PEOPLE do not seem to realize how much they lose by a failure to regard the small courtesies of life. Every day would be filled with new pleasures if those who are intimately associated would study one another's convenience and preference a little more. There are a thousand small acts of kindness that cost nothing but a bit of forethought, which would brighten many a weary hour. The smile or kind word will scarcely ever fail to win a similar response, even from the most indifferent. The average person is incapable of a long siege, when the heart is stormed by such powerful assailants, and must, sooner or later, succumb.
Hearts destined for life-long friendship have grown apart just from a neglect of these small essentials to happiness. They were the first dividing lines, which eventually severed the lives so far asunder. You know at the water-shed of the Alleghanies, it is but a hair's breadth which divides the streams flowing into the Atlantic Ocean from those flowing into the Mississippi and the Gulf. So it is often the merest trifle of a circumstance which decides a person's destiny for sorrow or joy in this world. You cannot be too observant of trifles, for they make up the sum of life. Do not refuse to smile when you know it would make some one feel better; do not be too penurious to spend a few cents when by so doing you could better express the good-will you wish to show. Oh, be sunny, and free, and loving, doing every little kindness in your power, by word, act, and look, and thus show the divine sympathy of Jesus in your life. You may be the means of encouraging some one to start on the road to heaven; you may silently rebuke the said professor who had forgotten the simple, beautiful life of the Saviour, with all its small courtesies and acts of love; you may become much happier in heart, yourself, and grow unconsciously into the generous, thoughtful nature, which you are endeavoring to cultivate. At all events, it is a bit of discipline which you can well afford to practice upon yourself, for considerations of social as well as of spiritual interest.—Methodist Recorder.
Plain Words About Dress—The Sins of Fashion.
It would seem as if women in almost all ages had been hampered, or had hampered themselves, with garments not at all fitted to give comfort and health. The most extravagant, ungainly, ill fitting and unhealthy costumes have succeeded each other in turn, with but very few fashions that comfort, convenience and health could honestly sanction. If, at any time, one portion of the dress has been such as an honest and capable physician understanding the laws of life and health could recommend, another portion has been decidedly prejudicial to the welfare of the woman and doubly so to the offspring dependent upon her. Dress, in most of its phases, instead of being an aid to dignity and grace, and the promoter of comfort and health, has been a disease breeder, and sent to premature graves unnumbered self-sacrificed victims of irrational fashions and follies.
At one time there have been enormous head-dresses, that would distort the neck; at another, high-heeled shoes to turn the feet and ankles to deformity; at another, dresses with immense hoops at the bottom, so magnificent in point of circumference as to debar all close approach; at another, lacing the waist to a wasp-like smallness; at another, an attempt to improve upon the beautiful handiwork of Nature by disfiguring rolls of cotton or bran; at another, an enormous load of skirts to weigh down and deform and disease the tender frame. Add to these, shoes of little better than gossamer materials, affording scarcely the slightest protection against the mud, snow and wet that prevail for a good part of the year in many sections of this country, and with these, dresses, in the intense cold of winter, which, in the satirical language of Voltaire, are “cut off too late at the top and too early at the bottom,” and we have a series of mischievous and unhealthy modes of dress, not only pernicious in their effects upon the race, but actually sinful in the eyes of Deity.
The person should be protected and kept in uniform temperature by clothing of the right kind, and worn at such times or seasons, in such manner, and in such quantities as are best adapted to promote health, and not as now in obedience to the beck and whim of Fashion. Disease should not be allowed to invade the system by means of too much or too little clothing, but each person should wear just such clothing, at all times, as will involve the least risk, and produce the greatest vigor and personal enjoyment. But, so far from taking pains to obey the natural laws upon this subject, most persons labor directly to the contrary, and wear and endure just such garments as they know to be injurious to health.
The exposure of the neck and chest, so common in the ranks of fashion, is as injurious to the health of the body as to the purity of the soul. Diseases of the throat, lungs and heart are the necessary consequence, and the thousands of our women are annually the victims of consumption from this cause alone. The practice of tight dressing obstructs the circulation in the muscles, and thus hinders their growth and development. The consequence of this is that the whole of the trunk is weak, requiring support, and liable to give way upon being exposed to the ordinary endurances of domestic life. As to the question of beauty, that is settled by the one great principle taught by Nature herself, that we cannot improve upon her.—Christian at Work.
RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—Nepaul is now the last remaining State in India which is thoroughly Hindoo.
—The Presbyterians have Sunday-schools in Bangkok and two other places in China.
—One thousand five hundred French pilgrims were received Sunday, May 6, at the Vatican.
—The number of church members among the Indians is estimated at 70,000, of whom about 35,000 are Protestants.
—The Presbytery of Buffalo, N. Y., recently licensed Henry Silverheels, a Seneca Indian nearly sixty years of age, to preach the gospel.
—The Free Church of Scotland has now more than one thousand ministers. It started with under five hundred, so that in thirty-four years it has doubled itself.
—Eighty of the eighty-five barbers of Albany, N. Y., have signed a petition to the Common Council asking for the passage of an ordinance compelling the closing of all barber shops on Sunday.
—In one of the Micronesian Islands, where only three years ago some native teachers commenced work, the result is truly wonderful. Seven churches have been organized with nearly 300 members.
—A London paper says that a Presbyterian clergyman who was ceasing to be a pastor was offered $5,000 for his manuscript sermons. The purchaser intended to retail them to ministers of the Church of England, and as they were long he proposed to cut them in two, to suit the rectors and vicars. The offer was declined.
—Since the year 1832 the 600 societies and congregations of Universalists are said to have increased to 880 parishes; the 100 church edifices to 756, and the 300 preachers to 706, including licentiates and superannuates. From the above we can see that Universalism is not dying, but, to the contrary, it is slowly gaining ground.
—Statistics show that there are 125 Temperance Reform Clubs in the State of New Hampshire, with a membership of 65,000, of which 27,000 are men over twenty-one years of age, and over 10,000 were habitual tipplers. New Hampshire has, in proportion to her population, more names upon the pledge than any other State in the Union.
—The Young Men's Christian Association of Indianapolis has been engaged in the work of breaking up theatrical entertainments given on Sunday. Twenty five managers of the “Matt Morgan Art Combination,” which was exhibiting in the Metropolitan Theater on Sunday evening were arrested. Over twelve hundred men, women and children were present, and great confusion occurred. The arrested parties were prosecuted for desecration of the Sabbath.
—Rev. H. A. Schauffler, missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions at Brunn, Austria, has been for some time interdicted from holding public services, not at the suit of the Roman Catholics, but of the Protestants. The restriction has at length been removed, except that he is not allowed to have children of 14 years and under, at his meetings. The sale of Bibles and Testaments by colporteurs has been interdicted at Prague, the Government professing to be afraid of spies.
—Four hundred Spanish Protestants met on Holy Thursday in a little chapel in Cadiz for prayer and praise. Suddenly two policemen, armed with swords and revolvers, passed up the aisle, ascended the pulpit, and directed the preacher to dismiss the congregation. The preacher's meditation on the sacred events of the day was broken off, and the congregation went home without receiving the benediction. The Bishop of Cadiz had entered a complaint that the minister's voice was distinctly heard in the street. The British Consul at once protested against this act of religious intolerance.
—Of the many Sunday-school hymns published, more than twenty-five hundred are said to have been written by “The Blind Poetess,” Frances Jane Crosby. She was born in Putnam county, N. Y., March 24, 1823, and though blind since six weeks after her birth, was early taught to do for herself. At the age of twelve years she went to be educated in the Institution for the Blind, New York city, where she remained twenty-three years. She was employed by Wm. B. Bradbury until he died, and has since been employed by his successors, Biglow and Main, and several other book-makers. These, taking advantage of her dependence treat her most shamefully, paying her barely enough for a support.
SECULAR NEWS.
—119 ocean ships have been loaded with grain in Vallejo since the 1st of July.
—The recent visit of the small-pox to Los Angeles, Cal., cost that city $21,000.
—Of the 3,247 teachers in the public schools of New York city, 2,912 are ladies.
—Twenty-three hundred wells were completed in the Pennsylvania oil regions last year.
—Philadelphia supports 5,455 taverns and beer saloons—718 more than at the 1st of June, 1875.
—The German village of Eyschoff, in Valois, has been destroyed by fire, leaving five hundred people homeless.
—There are 50,000,000 pins manufactured per day in England. Nobody yet has been able to tell where they all go to.
