Earlier text: The Ten CommandmentsAtlantic Union Conference
By I. H. Evans
Received on the $150,000 Fund up to June 18, 1907
Atlantic Union Conference
Central New England ........ $2,472.26
Chesapeake ................ 424.26
Eastern Pennsylvania ...... 1,411.85
Greater New York .......... 415.75
Maine ..................... 360.82
New Jersey ................ 552.63
New York .................. 1,026.17
Southern New England ...... 880.53
Vermont ................... 850.70
Virginia .................. 266.67
Western Pennsylvania ...... 822.57
West Virginia ............. 241.67
Western New York .......... 1,291.67 Total .................... $11,017.55 Canadian Union Conference
Maritime .................. $316.43
Quebec .................... 33.78
Ontario ................... 350.48 Total .................... $700.69 Colorado .................. $878.19
Iowa ...................... 2,169.97
Kansas .................... 1,655.65
Missouri .................. 851.45
Nebraska .................. 4,779.63
Wyoming ................... 403.87 Total .................... $10,738.76 Washington Churches ....... $1,167.74 East Michigan ............. $1,082.86
Indiana ................... 4,375.48
North Michigan ............ 120.51
Northern Illinois ......... 1,619.74
Ohio ...................... 2,661.61
Southern Illinois ......... 709.63
West Michigan ............. 3,115.35
Wisconsin ................ 1,785.37 Total .................... $15,470.55 North Pacific Union Conference
Conference not specified .. $350.26
British Columbia .......... 67.80
Montana ................... 221.66
Upper Columbia ............ 1,348.22
Western Washington ........ 1,021.81
Idaho ..................... 844.90
Western Oregon ............ 864.53 Total .................... $4,719.18 Northern Union Conference
Alberta ................... $139.10
Manitoba .................. 238.70
Saskatchewan Mission Field 34.85
Minnesota ................. 3,485.00
South Dakota .............. 2,114.19
North Dakota .............. 1,681.23 Total .................... $7,693.07 Arizona ................... $177.87
California-Nevada ......... 5,164.16
Southern California ....... 482.79
Utah Conference ........... 205.46 Total .................... $6,030.28 Southern Union Conference
South Carolina ............ $103.85
Alabama ................... 200.63
Tennessee River ........... 502.94
Florida ................... 337.65
North Carolina ............ 255.25
Kentucky .................. 30.36
Cumberland ................ 533.44
Louisiana ................. 385.61
Mississippi ............... 190.63
Georgia ................... 345.86 Total .................... $2,891.22 Southwestern Union Conference
Not specified ............. $170.18
Arkansas .................. 221.64
Oklahoma .................. 1,414.94
Texas ..................... 1,060.86 Total .................... $2,867.62 Unknown ................... $149.20 Algeria ................... $13.33
Australia ................ 137.06
Bermuda ................... 25.00
China ..................... 3.00
South Africa .............. 128.16
Jamaica ................... 13.41
Yukon Territory ........... 10.00
England ................... 256.32
West Africa ............... 13.90
Mexico .................... 2.00
Costa Rica ................ 2.00
India ..................... 12.48
South America ............. 23.35
Switzerland ............... 9.69
Panama .................... 9.00
Nicaragua ................. 2.00
Trinidad .................. .34
Central American Mission .. 17.00
Norway .................... 25.00
Japan ..................... 12.50
Hayti ..................... 5.00
Egypt ..................... 51.55
Palestine ................. 2.00
Tobago, W. I. ............. 1.22 Total .................... $775.31 Grand Total ............... $64,221.17 All remittances should be made to the treasurer of the State conference wherein the remitter resides. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then remittance should be made to I. H. Evans, Treasurer, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., and not to the Review and Herald. THE following encouraging words accompany a contribution to the fund:— “Enclosed please find five dollars to apply on the $150,000 fund. We are not members of a church at present, but hope soon to be, and we want a part in the work of God, and a place with his people in his kingdom. We know that the Seventh-day Adventist people are his people, and the third angel’s message his message—the closing message to the world. “We will send more money for the cause if we can. We only wish it were five hundred dollars, instead of five.” Faithfulness in Service
By Ellen G. White
The parable of the talents should receive prayerful, critical attention. By it we are shown the importance of trading diligently and conscientiously on our Lord's goods. Not one thread of selfishness is to be woven into his work. Worldly ambition is not to be cherished. We are to keep self out of sight, holding Christ before the world. We are to bring glory to God by doing our best to be perfect men and perfect women. Christ gave the parable of the talents to show us that all the blessings we have come from God. Our gifts belong to him. They are not to be used according to human judgment, but according to the directions given in God's Word. We are to study how we may use these gifts for the up-building of the cause of truth. In the parable our Saviour says, “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability.” Here we are shown that different gifts are entrusted to different individuals. With the talents given him, be they many or few, each one is to do his utmost to glorify God. Talents improve and multiply as they are used in the service of the Master. In the parable, the one who received five talents and the one who received two are represented as trading wisely on their talents, so that when their