SOME people say, “O, we know we are saved, because we are so happy!” It is by no means a sure evidence, for joy may be carnal, unfounded, unspiritual. Certain Christians are afraid that they can not be in a saved state because they are not joyous; but we are saved by faith and not by joy. I was struck with the remark of Ebenezer Erskine when he was dying, and some one said to him, “I hope you have now and then a blink to bear up your spirit under affliction.” He promptly replied, “I know more of words than of blinks;” that is to say, he had rather trust a promise of God than his own glimpses of heaven; and so would I.
The word of God is more sure testimony to the soul than all the raptures a man can feel. I would sooner walk in the dark, and hold to a promise of my God, than trust in the light of the brightest day that ever dawned. Precious as the fruit is, do not put the fruit where the root should be. Please to recollect that. Joy is not the root of grace in the soul, it is the fruit, and must not be put out of its proper position.—Spurgeon.
DANGEROUS LEAGUES.
By H. A. Phelps
ALL over this fair land—so long called the land of liberty—there are springing into existence certain leagues, under various names. Some of their objects are good, we will not question their motives; but some of the objects are evil, containing only evil, and nothing but evil can be the result.
For some time, here in the city of St. Paul, Minn., efforts have been made to organize a Sunday Law Observance League, but it is now working under the more euphonious title of “Christian Citizenship League.” The object, as stated in its constitutions, “shall be the enforcement of the laws of the city and state; to combat existing evils, especially such as result from the violation of the liquor laws; unlawful Sunday labor; gambling and the keeping of disrespectful places; to arouse a healthy and intelligent public interest on all questions concerning the welfare of our city and state; and to shape public opinion toward securing the nomination and election of competent and trustworthy men for public offices without respect to party lines.”
Of course, some of these objects are laudable and praiseworthy. But there is and can be no such thing as “unlawful Sunday labor,” except such as is proscribed by statute Sunday laws. Therefore, one object of the league is to enforce the statute Sunday laws of the state against all practical dissenters; and is just so much a union of church and state. Thus they attempt to hide the deformity of such an act by mixing in a lot of good things, and make the evil more readily take among the people.
The writer recently attended a so-called mass meeting in this city, in the interests of the league and its work. These meetings will hardly bear the title mass meeting, for the masses are in no wise interested; it is only the few. Neither do they have the appearance of mass meetings, as they are generally managed by a coterie of ministers, with a program fully arranged and carried out; so that a person with other opposing views would seem to be wholly out of place to interpose a few words. The meeting in question was no exception to the rule.
The one minister, Dr. Conly, spoke in behalf of the league, and said that their work was regarded by some with a sort of a feeling that it was a union of church and state. But he declared the movement to be “as free from church and state as the laws against murder.” Yet, in almost the same breath, he made two statements, the logic of which is a demonstration that it is such a union. He said, “The great body of the American people keep Sunday.” Then in regard to the Sunday saloon he said, “We are simply saying you can’t buy it [liquor] on Sunday.” Now what is the logic of this? Why do people keep Sunday? Why do those who keep Sunday demand the enforcement of Sunday law? And how came there to be any such an instrument as a statute Sunday law? The answer is not hard to find. Here it is:—
The people keep Sunday because it is an institution of the church. The church secured the enactment of these statute Sunday laws to protect this institution of the church, and that she might enforce its observance upon dissenters. And now, in these closing years of the nineteenth century, the church comes forward with her demands for the enforcement of these laws against dissenters.
Now all this being true, what will be the logical result if the state shall listen to these demands and shall enforce these laws secured by the church, for the protection of an institution of the church? Will it, can it, be anything less than a union of the two? Look at the situation. The laws are laws enacted in the interests of an institution of the church. The church, by her influence, secured them. The church then demands that there should be a better observance of this institution of the church. She believes that by the enforcement of these statute Sunday laws, such better observance can be secured. She demands that the state shall enforce the laws. The state listens to these demands of the church, and enforces these religious laws in the interests and at the behests of the church. Therefore, this is a union of church and state—the church and state united in this land of the free, as foretold by our fathers; but now, as told by actual experiences of this generation, in the sending men to prison and to the chain-gang, under the enforcement of these laws, the land of intolerance, persecution, and a rising religious despotism. And what will the end be? Let all who are Christians indeed separate themselves from the whole thing. Christians are called to another work.