—A great European tunnel will probably be finished Jan. 1, 1878, through the Pyrenees connecting France with Spain.
—The damages done by avalanches in Switzerland this spring have been unusually severe, on account of a very rapid thaw.
—Mendocino county, Cal., has 300,000 acres of unsurveyed land, consisting of twelve whole townships, besides the fractions of many townships.
—Iquique, a town of about one thousand inhabitants, in the department of Arequipa, South Peru, was destroyed by an earthquake May 10.
—The eruption of Vesuvius is slowly increasing. Subterranean rumblings are heard, and during the night the fire lights up the dense volumes of smoke which issue from the crater.
—The total value of merchandise exports from San Francisco during the past week amounted to $478,761, an increase of $194,389 over those of the previous week.
—A terrible explosion of gas occurred in the Wadesville mines, near St. Clair, Pa., on the 9th of May. Seven men were killed and six seriously injured by the accident.
—The legislature of the State of Texas, at its last session, passed a law which provides for the punishment of profanity by a fine of one hundred dollars.
—It is apparent that the famine in India is approaching its worst point, but there is good reason to hope that the maximum distress may be less severe than anticipated.
—Part of a large meteor, which recently passed over Vermont, has been found buried four feet in the earth. It weighs two tons, and is composed of iron ore, lava and soapstone.
—San Francisco, with a larger paid-in banking capital than St. Louis, Cincinnati and Chicago combined, has only about a quarter as large a debt as the smallest sum of liabilities in the trio.
—A mail bag that was lost in the San Luis Obispo river over one year ago, by the upsetting of a stage, was recently found on a snag in the river. It was forwarded to Washington, and the contents found to be in good condition.
—A petition has been sent to the State legislature, praying that body to enact a law prohibiting the sale on draught, of spirituous or malt liquors in any store, or elsewhere, where groceries are sold for family use, in New York city.
—Nine murders have been committed in the State of Maine, since the abolition of capital punishment in that State, which was but little more than one year ago. Previous to that time there had been but two murderers executed within six years.
—A large six-story brick building in Allegheny, Pa., which was occupied as a manufactory by the excelsior cotton works, fell last Thursday. One man who was engaged in making repairs on the building was buried in the ruins. Others were seriously injured.
—The Treasurer of the “Bliss Fund” has received $11,130.37 for the family of the late P. P. Bliss. Of this sum he has invested $10,000 in United States bonds, bearing interest at the rate of four and a half per cent, and registered in the name of the Bliss children.
—There has been great excitement in the bread stuff market, incident to the declaration of war between Russia and Turkey, for which there seems no good reason, as prices are reported as being lower in Europe than here; but the speculators will avail themselves of every pretext for a run on prices.
—The wars of this century have been the most bloody and costly since the palmy days of Rome and Greece. For its ten great bloody periods, viz., the Napoleonic, Grecian, Crimean, Italian, Danish, Austrian (1866), Brazilian, American, Abyssinian and Franco-German wars—leaving out minor expeditions and skirmishes—the figures foot up $38,667,600,000 expended, and 11,708,600 lives lost from 1800 to 1871. Two thirds of this aggregate outlay of men and money are to be charged to Napoleon I., up to his closing battle fought at Waterloo.
—A partially erected Court-house in Rockford, Ill., crumbled into ruins on the morning of the 11th. The walls were inadequate to hold the immense weight of the iron pillars and dome which rested upon the pillars, and so fell the distance of 125 feet with a crash that was heard nearly a mile distant. At the time of the accident there were about twenty-five men at work on the building. The mass of human beings, with the exception of four or five who jumped from the windows, fell inside the tottering walls and were buried in the debris; some being seriously injured, while others were killed.
—The first bullet proof car ever manufactured in the United States has just been completed in York, Pa. It was ordered by the Spanish government for use in Cuba. The car weighs about six thousand five hundred pounds, and is thirty-one feet long, eight feet high, and furnished with all the latest improvements in ventilation, etc. The body below the windows is covered with three-eighth inch iron, and the panels between the windows and the body above them are covered with three-sixteenth inch steel. The windows can be closed with steel slides, and when they are down the entire car is bullet proof. The interior is richly ornamented and the appearance inside and out resembles a first-class passenger coach.
Anything to Start Business.
