AND all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. . . . And the people thirsted for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst.'
It was by the express command of God that the children of Israel encamped at Rephidim. He knew of its lack of water, and He brought His people thither to test their faith. But how poorly they proved themselves to be a people whom He could trust. Again and again He had manifested Himself to them. With a high hand He had brought them out of the land of their captivity, slaying the first-born of all the families of Egypt to accomplish their deliverance. He had fed them with angels' food, and had covenanted to bring them into the promised land. Now, when brought into difficulty, they broke into rebellion, and complained that Moses had brought them and their children out of Egypt that they might die of thirst in the wilderness.
The lesson is for us. Many think that in the Christian life they will find freedom from all difficulty. But every one who takes up the cross to follow Jesus comes to a Rephidim in his experience. Life is not all made up of pleasant pastures and cooling streams. Trial and disappointment overtake us; privation comes; we are brought into trying places. Conscience-stricken, we reason that we must have walked far away from God, that if we had walked with Him, we should not have suffered so. Doubt and despondency crowd into our hearts, and we say, The Lord has failed us, and we are ill-used. Why does He permit us to suffer thus? He can not love us; if He did, He would remove the difficulties from our path. Is the Lord with us or not?7
But of old the Lord led His people to Rephidim, and He may choose to lead us there also, in order to test our loyalty. He does not always bring us to pleasant places. If He did, in our self-sufficiency we should forget that He is our helper. He longs to manifest Himself to us, and to reveal the abundant supplies at our disposal, and He permits trial and disappointment to come to us that we may realize our helplessness, and learn to call upon Him for aid. He can cause cooling streams to flow from the flinty rock.
We Shall Never Know
until we are face to face with God, when we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known, how many burdens He has borne for us, and how many burdens He would have been glad to bear, if with child-like faith we had brought them to Him.
The experience of the children of Israel has been put on record to help us. 'These things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.' The Lord brought the children of Israel into trying places to test their faith. He had promised to lead them into the promised land, and if they had waited patiently for Him, reviving their faith by recounting His great goodness and wonderful works in their behalf, He would have shortened their test. But they forgot their Leader. Murmuring and complaining, they vented their wrath upon Moses, forgetting that their emergency was God's opportunity.
Do not imitate the conduct of the children of Israel at Rephidim by showing unbelief when brought into difficulties. 'There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it.'
God's Love Is Revealed
in all His dealings with His people; and with clear, unclouded eyes, in adversity, in sickness, in disappointment, and in trial we are to behold the light of His glory in the face of Christ, and trust to His guiding hand. But too often we grieve His heart by our unbelief. Our faith is short-sighted and we allow trial to strengthen our natural tendency to distrust. Brought into straight places, we dishonor God by murmuring and complaining. We should seek instead to help those in need of assistance, those who are seeking for light, but know not how to find it. Such have a special claim on our sympathy, but how often, instead of trying to help them, we pass by on the other side, intent on our own troubles.
God loves His children, and He longs to see them overcoming the discouragement with which Satan would overpower them. Do not give way to unbelief. Do not magnify your difficulties. Remember the love and power that God has shown in times past. He 'so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?' Christ has proved Himself an all-powerful helper. He knows all about our trials, and in the hour of need can we not believe that He is as willing to help as in times past? No amount of tribulation can separate us from Him. If He leads us to Rephidim, it is because He sees that it is for our good. If we look to Him in trusting faith, He will turn the bitterness of Marah into sweetness. His word to us is, 'I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'
GOD WORKS BY MINORITIES.
By The Presbyterian
THIS, says Professor Phelps of Andover, is one of the great principles of God's working in the affairs of His kingdom. He works with minorities who are working for Him. "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's." Go out against them. The Lord will be with you.
The history of the church is full of illustrations of this law of divine procedure. Dip into it anywhere, and you come upon this divine strategy. Napoleon thought that he knew the world well. He had studied the history of great empires, but he said it was an explicable mystery to him that Christianity, beginning as it did with a few fishermen of the feeblest nation then on the globe, should in his time have risen to be so much more mighty than his own conquests, which had almost all the armies of Europe to back them.
It was God's way of working with minorities who are working for Him. When the church became corrupt, and needed reform, the same thing was repeated. A few earnest men who were hunted like wild beasts, in a few years shook the world. The battle was not theirs, but God's.
