Review and Herald, Vol. 51, No. 2. (1/10/1878)

Review and Herald

Jan 10, 1878

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 10, 1878

DEBTS

AN exchange says:—

If the world should suddenly resolve to be rid of one of its greatest evils, debt, there would not be found sufficient money to pay one cent on a dollar. This statement may seem extravagant, it is, however, not made without considerable investigation of statistics and the closest scrutiny of approximations where definite figures could not be found.

The national debt of the United States, $2,051,587,254, would swallow about three times the money in the country, yet this national debt is a mere trifle compared with debts of States, counties, towns, cities, villages, schools, churches, business firms and corporations, and private individuals. No definite approximation can be made to the debts here mentioned; from the latest returns at our command we estimate the debts of thirty-three States to be $564,371,400. In this sum are included the debts of about two-thirds of the counties and townships, and hence, since the county and town debts form by far the larger portion of this amount, we may safely add another $125,000,000, for the remaining counties and towns not before counted.

One of the chief debtors in modern times, and especially in this land of lavish expenditure, is the cities. It seems almost incredible, yet the best authorities vouch for the fact, that the city of New York is carrying a debt of $149,000,000. A writer

for the September Galaxy ascertains the debt of 130 of our largest cities to be $644,378,663, and estimates that the total debt, if all the cities were taken into account, would not fall short of $1,000,000,000. It is a noteworthy fact, that while many of the States and counties are slowly diminishing their burdens, the debts of cities are increasing at alarming rates. What, then, should be called the public debt proper may be summed up as follows:—

National debt, Oct. 1, 1877, $2,051,587,254 State, county, and town debts, $689,371,396 Village debts (estimated), 100,000,000 City debts, 1,000,000,000 Total, $3,840,958,650

What do these figures indicate? That the purely public debts of the United States, one of the youngest debtors of the earth, aggregate five times the amount of money in the country.

EASTERN COMPLICATIONS.

A General European War Threatened.

LONDON, Dec. 29.—There is general and profound depression everywhere in England, caused largely by the uncertainty with reference to the future, and the fear of war. The change of the British fleet to Smyrna gives strength to the rumor in reference to taking possession of Egypt. Business is substantially at a standstill. The war and peace advocates are making constant and impassioned appeals to the public, but the former are making the most noise. Monster public demonstrations are being devised in order to influence the action of Parliament in the interest of Turkey. There is no question as to the gravity of the situation. The menace to Russia involved in calling Parliament together, in place of having the effect to check Russian ambitious projects, has resulted in defiance, increased pretensions, and the announcement that Russia, to vindicate her power, must take Constantinople.

The attitude of England, by increasing the arrogance of Russia, forces England nearer the brink of war. Preparations are certainly being made for such an eventuality, and vast supplies of canned food are being shipped to Malta. It is said, on excellent authority, that 60,000 Indian troops are being prepared to move at a call. That Egypt, either by force or purchase, will be taken possession of is a contingency liable and almost sure to occur. It is urged that the present is the most favorable time for war, owing to the vast number of unemployed men who would enlist to avoid starvation.

Information from Berlin is to the effect that Bismarck is determined to break up the French Exposition. To accomplish this, he will urge Russia to demand impracticable terms, so as to necessitate England interference. Germany will then send a force to aid Russia. France, he believes, would not be able to resist the opportunity to attack Germany, whereupon he would turn on France and complete the work done in the Franco-Prussian war, and which did not leave France sufficiently broken to suit the interests of Germany. From the tone of the English and Continental press, a war involving the greater portion of Europe is very likely to be the outcome of the present situation.—Boston Herald.

CRIME IN FRANCE AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

By D. T. Taylor

War being a crime, France herself is a huge criminal. Since the year A. D. 1300, she has spent three hundred and twenty-six years of her national existence at war; 80 of these bloody years being times of civil war, and the remaining 246 foreign. She spent nearly half (43 years) of the thirteenth century in war; 71 years of the fifteenth century, 85 years of the sixteenth, 69 years of the seventeenth, and 58 of the eighteenth, in slaughtering humanity. A nation thus trained to deeds of strife and blood can place but little value on human life. Killing becomes a trade. France originated a St. Bartholomew, and gave birth to the Reign of Terror and the Commune. Should it be claimed that war’s slaughterings are legitimate, and cannot be reckoned as criminal, we demur in the light of the gospel, and pass to other facts.

