"THEREFORE I SAY UNTO YOU, Take no thought for your life [psuche, soul], what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life [psuche, soul], more than meat, and the body than raiment?" Matt. 6:25; Luke 12:22, 23.
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul [psuche]; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul [psuche] and body in hell." Matt. 10:28.
"He that findeth his life [psuche, soul], shall lose it; and he that loseth his life [psuche, soul], for my sake shall find it." Matt. 10:39.
"For whosoever will save his life [psuche, soul] shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life [psuche, soul] for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul [psuche]?" Matt. 16:25, 26; Mark 8:35-37.
"For whosoever will save his life [psuche, soul] shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life [psuche, soul] for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away." Luke 9:24, 25.
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life [psuche, soul] also, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26.
"Whosoever shall seek to save his life [psuche, soul] shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." Luke 17:33.
"He that loveth his life [psuche, soul] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life [psuche, soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." John 12:25.
These texts embody Christ's doctrine concerning the soul. Though the word psuche, or soul, is so often used in them, the fact is not generally understood because it is in most of the instances here quoted rendered life. But these texts are worthy of study. They should be carefully compared with each other.
1. The term soul is, in several of these texts, used in distinction from the body.
2. It is something to be sacrificed for Christ's sake, and even to be hated.
3. It is something to be saved unto life eternal, and is of greater value than the whole world.
4. Though in some of these instances it is used, perhaps, as signifying the whole man (compare Matt. 16:26; Luke 9:25), it is manifest from the sense that it is rightly translated life in the places where it is so rendered. Even in the instance cited as signifying the whole man, losing one's life may be fairly equivalent to losing himself.
5. But how can we reconcile our Lord's words respecting the saving and the losing of the soul or life, and also respecting its comparative worthlessness and its exceeding value? Without doubt, there is perfect harmony in his statements. The last text above quoted gives us a key to them all: "He that loveth his life
[psuche, soul] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life [psuche, soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." John 12:25.
6. There are two of these lives. (1) Our life in this world. (2) Our life in the world to come. And, indeed, the other texts plainly imply this. For we cannot save the present life by losing it, nor lose the life to come by saving it. But we can save our future life by giving up our present life, and one of these is of little worth, while the other is of infinite value.
7. Christ speaks of the present life when he says, "Take no thought for your life [psuche, soul], what ye shall eat." Matt. 6:25; Luke 12:22. Also when he says, "He that findeth his life [psuche, soul] shall lose it." Matt. 10:39. That is, he that sets his heart on this present life shall have no part in the promised life everlasting. This is the life, or soul, we are to hate. Luke 14:26; John 12:25.
8. He speaks of the future life when he asks, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matt. 16:26. He also speaks of it in all these places where he speaks of saving or finding the soul or life as the reward for losing the soul or life for Christ's sake.
9. It is our life, or soul, "in this world" that is to be hated, that we may secure life eternal. This last is the life that God promises to those who give up the present life for him.
10. But does the Lord in any of these passages teach, or assume, the existence of a separate conscious being called the soul? In the first of the above texts, he speaks of the soul as distinct from the body, but it is plain from the sense that he means by it the present mortal life. In the third instance, he speaks of saving the soul by losing it, that is, of securing the life to come by giving up the present life. And all the remaining passages are of the same nature.
11. But does not our Lord in the second instance affirm the existence of the soul as a separate being that survives the death of the body, and that maintains a conscious life when that is dead? Such is the general understanding of the passage, yet it is not at all in harmony with our Lord's use of the word soul. He uses it to signify either our present or our future life. Read again the passages above quoted and this fact will appear undeniable.
12. We shall better understand Matt. 10:28, by comparing it with Luke 12:4, 5. Thus: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." These two texts are different versions of the same statement of Christ.
