH-SCHOOL TEACHERS.
By D. F. Ewen
SABBATH-SCHOOL teachers should possess tact and perseverance, and some talent for their work. They should also have an ordinary education, and true Christian ideas of love and duty. Teachers, if they wish to be successful, must have a settled and definite purpose, and labor arduously for its accomplishment. They should seek to make those under their care intelligent students of the Bible. The teacher’s manner should not be repellant, nor his teaching formal and uninteresting. He should not go to the class without being prepared on the lesson. If he does this, satisfactory results cannot be achieved. Sabbath-schools should not only be places where Christianity is taught, but they should also be places where young Christians are developed. The minds of the young are not filled with worldly calculations; their eyes are quick to observe, and their hearts are alive to good impressions. They soon discern the difference between a teacher who comes into the class with no knowledge of the lesson, and one who has made ample preparation; between a teacher whose words are cold and lifeless, and one who speaks from a heart glowing with love for God and for precious souls. Let the teacher see to it that he guides his impressible charge in the way of life. Believers as Witnesses to the Lord
By Rev. Wm. Taylor
—“Ye are my witnesses,” saith the Lord. “Ye shall be witnesses unto me,” said the Saviour on Mount Olivet in his last utterance before his ascension, “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” This evidently applies to believers and through all time, and every part of the earth, till none shall say to another, Know ye the Lord, but all shall know him. Now a witness must testify to facts as he knows them—“the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”— Rev. Wm. Taylor. THE TEMPORAL WISDOM OF THE BIBLE.
APART from its value as a spiritual guide, a comforter in distress and a shield against the darts of the tempter, the Bible is unrivaled as a manual of temporal wisdom. In the management of our earthly affairs it is, if we choose to accept it, a lamp to the feet and a light to the path. In the single book of Proverbs there are maxims enough to insure absolute success to the man who faithfully lives according to their teachings. Thrift, diligence, honor, integrity, thoroughness, and promptitude are among the virtues which shine like stars in the golden firmament of the Eastern sage. He tells the giddy heart of youth to forsake frivolity, and apply itself to instruction. He enjoins abstinence and temperance on those who are given to the indulgence of the lower appetites. He bids the talkative man to be reticent, the impertinent to respect authority, and the inexact to refrain from whispering and slander. Obedience in the family, good government in the State, economy in the household, energy in the individual, and responsibility for advantages bestowed, are inculcated in every chapter of this amazing collection of apothegms and adages. Many of the terse and picturesque sentences of Solomon have crystallized themselves in our common talk, and are coin current in conversation, not alone by the fireside, but in the market, the shop, and the office. Thus, “The way of the transgressor is hard,” “The wicked flee when no man pursueth,” “The borrower is servant to the lender,” and “The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds,” are at once justified by the experience of men and women in every position in society. “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings,” finds illustrations in biography, in history, and in the world’s roll of statesmen of to-day. The whole set of caustic and ironical observations on contentious, bitter, and unprincipled women, and their influence, though born of Solomon’s own exasperations and vexations, were written not for his period only, but for all time. The life of the harem, idle, flavorless, and supremely wearisome, must necessarily afford a soil adapted to the quick growth of envy, covetousness, and malice; yet even here there are fair village homes and ample city houses in which fretful, quarrelsome, and discontented wives and daughters make the atmosphere always heavy and stormful. Turning away from this aspect of the book, how rich are its aphorisms of consolation, and not to lose sight of our theme, how suggestive are its bits of good advice! “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver;” “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country;” “A soft answer turneth away wrath;” “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly;” and “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” It were easy to lengthen the list, but reflection and examination will enable any one to do it for himself. We have instanced the Proverbs rather than another book in the Biblical library because it is from first to last an epitome of directions for practical every-day life. But the earlier pages of Scripture, the picture-books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, and Judges, the condensed and deeply religious instructions of Deuteronomy, and the panoramic progression of kings and prophets, are crowded with hints, examples, and directions for the conduct of ordinary people in ordinary circumstances. When we reach the New Testament, there is, first and foremost, the sermon on the mount, and when the world arrives at a general and liberal fulfillment of its divine precepts, Heaven will have begun below. Then the cogent words of Paul, of John, of Peter, of James—what need is there for more than an index-finger pointing us to them? Do we not sometimes overlook and forget the fact that God’s Book is given for our help and direction in the life of action, as well as for our stimulus and encouragement in the life of devotion? The paradox of a man who prays fervently, and defrauds his neighbor; who bears the Christian name, and shames the Christian character, would be more infrequently found if we blended piety with practice, as the Bible does. Not only for hours of retirement and thought, but for hours of business and adventure, it is a Heaven-inspired companion and mentor.