It was on the Courtland-street ferry that I noticed him. We were both standing close by the gate and had nearly reached the landing. He was a pleasant looking gentleman about forty-five years old, with a calm, placid face and a sedately-trimmed beard. His voice was gentle and pleasant, and he looked like a Sabbath-school superintendent, or a Sabbath-school teacher, at the very least. He held affectionately by the hand a little boy, four years old, whom I had not noticed at first, so still was he. The child felt subdued by the crowd, and would have been frightened if he had not felt his father's hand.
“The news, to-day, is warlike,” said a gentleman beside him. “It really looks as if Russia means war.”
“I hope so,” replied he in his mildest tone. “It would be a great blessing to us. I have been saying these six months that there would be a war in Europe. We need it very much. Anything to start business. Anything! I don’t care what it is!”
We had just reached the wharf, and my neighbor looked down and noticed that his little boy had put his hand on the iron gate which holds the passengers back until the boat is fastened.
“Take your hand off the gate, my son,” said he, “or you will get your fingers jammed.” “Anything,” he repeated to his companion—“anything to start business. I don’t care what it is.”
Meanwhile he tenderly removed his boy’s hand from the gate, and, as he caught my eye, I fancied that he thought I was staring at him rather rudely. But I don’t believe that he had the least idea of what I was thinking. Perhaps I would have told him if the bars of the gate had not at that moment drawn together and let out the crowd to hurry to the cars.
Dear little fingers, they must not get crushed. It would hurt the darling boy, and he would cry, and mother would be sorry, and so would brothers and sisters, and so would father; for he loves his little boy and would not have him hurt for the world.
Father, what would you take for that little boy’s fingers? Ten dollars? A hundred dollars? What will you take for the life of that dear girl of yours, who will run to the door to meet you with all her sweet maiden grace, and welcome you home with a kiss? A thousand dollars? Ten thousand dollars? All the “business” you could do in a year, or in five years of flush times, such as war in Europe would make?
Have you forgotten so soon what war does? Did you stay at home all through the war? In war they kill fathers with bullets and mothers with tears and hunger. They are bloody, cruel men, those Turks and Russians. Those Bashibazouks drive women and children into churches, and there they chop them in pieces with swords, and leave their bodies to rot unburied. Little boys like yours would have their fingers cut off, and their heads too. Sweet girls, like yours at home, are barbarously tortured till mercifully killed. The Cossacks are savage, too. Oh, how horrible such a war! It would be a war without quarter or mercy, a war of extermination between Turks and Christians, a desperate Moslem war.
But it would “start business” in these United States; and that would be “such a blessing.” Little Johnny would have such lots of holiday gifts when the day comes round which celebrates “peace on earth, good will to men;” and Grace should have a gold watch with a beautiful chatelaine; and mother would have her new grand piano; and father would buy the carpet which they have wanted so long for the parlor; and there would be such a beautiful Christmas-tree at the Sabbath-school, and they would sing their happy carols to the Prince of Peace. “Anything to start business.”—Christian Statesman.
Business Department.
“Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully,” (margin, negligently). Jer. 48:10.
Received for the Signs.
$2 EACH. G W Brake 4-16, James O'Neil 4-12, John Goss 4-15, J E Lewis 4-19, Chas Odowd 4-19, E C Penn 4-19, Julia Scott 3-1, E A Collard 4-4, Wm Collard 4-19, Hascall Peebles 4-16, J O Phipps 4-12, Eber Parish 4-19, Mary A Walworth 4-9, B A King 4-9, Wm Woods 3-1, Wm H Means 4-19, F R Cramer 3-32, I G Soule 3-26.