13. It is certainly reasonable that we consider whether our Lord's use of the word soul in the other instances in which he uses it, is not the true sense of that word in this passage. He uses the word soul for the life that now is, and also for the life that is to come. Men can destroy the present life. But after that they have no more that they can do. The life that succeeds the resurrection is in the power of God alone. This is plainly our Lord's meaning in the next clause. "But rather fear Him which is able to destroy, both soul and body in hell." The hell of these two texts is not hades, the place of the dead, but gehenna, the lake of fire, where the wicked shall suffer the second death. Now in this fire the body shall indeed be consumed, as many texts assert; and this is not all; when the wicked shall have suffered each what God sees to be just, then their life shall be extinguished, not as is the present to be followed by the resurrection, but to have no revival forever.
14. This gives us an interpretation of our Lord's words that is in harmony with his own use of the word soul, and that is sustained by all the facts in the case. It is strongly confirmed by Luke's version of the text. The killing of the body is mentioned by both Matthew and Luke. But while Matthew says that men are not able to kill the soul, Luke uses this clause as an equivalent: "and after that have no more that they can do."
15. Then Luke gives us a definite idea when this shall be. "Fear Him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell," gehenna. Now the wicked, when cast into the lake of fire, are living men, and are not cast thither till after the resurrection of the unjust. They have been made alive from death, and this God alone can do, before being cast into the gehenna of fire. This future life shall be extinguished in the lake of fire, and God himself in the act will inflict adequate retribution upon the wicked. Then they will be as though they had not been.
16. If our Lord had been speaking of the separate, conscious existence of the soul between death and the resurrection, he would have spoken of what should take place in hades, the place and state of the dead. But he passes over hades and speaks of gehenna where no wicked man will be cast till after the resurrection of the unjust.
17. We cannot, therefore, doubt that our Lord speaks of the life to come by the word soul in Matt. 10:28. The present life is, under God, in the power of wicked men. The future life God alone can give, and he alone can take it. The loss of the present life is comparatively unimportant, for God can and will restore it. The loss of the future life is unspeakably awful, not only because that the suffering attending it shall be such as to inflict adequate retribution upon each sinner, but because it shall end in the absolute and irretrievable destruction of the whole man. His body shall be consumed, and his existence effectually and eternally blotted out.
J. N. A.
The Hour of His Judgment is Come.
By Uriah Smith
THIS will be true when the message of Rev. 14:6, 7, is fulfilled; for so it declares: "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come."
Whenever God's word announces anything concerning the judgment, every mind should give attention, every ear should listen. This is something which concerns all mankind. Other subjects may not interest, because they may treat of things with which we have no especial connection. Not so the judgment. All are concerned here. For between us and the future world, the searching ordeal of the judgment inevitably lies. None can escape it. Every member of the human family must pass its trying test, and receive from its decisions a sentence that will determine his or her condition for all that period covered by the fearful word—Eternity!
Let us then, not carelessly nor irreverently, inquire what, and when, the judgment is, to which we are brought by the message before us.
This judgment is a part of the gospel; for the everlasting gospel is what the angel was sent to preach, and all that the prophecy brings to view of his preaching is this appeal to all the people to fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.
In the gospel scheme, then, where does the judgment have a place? and what is it? The gospel is the good news of pardon and salvation through Jesus Christ. And this salvation is secured to us by the following acts on the part of Christ:—
Coming down to earth to establish, as prophet and teacher, the new covenant with his people.
Dying as our sacrifice.
Ministering before the Father, as our priest and mediator, during the gospel age.
Coming again in the clouds of heaven to raise the righteous dead and change the righteous living.
Clothing them with immortality, and giving them positions of surpassing glory in the kingdom which he shall establish, which shall never end.
But the great event which determines for us all the momentous question who shall be the subjects of Christ's eternal kingdom, is the judgment of the great day. This fixes the destiny of every one. Paul says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad. 2 Cor. 5:10. And he told the Athenians that God had appointed a day in the which he would judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he had ordained, whereof he had given assurance unto all men in that he had raised him from the dead. Acts 17:31. And when John, in prophetic vision, saw a great white throne, and One sitting thereon before the glory of whose face the earth and heavens dissolved and disappeared, he saw the dead stand in the presence of that Being, and receive judgment according to the things written in the books.