Lord returned, they were able to present to him that which he had entrusted to them, together with what they had gained by trading. And to each were spoken the words of commendation, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” “But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.” When the time came for him to render an account, he said, “Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.” His lord answered and said unto him, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” To-day thousands are doing as the unfaithful servant did. They live for self, when God desires them to improve their abilities for him, that they may act their part in his work. They excuse themselves by saying that they have but one talent. But if used for God, that one talent would accomplish much. By careful use the slothful servant might have doubled the talent, which instead of using he hid in the ground. This parable shows the need of using every gift aright. To all comes the opportunity of blessing others by speaking helpful, uplifting words. This is a talent, and the failure to improve it brings great loss. In our work this thought of glorifying God is to be made prominent. The business man is to bring the principles of heaven into every line of his work. In all he does the Christlikeness is to be clearly revealed. He who tills the soil is to make his work an object-lesson of the careful, thorough work which must be done in the culture of the soil of the heart. The mechanic is to do his very best, bringing his work as near perfection as possible. “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” The Lord can not unite with those who are careless and slothful in their work. He leaves them to themselves, choosing for his service those who do well every piece of work they handle, those who manage economically, gathering up the fragments, so that nothing will be lost. Those who work for the Lord must remember that they are members of the royal family, and that they are to do all that their hands find to do as in the sight of the heavenly universe. Never must they slight their work, doing it in such a way that he who has redeemed them will be ashamed of it. They are to guard against doing anything that will lead to carelessness or irreverence. They are ever to remember the words, “Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.” By following principles of strict integrity, they are to build up a symmetrical character. Christ will increase the talents of every faithful worker. This is the principle he always follows in dealing with his servants in this world. But the full honor in store for the one who in this life works with an eye single to the glory of God, will not be bestowed until the day of judgment. Then Christ will say to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Character Tested by Our Gifts
By R. C. Porter
The history of the past shows that there is a test of character in the way the people of God relate themselves to giving for the advancement of his work, as truly as in their relation to any other of his precepts. If when man was placed on trial in the garden of Eden, he had stood the tests brought to him, he would have been given the inheritance of the earth as an eternal possession, free from the effects of sin and the curse. His failure to pass successfully that period of trial has involved all his posterity in the results of his failure. Were it not for the fact that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, there would be no hope that we would live unselfishly during our period of probation, since our situation is far worse than that of our first parents at the time of their failure. Satan is also more skilled by long experience in luring us into sin. We can never be sufficiently grateful that the Lord gave some one a heart so free from selfishness that home ties and self-interest did not prevent him from bringing the truth to us. The early history of this work abounds with examples of unselfish devotion to the cause of God. The laborers were called upon to work under poverty and many other privations. Many sacrificed all to establish institutions through which to carry the work forward more rapidly. They never have had occasion to regret the sacrifices they made. The results have abundantly proved that God was leading in all these ways to hasten forward the work of the message. We are now living where we are reaping the harvest of their sowing. God has watered the seed thus sown in tears, by unselfish hands, and though many of the laborers have fallen from excessive toil, while they rest in hope, the seed sown is springing up in all parts of the world. The work now rests upon those of us who have received the truth from these faithful pioneers. This is our day of opportunity. How shall we treat the work of God that has come into our hands at the cost of the life and sacrifice of the Son of God, and the self-sacrificing labors of martyrs and the pioneers in this work? Ancient Israel had many in their midst who, during their day of opportunity and trial, “murmured in their tents,” and spoke against those who were leading in the work when the Lord called upon them to advance. This spirit so weakened them that they were blinded to all the opening providences of God, and when they were on the borders of the land of promise and might have gone in at once, it delayed them until their carcasses fell in the wilderness. Caleb and Joshua gave their hearts faithfully to9 God, and devoted their lives to his work. They met all the experiences that the others met, but they met them in a spirit of faith and courage. Mistakes were made. They did not dwell upon the mistakes, but on the mercy and goodness of God. They did not see disaster approaching the work, but through the mighty hand of God they saw a glorious victory just before