An old saying of the German Reformers, which a modern reformer has untruthfully claimed as his own, was, "One, with God on his side, is a majority." On a certain occasion the Lord encouraged His people with these words: "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's." 2 Chron. 20:15. This was the favorite text of Sir Fowell Buxton. He once wrote to his daughter that she would find his Bible opening of itself to the place where this passage occurs. This text it was which gave him courage to move in the British Parliament for the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire. When he entered on that conflict he stood almost alone; when this bill was first read in Parliament it was received with shouts of derisive laughter. But he bethought him of this text, and he began his speech, saying:
"Mr. Speaker, the reading of this bill is the beginning of a movement which will surely end in the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions." The old Hebrew prophet never said a truer word. Sir Fowell knew it, for the battle was not his, but God's.
The same phenomenon was witnessed in the first attempt to establish American missions among the heathen. When one of the early meetings of the American Board was held at Bradford, Mass., less than twenty persons were in attendance, and they were hooted at by boys on the piazza of the hotel where they were in session. Barely sixty-five years have passed, and at a recent meeting of that Board in Providence, five thousand strangers from abroad were present, and two churches were filled with eager friends.
When the first American missionaries reached India, the English Government refused them a landing. "Go back," was the imperious order; "Go back, in the ship in which you came." In the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, when it was first proposed to send the Gospel to the heathen, reverend clergymen declared against the fanatical scheme. They said that "the heathen were a contented and happy people, and that it was no business of Scottish Christians to disturb them." And this in the face of our Lord's express command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Not a century has passed since that time, yet now all Christendom rings with congratulation over the achievement of Christian missions; and no other class of men is so reverently canonized in the affections of the church as her missionaries to the heathen world. This is the fruit of God's working with minorities who were working for Him.—The Presbyterian.
THE HANDS HE USED.
By Edith G. Cherry
My hands were filled with many things,
Which I did precious hold
As any treasure of a king,
Silver, or gems, or gold.
The Master came and touched my hands,
The scars were in His own;
And at His feet my treasures sweet
Fell shattered one by one;
'I must have empty hands,' said He,
'Wherewith to work My works through thee.'
My hands were stained with marks of toil,
Defiled with dust of earth,
And I my work did ofttimes soil,
And render little worth.
The Master came and touched my hands,
And crimson were His own;
And when, amazed, on mine I gazed,
Lo, every stain was gone!
'I must have cleansed hands,' said He,
'Wherewith to work My works through thee.'
My hands were growing feverish,
And cumbered with much care;
Trembling with haste and eagerness,
Nor folded oft in prayer.
The Master came and touched my hands,
With healing in His own;
And calm and still to do His will
They grew, the fever gone.
'I must have quiet hands,' said He,
'Wherewith to work My works through thee.'
My hands were strong in fancied strength,
But not in power divine,
And bold to take up tasks at length,
That were not His, but mine.
The Master came and touched my hands,
And mighty were His own;
But mine, since then, have powerless been,
Save His were laid thereon.
'And it is only thus,' said He,
'That I can work My works through thee.'
—Edith G. Cherry.
RESULTS OF PERVERTED APPETITE.
THE gifts of God to man are all good and intended to promote his highest welfare and happiness. But fallen and degenerate man has perverted and abused many of these and turned them into forms of positive evil. The wine which cheers is no longer sufficient for his depraved taste and appetite, and he doctors and drugs and sharpens it until it is no longer wine, but a deadly poison. The very indulgence no longer satisfies, but makes all the stronger the ever-growing desire.
The Bible condemns unequivocally all forms of intemperance and dissipation as an enemy to health, fortune, and character. To each of these it is an enemy precisely according to the degree to which it is carried. As the man of dissipation often makes his appearance in public, his course is marked, and his character is quickly decided by general opinion according to the line which he is observed to pursue, and he soon dwindles into utter insignificance. By vicious excesses and criminal pleasures, he incurs disapprobation or contempt.
The fair prospects which his friends had once entertained of him die away in proportion as his idleness or extravagance grows, and the only hope that remains is, that some fortunate incident may occur to check his career and reclaim him to a better life. In the meanwhile the respectable, while they may smile at his follies, studiously avoid his company. In his own special class, and among his brave companions, he may be admired, but in the world, he is of no significance or consequence whatever.