Among the great events of the gospel, the judgment thus holds an important and prominent place. It transpires at the conclusion of human probation. It declares the result of the working of the plan of salvation for 6,000 years.
The gospel is one gospel, but it embraces distinct and separate truths, which, at different times, become leading themes of its proclamation. Thus, in the first years of what is known as the gospel dispensation, the burden of evangelical preaching was a crucified and risen Saviour; or the fact that Christ had appeared in the flesh as a sacrifice for men. In the days of the great Reformation, it was, Justification through Christ, without the intervention of a human priesthood. As we draw near the end,
when the judgment is impending, and the ever-lasting kingdom of Christ is to be established, taking such only among the living as are ready to enter therein, this fact, as a matter of course, and from the very nature of the case, rises into prominence, and becomes the leading idea to be urged upon the attention of the people.
So in Matt. 24:14, when the kingdom is about to be established, it is called, "This gospel of the kingdom;" the same gospel as at the beginning, only bringing out more prominently the establishment of the kingdom which the gospel embraces, and which is then soon to be set up. And in the passage before us in Revelation, it is the everlasting gospel; but it here brings to view especially the judgment, which is the great event impending when this message is given.
By the expression "everlasting gospel," we are not to understand a gospel which is to be preached everlastingly, and never end, but one, the work and results of which are everlasting, being accomplished once for all.
The proclamation of Rev. 14:6, 7, is therefore a second advent proclamation, and can be in order only when the second coming of Christ and the judgment are near at hand.
This consideration alone effectually bars all attempts to apply this message to any movement in generations past. But as some, in obedience to a prevailing impulse which inclines people to locate all important events "not in your day or mine," attempt to find this message in past ages, even going as far back as the days of the apostles, we inquire if anything transpired in those ages which can be urged as a fulfullment of this prophecy.
The apostles did not proclaim the hour of God's judgment come. It would not have been true if they had proclaimed it. Instead of this, they pointed to the future for that event. Paul reasoned before Felix of a judgment, not come, but to come, sometime in the future. Acts 24:25. And he told the men of his generation, not that a day had come, but that one was appointed still in the future, for that purpose. Acts 17:31. He also expressly wrote to the believers in Thessalonica, that Christians should not expect that day till after the long period of papal apostasy. 2 Thess. 2:3.
The temporary preaching of the millennium near the close of the 10th century did not fulfill the prophecy. For those engaged in that work did not proclaim the hour of God's judgment come. It would not have been true if they had proclaimed it. And, moreover, that movement was based on a mistaken application of the prophecies respecting the thousand years.
The reformers did not fulfill this prophecy. Martin Luther held and taught that the judgment would not come for 300 years from his day.
The "Fifth Monarchy Men" of Cromwell's time did not fulfill it. For that movement was unscriptural and fanatical, limited in extent, and brief in duration.
But we come to our time and find a movement which shook the churches of all Christendom. We find men moved as if by a divine impulse, giving utterance to a definite and specific proclamation through Europe, Asia, and Africa; while a thousand ministers took up the themes in the more enlightened lands of England and America. We find them sending forth the tidings to every missionary station on the globe.
And what was it? The announcement of the advent near; the proclamation of the soon coming of Christ, and the end of the present dispensation. The great advent movement of the last 33 years cannot be ignored. Many may affect to regard it as a very insignificant affair, and reserve their heartiest terms of contempt for occasions of its mention. But it matters not that multitudes are blind to the importance and significance of this movement. The scribes and Pharisees saw in Christ himself only a malefactor worthy of death. But the sound has gone forth, and who has not heard it? This is enough.