H. A. PHELPS.
THE WORLD'S COSTLIEST GEMS.
The largest perfect diamond in the world is now the Imperial, that was exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1891, and which is valued at $1,000,000, says the Ladies' Home Journal. This is the most valuable stone in the world, and is owned by a syndicate. The biggest and best ruby in existence is owned in London, and is valued at $50,000. It has no parallel, even in the crown jewels, and it is related that the duchess of Edinburgh10carried it all the way to St. Petersburg for the czar to have a look at it. The finest private collection of pearls in the world is owned by Madame Dosne, sister-in-law of M. Thiers. The biggest emerald in the world weighs 2,980 carats, and is in the Imperial Jewel Office in Vienna. The largest and costliest cat's eye in the world is owned by a Moorman of Ceylon, who dug it up himself from the mines. He has been offered as high as $90,000 for it, but declines to part with it at that figure, saying that, if he liked, he could cut it up into forty small pieces and sell each piece for about $50,000, aggregating pretty nearly $200,000.
EUROPE AND CHRISTIANITY.
It is announced that the Italian Government has “decided to thoroughly subdue the Abyssinians,” and that within the month of January, Italy will have 50,000 troops in Erytherea. The other day the Italians had a conflict with the Abyssinians, and “poured volley after volley into them with terrible effect.” At the same time another column “surprised the Abyssinians by attacking them on the flank, and completely routed them.”
The Abyssinians are one of the two primitive Christian peoples of the east. The Armenians are the other. The Christian powers of Europe can not spare a man or a gun to save one of these Christian races from extermination, with every form of agony, at the hands of a horde of veneered Apaches maintained in power to serve European interests, but a single Christian power can send 50,000 men to crush the other Christian race, which has maintained for fifteen hundred years the traditions of the ancient faith, of which, through all the ages of pagan and Moslem darkness, it was the only guardian left in Africa.
The Soudan is still in the hands of the savage Dervishes that killed Gordon. The Abyssinians are their enemies; they rendered useful services to the European adversaries of the Mahdi, and with their help it would be possible now to reclaim the lost provinces of Egypt for civilization. But their country stimulated the European lust for land, and as France invaded and conquered the only African kingdom that has ever been converted to Christianity by modern missionaries, Italy is invading and trying to conquer the only African kingdom that has retained its unbroken allegiance to the primitive church. Meanwhile the religion of Mohammed is making excellent progress in Africa, and contributions for missionaries are still taken up in Europe.—San Francisco Examiner, January 16.
Can Municipal Reform Organizations Really Reform Cities?
About one hundred and eighty municipal reform organizations have sprung into existence during the last few years. They were started to reform the city governments. But how much have they effected? We do not ask the question sneeringly nor pessimistically; it is a serious one for consideration. What better are the cities in the aggregate now than before. It will yet be learned that cities can not be reformed by organizations. The righteousness in a city government is about that of the average individual righteousness. The corruption of men can not be changed by law.
HOLD UP YOUR LIGHT.
By Sara W. Young
BY SARA W. YOUNG.
Hold up your light, father,
The way is rough for little feet,
And dangerous are the thorns they’ll meet.
Hold up your light, mother,
The little ones are apt to stray
From virtue’s path, and wisdom’s way.
Hold up your light, sister,
There’s some one wandering far from home
That waits to hear your bidding, “Come.”
Hold up your light, brother,
A friend you love has lost the way,
O, do not let him go astray!
Hold up your light, Christian,
For trembling souls stand on the brink,
And but for you, they’ll fall and sink.
Hold up your light, pilgrim,
Some more are walking that same road,
And looking for that blest abode.
Then, child of heaven, hold up thy light,
And forward go in Jesus’ might.
Rurutu, Sabbath, Dec. 1, 1894.
WHAT GOD GIVES A BOY.
A BODY to live in and keep clean and healthy, and as a dwelling for his mind and a temple for his soul.
A pair of hands to use for himself and others, but never against others for himself.
A pair of feet to do errands of love and kindness and charity and business, but not to loiter in places of mischief or temptation or sin.