them. And they realized the victory their faith grasped. “These things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” A call is now being made to raise $150,000 to relieve the financial strain under which our institutions are laboring in home and foreign fields, and for the erection and equipment of institutions in our mission fields. All must see that this is in the order of God’s providence. We have been instructed through the spirit of prophecy that now is the time to get out of debt. Had not this instruction been given, we might have devoted our entire energies to pushing the work in new fields, forgetting that these prosperous times will not always continue. The result would have brought great embarrassment when close times come upon us. From the light given, we know that this advance move is in harmony with the will of God. Some of our brethren will no doubt “murmur in their tents,” but every loyal Seventh-day Adventist should take up this call and pass it along in a spirit of faith. I believe we will do this, and even do as we did with the $100,000 call, overrun the call by several thousand dollars. “Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” — Donald A. Fraser
By Donald A. Fraser
IN years of old vain builders wrought
An impious tower to heaven;
And godless effort came to naught,
And was in ruin riven;
God set confusion on their daring
scheme,
And Babel was a vanity, a dream. And thus through all ensuing time,
When hearts of hatred plan
To rear against God's will sublime
Some weak device of man,
He writeth Babel on their ladder's rungs,
And dies their scheming mid a strife of
tongues. Sowing and Reaping
By George A. Irwin
The wise man has said, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: . . . a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.” Happy will be the men and women who have spiritual discernment at this time to recognize the “season,” and know the “time,” and a will to act, as the Lord would have them. The work of the husbandman is used in the Bible as a similitude of the work of the Christian. The words plow, sow, harvest, and reap are used very frequently in the Word of God, and to each is given its proper place and time. There can be no proper sowing without the plowing, no harvest without the sowing, and no reaping without the harvest. “The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.” How often we have seen this Scriptural principle verified in the lives of farmers we have known! Behind with their plowing in the spring, behind with their planting and sowing, crops blasted by rust or summer drought, or ruined by early autumn frost; driven from spring to fall, yet nothing done at the proper season or time, and as a result little or nothing at harvest-time as a reward for their labor. “He that observeth the wind shall not sow.” When the time comes for a thing to be done, we are not to be deterred from doing it by difficulties that may present themselves. One day’s delay because of adverse winds or threatening clouds may put us weeks behind, and lessen our chances for a profitable harvest. The sowing time is an important time, and we are exhorted not to become weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. We are to begin early to sow, and not slacken our hand when the day declines; for we know not which shall prosper, this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. There is also a blessing promised to those who sow bountifully (2 Cor. 9:6), and also to those who “sow beside all waters.” Isa. 32:20. The Lord does not want us to be narrow or circumscribed in our gifts and offerings which are to be used in purchasing and sowing the seed. The field is the world, and we are to sow beside all waters. The time for sowing will soon be over, and then comes the harvest. O, what shall the harvest be? — Just what we have individually sown. If we have sown bountifully, and at the right time, and in the right spirit, we shall reap bountifully. The harvest comes at the end of the world; but we are not to say, It is a long time yet, and become slack in our preparation for a place and part in it. “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” June 29 is the “season” and the “time” for us to finish God’s “purpose” in raising the $150,000 fund. When I call it God’s purpose, I speak advisedly, for he has through his own chosen servant spoken directly in favor of the work and enterprises toward which the larger share of this means is to be appropriated. It is high time that these institutions were finished, and equipped so that they can push forward the work of sowing the precious seeds of truth for which alone they were brought into existence. Not only do we need to finish raising this means for the purpose indicated above, but because now is the time to do it. Other calls and demands will come pressing in upon the heels of this one, and we do not want to get behind as does the slack farmer. A task or duty done on time, gives confidence and courage to perform the next that follows, with equal promptness. The Lord is marvelously opening up the way for the third angel’s message to go quickly into the regions beyond, and he expects his people to move and act quickly. “Delays tire the angels.” Shall we not, like brave, faithful husbandmen, finish this task this day, and stand ready and waiting to take up the next one that comes with equal determination? We have passed the “time to keep,” and have come to the “time to cast away.” “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” Souls are perishing all over the world for the bread of life; and he who is that bread, and also head of his church on earth, is calling upon us who have partaken of that bread, to send it adrift “upon the face of the waters,” with the assurance that we shall find it after many days. Shall We Come at the Call?