Those who were engaged in preaching the soon coming of Christ between the years 1840 and 1844, claimed to be giving the first message of Rev. 14. And the movement answers to the prophecy in every particular.
It answers to it in time; for it has come forth at the very time when all prophecy and all signs show that the end is at hand.
It answers to it in the nature of the message proclaimed; for it points to the judgment.
It answers to it in extent; for it has gone to all the world.
Now, no movement ever took place at the very time when such a movement was predicted to occur, and accomplish the very work specified in the prophecy, without being a fulfillment of that prophecy.
In the great Advent movement of the present generation, therefore, we have a fulfillment of the first message of Rev. 14, which announces the hour of God's judgment come. U. S.
A WIFE'S POWER.
The power of a wife, for good or evil, is irresistible. Without one, home must be forever unknown. A good wife is to a man, wisdom, strength, and courage; a bad one is confusion, weakness, and despair. No condition is hopeless to a man where the wife possesses firmness, decision, and economy. There is no outward propriety which can counteract indolence, extravagance, and folly at home. No spirit can long endure bad influence. Man is strong but his heart is not adamant. He delights in enterprise and action, but to sustain him he needs a tranquil mind; and especially if he is an intelligent man, with a whole head, he needs his moral force in the conflict of life. To recover his composure, home must be a place of peace and comfort. There his soul renews its strength, and goes forth with fresh vigor to encounter the labor and troubles of life. But if at home he finds no rest, and is there met with bad temper, sullenness, jealousy, and gloom, or assailed with complaints and censure, hope vanishes, and he sinks into despair. Such is the case with too many who, it might seem, have no conflicts or trials of life, for such is the wife's power.
"She Has Outlived Her 'Usefulness.'"
Not long since, a man in middle life came to our door asking for "the minister." When informed that he was out of town, he seemed disappointed and anxious. On being questioned as to his business, he replied: "I have lost my mother; and as this place used to be her home, and as my father lies here, we have come to lay her beside him."
My heart rose in sympathy, and I said, "You have met with a great loss."
"Well, yes," he replied, with hesitancy, "a mother is a great loss in general; but our mother had outlived her usefulness. She was in her second childhood, and her mind had grown as weak as her body, so that she was no comfort to herself, and a burden to everybody. There were seven of us, sons and daughters; and we agreed to keep her among us a year about. But I have had more than my share of her; for she was too feeble to be moved when my time was out, and that was more than three months before her death. But then she was a good mother in her day, and toiled very hard to bring us up."
Without looking at the face of the heartless man, I directed him to the house of a neighboring pastor, and returned to my nursery. I gazed on the merry little faces which smiled or grew sad in imitation of mine—those little ones to whose ear no word in our language is half so sweet as "mother,"—and I wondered if that day could ever come when they would say of me, "She has outlived her usefulness—she is no comfort to herself, and a burden to everybody else!" And I hoped that before such a day should dawn, I might be taken to my rest. God forbid that I should outlive the love of my children! Rather let me die while my heart is a part of theirs, that my grave may be watered with their tears, and my love linked with their hopes of heaven.
When the bell tolled for the mother's burial, I went to the sanctuary to pay my only token of respect to the aged stranger; for I felt that I could give her memory a tear, even though her own children had none to shed.
"She was a good mother in her day, and toiled hard to bring us all up—she was no comfort to herself and a burden to everybody else!" These cruel, heartless words rung in my ears as I saw the coffin borne up the aisle.
The bell tolled long and loud, until its iron tongue had chronicled the years of the toil-worn mother. One—two—three—four—five. How clearly and almost merrily each stroke told of her once peaceful slumber in her mother's bosom, and of her seat at nightfall on her weary father's knee. Six—seven—eight—nine—ten—rang out the tale of her sports upon the green-sward, in the meadow and beside the brook. Eleven—twelve—thirteen—fourteen—fifteen—spoke more gravely of school-days, and little household joys and cares. Sixteen—seventeen—eighteen—sounded out the enraptured visions of maidenhood and the dream of early love. Nineteen—brought before us the happy bride. Twenty—spoke of the young mother, whose heart was full to bursting with the new, strong love which God had awakened in her bosom. And then stroke after stroke told of her early womanhood—of the loves, and cares, and hopes, and fears, and toils, through which she passed during those long years, till fifty rang out harsh and loud. From that to sixty, each stroke told of the warm hearted mother and grandmother, living over again her joys and sorrows in those of her children and children's children.