A pair of lips to keep pure and unpolluted by tobacco or whisky, and to speak true, kind, brave words, but not to make a smoke-stack of or a swill trough.
A pair of ears to hear the music of bird and tree and rill and human voice, but not to give heed to what the serpent says or to what dishonors God or his mother.
A pair of eyes to see the beautiful, the good, and the true—God’s finger prints in the flower and field and snowflake—but not to feast on unclean pictures or the blotches which Satan daubs and calls pleasure.
A mind to remember and reason and decide and store up wisdom and impart it to others, but not to be turned into a chip basket or rubbish heap for the chaff and the rubbish and sweepings of the world’s stale wit.
A soul to receive impressions of good and to develop faculties and powers and virtues which shall shape it day by day, as the artist’s chisel shapes the stone, into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.—Morning Guide.
THRILLING RESCUE.
THE following story of German heroism was cabled to the New York Sun. The scene was laid in Schleswig-Holstein.
Early one morning, just after the loss of the Elbe, during the great gales that were devastating the shipping of two continents, a fishing village was awakened by the boom of signal guns off the coast. The beach was soon crowded, and in the dim light it was seen that a vessel was wrecked on a reef a mile away. The crew had taken refuge in the rigging. A life-boat was immediately run out, but the leader of the crew, Harro by name, was absent.
Notwithstanding, eight men manned the boat and rowed out to the wreck. The crew were taken successfully into the life-boat, with the exception of one man, who was lashed high on the mast. As he was half frozen and could not help himself, and as the storm was increasing and the life-boat was overloaded, it was decided that he could not be saved. The boat left the wreck without him. On the shore Harro awaited its return. He asked whether every one had been saved, and was told that one man remained.
“I will get him,” he said. “Will you go with me?”
His mates replied that it was a hopeless undertaking, and refused to risk their lives again to no purpose.
“Then I will go alone,” cried Harro, jumping into the life-boat.
At this moment his mother came limping down to the boat and begged him not to venture his life so madly. She pleaded:—
“Remember how your father and your younger brother, Uwe, were drowned.”
Uwe had years ago gone to sea, and as he had not been heard of, he was supposed to have been lost.
“For love of me,” cried Harro’s mother in despair, “don’t go.”
“But the man on the mast”—Harro waved his hand towards the wreck—“are you sure he has no mother to mourn his death?”
She argued no more, and Harro and four other brave men set out for the wreck, which was now fast disappearing. So furious was the sea that it was almost impossible to approach the vessel. At last the life-boat was under its lee, and Harro jumped aboard. He ran up the rigging, and after almost superhuman labor, brought the half-frozen man down. He laid him in the bottom of the life-boat at his own feet; and as he rowed back, he was seen to bend over the almost lifeless man and examine him with great attention.
When the boat was near enough to the shore for a strong voice to carry, Harro arose, waved his hat, and shouted with all his might:—
“Tell my mother we have saved Uwe!”
This was an extraordinary and immediate reward. Heroism has no right to expect anything like this. Most of us must do the generous deed for its own sake and look for little or no recognition of our sacrifice.
It is easy to be brave and noble when some great thing is to come of it—a personal delight, or personal fame. To throw away one’s life not expecting to be saved, to give one’s happiness without hoping to be comforted, to sacrifice ourselves for unknown people, not looking to be thanked—this is not easy. Christ did not seem to see consequences. Apparently he suffered and failed and nobody cared.
When we have learned to enjoy the side of unselfishness that is unrecognized, undramatic, unthanked, we have half learned the lesson of life.—Youth’s Companion.
BANANAS AS FOOD.
THE banana having become such a popular article of diet in this country, the following from the Youth’s Companion in regard to its comparative value as a food will be read with interest:—
“A chemical examination of a ripe banana shows that it contains of tissue-forming food nearly 5 per cent, of fat about 1 per cent, of sugar 20 per cent, of water 74 per cent; while the indigestible substances and starch are present to the extent of about 1 per cent. Such an analysis seems to prove that the banana may well be classed among foods.
“Properly to interpret such an analysis we should compare it with that of some well-known article of diet, as, for instance, milk, which contains approximately 4 per cent of tissue-forming substances, 4 per cent of fat, 5 per cent of sugar, and 88 per cent of water. In other words, a banana contains about twice as much of solid digestible matter as milk.