By R. A. Underwood
“GATHER my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Ps. 50:5. The condition and the ability to respond to the call when the angels are bidden to gather the faithful ones of earth to meet and welcome their returning Redeemer, is based upon the fact that we have made a covenant with him by sacrifice. Sin originated in selfishness, and every sin is traceable to selfishness. Therefore the divine plan of redemption is based upon the opposite principle; namely, benevolence and sacrifice. Love gives freely and abundantly of its best, and rejoices in giving without selfishness. Selfishness prides itself in covetous grasping, and gives only for selfish purposes. Heaven has drawn the line between these two principles. We must place ourselves upon one side or the other. There can be no half-way ground in our decisions. Selfishness, with all its baneful fruits, has been ruled out of heaven. Character built upon the opposite principle only can abide in the kingdom of eternal peace. Every person is on trial now to see which principle he will choose. This choice decides our destiny for eternity. It is for these reasons that God has so planned the work of the gospel that the principle of benevolence must be in constant exercise in every feature of the plan of salvation. Hence we are called upon repeatedly and continuously to sacrifice. We must first give ourselves and our families, and then of our substance, to help save a lost world. This is God’s means of removing selfishness from the human heart. The Lord could bring the gold out of the earth, or he could move upon a few men of great wealth to give millions to carry on the work of God in the earth. But this would test only a few. God’s plan is for every one to sacrifice for the cause of Christ and the salvation of man. Every man must give according to the ability bestowed upon him. Those with large means should give with a liberal hand. God has made them stewards of his means. Some conferences, blessed with numbers and wealth, can give much more per capita of membership than others of less ability. In raising the $150,000 fund some conferences should10 give much more per member than others, if all do according to the ability that God has bestowed. Happy is the man who esteems it a blessed privilege to do his whole duty, and does it quickly and continuously in every good work. There will be no uncertainty about that servant’s preparation to answer the call when the time of sacrifice is over, and the eternal reward is given in the home of unending glory. Attend Our Annual Meetings
By William Covert
IN ancient times the Lord planned many meetings of a general character for his people. Three of these were national in extent, and it therefore required considerable effort on the part of those who attended to comply with the arrangements. The people were assured that obedience would be gain to all who followed the plan. And so it was that those who kept in touch with the appointed services found themselves in the stream of constant blessings. Those who attended the gatherings were privileged to mingle with the men whom God had chosen and qualified to teach the ways of righteousness. They heard gracious lessons given by tried and worthy men. They obtained the information they needed to carry to their homes that those who could not attend might also be taught the same lessons. With them the regular routine of business was broken up, and they were thereby caused to give proper thought to their soul's need. It is very detrimental to our eternal interests to keep the mind at high tension on business and worldly cares while spiritual matters are neglected. One design of these general gatherings was to sustain a proper balance between the common affairs of life and the necessary religious instruction. The person who neglected the religious gatherings, and gave all his time to worldly affairs, lost his hold upon the kingdom of God, and shut himself away from the eternal inheritance. Our camp-meetings now are designed to be more to the Lord's people than the ancient gatherings were intended to be to his people who lived in the days long gone by. If God's people then needed to get away from their regular business cares to seek the Lord, and to learn about the needs of the cause of truth in the earth, it is much more important now that the people whom God has made the guardians of the truth give due attention to that which is entrusted to them. The Lord forbids that we become settled on our lees. One thing charged against Moab was that he had taken things easy from his youth, that he had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, but had allowed the lees, or settlings, to remain in his cup. Jer. 48:11, 12. His character was like the wine that had not been separated from its impurities. It is dangerous for a person to absent himself time after time from our camp- meetings and other general gatherings. Worldly cares increase as he neglects to attend the gatherings of God's people. He does not hear the message of Jesus' soon coming set before the Lord's people by his tried servants, and he grows cold in the cause and indifferent to its needs. The Lord says we should not neglect the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. As we near the coming of the Lord, it becomes all the more necessary for God's people to come together for counsel and exhortation. It will be necessary this year more than ever to consider the world's great wide harvest-fields. Laborers will be needed for these fields. Means will be called for to sustain the men and women who will be sent to these whitened fields. Those who do not attend the camp-meetings this year will miss the very lessons that the Lord desires to give them. Even though they should read about these things as the reports appear in our papers, they will fail to get the impression that they would get were they to attend these gatherings and hear the burning words from the lips of those fresh from these fields. Therefore the counsel to each one is, Attend the camp-meeting in your field or conference. Set your heart to help the Lord's work. Go to the meeting, both to get good and to do good. Appear on the ground early, and remain to the conclusion. A Sound Mind
By J. S. Washburn