Every family of all the group wanted grandmother then; and the only strife was who should secure the prize. But hark, the bell tolls on! Seventy—seventy—one—two—three—four. She begins to grow feeble, requires some care, is not always perfectly patient or satisfied; she goes from one child's house to another, so that no place seems like home. She murmurs in plaintive tones, that after her toil and weariness, it is hard she cannot be allowed a home to die in; that she must be sent, rather than invited, from house to house. Eighty—eighty-one—two—three—four. Ah! she is a second child—now "She has outlived her usefulness, she has now ceased to be a comfort to herself or anybody"—that is she has ceased to be profitable to her earth-craving and money-grasping children.
Now sounds out, reverberating through our lovely forest, and echoing back from our "hill of the dead," eighty-nine! There she lies now in the coffin, cold and still; she makes no trouble now, demands no love, no soft words, no tender little offices. A look of patient endurance—we fancied, also, an expression of grief for unrequited love,—sat on her marble features. Her children were there, clad in weeds of woe, and in irony we remembered the strong man's words, "She was a good mother in her day."
When the bell ceased tolling, the strange minister rose in the pulpit. His form was very erect, and his voice strong; but his hair was silvery white. He read several passages of scripture expressive of God's compassion to feeble man, and especially of his tenderness when gray hairs are on him and his strength faileth. He then made some touching remarks on human frailty, and of dependence on God, urging all present to make their peace with their Master while in health, that they might claim his promises when heart and flesh failed them. "Then," he said, "the eternal God shall be thy refuge, and beneath thee shall be the everlasting arms." Leaning over the desk, and gazing intently on the coffined form before him, he then said, reverently: "From a little child I have honored the aged; but never till gray hairs covered my own head, did I know truly how much love and sympathy this class have a right to demand of their fellow-creatures. Now I feel it. Our mother," he added, most tenderly, "who now lies in death before us, was a stranger to me, as are all of these, her descendants. All I know of her is what her son has told me to-day, that she was brought to this town from afar, sixty-nine years ago, a happy bride, that here she has passed most of her life, toiling as only mothers ever have strength to toil, until she has reared a large family of sons and daughters, and that she left her home here, clad in the weeds of widowhood, to dwell among her children, till health and strength left her. God forbid that conscience should accuse any of you of ingratitude or murmuring on account of the care she has been to you of late. When you go back to your homes, be careful of your example before your own children; for the fruit of your own doing you will surely reap from them when you yourselves totter on the brink of the grave. I entreat you as a friend, as one who has himself entered the evening of life, that you may never say in the presence of your families nor of heaven: 'Our mother had outlived her usefulness, she was a burden to us.' Never, never! A mother can never live so long as that! No; when she can no longer labor for her children, nor yet care for herself, she can fall like a precious weight on their bosoms, and call forth by her helplessness all the noble, wonderful feelings of their hearts."
Adieu, then, poor toil-worn mother; there are no more days of pain for thee. Undying vigor and everlasting usefulness are thy inheritance.—Sel.
Edenville, Mich.
By W. H. Littlejohn
THIS place is situated in Midland county, and there was formerly located therein a church of Seventh-day Adventists, which was disbanded about four years ago. When we visited them recently, they had no organization and held no meetings. After laboring there between two and three weeks, we left a company numbering twenty-three in all, who had covenanted together to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and had selected suitable persons to conduct their regular services on each Sabbath day. We also organized a Sabbath-school comprising twenty-eight members, and obtained eleven subscribers for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and ten for the weekly Instructor. During our meetings eight or nine persons commenced to keep the Sabbath and identified themselves with our people. Before we left, the brethren had arranged for the building of a meeting-house of moderate dimensions, which will answer their present necessities. Our meetings were well attended from first to last. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.