“We must remember, however, that it is not always the amount of solid matter present in a given article which renders it of value as a food, but rather the relative proportion in which the different nutrients appear. Milk establishes its priority over the banana, inasmuch as the different digestible substances present are in more nearly the proportion required by the human economy. The excess of solids in the banana is entirely due to the extra amount of sugar.
“Of itself, an extra amount of sugar is by no means a detriment, since it is used in supplying to the body the heat necessary to its work. The invariable law of hygiene, however, is that the relative proportion between the different solids must not be changed.
“Compared with other fruits, like the apple, the banana will be found to contain nearly 10 per cent less water, a deficiency which is more than made up by the increased amount of solids. The examination of the banana which gave us the above figures was that of the ripe fruit, the difference between it and the green fruit being that the large percentage of sugar in the ripe fruit appears as starch in the green fruit.
“When we remember that starch has to be changed to sugar before it can be used, we shall readily understand the importance of offering only the perfectly ripe fruit to a young or weakened stomach, which is unable to take care of a large amount of starch.
“We may sum up our study of the banana, then, by saying that if eaten green and too rapidly by a young child, or a person of limited digestive powers, it is distinctly a pernicious food, otherwise a decidedly good one.”
READ GREAT BOOKS.
Cannon Farrar says, “Read great books; enrich your mind with noble sentiments.” The truly great books are good books, and no young person can afford to read any other than good books. The curse of thousands of young people of to-day is the reading of little books—books which are little because they contain small ideas of manhood, of citizenship, of society, of personal honor, of righteousness. There are many popular books which are interspersed with little flings at Christianity, with caricatures on personal piety, and with sly suggestions that the Bible is a book behind the times. Remember that the devil never advises any young person to read the really great books. He is too selfish to do this.
Remember, also, that the devil is greatly interested in books, and in that sort in which he is exceedingly anxious to have the young people interested. And forget not that when the adversary can not get the young people to read his little books, he prefers that they read small books, good so far as they go, instead of the great book full of solid thought on high subjects. Why?—Because the little books can not furnish strong mental discipline, can not develop large intellectual powers, can not rightly equip the mind for the best service for God and humanity. If Satan can not prevent a young person from becoming a Christian, his next best scheme is to try to have the young person remain as little and inefficient a Christian as possible. This is Satanic sharpness. Now, we all know that it is vastly easier to read a good little book than it is to read a good great one; but the very effort required in reading a great book—one far beyond our comprehension in some respects11—is invaluable as a mental discipline, to say nothing of the moral influence of the book upon us. And be sure to read the great Bible.—Young Men's Era.
MISSION WORK IN INDIA.
Dr. Van Allen writes from Madura, October 28, to the Missionary Herald:—
“I came to India about seven years ago and have been most interested in seeing and feeling the influence of this branch of missionary effort. The number of cases, new and old, treated has risen from about thirteen thousand the first year of my labors here to over twenty-six thousand last year. These patients come chiefly from the town of Madura and immediate vicinity, but a fair proportion—I should say from twenty to twenty-five per cent.—come from the outlying towns, scarcely a day passing that one or more patients do not attend from a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles; and it is far from uncommon for patients to come sixty or one hundred miles. The Gospel is faithfully preached every morning to the patients who have assembled, and tracts printed in Tamil distributed. The good attention which they pay is noticeable.
“Since I have become established here and known to the people, I have been successful, particularly in the past two years, in raising money for the support of this work. Of every $3.00 spent in the medical mission work under my care I have gotten considerably more than $1.00 from India. For such a poverty-stricken country as India, this has not been a small matter. I take pleasure in this, that I never charge fees, and that the money which patients have given has been an entirely voluntary thank-offering. I believe that these thank-offerings have served to bind closer to us the persons who gave them—rather than given them the feeling that our relation had been a purely business one. I am glad to say that there have been very many expressions from the people of kindest feeling for our medical mission work.