$1.50 EACH. Mrs Mary Very 4-19, Mrs Sarah E Lane 4-21, Mrs L Baker 4-19, Lydia R Allen 4-19, Helen Smith 4-19, Cordelia Sturdevant 4-19, Harvey Daniels 4-19. Alfred Mead 4-19, Wm A Halsey 4-19, Joseph Raymond 4-19, Luke Parsons 4-17, Eid J R Bryan 4-19, T A Smith 4-18, Julia E Tittus 4-7, Robert H Semple 4-18, H Needles 4-19, Mrs Mark Morress 4-19, Mrs Hannah D Whitney 4-19, Mary Norton 4-19, Mary Shearer 4-11, Jackson Simpson 4-19, Minerva Williams 4-20, Peter Danielson 4-19, Mrs E O Green 4-19, Wm Winand 4-19, Jacob Bailey 4-19, Hannah Briggs 4-19, Mrs L M Barber 4-19, Oliver W Green 4-19, Ziba Bolter 4-19, Z C Doty 4-19, W Downes 4-19, Richard Ashley 4-18, Sarah B Pierce 4-8, Ellen Williams 4-16. Mrs W H Mitchell 4-16, M B Folshee 4-15, Mrs M Whitney 4-18, M R Lowry 4-29, Ed J H Burrows 4-19, Mrs Jane Moore 4-19, W Wilcox 4-7, James Dalziel 4-7, Thomas Barrows 4-7, Wm Moller 4-19, M D Malaney 4-19, E C Graves 4-19, Alexander McElfresh 4-19, Jefferson Hill 4-19, Wallace Warden 4-18, Wm Little 4-18, John Roe 4-18, Louisa Jully 4-7, Mrs Hannah Tay 4-7, Adaline Macomb 4-19, Jonathan Larcon 4-19, John Fessendon 4-19, James Jewell 4-19, Mrs Robert Johnson 4-19, Wm H Tay 4-19, Miss Caroline Fabins 4-19, Mrs S T Prine 4-19, Henry Allen 4-19, T K Henry 4-19, Nelson Cole 4-19, James Dubois 4-19, Mrs A Bosworth 4-19.
MISCELLANEOUS. Mrs M I Southworth 50c 3-35, A J Richmond $12.00 (8 copies) 4-18, M J Wood 1.00 (8 copies) 3-21, Mrs M A Jerome 1.00 (8 copies) 3-24, W R Carruthers 1.00 3-33, B F Harris 7.50 (6 copies) 4-18, Lyman Titus 75c 3-44, Mrs Carrie Morrison 75c 3-42, Noah Hodges 5.00 (20 copies) 3-27, A R Henry 7.50 (5 copies) 4-19, G M White 1.00 3-43, J S Milton 1.00 (on 8 copies) 3-23. Joel Crandall 4.50 (3 copies) 4-19, M E Guilford 1.00 (8 copies) 3-23. R T Babbett 75c 3-43, James Griffith 1.00 3-43, James Burton 1.00 4-1, A B Rust 9.00 (6 copies) 4-19, Hascall Peebles 50c (4 copies) 3-23, P D Lawrence 50c 4-18, San Francisco (church 45.00 (30 copies) 4-20, Joseph L McNeil 75c 3-43. Mrs Franklin Dudly 75c 3-43, J C Copeland 75c 4-1. E B Hatch 75c 4-1. Rev O A Bateman 75c 3-42. Fred Kindert 3.00 4-25. Miss Susie Cole 15.00 (10 copies) 4-19, E Shaw 50c 3-35. Geo Molyneux 1.00 4-6 Mrs Josephine House 7.50 (5 copies) 4-19, Mrs Society 131.25 (350 copies) 3-32, E Van Dusen 1.00 4-13. Alfred Peabody 2.50 4-7, Geo A King 1.00 (8 copies) 3-19, Charles Coleman 1.00 (8 copies) 3-22, Howard Hayes 6.00 (4 copies) 4-19, G W Bennie 21.00 (14 copies) 4-19, Jennie Shum 12.00 (8 copies) 4-19, J G Starbuck 1.13 3-21, J M Hollos 3.00 4-43, Jeanne Dorcas 50c 3-35, I G Soule 1.00 3-14, D B Welch 10.50 (7 copies) 4-19, H B Hayward 1.00 3-21, Mrs D Hunters 1.00 3-25, V M Society 150.00 (100 copies) 4-18.
Cash Received on Account.
Cal T and M Society D s No 7. $11.50; Dis No 9, 14.50; J D Rice 21.00; Mary R Stem 100.00; Ohio T and M Society 73.50.
San Francisco.
By John Norton Loughborough
Our heart says, Praise the Lord for the good work here. Influences which have long bound the cause are giving way before the work of the Lord. The cause has suffered much for the need of one or more who would give their entire time to the care of the church and the missionary work.