Reports from the Field.
By John G. Matteson
Norway and Denmark.
I HAVE preached four times this week and have obtained a large hall for Sunday evening. The one I had last week could not be obtained any more. Here about six hundred people listened to a discourse on the sanctuary and 2300 days of Dan. 8. Books have been taken freely. Several attended our prayer-meeting and took part in it. Some are becoming interested in searching the Scriptures. We have to work by degrees here. Minds must be prepared for the truth. Our hope and trust is in God.
In Denmark the work is also moving forward, both in Jylland and in Sjælland. Meetings are being held, and more and more are becoming interested. There are now more than ninety dear souls in Denmark who observe the Sabbath of the Lord and are trying to prepare for the coming of our Saviour.
In Venssyssel, Denmark, Bro. K. Brorson has held a number of meetings during the past week, most of which have been well attended. There is a growing interest to hear and read on present truth. He has obtained one new subscriber for the Tidende, and three persons have commenced to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. God can also give grace and strength to the weak.
Here in Christiana the work is progressing steadily. About one thousand hearers listened most attentively to a lecture Sunday evening on the thousand years of Rev. 20. We have sold books in this city during the past month for more than Kr. 80.00, and have obtained nineteen subscribers for the Tidende. About forty persons attended our prayer-meeting Friday evening, and many took active part. We felt the blessing of the Lord.
JOHN G. MATTESON.
Christiana, Norway, Nov. 19, 1878.
Springfield, Ohio.
By D. M. Canright
WE have just closed one week's labor at Springfield. There are thirty-nine Sabbath-keepers in this company. Over half of them were brought into the Sabbath under the labors of Brothers Waggoner and Stone, when they were here last Summer with the tent. Regular meetings have since been kept up. We hired a hall for our meetings. Nearly all the Sabbath-keepers attended promptly; but the outside interest was small. Yet we found a large number who had heard the truth in the tent and believed it. Could one of the brethren have remained here for a few weeks to take care of the interest raised, the strength of the church might have been much increased. But there are enough Sabbath-keepers to make a good, working church, and most of them are strong in the truth and are trying to live it out faithfully.
We organized a Sabbath-school, and the brethren paid for twenty-five copies of the weekly Instructor. We organized a church of sixteen members. Quite a number will be admitted at their first business meeting. Several did not join, as they were not ready to be baptized. Abram McLellan was elected clerk, and H. W. Cottrell, elder. We enjoyed our visit with them very much. Three young people made a good start at this meeting, and the husband of one of our sisters begins the observance of the Sabbath this week. We got nearly every family in the church to take the Review.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
A. O. BURRILL.
Sunshine, Colorado.
By Merritt E. Cornell
This is a small mining town in the mountains, seven miles from Boulder City. We have just closed a three weeks' series of meetings, and yesterday held our first Sabbath meeting. Thirty were out, about half of whom have decided to keep the Sabbath. We had an interesting meeting. The good Spirit of God was manifestly present. We are now arranging for regular Sabbath meetings, and we doubt not that several more will obey the truth, out of the fifty who have voted in its favor.
It is generally remarked that the people have manifested more interest in these meetings than was ever known here before. We pray and hope that the sunshine of the truth may shine away the darkness of error in the minds of many more. M. E. CORNELL.
December 8, 1878.
Lemoore and Fairview.