Health, the most valuable of all temporal blessings, is readily sacrificed at the shrine of indulgence. No constitution can long withstand the disorderly living, the reckless indulgence into which intemperate habits draw those who become victims to them. Hence the shattered and debilitated body, and the premature old age. The native vigor and sprightliness are melted down by effeminacy and sensuality. The spirits are weakened, enervated, and the man, no longer able to resist, is lost forever.
Against no other sin has the Bible presented so many warnings as the sin of intemperance, or affirmed more positively its punishment. In its description of Salome’s indecent dance before the drunken court, it marks how lust and strong drink have always gone hand in hand, and how it is the inspiration and the fruitful cause of almost every other crime. The story of Noah, in the first book of the Bible shows us the age-long impetus that this curse has gained, a curse that since that day has ever been growing in strength and volume until now it abounds almost everywhere. As to Paul’s prescription to Timothy which so many moderate drinkers are so fond of quoting, we may well wait to drink wine till we have a Paul to prescribe, and are sure that we are Timothys. No one has more strongly condemned wine drinking, when used as a beverage, than this same apostle.
No man can be a free man who is brought under subjection to this vice. Vice is, indeed,9inconsistent with liberty, for it deprives its victims of all power of free choice, by bringing them under the domination of passions and habits. On the contrary, religion and virtue address themselves to reason. They call us to examine well every side, to think well of the consequences of our actions, and before we take any step of importance, to compare the good with the evil which may result from it. He, therefore, who follows their dictates acts the part of a man who freely consults, and chooses for his own interest.
But vice can make no pretensions of this kind. It awaits not the test of deliberate comparison and choice, but overpowers us at once. It hurries us with the violence of passion and captivates us by the force of unreasoning impulse. Reason may remonstrate, conscience endeavor to check him, but all in vain. Having allowed passion or appetite to gain the ascendant, he has thrown himself into the midst of a torrent, against which he may sometimes faintly struggle, but whose impetuosity still bears him along. Instead of being a free man, he is not master of himself. He does not go, but is driven, tossed, and impelled, like a ship driving upon the rocks. He that committeth sin is the servant of sin. No man who has once given rein to his appetites and passions can tell how far those may carry him.—Christian Work.
THE GREAT SALVATION
By George W. Reaser
By GEO. W. REASER.
THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT.
"WHO also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit," writes the apostle to the church at Corinth. Some one will ask, "What is the Spirit?" Our reply can be suggestive only. The Holy Spirit is the life, the energy, of God, manifested in creation, in redemption, and in upholding the universe. It is the omnipresence of the Father and Son. Abundant Scripture foundation for each specification in this definition has been supplied in preceding articles. This article will be a brief study of the office work of the Spirit in the great plan of salvation.
"Verily, verily I say unto thee," says the Saviour, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." It is evident from this that not a single soul will be saved from this world except by the operation and transformation of the Holy Spirit. The leopard can not change his spots, nor the Ethiopian his skin; no more can those who have been accustomed to do evil, do good. There must be the exercise of creative power in the marvelous transition from sinner to saint, from impurity to purity, from darkness to light, from fallen nature to divine nature, from cursing to praising, from hatred to love, from being without God and without hope in the world to sonship and the full assurance of hope, from the family of Satan to the family of God, from death to life, from shame of sin to glory in Christ Jesus, from every form of wickedness to perfection of character.
The First Step.
Jesus said that when the Spirit was come, He would reprove the world of sin, and would, at the same time, lift up a standard of righteousness. The first step toward being born into the kingdom of God is to be convicted of sin. When the Word of God is presented, pointing out sin, the Holy Spirit is present to perform its office work of convicting of sin. If the convicted one will yield and confess, then the Word and the Holy Spirit will point him to the only Source of remedy for sin—the Sinless One—the Saviour of men.
Consider the work of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. First, the apostles were all filled with the Holy Spirit,—an essential preliminary to that which was to follow. This infilling they acknowledged to be the fulfilment of the promise of Christ. They then lifted up the crucified One, the sense of guilt was fastened upon their hearers by the Holy Spirit, and when they were thus "pricked in their hearts," they cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter gave ready answer, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."