Bro. Chittenden has long held back from giving himself unreservedly to the work in San Francisco. He has at length resolved, in the strength of the Lord, to take his stand. Light is breaking in and the waters are moved in the entire church. Sabbath, May 12, was a day long to be remembered by this church. At the commencement of the Sabbath we had a heart-searching time in our prayer-meeting. Sabbath forenoon I gave a discourse from the words of Christ relative to the importance of building on the rock, not only having a correct theory of the truth, but each having a thorough work in his own heart. The testimonies of Sister White to this church, relative to what they need, and how the work should be taken hold of, were read.
In the afternoon a meeting was held in which Brn. C. R. Chittenden and M. C. Israel were elected by unanimous vote as elders of the San Francisco church. It was also voted to organize the church into three districts, and to hold a prayer-meeting at private houses in each of these districts every Thursday evening. Brn. Dyberg, Griffith and Parker were appointed by the elders to take the lead of meetings in these districts for the next three months. It was made their duty to have a list of all the members in their district, keep a record of attendance, visit those who do not attend, and know each week the standing of all the members of their respective districts. The elders are to labor from time to time in these districts where help is most needed.
Voted, That the church have a committee of five on discipline, and that this committee consist of the elders and the leaders of the district prayer-meetings, and further, that when the leader finds any misunderstanding between members he shall immediately seek to reconcile the parties. If he fails in this he shall then refer the case to the elders.
Voted, To change the regular weekly prayer-meeting at the church from Wednesday to Tuesday evening.
In the evening after the Sabbath, we had a stirring missionary meeting. Bro. M. C. Israel was appointed, by the director, as district secretary of district No. 9, and also to act as treasurer of the district, and general business agent of the T. and M. Society. Seven superintendents were appointed by the director for the seven missionary sub-districts of the church, the director and secretary being two of these district superintendents.
Voted, That the missionary officers meet at the close of the prayer-meeting each Tuesday evening for consultation as to ways and means of advancing the work.
Voted, To take 30 copies of the Signs for weekly distribution, in addition to the 50 already taken by the church. The elders have already entered upon active labors from house to house, and report the blessing of God with them wherever they go. Brethren, pray for the work in San Francisco.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Camp-Meetings for 1877.
NINE camp-meetings are located and appointed as follows:—
KANSAS, Ottawa (Forest Park), May 24–29.
MISSOURI, Holden, May 31 to June 5.
IOWA, Marshalltown, June 7–12.
WISCONSIN, Portage, “ 13–19.
MINNESOTA, Hutchinson, “ 20–26.
INDIANA, “ Aug. 9–14.
OHIO, Newark (probably), “ 10–20.
VERMONT, “ 16–21.
ILLINOIS, “ 23–28.
A Week's Work.
By Uriah Smith
The record of the past week surpasses that of any previous week in the history of the SIGNS, in the way of new subscribers. Between seven and eight hundred have come in. During this time all delinquents who have not paid up to within three weeks of the present time have been dropped from the lists; yet the increase, above all stoppages, has been more than five hundred. Let a few more weeks marshal for us such an army of new readers, and more than ten thousand copies of the paper will go out weekly from this Office. Let them come.
U. S.
Golden Grains.
The above is the name of a set of ten little books of thirty-two pages each, just published at the SIGNS OF THE TIMES Office. Following the general plan of the Sunshine Series, which is having a rapid and extensive sale, it is adapted to an older class of readers. Sunshine Series was adapted to the minds of children from seven to twelve years of age. Golden Grains is calculated for children and youth of ten years and upward. In fact, there is but little in the books but would interest all classes of readers. Each little book contains two or more stories selected with great care from among thousands of the best. Sent by mail, postage paid, for 50 cents a set.
Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES,
Oakland, Cal.
Napa and St. Helena.
By Uriah Smith
It was our privilege according to appointment to meet with the churches in Napa and St. Helena, Sabbath and Sunday, May 12 and 13. Three meetings were held in Napa, and two in St. Helena. The confidence and interest of the brethren and sisters in the great truths of this time, and their good cheer in the cause of the Lord, were pleasant to behold. The meetings were seasons of interest. The attendance from without on Sunday in both places was encouraging, and the attention excellent. We were happy to form new acquaintances at these meetings with those whose hearts are established in the work, and who are determined to endure to the end.
U. S.
North Pacific Mission.