By J. L. Wood
SINCE my return to the southern field, my time has been mostly spent with the Fairview church. For over a year this church has been severely tried, but the majority of the members held together, hoping and praying that a brighter day for the church would come. To all appearances it has come. During the last three weeks Brother Morton and myself have spent most of our time there, and we all have reason to be thankful for the good Spirit of the Lord which has aided us in our work. A few self-willed, fault-finding members, who had broken more than one commandment, were disfellowshipped. About the first of next month we expect to commence labor in a new field.
December 7th I met with the Lemoore church. Found them doing well and in good spirits. This church has been left alone most of the time since the tent left last July; yet with very few exceptions they have all held on to the truth, and have kept up their Sabbath meetings with an interest. We expect before long to fully organize this church.
Since my return south, my general health has improved, but my eye is about the same. I feel to thank the Lord for one good eye, which I want to use to his glory.
J. L. WOOD.
Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, and Petaluma
By M. C. Israel
I visited these churches on December 15th, 18th, and 21st. With the assistance of Elder Healey, a Vigilant Missionary Society at Santa Rosa of eleven members was organized, who subscribed for a club of twenty-seven copies of the SIGNS in addition to those taken by the church. At Healdsburg and Petaluma these societies had been organized by Elder Loughborough several years ago. New officers were elected and a club of twenty-five SIGNS for Healdsburg, and twenty-three for Petaluma were taken in addition to the clubs taken by these churches. Those who took hold feel that this is a move in the right direction and they expressed a determination to engage more earnestly in the missionary work. We were disappointed in not getting a greater number of our paper into active service to commence with, but we hope as soon as these societies get fairly at work large additions will be made. M. C. ISRAEL.
St. Clair, Nevada.
By B. A. Stephens
The church here have subscribed for a club of fifty Signs. A T. and M. society has been formed of nineteen members. Commendable zeal has been manifested in taking part to help on the message. The Sabbath-school was organized agreeable to the recommendation of the general Sabbath-school association, the Youth's Bible Lessons were adopted, and Bro. W. Harmon was elected superintendent.
December 17, 1878. B. A. STEPHENS.
Temperance Colony, Fresno County.
By M. J. Church
A church has been organized here called the Temperance Colony Church. A new district secretary has been appointed, M. J. Loveland, William Beall, librarian, and Lucius Church, business agent.
M. J. CHURCH.
The Old Year and the New.
By Mrs. P. A. G. Sherman
WHEN the old year came he was welcomed with cheer—
He gave us no warning of trials to fear;
We shook his hand warmly and deemed him a friend;
The present was hopeful—we saw not the end.
In some of our homes there's a vacancy now—
The chilling death frost set its seal on the brow
Of the loved ones we cherished and hoped would abide,
But the old year has seen them removed from our side.
Many sweet buds of infancy, childhood, and youth—
Might it be but a dream, but alas it is truth—
Within the past year have been plucked from the stem;
No more will our homes be made joyful by them.
We parted in anguish. Death bore them away,
But through the dark valley beams one gentle ray;
Jehovah has caused it to shine through the tomb—
"Thy dead men shall live." This hope brightens the gloom.
Write, "Blest are the dead who have died in the Lord;"
This comfort we read from the unfailing word.
Their labors are ended—they now are at rest—
Their works follow after—their memory's blest.
It was not all sorrow. The old year conferred
Many blessings and joys, and our hearts should be stirred
By grateful emotions, and praise should ascend
To our Almighty Father and Bountiful Friend,
The acts we regret must unaltered remain,
For we cannot live over our past lives again;
If we wish in the future improvement to see,
Then better improved let our present time be.
The present is ours, but how brief is its stay—
'Tis with us a moment, then goes on its way;
The new year has secrets we may not unfold;
By the present its leaves will be daily unrolled.
How can we the present sufficiently prize?
Yet how little value it has in our eyes!
Boast not of to-morrow—it may not be thine;
The present is all I can label as mine.
We wish for each other a "happy new year!"
We hope it may bring us abundant good cheer;
Would we a clear conscience secure as our friend,
Then let us do right from beginning to end.
—Mrs. P. A. G. Sherman in Bible Banner.