In 1868 the Journal Official gave a statistical report of crime in France. There were more crimes in 1867 than during the previous year; crime was asserted to be on the increase, especially among the lower classes, the uneducated. That year twenty-five persons received the death sentence for murder, and a host of murderers escaped. More murders had been perpetrated in the empire (and in Germany too, it was said) in 1867 than ever in a year before. The actual number of homicides was 307. At the same time France was freer from the murderous spirit than was Spain and Italy, and any increase caused alarm.

Coming to self-murders, we find their increase in France actually frightful, Paris in this respect distancing all other cities. A report to the Institute of France, by M. Decaise, a few years since, gave London 1 suicide in every 175 deaths; for New York, 1 to 172; for Vienna, 1 to 100; while mad Paris had 1 self-murderer to every 72 deaths. In 1870, Prof. A Von Oettingen gave to the public the following table of increase of self-destruction in France, thus: In 1830 there were 1,730 suicides; in 1840 there were 2,574; in 1850 there were 3,446; in 1860 there were 4,002; in 1865 there were 4,700. He showed a steady increase which was nine times as rapid as was the increase of population!

In 1874 the cases of self-murder in all France ran up to 5,617; of these 29 were by persons under sixteen years of age. This is on an average sixteen cases each day! A general increase over all previous years was reported from the office of Criminal Justice, and the increase was attributed in a great measure to the increased consumption of absinthe, an intoxicating drug that induces madness. There occurred also in the above year 168,835 arrests, 35,000 robberies, 18,000 cases of poaching, 13,000 cases of assault on law officers, and 15,000 deadly assaults by cutting and wounding. (See Edinburgh Scotsman, Oct. 21, 1876.)

The following year, 1875, the suicides increased. Of those who killed themselves nine were fifteen years of age, six were fourteen, nine only thirteen, one was twelve, two were eleven, one ten, and one but nine. Twenty-nine children committing the crime of self-murder!

I will only add what Edward King says in a letter from Paris to the Boston Journal, under date of Jan. 5, 1877: “Such a frightful tempest of crime has swept over France in these latter days, that the judges show no mercy, and the executioner is kept traveling all the time. In France there is but one official who can inflict capital punishment, and he is a much overworked man.”

In France there are thirty-seven Romanists to one Protestant. Who will undertake to convert this mass of drunken, gay, giddy, ignorant, self-destroying people, who, if not utterly atheistic and godless, have at the throne and in their affections substituted the Virgin Mary for our Lord Jesus Christ?

A few facts will serve to show that this spirit of Cain is everywhere rampant. I have no statistics of Switzerland, but religion and morals must be low there, if the case be true recently reported of a man acquitted of the charge of murder on the ground that “he had always fulfilled his religious duties”! He had killed his own wife!

In Syria, in 1871, a Druze woman, because she was disappointed in a love affair, wreaked her vengeance on the innocents, and poisoned to death and cut to pieces eight children. On her arrest it was alleged she had committed no less than fourteen murders. She manifested entire heartlessness in regard to these bloody deeds.

In Chili, S. A., during June, 1877, nine bandits came upon a peaceful dwelling, seized three helpless boys in sleep, stabbed the eldest till he was literally hacked in pieces, ripped up the second and cut his hand away in piece-meal, then thrust their sharp knives into the mouth of the youngest, turning them round and round till the tongue, palate, and cheeks were perfectly minced!

In India, in May, 1876, a man named Kahden was arrested who confessed to having murdered sixteen persons in the last four years. He had poisoned all his victims and then robbed them. It was called the most serious and alarming crime in India since the suppression of Thuggism.—D. T. Taylor.

THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF FATHER CURCI.