“But though this is pleasing, there is a matter which is still more encouraging in the development of this work. Our little old dispensary building in Madura, which in a small way has sufficed for carrying on the medical work, has been outgrown. I have planned a new, large, and commodious hospital and dispensary building, to be erected just across the street from the present dispensary. I have made known to the native people the necessities for the erection of this new building, and they are helping generously The building is to be a strongly-built, substantial structure, the foundations entirely of stone; the superstructure is brick and stone. A veranda ten feet wide is to surround it on all sides, downstairs and upstairs, which is necessary on account of the sun. There will be accommodation for about twenty-five in-patients, besides the rooms occupied in carrying on the dispensary or out-patient work. The foundations are now being laid and are nearly ready for the beginning of the superstructure.
“Over 23,000 rupees (about $7,000) have been given for this work by the native people. The silk weavers of Madura are now collecting a contribution, which will amount to about 2,000 rupees.
“There are two sources from which I am expecting in a few days (tho it is not entirely certain) 2,000 rupees more. As the building will cost about 40,000 rupees, I still have considerable to get, but I have faith that every rupee of the money will be collected in India. The building will be a substantial addition to the property of the American Board in Madura. We ask your prayers for our work.”
EDUCATION AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH.
The following testimony of a colored lady teacher in the south gives a valuable hint as to the practicability of reaching the masses of that race through the education of teachers from among their own people:—
“My own father, years ago, studied for a time in Fisk University before it was really Fisk University; my mother’s people, her brothers and sisters, also studied in Fisk University, so they were very anxious that their children should be in the same institution. For that reason, as it meant a good deal out of the family purse to board three or four children in such an institution as that, eight or nine years ago the family moved from a little town in the northern part of Kentucky to Nashville. We were reared in a quiet Christian home, and early placed in Fisk University.
“I did not have an opportunity to come into personal contact with the class of colored people who make up the great mass in the south until after I had left school and gone to a little town in western Tennessee to teach. There I was placed in charge of the young women in the boarding department, and I sought to come most intimately in contact with their lives. Many of these young women came straight from the cotton plantations, and, altho they could not sing and play as well as we who had been at Fisk, many of them boasted that they could handle a plow as well as a man. We undertook mission work in connection with the circle of King’s Daughters which I organized among the girls, and the condition of the people as we found it in the two years I was there among the poor negroes of the city was very painful to me. Very often I came in from my visits in the poorer districts and closed the door of my room feeling that I must leave it all to the Saviour, it seemed so discouraging and so much more than we could do. We found, among other things, that we needed to teach the women the most common and necessary habits of life,—how to put the children to bed, how to feed and clothe them. Yet I would say that it is through the students of such schools as Fisk University that the northern teachers whom you send to us can hope to reach the masses of our colored people. We get the light from our northern teachers, and then the great mass of the colored people look to us for it, for we can get into the home and into the life of the people as they can not. And we begin to feel the responsibility; we begin to realize12that we, as negro women, must be especially alive to the quickening influence of all that is noble and grand and true. We realize that we are indeed
“Living in a grand and awful time,
In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime.”
—American Missionary.
“TELL ME HOW I CAN BLISTER MY FEET.”
A PREACHER, whose name is well known throughout the United States, in walking the length of the hotel piazza at a summer watering place, met a lady friend hastening toward the breakfast room. It was late in the morning. A casual remark of the gentleman as to the lateness of the hour led to the following reply: “I am late because I was tired. I danced last night until I blistered my feet.”
“May I ask one question?” the preacher said, and with consent he asked, “Did you ever blister your feet in the service of your Redeemer?” A scornful look and a hasty retreat were the result. A bystander and mutual friend remarked that the question was faithful, though rather severe. The two wondered what would come of it.
For several days the lady avoided her friends, and, in fact, was invisible. Nearly a week passed. Then followed an interview, at the request of the offended lady, who, with real distress, confessed that, although angry at the preacher’s question, she had been unable to justify herself, nor had sleep been possible since the morning of her confusion. “God has forgiven me,” she said. “I come to ask your pardon, and that you will tell me how I can blister my feet in the service of Christ. I am ready to do it now, and before I do anything else; I want to do it very much indeed; I want to make myself weary in his service. I will do anything to atone for the waste and folly of the past. It has been so heartless of me.”—Medical Missionary Record.
THE FIRST WOMEN PRINTERS.