How Alcohol Intoxicates.
WHEN a spirituous liquor is taken into the body it does not simply run through the digestive capacity of that body, but it runs through the blood before it can find any escape, and it clings to that blood for a considerable period, following with it, round and round, through the circling stream of its unceasing progress. It goes everywhere, in each fibre, membrane, and tissue, and saturates each vital organ—flesh, brain, heart, liver, lung, kidney, skin and secretive apparatus. Wherever there should be blood, under the natural arrangement of life, there is now blood mingled with the alcoholic spirits.
Articles of food are "complex bodies, built up from simpler elements by the effort of vegetable life." Alcohol is not a complex substance, but it is a "product of the downward degradation and decay of such complex principle." The foods which furnish substance to the living structure are, for the most part, composed with the acid of nitrogen, and therefore have an affinity with the vital parts of the human structure. "The fibrin of the blood, the muscular flesh, the cartilages and tendons, the membranes of the skin, the soft nerve pulp, and the brain, 'are all so many examples of nitrogenized matter.' But alcohol is entirely devoid of nitrogen in any form. In the exceptional cases where alcohol has been found useful as a medicine, an unnatural condition of the body exists, and physicians should determine when stimulants, as a medicine, are necessary.
The parts of the body which possess the most energetic vitality—the brain, the nerves, and nervous material of the spinal cord—are principally composed of matter of the most pulpy consistence, so soft that it may almost be termed melting. This nerve pulp is packed into minute pliny sacks and tubes describable only by microscopic aid. Through these tiny and almost invisible films the blood is "filtered." The nerve pulp appropriates such quantities of blood as nourish life and build up the structure, and at the same time reject and throw back into the stream their own waste particles. Large quantities of water enter into the composition of this pulpy matter, and the first evil effect of alcohol is to withdraw this water. For alcohol has an "uncontrollable impulse" to draw water into itself. Excessive use of alcohol hardens and dries up the nerve pulp in such a way as to impair if not spoil it for its proper office. When excessive drinking does not produce intoxication it is because the nerve pulp has become insensible as an "oiled sponge."
The flushed face upon the approach of intoxication is among the earliest signs of the disturbance of these delicate "filters" in their work, the face being among the parts of the body exceptionally supplied with blood. The "restraining" or filtering work of the pulpy substance is impaired, and hence the unnatural reception of blood into the pulp cells. If this unnatural process is repeated or becomes habitual, the red, blotched, swollen, and pimpled face is the result of keeping the nerve pulp saturated with alcohol, and the delicate membranes, thickened, dried, and dyed, show through the skin.
The first stages of intoxication are shown in the want of command of the lower lip and lower limbs. The muscles feel the torpor. Trembling and shuddering follow next, the nerve pulp of the brain comes under the influence, and the control of the judgment and the will disappear. When a man is what is termed "dead drunk," the paralysis of the higher nerve centers and of the brain is carried to its full end. All inlets of the senses are closed; all consciousness and sensation are destroyed, and all power of voluntary movement is effaced. The heart, the seat of life, toils on. If an enormous quantity of alcohol is swallowed at once; as in the case of foolish wagers, the toil of the heart ceases, and the man is dead indeed. But in ordinary instances the torpor saves life, as it stops the drinker just at the point when further drinking would kill him outright.
With this general view of the effects of alcohol, and the manner in which they are produced, it is easy to understand why headache, sleeplessness, nausea, palpitation of the heart and the "trembling delirium" accompany and follow the excessive use of alcohol. A poison in the stomach can be pumped out or voided. A poison of the blood must wait removal till the efforts of nature effect it. But, when nature itself is abused and impaired, its recuperative powers soon become destroyed. The effects of continued alcoholization upon the liver, kidneys, and stomach it is unnecessary to describe, as they are all well understood. But where the mischievous process begins, and how it is continued, are points new to most non-medical readers.—Philadelphia Ledger.