No more significant political event, or ecclesiastical, has occurred of late in Italy than the excision of Father Curci from the Society of Jesus. He is a Jesuit of the most pronounced character, a writer of the first class, a very eloquent and popular preacher, but he is also a patriotic Italian. He has been anxious to reconcile the papacy with the government. He has clearly apprehended the improbability of the recovery by the pope of his temporal power; and he has convinced himself, and sought to convince the pope and Curia, of this “accomplished fact.” At first the pope seemed, at least, not to be disturbed by his propositions, but under the influence of his counsellors, he finally became greatly incensed against the brave and patriotic Italian, who had the impertinence to ask the Curia to make a formal renunciation of temporal power, and to be reconciled to Victor Emanuel. The pope at once demanded of Father Beckx, the general of the Jesuits, that the bold priest should be disciplined. Although he had been over fifty years a member of the society, he was commanded to retract, and pledge himself never to open the matter again, or tender his resignation. The intrepid old man sent in his resignation, and left Rome for Florence. It is understood that a large portion of the members of the Society of Jesus are in sympathy with Curci, as well as the great body of liberal Catholics in Italy. The brave old man is by no means discouraged. He enters more resolutely upon his work. The door of the Inquisition cannot now be so readily opened as in the days of his great predecessor, Savonarola and in the free struggle between light and darkness there can be no doubt as to the result.—Zion's Herald.

THE NEW YEAR.

By Eliza H. Morton

The wheels of time have onward rolled, The song's been sung, the story told, A record made, And our acts weighed.

The year is gone—now in the past; The moments come and go so fast That, like the dew, They're ever new.

One year ago some hearts were glad That now perchance are sick and sad; And falls the tear, For death is here.

One year ago some hearts were sad; That now perchance are gay and glad; For time heals wounds When peace abounds.

The "Christ-child," as in days of old, Will pardon give, and joy untold. To seeking ones, Sweet comfort comes.

Then let us all, with purpose true, Seek light and truth, with faith anew. The coming year May bring good cheer.

The time that's past, the years to come, May serve to fit us for a home Where none molest— Eternal rest!

ELIZA H. MORTON.

Allen's Corner, Me., Jan. 1, 1878.

COMING CONFLICT.

The following is from the Boston Journal, Nov. 3, 1877:—

“A well-known London correspondent has had an interview with Mgr. Capel, ‘the most successful Roman Catholic in England,’ and one of the most prominent characters in Disraeli’s ‘Lothair.’ This high Catholic authority declares that two forces are now dividing England between them—Catholicism and infidelity, or free-thinking; in other words, pure belief and the absence of all belief. He adds the startling announcement that ‘Protestantism as a power is dead,’ though he qualifies it by saying that he has regard mainly to the Anglican Church, for he concedes that ‘Methodism is a power still.’ He foresees a great struggle in Europe between free-thinking and Catholicism, a struggle which will involve vast consequences for empires as well as for religions. ‘In that contest,’ said he, ‘I expect to see America play a great part.’ In America, he thought the Catholics had the field before them. The conversion of England he, contrary to the opinion of some of his friends, expected to be slow, but it was perfectly sure. The fact that he is a representative man of a most powerful organization makes his views worth hearing.”

A BIG GUN.

ARTILLERY experiments were lately resumed at Shoeburyness, near London, with the eighty-ton cannon. It was loaded with a charge of 425 pounds; the projectile, a Palliser ball, weighed 1,700 pounds, and quitted the mouth of the gun at the rate of 1,600 feet in a second. The target was at a distance of 120 yards, and was composed of a sheet of iron two feet thick, traversed by oaken beams of fifteen inches. It cost about $30,000. The projectile buried itself seventeen inches in the iron, which was not thought satisfactory, but, owing to the heavy expense of each shot, a second trial was not made.—Ex.

THE YEAR IN EUROPE.

THERE have been two struggles in Europe this year—one a peaceful, the other a bloody struggle—in which Americans have been profoundly interested. Their sentiments of humanity were outraged by the massacres of Christians in Turkey, which the Porte was either powerless or disinclined to prevent, and their attachment to republican institutions made them anxious for the triumph of republicanism in France. The results of both these campaigns are of a satisfactory character. It is not, in the case of the Eastern war, that we love the cause of Russia; but that of the Christian provinces, whose highest interests hinge upon the success of the Czar. The triumph of Turkey would be a blow to civilization and humanity. But of this there appears to be no imminent danger. The Russians have gained, in the short campaign following the declaration of war in April, all that they could have reasonably expected to gain. They have made themselves masters, virtually, of Armenia, and only need Erzeroum and Trebizond, which are surely in their reach, to make the conquest of this province complete. The capture of Kars, the most strongly fortified place in Asiatic Turkey, was an admirable piece of strategy, brilliantly executed, and it robbed one of the ablest of the Turkish generals, Mahktar, of his newly-invested title of “Ghazi.”