If the enemy of our souls can not fill us with worldliness, can not cause us to commit open and terrible sin, but finds in us a desire to serve God, he will do his utmost to push us over to the extreme of fanaticism, and get us to take extreme positions, which may in the end accomplish as much or more harm than open wickedness. Let us remember that God “hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The mind of the Lord is perfectly sound. It is perfectly balanced. The nearer we become like him, the more strongly manifest will be that which we in homely terms call common sense. Foolish sentimentality, wild extremes, have no place in true Christian experience. It is true that God gives to us joy, happiness, unbounded, unmeasured; but there is always with it a serenity, a peace that passeth all understanding. The Spirit of God is a meek and quiet spirit. The Holy Ghost never makes a fool of a man. All about us there are those teaching doctrines that seem to have been condemned by the wise man, who said, “Be not righteous over much.” Many times these doctrines come so near to the truth that it is difficult to distinguish the dividing line between the truth and falsehood, but those who go over the line are led to claim extra holiness and sanctity. Logically the next step is that their desires, feelings, and propensities have been sanctified, and elevated to a higher plane than that of their fellow beings; that they are holy, and are safe to follow. For a time Satan may hold his deceived servants from committing outbreaking sin, but the time surely comes when some wild, foolish, or terrible act indicates that these deceived souls are off the main line, and that which seemed to them a higher and quicker line to heaven proves to have been but a side-track, quickly turning down from the main road to destruction. May the Lord give us all the spirit of a sound mind, preserving us from following the many voices that say, “Lo here,” and “Lo there.” Matt. 24:23 is being fulfilled to-day. Illogical Christian Science
By ALBERT H. DARROW
Both in ancient and in modern times schools of idealism and of realism have existed, and the idealistic and realistic philosophers have contended with each other for the supremacy. The doctrines of idealism are these: that material things are delusions; that matter does not exist; that nothing exists except ideas and principles; that the testimony of our eyes, ears, etc., is unreliable; that God is a principle, not a person; and that the real man is merely a divine idea, not a real or corporeal being. Among the pagans, idealism was taught and cherished merely as a philosophy. Among the partly paganized Catholics and Protestants, it has been so modified and blended with materialism as to teach that the earth and its inhabitants are material, but that heaven and its inhabitants, including the spirits of dead men, are immaterial. The first attempt to revive pure idealism in Christian lands, and place it upon a religious foundation, was made by Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Eddy, in the year 1866, in some of the Atlantic States of America. She says that “in the year 1866 I discovered the Christ Science, or divine laws of life, and named it Christian Science. God had been graciously fitting me during many years for the reception of a final revelation of the absolute divine principle of scientific being and healing.”—“Science and Health,” page 107. On page 113 she makes the startling affirmations, that “there is no pain in truth, and no truth in pain; no nerve in mind, and no mind in nerve; no mind in matter, and no matter in mind; no matter in life, and no life in matter; no matter in good, and no good in matter.” It would be almost useless to remind any student of ecclesiastical history that this is Manicheism, pure and simple, and that Manicheism is not Christianity. On page 213 she tells us that “sound is a mental impression, made on mortal belief. The ear really hears not.” On page 257 she says that “if matter, so-called,11 is substance, then spirit, matter’s opposite, must be shadow; and shadow can not produce substance. . . . Mind creates his own likeness in ideas, and the substance of an idea is very far from being the supposed substance of non-intelligent matter.” If an idea is a perfect likeness of God, then what is God but a mere idea? On page 254 we find that, according to Mrs. Eddy, “spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. Matter disappears under the microscope of spirit. Sin is unsustained by truth, and sickness and death were overcome by Jesus, who thus proved them to be forms of error.” On page 301 she informs us that “mortal man seems to himself to be material substance, but man is image.” But on page 302 she says that we should “remember that the harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illusion of any life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact, not fable.” Here she has both a mortal man and an immortal man existing in one person—yet not a person, but an idea, image or reflection of a principle—the one man being subject to illusions, the other free from them. On page 303 she tells us that “God without the image and likeness of himself, would be a nonentity, or mind unexpressed. God would be without a witness or proof of his own nature. Spiritual man is the idea of God, an idea which can not be lost, nor separated from its divine Principle.” Is the mind of God necessarily a nonentity when it is unexpressed in man? Does the outward expression of a principle or attribute constitute the principle or attribute itself? What is the value of logic which has no meaning? If man is an idea of God, and can not be lost, what shall we do with the parable of the lost sheep? “Man can not be separated for an instant from God, if he reflects him.”—“Science and Health,” page 306. “Because soul is immortal, soul can not sin.”—Id., page 468. “God, or good, could never make men capable of sin. . . . Evil is but an illusion.”—Id., page 480. These declarations would seem sufficient to assert the impossibility of human beings committing sin; yet, on pages 204, 205, Mrs. Eddy says that “the error which saith soul is in body, mind is in matter, and good is in evil, must unsay it, and cease from such utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from humanity, and mortals will sin [do that which is impossible] without knowing that they are sinning [performing impossibilities], will lean on matter instead of spirit.” Can man sin unconsciously? The absolute impossibility of stating the doctrines of “Christian Science” idealism in comprehensible terms, and its apparent self-contradictions, should convince any rational mind that its premises and conclusions are false. In the Arms of Home
By Chas. P. Weede
FAR have we gone in the passing of years,
Strange were the streets and alien the strand;
Long have we wandered the world-wide frontiers,
And tasted the life of every land.