The British Printer says the general belief that women were employed for the first time in typographical work in 1631 by Rignony, a printer in Montbaret, is declared to be erroneous, a printing press worked exclusively by women having been in regular use in Italy a century and a half before that date. The printing office was the Convent of St. James, at Mt. Ripoli, and women printers were sisters of the Dominican order. The sisters of this convent had practised the art of copying and illuminating manuscripts since the thirteenth century.
When Gutenburg’s invention made its appearance, the press spread rapidly in Italy, and every town soon possessed its printing office. Florence had one as early as 1472.
The sisters appear to have devoted themselves to their typographical labors with ardor and success, for between 1476 and 1484 more than one hundred works—a large number for that period—issued from the convent press.
THEY CAME FROM FAR AND NEAR.
In the Bible there is life and vitality. Wherever it goes it awakens, quickens, and elevates. In her interesting book, “About Mexico,” Mrs. H. M. Johnson says:—
“In 1878 the first Bible store was opened in the City of Mexico. The passers-by stopped at its windows to gaze with mingled curiosity and awe on a book it was claimed was the word of God. One peasant from the mountains, who came back to buy a Bible, had walked several miles for this sole purpose, and in the purchase spent all that he had. He carried home the precious Book, and read it to his friends and neighbors. They had no time to listen to him during the day, but they came from far and near at night to his humble cabin, and took turns in furnishing him with candles. One aged couple walked twenty miles after night to hear these wonderful words of life.”
NOT FAILURE.
By Louise Houghton
As some great bird,
Whose hurt wing answers not her will,
Still beats the air in useless striving,
And, dying—with strong talons holding yet
Her hard-worn prey,
While with wide, hungry beaks, her far-off young
Wait, vainly calling—
Or a spent swimmer
Breasting angry waves to save a life,
With dying eyes fixt on the rescuing boat,
And knowing it is all too late,
Makes still his strokes, grown feebler
With each laboring breath—yields not
The life he gives his own to save;
This is not failure:
Nor bird, nor swimmer gives up purpose.
Long, long centuries
Agone, One walked the earth, his life
A seeming failure;
Dying, he gave the world a gift
That will outlast eternities.
—Louise Houghton.
Caste, Water Access, and Christian Converts in India
Let a Hindu man lose caste, and his punishment is at once banishment from the village well. Let that be inflicted, and the temptation to purchase readmission into caste, with its privileges of free access to water, is very great. Let a man become a Christian, and from the attitude of his neighbors toward him, you would think he had committed matricide. From the day of his baptism, he or his wife will have to tramp through the blazing sun, with a heavy water-pot, to some distant supply of water whenever they want to bathe or cook. Sometimes it happens that the man will have secret friends kind enough to bring him water now and again after dark, and save him his journey for that evening; but no one out here will endure that sort of help for long. In their eyes it is only emphasizing the fact that they are pariahs, and they will leave the village rather than sustain treatment to which they, as Hindus, are peculiarly sensitive.— Selected.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
ELDER D. A. ROBINSON reports that “in and around London, where we had one meeting place a little more than a year ago, we now have six places where we have weekly meetings.”
THE Seventh-day Adventist publishing house in Christiania, Norway, has been fined 100 kroner (about $27) for Sunday labor. The technical offense with which the establishment was charged was that of allowing persons to work on Sunday who do not keep the seventh day. A few hands were employed who were not Sabbath keepers. According to this judgment people who do not keep the Sabbath in Norway must keep Sunday.
ELDER E. W. WEBSTER, missionary to the island of Trinidad, asks for donations to help build a house of worship at Couva. The number of Sabbath keepers in that place, when last reported, was thirty-seven, and for want of a better place, meetings are held in a private house. More would attend the meetings if held in a public meeting house. Persons who desire to contribute to this good purpose should send their donations to Elder A. O. Tait, Battle Creek, Mich. Elder Webster says there is a Sunday ordinance there that requires the closing of business places after 9 o’clock A.M., but an effort is being made to include the whole day.
THE managers of the Seventh-day Adventist printing works in London, which have been virtually closed through the oppressive Factory Act, addressed a letter to the home secretary in reference to the situation, showing that the spirit of the act was not violated by Sunday labor, inasmuch as the employees rested the day previous. Following is the reply from the home secretary’s office:—
WHITEHALL, 13th December, 1895.