But the greatest blow to the Turks and the most important victory to the Russians was the fall of Plevna, in Bulgaria. Captured easily, early in the campaign, the Russians lost it through lack of generalship, and Osman Pasha took possession of it and showed what military skill and indomitable courage could do to defend a position which had hardly any natural advantages. And Osman might still have been master of Plevna if the Grand Duke’s disease had not been arrested in its course sufficiently to allow a great military engineer, Gen. Todleben, to plan the campaign against the town. In its fall Turkey was seriously crippled. The Turks not only lost an army of upward of 30,000 men, with immense military stores; but they lost the last tenable position in Bulgaria west of the quadrilateral, and exposed Adrianople, and even Constantinople itself, to Russian incursions. The quadrilateral is now menaced in the investment of Rustchuk, against which a most formidable array of artillery is trained. The great army which invested Plevna is now left free to operate against the Turkish forces on the Lom; which will undoubtedly retire to Shumla or Rasgrad, within the quadrilateral.

The Turkish armies, both in Europe and Asia, have few or no advantages. They cannot move without danger of being checkmated, and can hardly hope to retrieve what they have lost, in the next year’s campaign, if peace should not intervene. There are evidences that the Porte is heartily tired of the war, and would be glad to put an end to it, if it could be done without sacrificing too much. Russia, which is now in a position to enforce its demands, would not be satisfied, probably, with less than the secured autonomy of the Christian provinces of Europe, free navigation of the Black Sea and the Bosphorus, and a strip of Armenia, to strengthen its southwestern frontier and to give it more sea-coast. The prospect is that there will be mediation between the two powers, and a proclamation of peace before next spring.

In France the singular spectacle has

been presented of a republic with an anti-republican administration. The course of Marshal MacMahon since May, when he dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, on the plea that the ascendency of Radicalism was becoming dangerous to the stability of the government and the peace and welfare of the people, has seemed to English and American observers to tend toward the overthrow of the republic, and the re-establishment of a monarchy, of which a parallel is furnished in the case of Spain. No one feared for Spain or France either while the government of the former was in the hands of Castelar and that of the latter in those of Thiers. But Marshal Serrano, succeeding to Castelar, betrayed the republic and restored the Bourbon monarchy; and Marshal MacMahon has seemed to be ready to murder the liberties of France in the same way. But, happily, the republic was too strong and the plot against it has failed.

After using to the utmost every legitimate advantage possessed by the government to influence the new elections, and after muzzling the press and leaders of the Republican party in a way that would hardly be permitted in despotic Russia, the Marshal and his party, with all the support the church could give them, met with an overwhelming defeat. Then it became a personal question with MacMahon whether to adopt the alternative—which Gambetta prophetically declared would be presented by the result of the elections, and for which he was arrested and tried—submit or resign. He tried for a while to avoid the question; but his own party and the conservative senate refused longer to support his obstinate opposition, and he has at last surrendered, and for the remaining two years of his septennate must be guided by the will of the people, who have definitely and decidedly declared that the government of France shall be a republic.

The Independent.

SUPERFICIAL RELIGION.

By Albert Stone

The religion of the present is sadly superficial. A mere surface work seems quite satisfactory to a large class of church members. Efforts to mend this state of things seem quite unavailing. Christians of fifty years ago would not have fellow-shipped the religion of the present time. And yet things are every day getting worse.

Skepticism and doubt in regard to fundamental points of divine revelation have already become quite common with those who claim to be the disciples of Christ. The sciences are perverted and wrested from their true position as an ally of the Bible, and insidiously converted into an ally of deception and falsehood.

Clergymen and laymen are daily to be met who give their influence to this state of things. They indorse the infidel and spiritualistic notion that the six days of creation represent so many indefinite periods of great length, that the earth is older and has been inhabited much longer than the Bible account would indicate. The facts of natural history, physiology, and of the sciences generally, are perverted and made to testify against God and the Bible. These infidel teachings, by those in whom the people have confidence as ministers of Christ, are sufficient, in the minds of many, to lessen, at first, and finally to destroy, the authority of the Scriptures.