But from their castles, their plains, and their streams,
And from the wilds of the wide sea foam,
Weary we turn to the scenes of our dreams—
Let us go back to the old, old home. Sweet was that haven in which we were born,
Cradle and love and a garden of dreams;
Care-free and joyous we rambled the morn,
While fled the years whence nothing redeems.
But by the grim Time at last we were borne
Forth from the garden of dreams to roam;
And not till we moor in the true golden morn
Shall we again find all of that home. Deep is the touch of a mother's love,
True is the guide of a father's hand;
With brothers and sisters they lift us above
The drift and the dregs of a life's lower land.
There were we made in all we may be
Of goodness or greatness in years that come;
There were we bent for eternity,
Back in the arms of the dear old home.
— Chas. P. Weede. “Blessed Are the Pure in Heart”
By C. L. S.
“He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.” Can it be that when we are so willing to take up and pass on the latest titbit of scandal, we are loving pureness of heart? I once knew a light-hearted, happy girl. Our paths led us into separate ways, and in the years we were apart, the saddest of misfortunes came into that young girl's life. In course of time our paths crossed again. I had not heard of her misfortune, and in our short stay together we had a very pleasant time. I noticed the sad face, and wondered, but thought perhaps it was due to the added years. Later I met a mutual acquaintance, and when I chanced to mention our young friend's name, she asked, with lowered tones, “O, had you not heard?” and then she poured the whole sad story into my ears. “I am so sorry,” I said. “Poor child! I wish I could make her life less sad. The lines of suffering are written in her face.” I need never have known; I was not helped in any way by hearing her story. It did our young friend no good to have it repeated; and the good sister was in no way benefited by telling me. A few months after, I was talking with the wife of an officer of the church. She took great pride in her own exemplary girlhood days, and held virtue in high esteem. In the course of our conversation she spoke of my young friend. “And by the way, had you heard?” she asked. Without waiting for a reply, with bated breath, she whispered the same sorrowful tale into my ears. I could think of no reason why she should have told me. I had not asked her for any information, and even if I had, no good could come from repeating the story. Again another came to me, and tried to tell me the same story, but this time I led the conversation into other channels. My heart was full of sympathy for my poor unfortunate young sister. “O,” I thought, “will people never cease to repeat that story to me? How it must hurt my little friend! How it must keep her down!” A great wave of pity surged through my heart as I thought of the suffering she must undergo. Why should her sisters in the church keep repeating her story? Were they helping her by telling it? I knew from further association with her that she was living an upright life, was struggling to retrieve the past; and why, O why, should her sisters, whom Christ had commissioned to offer her courage and hope, keep calling up the past? My sisters, let us pray,—
“Teach me to feel another’s woe,
To hide the fault I see.
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.” Sir Frederick’s Prescription
THE king of England’s famous surgeon, Sir Frederick Treves, has this to say to the rising generation. It comes from one who knows:— “Boys, don’t bother about genius, and don’t worry about being clever. Trust rather to hard work, perseverance, and determination. The best motto for a long march is: ‘Don’t grumble. Plug on.’ You hold your future in your hands. Never waver in this belief. Don’t swagger. The boy who swaggers,12 like the man who swaggers, has little else that he can do. He is a cheap-jack crying his own paltry wares. It is the empty tin that rattles most. Be honest, be loyal, be kind. Remember that the hardest thing to acquire is the faculty of being unselfish. As a quality, it is one of the finest attributes of manliness. Love the sea, the ringing beach, and the open down. Keep clean, body and mind.”—Selected.