—The Christian at Work. DID you ever notice, my son, that the man who tells you he cannot believe the Bible is usually able to believe almost anything else? You will find men who turn with horror and utter disbelief of the Bible, and joyfully embrace the teachings of Buddha. It is quite the thing, just now, my son, for a civilized, enlightened man, brought up in a Christian country and an age of wisdom, to be a Buddhist. And if you ask six men who profess Buddhism who Buddha was, one of them will tell you he was an Egyptian soothsayer who lived 200 years before Moses. Another will tell you that he brought letters from Phoenicia and introduced them in Greece; a third will tell you that she was a beautiful woman of Farther India, bound by her vows to perpetual chastity; a fourth will, with a little hesitation, say he was a Brahma of the ninth degree and a holy disciple of Confucius; and of the other two, one will frankly admit that he doesn't know, and the other will say, with some indecision, that he was either a dervish of the Nile (whatever that is) or a felo de se, he can't be positive which. Before you propose to know more than anybody and everybody else, my son, be very certain that you are at least abreast of two-thirds of your fellow-men. I don't want to suppress any inclination you may have toward genuine free-thought and careful, honest investigation, my son. I only want you to avoid the great fault of atheism in this day and generation; I don't want to see you try to build a six-story house on a one-story foundation. Before you criticize, condemn, and finally revise the work of creation, my son, be pretty confident that you know something about it as it is, and don't, as a man who is older in years and experience than yourself, don't, let me implore you, don't turn this world upside down and sit on it and flatten it entirely out, until you have made or secured another one for the rest of us to live in while you demolish the old one.—Burlington Hawkeye. On the subject of leadership, we expressed our views quite fully in the REVIEW for May 13. We closed with these words:— “All true ministers are Christ’s embassadors. ‘Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ 2 Cor. 5:20. In their ministry they are to represent the doctrine of Christ, and the interests of his cause in this world. They surrender their own judgment and will to Him who has sent them. No man can be Christ’s ambassador until he has made a complete surrender of his right of private judgment to Christ. Neither can any man properly represent Christ who surrenders his judgment to his fellow-man.” But the subject must not be left here with the truth partly expressed. The words of Christ and his apostles relative to unity and the ordained means to secure it, and proper discipline, must have a qualifying bearing upon the subject, lest unsanctified men, who do not submit their will and judgment either to Christ or to church authority, assume the gospel ministry, and divide and scatter the flock of God. But here we wish it distinctly understood that officers were not ordained in the Christian church to order or to command the church, or to “lord it over God’s heritage.” In the case of differences of opinion that arose in some of the primitive churches relative to circumcision and the keeping of the law of Moses, recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, the apostles and elders at Jerusalem acted as counselors, in a manner to give room for the Holy Ghost to sit as judge. The report of that blessed meeting at Jerusalem to settle a festering difficulty, commences on this wise: “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.” And the brethren who were from among the Gentiles in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, “rejoiced for the consolation.” Differences settled in this way frequently seem more than settled, and generally remain settled; while those disposed of by the exercise of mere church authority are seldom really settled at all. Between the two extremes, of church force, and unsanctified independence, we find the grand secret of unity and efficiency in the ministry and in the church of God. Our attention is called to this in a most solemn appeal from the venerable apostle Peter to the elders of his time: “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” 1 Pet. 5:1-6. In painful contrast with the foregoing are those ecclesiastical conferences and assemblies of our time where popular ministers distinguish themselves by a spirit of strife and debate, and in the use of language which would be regarded as ungentlemanly in all other respectable associations. Organization was designed to secure unity of action, and as a protection from imposture. It was never intended as a scourge to compel obedience, but, rather, for the protection of the people of God. Christ does not drive his people. He calls them. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Those who drew the plan of our church, Conference, and General Conference organizations, labored to guard the precious flock of God against the influence of those who might, in a greater or less degree, assume the leadership. They were not ignorant of the evils and abuses which had existed in many of the churches of the past, where men had assumed the position which belongs to Jesus Christ, or had accepted it at the hands of their short-sighted brethren. It was designed that the General Conference Committee should be men of experience, deep piety, and tender care for the flock, especially for younger ministers, a board of fathers in Christ, who should prayerfully and in the fear of God counsel with one another and their brethren in the ministry in reference to the best good of the cause of God, and those who are laboring for its advancement. As a people, our numbers are small. And while the field is vast, and laborers are few, the work is arduous and wearing. The popular churches are against us. Through them the chilling influence of a cold, unfeeling world is brought to bear upon us, sometimes with almost overwhelming weight. With the churches, the world, the devil and his angels on the one side, it will prove an unequal contest, unless we accept Christ as our all-powerful Leader, and we, his embassadors, stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight, watchfully regarding the