Unbelief has been doing a cruel work in all time; but never were its efforts more powerful, or directed with a surer aim than now. Never, unless it were in the days of Noah and of Christ, were the moral sensibilities of men so benumbed, their perceptions so dull, as at the present time. If we would see infidelity in its full strength, possessing facilities for doing its own proper work which Voltaire or Thomas Paine never possessed, we may pass by its more palpable manifestations as seen in the open profession of pantheism or deism, and search in circles of refinement, in organizations professedly of a religious character.

Comparatively little is to be feared from outside infidelity: it is the infidelity that comes into the sanctuary in a religious garb, and invades the sacred precincts of the house of God; that assumes the livery of the court of Heaven to serve the devil in; that comes in the name of Christ with a message from fallen angels,—it is this that is leading more souls to ruin than all the infidelity beside, if we except spiritualism.

Indeed, infidelity in its most forbidding forms meets with little opposition from the current religion of the day. The men who sigh and cry over this state of things are few and far between. Primitive holiness is little sought for, and the precepts of Christ, and the examples of holy men of old, are not heeded. The truth for the time is ignored; blindness has happened to Israel; yet they say, We see: they are deaf, yet they say, We hear: they are dead, yet they say, We live. God's judgments are many and great in the land, yet the people turn not to Him that smites them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.

Their silver has become dross; their wine is mixed with water; their religion is more of the intellect than of the heart, and seeks more earnestly the friendship of the world than the friendship of God. It is ready to exchange truth for error, or to compromise with the spirit and practice of the world.

Such religion is the enemy of God and man. Satan is well pleased with it, and it is one of his chief agents in his warfare against Heaven. It is the devil's bait to catch souls. It is his stool-pigeon to decoy the flock. The only remedy is to receive the whole truth and practice it. Has God a special truth for this generation? So we read, and so we believe. God has set his seal to this one thing; namely, that he has held the advent doctrine in reserve, in all past time, for the special benefit of this generation. All the Bible specifications meet in the present proclamation. It answers in every particular to the prophetic record. Unbelief may blind the eyes and harden the heart, but it cannot avert the fact that the Lord is soon to come.

To-day all classes of men are being earnestly entreated and faithfully warned. To-day unbelief and false religion lead many to reject the truth. To-morrow, unavailing tears of regret may be shed for these things. Think of the bitterness of such tears, and take timely measures to prevent them. ALBERT STONE.

Peace and Safety.

By J. O. Corliss

Many and various are the interpretations given of the Bible, especially of those scriptures that refer to the coming of the Lord and the end of the world. Any view that will explain away their force and give them a “spiritual” meaning, or place the event of which they speak in the distant future, is listened to by many with evident pleasure.

Recently a man preached from the words, “But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” 1 Pet. 4:7. The speaker commenced by saying that he, in common with all good orthodox people, believed in the second personal appearing of Jesus Christ upon the earth; but he could not, with some, think that these words had any reference to that event. He then gave some (to him, no doubt) weighty reasons why he differed from them. Mighty achievements were yet to be executed, whose completion would require ages. The entire world must first be settled, and brought under a high state of civilization, in order to become converted. The mighty forests must be cleared away, and the soil on which they stand cultivated and become like the garden of Eden. In short, he seemed to think the end no nearer than when Peter wrote the text.

How strangely some men reason! Just think of it! The gospel must bring the world from its darkness occasioned by the fall to the highest point of civilization, convert the world, and restore the earth to its primitive beauty, in order for the Lord to come and destroy it! Could it not be just as effectually destroyed without? What marvelous views such people must have of the infinite wisdom of the great God, and how short-sighted the wisdom that begets such reasoning! It may truthfully be called human, and not heavenly, wisdom. Such representations are faithfully portrayed in the word of God. 2 Pet. 3:3, 4: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” Since Inspiration has recorded that such speeches will be made in the last days, may we not safely conclude, when we hear them on every hand, that we have entered upon that time!