Here was a multitude of souls saved, who would have been lost without the operation of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts; for it is God's special appointed Agency to convict of sin, to lead to repentance, and to point to the only Source of cleansing for sin. But the promise was not limited to the day of Pentecost. It is "to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off." This same Spirit seeks an entrance to the heart of every man who comes into the world. The only thing that can possibly prevent conversion is barring the door of the heart against it, and refusing its gracious invitation.
After receiving the operation of the Spirit to full conversion, this Agency in the plan of redemption witnesses in our hearts,—in harmony with the Word,—that we are
Adopted into the Family of the King of the universe, with Christ as our Elder Brother, and we joint-heirs with Him, and all of the privileges and eternal blessings which accrue to that family are ours. When the Spirit thus comes, it is an "earnest"—part payment in advance—of our inheritance, and by it we are "sealed unto the day of redemption." This is the Christian's life-insurance policy, purchased, and all of the premiums paid in advance, at the cost of the life of the Son of God. It can never "lapse" as long as our faith holds the Spirit in our hearts. It "loadeth us with benefits" daily, and not only insures us in case of death, but in the ultimate, is a guarantee against that death most to be dreaded, and which should be the most studiously avoided—"the second death."
This same policy will, on the same basis, provide for our dependent ones, after our decease. If some insurance company could furnish an absolute guarantee of "benefits" to policy holders during life, and full benefits to the one insured after death, men who were convinced of its stability would eagerly insure. The Lord offers an "absolute policy" with all these desirable features. It is, in a sense, a "mutual benefit policy," for, while it gives the insured eternal benefits, the Lord experiences infinite joy in bestowing the benefits upon the policy-holders.
LIVING WATER.
By Ella Cornish
IN Christ there is no desert spot;
No wilderness of want and wo;
The solitary place is glad,
For living fountains ceaseless flow;
The thirsty ground becomes a pool;
On barren soil rich verdure grows,
And all the land doth smile and bud
And blossom e'en as Sharon's Rose.
ELLA CORNISH.
The Bible as Family Chronicle
The Bible is the great family chronicle of the Jews.—Heine.
ARISE AND SHINE.
By H. A. St. John
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Isa. 60:1.
THE sun rises, and shines, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. In like manner every child of God at this time is most earnestly commanded from on high to arise and shine; and, strong in God and in the power of His might, to run the Christian race with rejoicing. God will furnish the light in overflowing abundance, He only wants us to trim our lamps and become clear, unspotted light-bearers.
The believer and the church must become unspotted from the world—without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing—before they can shine with undimmed brightness amid the last generation, and thus lighten the earth with God’s glory. It is such a people and church that Christ will have, right here in the midst of gross darkness, when He comes to make up His jewels, giving them the final polish of immortality.
Dear reader, do not forget for a moment, that the Lord says to you, “YOUR light is come.” It is for you. It is the best gift that Heaven has to offer. It is the sum of all good things. God wants you to take it. O, how willingly He will give it to you, when the conditions are met. It awaits your demand and reception. It is the fulness of the Spirit. It is Jesus coming into you, and making your heart His lasting home. He will cleanse the soul-temple. He will drive out all foes, and break down all idols. He will bring all His graces in, and rule in every thought and purpose of your soul. Then you will shine without constraint or effort, and the people around you that sit in darkness will see great light, whether they will heed it or not.
But some souls will surely come to thy light, when the glory of the Lord shall be seen upon thee. Then, in all holy conversation and godliness, you will be looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of our dear Lord to take us Home.
H. A. ST. JOHN.
THE MEANING OF SUNDAY LAWS
An Important and Typical Meeting---No. 3
Reported by John S. Wightman, Religious Liberty Secretary of New York
THE MEANING OF SUNDAY LAWS.
[Mr. Wightman attended and reported for other papers the Inter-Church Conference on Federation in New York; and also attended and reported for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES the late annual meeting of the American Federation of Catholic Societies in Buffalo, and was also in attendance at the meeting in Elmira for this journal. He is a student of the great principles involved, and his report is worthy of careful consideration by every American citizen. Ed.]
Compulsory Sunday Observance.