With reference to your letter of the 1st instant, drawing attention to the operation of section 21 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, in so far as it affects the printing works of the International Tract Society at 451 Holloway Road, I am directed by the secretary of state to acquaint you that the matter has received his very careful consideration; but, as the law at present stands, the Seventh-day Adventists cannot be exempted from the penalties consequent upon a breach of the Factory laws as to Sunday labor. The secretary of state does not think the numbers of the sect afford any hope or reason for legislation to alter their position.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
KENELM E. DIGBY.
The force of the reply will be more readily appreciated when it is remembered that the Jews have the privilege of substituting Saturday as the rest day under the Factory Act, and that the Adventists could have the same privilege if they would declare themselves to be Jews. Such is only one of the many inconsistencies of state-enforced religion.
A SPECIAL course of Bible study has been arranged by the faculty of Healdsburg College for the benefit of missionary and other laborers in the cause whose age and circumstances will not permit them to take a regular course. It was designed to begin this course on the 15th inst., but it has been postponed until February. The notice says: “The work of organization will begin on Sunday, February 2, and it is desirable that all should reach Healdsburg as early as the preceding Thursday or Friday. None should fail to come, however, even if they can not arrive before the 13th, as the work of the first few lessons can be made up by extra effort. The school will continue twenty weeks. All who desire to attend will be required to present recommendations from the conference president, Elder N. C. McClure.”
HOW TO SPLIT THE ROCK.
A MINISTER preached a number of years in a certain place without any visible benefit to any one. Finally, he concluded it was not right for him to preach, and in consequence thought he would give it up.
While musing on the subject he fell asleep and dreamed. “I dreamed,” he said, “that I was to work for a certain man for so much, and my business was splitting open a very large rock with a very small hammer, pounding upon the middle of it in order to split it open. I worked a long time to no effect, and at length I became discouraged and began to complain, when my employer came.
“Said he: ‘Why do you complain? Have you not fared well while in my employ?’”
“O, yes!”
“Have you not had enough to eat?”
“Yes.”
“Have you been neglected in any way?”
“No, sir.”
“Then,” said he, ‘keep to work—cease your complaints, and I will take care of the result.’ After this he left me.
“I then thought I applied my little hammer with more energy, and soon the rock burst open with such force that it woke me. Then,” added he, “I ceased to complain. I seized my little hammer with new vigor, I hammered upon that great rock—sin—with renewed energy, nothing doubting, and soon the rock burst. The Spirit of the Lord rushed in, and the result was a glorious ingathering of souls.”
In the foregoing incident we have one of many proofs as to the Lord’s faithfulness to his promise, attached to the divine precept. Be not “weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”—Selected.
Indian Mohammedans and British Loyalty Amid Turkish Tensions
INDIAN Mohammedans are loyal subjects of the Queen-Empress, and they also sustain close relation to the Sultan, who is in a sense the head of Islam, tho not exactly the representative of the califs or successors of Mohammed. The loyalty of the Mohammedans of India has been quickened and strengthened by England’s long-continued friendship with the Sultan. Should trouble arise between England and Turkey the Mohammedan subjects of the queen will regret the occurrence; but they are too well aware of the advantages of British rule to risk much for the sake of the Sultan. The question has already occupied the attention of Mohammedan papers in India, and the intelligent and temperate style of discussion is an assurance that England’s just advocacy of the cause of Armenia will make no trouble in this country.—Indian Witness.
Railway Trains Cross Lebanon Toward Damascus
By H. H. Jessup
It is a new experience for us old residents in Syria to look out upon railway trains passing in the distance and see the French locomotives dragging their burdens up the cogged track over Lebanon toward the Bukai and Damascus. The passenger train is ten hours in passing over the 120 miles, scaling Lebanon at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the sea. The road was opened August 4, and already the freight traffic is so great that three freight trains a day can not meet the demand. As we arrived August 12 from New York, we have not yet been over the road to Damascus; but Dr. Crawford tells me that the ride from Damascus up the river Abana to the fountain of Fiji, and on to Zebedany, under the dense shade of poplars, and by the roaring river, is most refreshing and delightful. The ride over the heights of Lebanon is no less so, with its bold scenery and magnificent views of the distant sea and the rocky mountain gorges.—Rev. H. H. Jessup.