Another argument advanced was, that had Peter meant the end of the world, he would have said so in so many words. The conclusion was therefore drawn that Peter simply exhorted the people to be sober, and watch unto prayer, because he was about to die! What? Everybody watch and be sober because Peter was going to die? Peter’s death the end of all things? We could not believe that, for a number of reasons: 1. We believe Peter had more sense than to think his life of such importance as to call its termination the end of all things; 2. Had he meant the end of his life he would have “said so in so many words;” 3. That is not the way Bible writers talked about dying. Hear Paul: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” 2 Tim. 4:6. Peter also says, “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, . . . I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance.” 2 Pet. 1:14, 15.

The apostle spoke of that which ever seemed uppermost in his mind—the time when all would render up their account, and receive their reward. 1 Pet. 5:4; 2 Pet. 2:9. God spoke through Peter to those who should live in the time of the end.

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul spoke of the Lord’s coming as an event immediately pending: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” Chap. 5:4. “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others.” Verse 6. Yet he told them in his next letter that before the Lord should come, certain events must transpire which were then matters of prophecy. 2 Thess. 2:1, 3. Paul here speaks as a representative of the whole Christian church, as his epistles cover the whole Christian age. Hence the “ye” and “us” used in the first letter, refer to a class living after the fulfillment of those events given in the second letter; and the apostle expresses himself in language appropriate to that time.

Peter, guided by the same unerring Spirit, takes the same course. In his first epistle he says, “The end of all things is at hand.” In his second letter he speaks again of the Lord’s coming, and says that in making it known he has not followed cunningly devised fables. He then cites for his authority the sure word of prophecy, to which, he says, “ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn.” 2 Pet. 1:16–19. This certainly refers to that people who see the glad day dawn, and yet he speaks as though it applied to the church in his day. If we take heed to the prophecy, as to a light that shines in darkness, it will point with such unerring certainty to that great event that none need be in doubt.

In view of the many omens of the end, how strange that some still persist in lulling the world to sleep. “When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3.

J. O. CORLISS.

CONSISTENCY?

By H. Wren

Many professed lovers of the Bible and of reason read in Acts 20:7, “Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,” and straightway commence to draw inferences, and continue drawing them until they have a list of inferences something like the following:—

The Sabbath has been abolished.
Sunday has been set apart to religion.
It was the duty of the disciples at Troas to meet every first-day.
It was the duty of all the disciples, everywhere, to meet on Sundays.
The disciples at Troas met every first-day to break bread.
The disciples everywhere met every Sunday to break bread.
Christ or some apostle had so enjoined.
All Christians, everywhere and in all ages, are under obligations to meet every first-day to break bread.

It is claimed that these and the like inferences are necessarily drawn from this passage. Yet it is perfectly plain that not one of them need, as a matter of necessity, be drawn from it. And when we consider that this is the only passage in the Bible that in any way mentions a regular meeting on the first day of the week, it becomes perfectly plain that not one of these inferences ought to be drawn from it, and that they cannot be, except in open disregard of both reason and Scripture.

The very persons who infer so voluminously from this passage, cannot infer at all when 1 Tim. 5:10 is read. It will be seen by reading this entire chapter that Paul is laying down rules by which to determine who among the poor members of the church should be provided for by the church. Now it is perfectly plain from this passage that “feet-washing” was both practiced and required, else the absence of it would not have rendered a member unworthy of the church’s alms.

But those who can see so much in Acts 20:7, cannot see anything here, even though this passage is supported by a three-fold injunction from the Saviour himself. See John 13. If there was such an injunction in any of the Saviour’s teachings requiring the observance of the first day of the week, how quick those of whom we are speaking would be to hitch Acts 20:7 to it, and well they might be. Then why not allow that John 13 and 1 Tim. 5:10, go together, as they do most certainly, and make out an incontestable case for the ordinance of “feet-washing”? Is it consistent to see so much in Acts 20:7, and so little in John 13 and 1 Tim. 5:10?

H. WREN.

THE DREADED DIPHTHERIA.

By D. T. Taylor

Previous to 1860, this fatal scourge was scarcely known in our country. That year, however, it swooped down upon the little ones, and its victims were 10,000. Physicians said its visit was transient, and, like the Asiatic cholera, it would in time depart. But time shows the error of this medical prognosis. The scourge came to stay. It cuts down the darlings of three, five, and eight, with relentless hand. Whole households are swept away by it. Medical men say it is caused by some strange and unknown affection of the air. It is on the increase most alarmingly.