REV. E. M. Deems, D.D., of Hornellsville, addressed the convention on the subject of "Personal Responsibility in My City, County, or Local Community for the Sabbath," and dwelt upon the question of the how, when, and where, with reference to personal responsibility and obligations. What had been done for the Lord's day was encouraging, and every man should be more bold, more efficient, more determined in taking a personal stand both in private and public life, for the preservation of the Christian sabbath. Keep the matter of the observance of the sabbath before the people. "Agitate, agitate, agitate," he said, "and finally success will crown your efforts. I am one of the few of those old-fashioned Puritanical lovers of the sabbath day still left, and no Christian civilization can endure without the Christian sabbath!"
Protected and Perpetuated by Civil Power.
Rev. Mr. Deems was followed by Rev. H. S. Southall, pastor of the Centenary Church of Elmira. "The Moral Effect of the Sunday Crusade in Elmira," was his theme. He thought it was too early, we were too near the scene of the struggle for compulsory Sunday observance to rightly comprehend its far-reaching effect. One great effect, however, was that the people would begin to realize what the law said and what it meant, and that it meant what it said. The crusade has created a wholesome respect for law. The fight for the supremacy of the Sunday law had "compelled" many hundreds of people to have a wholesome respect for the law--"for the Sunday law of the state of New York." It had revived the true meaning of the word "sacred." A lack
of reverence was everywhere in evidence. The moral effect was "to teach the young men and the young women that there is such a thing as reverence and sacredness as applied to the sabbath, and it has revived their sense of obligation." The result of the crusade had been to teach the community the essential preeminence of moral and spiritual forces, and that there was something else in this world beside "work, money, and eating and drinking." The sabbath was one of the means of maintaining and cultivating the higher moral and spiritual nature. Therefore the sabbath must be protected and perpetuated by the civil power. For "no sabbath, no worship; no worship, no reverence; no reverence, no civilization; no civilization, no government." We have taught the people that, in order to properly develop all these necessary things to our well-being, there must be due regard for the sabbath.
Law-enforced Reverence.
"The result of the crusade has, to a large extent, given the ministry the true position which it should assume on this question; it has given the community to understand that the ministry in a sacred calling are the true custodians of the moral welfare of the people. We have taken our proper place, and should fear not criticism, nor be turned aside from the path of duty by the butt of ridicule everywhere assailing us. We are responsible for the moral welfare and spiritual uplifting of the people; we have quickened the moral palate, quickened the moral respect of the degenerate. It has been like the 'gold cure.' The effect of the Sunday crusade has toned the people up, proved to be a splendid nerve-tonic for the morally degenerate. All, including the most degenerate inhabitant, have been morally benefited in an increase of reverence for the law, for the clergy, and for God! It has added momentum to every good word and every good work; it has been a great and far-reaching victory for the moral forces in the civil."10(Continued on page 15.)
THE MEANING OF SUNDAY LAWS.
(Continued from page 9.)
A Note of Discord.
The Hon. Charles R. Pratt, ex-judge of the Chemung County Court and eminent member of the Elmira bar, was the next speaker. His address was on "Sunday Laws and Official Responsibility for Their Enforcement." The judge frankly admitted that there was no divine command for Sunday observance. "It has no divine sanction. It grew up gradually among the early Christians as an appropriate occasion on which to meet together and celebrate the event that distinguished their cult from all others. Hessey, in one of the Bampton lectures, shows that up to the end of the fifth century, and even later, the two days were not considered to have any relation to each other. It was finally worked into the church calendar as one of the chief holy days." Judge Pratt, very carefully and in language not to be misunderstood, put Sunday upon a distinctly civil basis, and declared that "Sunday as a religious institution can receive no legal recognition." "It is manifest that the religious liberty of the Jew or the infidel would be violated by a compulsory observance of Sunday as a religious institution. Sunday laws, so far as they require a religious observance of the day, are unconstitutional, and can not be enforced." Judge Pratt put many things in the matter of regulating the public order and peace of the day within the domain of the police power, but always upon far different reasons than those given by the clergy generally who had preceded him. He proceeded with a very elaborate plea for the rights of individuals, and closed with these words: "You can not compel a man to rest unless he wishes to. You can not make man virtuous or pious by concurrent resolutions. But you can prevent others from interfering with the rest to which he is entitled, and you secure to him the uninterrupted observance of any form of religious worship or moral and spiritual refreshment desired, leaving others to do otherwise—so long as neither interferes with the others."