feelings, reputation, and interests of our brethren in the ministry. Those members of our committees who have stood upon their dignity, using the little influence given them to dictate to others their duty, and to oppress those who have committed errors, will learn wisdom from their past mistakes. We spare them, lest we be found committing the very error of dealing sharply with the erring, which we would gently reprove. “Love one another as I have loved you,” said our adorable Leader. If the members of the church of Christ, the rank and file of our people, should take these words home to their hearts, and cherish feelings of the tenderest love and regard for one another, taking the love of Christ to them as a pattern, what relations of sympathy, and care, and regard should be manifested in the ministry toward one another, setting an example in this respect to all the flock of God! We call to mind scenes that frequently transpired at the close of our little Conferences thirty years since, when such meetings were held in private houses in the warm season of the year. At the suggestion of our venerable brother, Elder Joseph Bates, we would usually enjoy a parting season of prayer out of door, bowed upon the green turf. These were seasons of weeping. Our minds and hearts were imbued with the Spirit of our Great Leader, and we wept for joy that we were accounted worthy to toil in his cause, and suffer reproach for his dear name. Such parting seasons remind us of one described by Luke, where Paul acted a part: “And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him.” Acts 20:36, 37. God grant that the day may never come when our dear ministers shall go from our general assemblies with a spirit of unsanctified emulation, willing to build themselves up at the expense of the reputation and influence of their brethren in the ministry. THE angels sing. When the great God laid the foundation of the earth, when a new orb was formed, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38: 7. Singing is an important part of the worship of God. The Old Testament associates instrumental with vocal music. The New Testament speaks of singing on this wise: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Eph. 5: 19. “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” 1 Cor. 14: 15. We wish here to notice that while the New Testament classes singing with praying, stating that both should be done understandingly as well as with the Spirit, it does not give that prominence to instrumental music which the Old Testament does. For long centuries it has been a matter of discussion with the leading men of the Christian church whether instrumental music should be introduced into the house of God. The more popular, the very men who have led the church into popularity and pride, have pleaded for instrumental music and have quoted the usages of Old Testament times to sustain their position; and we are not prepared to condemn the course of all those great and good men who have conscientiously protested against the introduction of fiddles, big and little, and other instruments, stringed and wind, to be employed in the worship of God in connection with sacred song. While those favorable to instrumental music in the church may quote David, who was evidently very fond of instrumental music, those very plain, humble, and godly temperance people who wish to avoid the sins of which David was guilty, may quote the words of that good old-fashioned prophet of God who rebukes the excesses and sins of our times in these words: “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion,” “that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls.” Amos 6: 1, 5, 6. When S. D. Adventists were a humble people, in the earlier days of their brief history, most of the old hands, those who have been pillars in the church, were opposed to instrumental music. They even objected to the pure and solemn tones of the organ to accompany vocal music in the house of God. We respect conscientious men and women wherever they may be found, and while we may think that their consciences are unnecessarily tender upon the matter of introducing the organ into church worship, we would treat them with great respect, and would be very careful not to wound them unnecessarily. We have been in favor of the organ, and have for the past twenty years labored to help those godly fathers and mothers in Israel who, seeing the tendency of the church toward formality and popular worship, have been grieved at the thought of its introduction into the worship of God. In this we have assumed a responsibility for which we shall have to give an account to God. Our young people view things differently from what their parents and grandparents did. They have no religious scruples at the introduction of the organ, and many of them exult to see fiddles, big and little, and all sorts of squeaking and squawking stringed and wind instruments in the house of God. The performers on these instruments have no regard for the conscientious feelings of the old hands who have used their hard-earned money to put up the church edifice. They will venture as near to the profane as they dare. They will play waltzes which give the impression to those at a distance outside of the church that they are really having fiddling and dancing in the house of God. In the name of reason and religion we enter our solemn protest against such desecration of the house of God. We still urge that there is a fitness in things. Let men who fear God and would offer to him pure worship, pray and sing with the Spirit and with the understanding also. Singing is either a part of the worship of God or it is not. If it is a part of that solemn worship, it should be performed understandingly as well as in the Spirit. Ministers should preach the best they can, if they would meet the mind of God. They should speak understandingly, and by the special help of the Spirit of God. Prayers393 should be offered to God in a sensible manner, the suppliant uniting his mental powers with the sweet and heavenly endowment of the Holy Ghost, which leads the mind of the suppliant out into the field of his wants. Acceptable worship falls nothing short of speaking in God, praying in God, and singing in God. UNION IS STRENGTH.