By I. D. Van Horn
The last Sabbath and Sunday in April, Bro. Jones and myself held meetings in Jefferson. Six discourses were given, the attendance was good, and much interest was manifested. Twelve covenanted together to keep the Sabbath and keep up Sabbath meetings. They were not ready to organize into a church. Bro. Bellinger was chosen leader. The prospect is fair for a good little church of Sabbath-keepers in this place.
Last Sabbath we were here in Salem, and had a good meeting. On Sunday we went to Eola and held two meetings. The people have not lost their interest to hear, they turned out well. Good meetings are held at the church every Sabbath, and the courage of the members is good.
We now design to pitch our tent in Dallas and commence meetings about the 18th of May. We are of good courage.
I. D. Van Horn.
Salem, Oregon, May 8, 1877.
Dixon, Solano Co., Cal.
By W. M. Healey; B. A. Stephens
COMMENCED meetings here May 4. Nine lectures have been given thus far, to audiences averaging about one hundred and thirty. A fair interest is manifested to hear the truth.
Each Sabbath the brethren come in from Udell, Elmira, and Binghamton, to worship in the tent. These brethren have been of great service in helping pitch the tent, and in furnishing provisions. May the Lord reward them in his kingdom. Yesterday, after preaching, we enjoyed a good social meeting. Several outsiders were present.
Sabbath and first-day, May 5 and 6, the south wind blew such a gale that the tent had to be taken down both days. A few repairs were necessary.
Dixon is a town of one thousand inhabitants, having five churches, nineteen saloons, and five hotels. The German element is quite strong.
Pray for the cause here.
W. M. HEALEY,
B. A. STEPHENS.
May 13, 1877.
Business Note.
A PERSON writes from Indianapolis, Ind., saying he has received no paper since March 8, but fails to give his name. Who is it?
COUNTING ROOM.
Readiness for Opportunities
MANY of us have to lament not so much a want of opportunities in life as our unreadiness for them as they come, and “it might have been” is oftener the language of our hearts, than complaining words. God sends us “flax,” but our “spindle and distaff” are out of repair.
Energy More Important Than Ability
More men fail for want of energy than for want of ability.
FOREORDINATION
The father of the late Rev. Dr. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., and a strong advocate of the doctrine of foreordination, having once made an appointment to exchange with the late Rev. Dr. Osgood, of Springfield, he started for the latter place with his own team on the Sunday agreed upon; and when about half way thither, met Dr. Osgood driving down. They stopped, naturally, for a moment’s conversation, and Dr. Storrs soon glided into his favorite theme. “Why,” said he, “see how wonderful are the decrees of Providence. Here it has been foreordained from all eternity that we should exchange pulpits to-day, and sure we are met, talking the matter over.” “What’s that,” said Dr. Osgood, not quite sure on his foreordination business; “do you say that it has been decreed that we should exchange pulpits to-day?” “I do,” replied the other, solemnly. “Well, then,” returned Dr. Osgood, “I’ll break one of these decrees, for I shall preach in my own pulpit to-day; and turning his horse about, he drove rapidly homeward, leaving the astonished Dr. Storrs to return to Longmeadow, musing on the possible uncertainty of decrees.
What Gives Life Vitality
The mere lapse of years is not life. Love, knowledge, truth, beauty, goodness, and faith, alone can give vitality to the mechanism of existence.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH
By John Norton Loughborough
Appointments.
OAKLAND—Services at the new church, on the corner of Clay and Thirteenth streets, every Sabbath (Saturday) at 10:30 A. M., and Sunday evening at 7:30. Prayer-meeting every Tuesday evening at 7:30. Sabbath-school at 9 o'clock Sabbath morning.
SAN FRANCISCO—Services at the house of worship, on Laguna street, between Tyler and McAllister, every Sabbath (Saturday), at 11 A. M., and first-day evening at 7:30. Prayer-meeting every Tuesday evening at 7:30. The Hayes Valley cars of Market street and the Lone Mountain cars of the Central R. R. cross Laguna street near the church.
ELDER SMITH will be at Santa Rosa, Sabbath, May 19. A general meeting of the churches round about is desired. Morning service at 10:30. There will be two services with thirty minutes' intermission.
ELDER SMITH will speak on the Eastern Question at Healdsburg, Sunday the 20th.
CHRISTINE, Mendocino Co., Sabbath and first-day, May 19 and 20.