The writer can hardly refrain from relating that the reading of Judge Pratt's paper produced a marked and decided chilling effect upon the assembly! I need not point out the reason; it is obvious!
A Pandora's Box of Evils.
Then a question-box was opened by President Burrell, and proved to be a veritable "Pandora's box of evils" to those who were basing their demands for compulsory first-day Sunday observance upon a commandment of God that demanded the observance of the seventh day of the week. Here are some of the questions: "What divine authority can you give for the observance of the first day of the week?" "Have you not departed from the seventh-day Sabbath and supplanted it with the first?" There were many others of like import.
The replies to all questions were so wide of the mark that it is not necessary to relate them. Suffice it to say, that ambiguous replies to the questions enumerated were as follows: 1. By the authority of God (evidence was lacking). 2. There is no departure. One day in seven was required. No more.
And then President Burrell actually launched out in a tirade against a minority that was setting up an argument and a demand for a day other than that recognized by the great Christian civilization, and was advocating other plans and ways of converting the world and benefiting society than those so universally recognized by all authorities. That "little band" could not keep the seventh day on the round world; "could not locate the definite seventh day of the week;" and "could not accomplish anything," only to mar the uniformity of the Christian civilization, and desire of the peoples of earth. Striking a posture of emphasis and shaking his finger vehemently at some imaginary foe, President Burrell fairly thundered forth in deep tones:
"Do not stand out against the vast majority and mar the uniformity of the Christian civilization, but come over and join, close up the ranks, and work for a common end, the glory of God and upbuilding
of His kingdom, and save ALL FUTURE TROUBLE!"
Sad, sad, unutterably sad indeed, that men can not see the real spirit that is back of all such work and words as these I have faithfully chronicled. Well may the Angel of the Apocalypse, flying in the midst of heaven, give forth the clarion cry to the world: "Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabiters of the earth."
Post-Office and Court House, in Elmira, N. Y.
The Certain End.
Just before the afternoon adjournment of the convention Dr. Stanley read a letter he had just received from a state senator, in which the senator had requested him to draft a bill providing for a strict observance of Sunday by the railways, street railways, and the corporations of every kind, and promising that he would introduce it on the very first day of the assembling of the Legislature at Albany, and use his influence and utmost endeavor to see it passed if possible. The convention was elated by the news of the letter, and in a measure it renewed the ardor that had been so signally dampened by the address of Judge Pratt.
Then the convention adjourned to meet one year hence in the city of Oswego. Thus came and went the sixteenth anniversary of the New York State Sabbath Association. One more step has been taken toward the ultimate goal of the complete supremacy of the church over the state. What will be the next step? Time will tell.
I must not neglect to say that on the evening following the adjournment of the convention, Dr. Burrell addressed a large audience in one of the largest churches of the city, upon "The Christian Sabbath." Herein he showed how we could "keep the first day on a round world and in all countries;" how "Sunday was the definite first day of the week;" and how all things could be accomplished in uplifting society and curing the evils of Christendom by an acknowledged uniformity in Christian practises and usages, and the universal acknowledgement of Sunday as the sabbath of the New Testament times.
So ends a true tale of what took place at Elmira, October 28, 29, 30, 31. Reader, you may draw your own conclusions; that is your right. But do not regard this recital of trivial importance. It is of national importance because the American Sabbath Union promises to carry these principles and these conditions, such as have had an apparent victory in Elmira, to every state in the union, until the very last analysis of religious legislation necessarily shall be reached, and a free people find themselves at last in the iron grasp of a religious despotism that acknowledges no boundary line, knows no limit.
Offended with Unbelievers
By Marie Corelli
To be offended with unbelievers is to show that you are not yourself quite sure of the faith to which you would compel them.—Marie Corelli.
BEING LIGHTS.
BEING lighted is never the end of the Christian’s life; not even being lighted from above. Being “lights”—that is the end. The moon is bright when it happens to be in a bright place; when the earth comes between it and the sun, it is dark. There are moonlight Christians who are bright enough when lighted by God’s manifest favor, but if the darkness of earth—a sorrow or a burden—rises between them and God, they are black and dark. . . . Christ would have us so “dwell in the light” that we may become “children of the light,” in whom there is “no darkness at all.”—Selected.