By James White
The success of our work in its several branches is attributable to that union of action which organization, patient discipline, and the earnest pleadings of the burden-bearers have secured. In no branch of the work has unison of effort accomplished more than in the publishing department. The friends of the cause very well know that at Battle Creek, Mich., and at Oakland, Cal., we have large publishing houses. And as our friends are almost totally ignorant of the sacrifices, the wearing toils, and the patient and earnest efforts of those who, under God, have brought them into existence, they do not know how to prize them, nor how to value the labors of those whose lives and interests have been inseparably connected with them for the last quarter of a century. We look back with a good degree of pleasure to the month of July, 1849, when we published the first number of the little paper called Present Truth. We sat down to prepare the matter for that little sheet, and wrote every word of it, our entire library comprising a three-shilling pocket Bible, Cruden’s Condensed Concordance, and Walker’s old dictionary, minus one of its covers. Destitute of means, our hope of success was in God, while we should go forward and work upon the plan of strictest economy. The first volume of REVIEW AND HERALD was published at Paris, Maine, under most discouraging circumstances. In feebleness and extreme poverty we struggled on, suffering for proper food and clothing, that the paper might maintain an existence. And, at every step in the onward march, sacrifices, wearing toils, and the pressure of care have been the portion of those who have borne the heavy burdens. Under peculiar circumstances the publishing work at Battle Creek fell into hands that were as ignorant of the toils and anxieties of their predecessors as babes. They really knew nothing of the industry and the economy necessary to keep expenses within the compass of incomes. They thought that almost anybody could run a publishing house, and were like the man in the gospel who did not first sit down and count the cost, and therefore made a total failure. The establishment of the Pacific Press cost sacrifices, anxieties, and toils. And if the same cautious hands, under God, had been permitted to guide and to guard the operations of that publishing house, which had successfully labored in the commencement of our publishing work, that office need not now have a debt upon it of a single dollar. But as things now stand, it will require one-half the sum which can be saved at that office under the best management, to pay their interest money. We wish here to make the following points:— 1. In our operations upon the Pacific Coast, we put in several years of hard labor. And the sum we gave, including what we sacrificed in discounts between greenbacks and gold, and what we have lost in fall of property and otherwise, from helping the cause there, would amount to $8,000. 2. We appealed to eastern friends for donations to furnish the Signs Office with presses and material. We asked for $10,000, and they gave $13,000. 3. In our anxiety that the Signs might be sustained, we appealed to eastern brethren to subscribe for it at two dollars a year, and the readers of the REVIEW AND HERALD responded liberally, insomuch that one-half of the patronage and support of the Signs by regular subscription was by eastern brethren who had sent $13,000 over the plains to furnish the Signs office, and who, at the same time, were taking the REVIEW AND HERALD. 4. We then instituted the plan of furnishing the Signs as a pioneer sheet for the use of the tract and missionary workers, and have shipped forty tons of paper to Oakland, at an expense of thirty dollars a ton, on which to print the Signs of the Times at a cost of at least ten per cent more than it would cost to do the same printing at Battle Creek, to be sent back across the continent, a week’s journey, to be used by eastern tract and missionary workers. Our only apology for this act, which seems, in itself, to be the very height of financial folly, is that we felt that the Pacific Press must be sustained at all hazards. 5. We published Sunshine Series, Golden Grains, the three volumes of Home Circle, and Life Sketches, at Oakland. The transportation of the white paper, the extra cost of printing at Oakland above Battle Creek, and the freight on these books from Oakland to Battle Creek, amount to $1,000, which we have sunk as an individual loss, in trying to help that office. Having taken upon us the responsibility of establishing the Pacific Press, we feel such an anxiety for its prosperity as no other man can feel. Had we been permitted to continue its management from the first, all these sacrifices would not have been necessary, and it would not now be under the pressure of heavy debts. And still we cling to the Pacific Press, as the grieved mother clings to her dying child. We have rallied all the forces, east, west, north, and south, to sustain that office. We have appealed to the friends of the North Pacific Mission to come up to the work, and stand by our Oakland office, as the Pacific Press was established for the benefit of the cause on the coast, from San Diego on the south, to the British Possessions on the north. And yet, now, when that office is struggling under the weight of debt, the result of the management of those of great self-confidence and of little experience, we are in receipt of letters addressed to Elder Boyd, President of the Nebraska Conference, and his wife, urging them to go to Oregon, as they are about to start an office in that State! And this is the first intimation we have had of the hazardous enterprise. As