Five years ago, in 1872, it stood the nineteenth on the list of fatal diseases in Massachusetts. In 1873 it was the same; in 1874, the eleventh; in 1875, the seventh; in 1876 it stood the second. In deadly action it now ranks next to consumption in all the old Bay State. The faculty are in alarm at its ravages. Parents tremble at its visitation.—D. T. Taylor.

CRITICISM OF PREACHERS, BY A JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT.

By J. H. G.

“Ministers do not exercise good sense in addressing the people. They are afraid of repetition. They use language not well understood by the common people. Their illustrations are not taken from the common pursuits of life. They write in too elevated a style, read without repetition, and are not understood by the people. If lawyers were to take such a course, they would ruin themselves and their cause. When I was at the bar I used to take it for granted when I had a jury before me, that I should have to repeat over my main positions about as many times as there were persons in the jury-box. I learned that unless I did so—illustrated and repeated, and turned over and over the main points of the law and the evidence—I should lose my cause.

“One object in addressing a jury is to get their minds settled before they leave the jury-box; not to make a speech in language only partially understood by them; not to let ourselves out in illustrations entirely above their apprehension; not to display our oratory and then let them go. We are set on getting a verdict, and hence we are set upon being understood. We mean to convince them; and if they have doubts as to the law we make them understand it, and rivet it in their minds. We expect to get a verdict and to get it on the spot; so that when they go to their room it will be found that they have understood us, and that they have been convinced by the facts and arguments. If we do not thus take pains to urge home every thought and every word and every point, so as to lodge it in their convictions, we are sure to lose our cause. We must overcome their prejudices; we must overcome their ignorance; we must overcome their interest, even in our client, if they have any.

“Now if ministers would do all this the effects of their preaching would be unspeakably different from what they are. They go into their study and write a sermon, then they go into the pulpit and read it, and those that listen to it but poorly understand it. Many words they will not understand unless they go home and consult their dictionaries. Ministers do not seem to address the people expecting to convince them and get a verdict in favor of Christ upon the spot. They rather appear to aim at making fine literary productions and displaying great eloquence and an ornate use of literature and language.”

There is a great deal of downright hard common sense in these remarks, which it would be well for all preachers to lay to heart. Especially should the young, who are just entering upon their work, give earnest heed to these words. Their temptation is to go far in the opposite direction, and to imagine that it is by beautiful sermons they can convert the world. And it sometimes requires the experience of some years to convince them that they must aim at simplicity of style, directness of address, and earnestness of soul, in order to make successful ministers of the gospel.—J. H. G., in Herald and Presbyter.

THE YEARS.

By Joseph Clarke

NEARLY six thousand new years have become old years, and still the world moves on. But as the history of the years advances to completion, each New Year’s day brings with it so much of evil and of disaster, that many forget that the occasion of the New Year’s day is a joyful one. One is full of care; another is in trouble, in sickness, or in pain; another is so ambitious in the pursuits of the world that the passage of months and years is to him a matter of indifference, until he sees the mark they have made upon his person. When the hair is gray, and the hands are tremulous, and the eyes dim, then the passage of years is marked.

The merchant only marks the course of time by the dates of his ledger, and the foundation of his regard for the new year is that it affects his notes and accounts. The farmer reckons from the standpoint of his yearly sowings and harvests, and the clerk counts from the date of his yearly salary, while the school-boy counts from his vacations and the commencement of school terms.

Few take the trouble to become historians of their own years, and the most important events of life’s history are forgotten. The business and the pleasures, the cares and the perplexities of life, often become a whirlpool of vexation and strife in which are buried all that is good, and true, and beautiful. The result is forgetfulness of the past, indifference to the lapse of time, and a recklessness of the future except as it may afford a prospect of selfish gain.

To check this onward flow of care and pleasure, it is well to pause at the beginning of each year, and ponder upon the past, and cast a look into the future. A retrospect of the past year, a look backward over the events which have taken place, and a careful investigation of one’s own life and acts and doings, are of the utmost importance to one who would make the most of the few fleeting years allotted to man below. JOSEPH CLARKE.

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