we now look over the struggles and sacrifices during the last six years, to establish the Pacific Press and to make the Signs Office what it should be, we regard that work as one of the mistakes of our life. We have been under the conviction for the past two years, that as a people we are occupying too much ground. While we may strengthen things at one point, several others may be growing weaker. We have been too hopeful as to the caution and faithfulness of others to act that part which they might if they would seek the advice of those of experience, and the help of God. Here we have been disappointed and grieved. The weight of these things has crushed us in spirit, and we have been broken in health. The result has been that we have drawn back from the responsibilities of the work, and those whose career speaks for itself, have been willing to crowd in and run matters. We repeat, that if our people on the Pacific had appreciated our sacrifices and efforts, so that we could have felt free to remain there, instead of coming to Battle Creek, where we broke down in 1877; and could we have carried out the object for which the Pacific Press was established, to make our denominational work first, and all other work secondary, that office need not now own a single dollar, and the will of God could now be seen in its establishment. The REVIEW Office alone, could have served the cause on this continent better than to have our offices of publication in this country, wading heavily under the pressure of debts, and paying an amount of interest which we will not here name. Our friends in California may find it convenient to have a paper to give appointments and reports; and our friends in Oregon may urge the inconvenience of the Signs Office being so distant; but these trifling difficulties can be overcome by using circulars produced by modern copying processes. This would be a thousand times cheaper and better than to establish offices here and there, calling for a great amount of capital, and also calling the best talent from other important branches of the work to run them. Hundreds of papers are started which sink capital, and go down, because their managers do not count the cost. Scores of health institutions and schools go down for want of cautious men. S. D. Adventists should move cautiously, unitedly, and in God. If God and our brethren will forgive, we will not try to do so much as in years past, and take time to carefully and prayerfully consider the wants of the general cause. We shall entreat our brethren to move cautiously, and in the fear of God. But after calling more than $300,000 from the faithful friends of the cause for our institutions, we feel a responsibility resting upon us in this matter. This is a trite saying; nevertheless it is a fact that some folks will lie egregiously about figures. Here, for instance, is a paragraph which we clip from an exchange:— “Since the creation, it is estimated that 27,000,000,000,000,000 have lived on the earth. This sum divided by 27,804,000, the number of square miles, gives 1,315,522,686 to a square rod, and 5 to a square foot. Suppose a square rod be divided into 11 graves, each grave would contain 100 persons.” This is a fair specimen of the utter recklessness with which some people will make figures, and the thoughtlessness with which they are passed around. Many a skeptic will, no doubt, experience an inward glow of satisfaction as he beholds such evidence that the resurrection of the dead is an impossibility, and the Bible a book of fables. But let us look at these figures and statements. Who is it that estimates that 27 quadrillions of people have lived on the earth? He must be a wonderful estimator. Whatever age is assigned to the earth itself, it is generally conceded that man has been here but about 6,000 years. Now, to be liberal in a calculation, we will suppose that 6,000 years ago there were on the earth, instead of a single pair of human beings, about 1,400,000,000, the present estimated number. We will suppose, further, that the generations have, from that time, been confined to as small a number of years as at the present time, that is about 33⅓, giving us three generations in each century. On such a calculation, which any one will say is liberal enough, we should have 180 generations, giving us only 252,000,000,000 as the entire number of persons who have lived on the earth to the present time. From this it appears that the paragraph above quoted starts off with 26,999,748,000,000,000, too many to begin with, which must seriously interfere with a correct conclusion. But further we read, “This sum [27,000,000,000,000,000] divided by 27,804,000, the number of square miles, gives 1,315,522,686 to a square rod.” This statement is the concentration of error and absurdity. In the first place there are more than 27,804,000 square miles of land on the globe. According to the most careful surveys and estimates, there are 50,882,000. Again, how it is that dividing the number of inhabitants by the number of square miles, can give the number to a square rod (!) entirely exceeds our comprehension. But we question the statement even on the figures given; for when we divide the figures given for inhabitants, by those given for square miles, we have only 971,083,297 to a square mile! and 9,483 to a square rod, instead of 1,315,522,686! But more marvelous than all, our estimator, after giving the fabulous figures last above written, for a square rod, says that this would give “5 to a square foot;” whereas the actual division gives us 4,832,038 to the square foot. This is enough for so much of absurdity. But before dismissing the subject, the reader may be pleased to394 see a little reliable calculation on this subject. As we have seen, there cannot have lived on this earth more than 252,000,000,000 human beings; and there are 50,882,000 square miles of habitable surface. Suppose the persons who have lived should all be raised from the dead at one time, there would be 4,952 persons to each square mile, which would give nearly 21 square rods to each individual, taking only the present land surface of the globe. But we can narrow this calculation down to a still smaller compass and make it still more comprehensible. California is set down in the geographies as having 155,980 square miles. This reduced to square feet gives 4,348,452,832,000; and this divided by 252,000,000,000, the largest number that can have lived, gives 13 square feet to every man, woman, and child. That is to say, every man, woman, and child that has ever lived, could be buried in the State of California, only one in a grave, and that grave being 6½ feet long by 2 feet wide, quite a comfortable space, taking the average. In the light of these figures, which any one can easily verify, how utterly idiotic appears the claim so frequently put forth, that the resurrection is impossible, because there would not be material enough in the whole globe to make the bodies! And sufficiently absurd is the statement of the above-quoted paragraph, that a sufficient number have lived to furnish five claimants to every square foot of land, and to be buried one hundred deep! Just give the figures a chance to tell the truth, and they will never tell such enormous stories as are often attributed to them. NOTWITHSTANDING the disposition of so many people to “Raise Cain,” he does not seem to come up half as often as his wife. The oft-repeated question comes in again from a correspondent who says that one of his neighbors wishes it answered:— “If Adam and Eve were the first of God’s creation, whom did Cain get for his wife?” The frequency with which this question is brought to the front, indicates that many consider it one of the most apparent and available objections to the credibility of the Scriptures. If it is so, it was certainly very stupid in Moses to introduce Cain’s wife in so unguarded a manner, right in connection with his record which sets forth Adam and Eve as the first pair, from whom have sprung all who live upon the earth. But we are unable to see really where the objection comes in. The expression in Gen. 4:16, “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod,” if supposed to prove that he went into a distant part of the earth and there found a wife, loses all its force in this direction, when we have the right translation, which scholars tell us should read thus: “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land a nod [that is, a vagabond], on the east of Eden.” Well, but who was his wife? Why, one of his sisters, of course. Who else could he marry, unless a first or second niece, or some more distant relative? But it is not lawful for a man to marry his sister. It is not now; but it was then, because it was necessary. It is not natural. It is not now; but it was then, because it was necessary. It is not according to the laws of health. It is not now, but it was then, because it was necessary. The human race has now become sadly degenerated, and the blood in our veins is vitiated and impure. It was then at the fountain head in its native purity and energy. Like circumstances would produce far different results now from what they would and did then; and we can draw no parallel, in this respect, between Cain’s time and ours. But the same problem remains to be solved, from whatever point of view we consider this question. We may never have explored the streams of skepticism to their source. But we presume all agree that there was somewhere and somehow a beginning to the human family. How did it begin? With a single pair? If so, the first marriage that took place must have been between a brother and sister. Do you say that there were more than a single pair? Then the question arises, How did these come into existence? God must have created them. And what was the relation between these? Must it not have been as close as that of brother and sister? And would there not be as much objection against these, all coming at once from the hand of the same Maker, marrying together, as against the marriage of Cain with his sister? If it be said that these were all made without any consanguineous relation between them, because such would be the better way, according to physiological law, then, on the other hand, can it not be easily admitted that God might interpose to prevent the evils of consanguinity in the union of Adam’s immediate descendants, until the number became so great that union of those near akin would not be necessary? A little invention in the beginning, of which we may be sure that the Maker of the heavens and earth had no lack, or a little thought on the part of modern skeptics, it seems to us would obviate all difficulty. But why does not the objector go back a step further, and raise a query on the union of Adam and Eve? According to the record, Eve was made of a rib taken from Adam’s side. Between this woman and Adam there must have existed a greater degree of consanguinity than between brother and sister. Why not try to create a difficulty here, where, if a man has not much respect for God’s power and design, there seems to be a better chance, rather than in the case under notice? Thus, from whatever point of view we look at this subject, there seems to be no occasion to disturb the connubial relations of Cain. And hence we plead for a little seasonable rest for this man and his curiosity-exciting wife.