On the 9th day of March, I left Salem to spend a little time with the churches in the Walla Walla valley. On my way I had to remain in Portland over Sabbath and Sunday in order to avoid traveling on the Sabbath. Nothing occurred here of any particular interest except I formed the acquaintance of a Bro. Raymond, who was preparing to attend the Biblical Institute at Oakland.
I arrived in Walla Walla, March 14, and held meeting with the church there that evening. After a year's absence I found them very anxious and highly pleased to see me. I found a spirit of revival among them which betokened a good meeting and a good work at the time of their quarterly meeting.
March 15, I went on to Waitsburg where I preached in the evening. I was made glad to find one sister here firm in the truth. She is a member of the Walla Walla church. She lives alone with no others of like faith around her, yet she loves the truth. Here we met with such high water from recent rains, some bridges being swept away and others damaged, that we had fears we would not be able to fill our appointments at Dayton.
From the 16th to the 21st I held in all eleven meetings with the Dayton church and in the vicinity. I found them in deep trial. It took all our time to adjust the difficulties among them, which we succeeded in doing to such an extent that good feeling was restored among them. There was a good interest on the part of many outside who would have taken a stand with us had the church been in a condition to have received them. This was a great loss to the Dayton church. They ought to feel it and mourn over it many days. How sad to allow Satan to cheat them out of so rich a blessing! How sad to think that many were asking the way to Zion, but the church could not help them!
I think they have had an experience that will be of value to them hereafter. Our good Bro. Maxson rendered me much assistance in this meeting.
Thursday evening I held meeting again in Waitsburg, which was quite well attended and the influence was good. The seed sown there may yet bear much fruit.
On Friday evening, the 23d, I began meetings with the Walla Walla church, and continued over two Sabbaths and Sundays. The interest was excellent from the very beginning, and it kept growing as the week passed on. There was deep feeling. The Lord came very near to us. The church in Walla Walla never enjoyed such a blessed season before. Our congregations increased as well as the interest. Quite a number arose for prayers. Some came out clear in their experience. Members who had grown cold, revived and took hold with new courage.
Sabbath and Sunday, March 31 and April 1, was the time of our general quarterly meeting. Several of the Dayton church and nearly all of the Milton church were with us. The meeting still kept deepening in interest. Following the discourse on the Sabbath a call was made for all who wished to join the church to come forward. Nine responded; eight of whom were candidates for baptism. The church was all ready to receive them with open arms. We went to the water, found a beautiful place in Mill Creek, and the Lord blessed us there. We were made very happy in administering the solemn rite. We returned from the water with light beaming from every countenance and joy in every heart.
At 4:30 P. M., we assembled again in the house of worship. We were there this time to bring fresh to our minds the sufferings and death of our divine Redeemer. It was a happy hour. More than fifty participated in the ordinance of humility, and then in the Lord's supper. This seemed to prepare the way for the meeting at 7:30 the same evening. After a short discourse we gave the meeting into the hands of the brethren and sisters who improved the time bringing in their testimonies. We could not close the meeting before 10 o'clock.
Sunday was also a good day for the cause. Our meeting-house was full of attentive hearers both morning and evening. A good impression was left on the minds of all. Our business meeting to-day was harmonious, and showed a determination on the part of every one to push the cause on in its several branches to their utmost ability.
On Monday evening, April 2, I preached in Weston. There were but few out to hear. This place is waiting “for a more convenient season.” It may never have it.
The 3d, in company with Bro. Foss, I went on to Pendleton. We were happy to see again, in good health, and active as a young woman, our good and aged Sr. Townsend. She is devoted to the truth, has a good word for everybody, and her willing hands administer to the wants of all who stop at her good home. I gave three discourses in this place. The attendance was good, and the interest good. We have no established church here, yet there are a few representatives of the truth. Prof. Arnold, the county superintendent of public schools of Umatilla Co., Oregon, and a very able and successful teacher, is with us in theory, respects the Sabbath, and only needs a little heart-work to make him an able defender of the cause of truth. His good wife is wholly with us.
Thursday evening, the 5th, we commenced meetings with the Milton church. I remained with them till Sunday morning. The members of the church were prompt and faithful in attending the five meetings I held with them, and many others were present. Here again we met the rich blessing of the Lord. The church is in union, and every member was ready to take hold and work. The result was glorious, as was manifest before our meeting closed. Two united with the church by letter from the Dayton church, and two others came in, one of whom was baptized. All could say, “It was good to be there.”
My round of meetings in the Walla Walla valley closed here on the evening following the Sabbath, April 7. I would here thank God that he enabled me to fill every appointment, thirty-five in twenty-five days. On the whole, the weather was favorable, and we enjoyed a blessed season. The Walla Walla valley and the country around it is as good a field for labor, even now, as I know of anywhere in this N. P. Mission. Calls were pressed upon me while going my round of meetings sufficient to keep me busy for a year. Bro. Foss, a young man and a member of the Walla Walla church, will from this time on improve his gift as the way may open before him, and will answer to some of these calls.
I find the brethren and sisters willing to support the cause by their means. The cause is about self-sustaining here now. Means was handed me to run the tent in the Willamette valley the coming summer. Other points of interest I may write out hereafter.
May God bless the friends and the cause of truth all through the Walla Walla country.
I. D. VAN HORN.
Portland, Or., April 11, 1877.
Did the Israelites Lie?
By Dudley Marvin Canright
In Ex. 12:35, 36, it is said that the children of Israel “borrowed of the Egyptians, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment. And they spoiled the Egyptians.” Infidels say that this was lying and deception; and since it was done by the command of God, it reflects dishonor upon his character.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, in his Antiquities, B. ii., Chap. 14, Sect. 6, speaks of this event thus: “Accordingly Pharaoh called for Moses, and bid them begone; as supposing, that if once the Hebrews were gone out of the country, Egypt should be freed from its miseries. They also honored the Hebrews with gifts; some, in order to get them to depart quickly, and others on account of their neighborhood, and the friendship they had with them.”
In a foot note on this, Wm. Whiston A. M., says: “These large presents made to the Israelites, of vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, were, as Josephus truly calls them, gifts really given them; not lent them, as our English falsely renders them. They were spoils required, not borrowed of them. Gen. 15:14; Ex. 3:22; 11:2; Ps. 105:37; as the same version falsely renders the Hebrew word here used. Ex. 12:35, 36. God had ordered them to demand these as their pay and reward, during their long and bitter slavery in Egypt, as atonements for the lives of the Egyptians, and as the condition of the Jews’ departure, and of the Egyptians’ deliverance from these terrible judgments, which had they not now ceased, they had soon been all dead men, as they themselves confess. Chap. 12:33. Nor was there any sense in borrowing or lending, when the Israelites were finally departing out of the land forever.”
This seems to be the truth of the matter; and it fairly clears the Hebrews from the charge of dishonesty, and God from the imputation of encouraging deception. D. M. CANRIGHT.
Attaining a Complete Religious Character
Aim at the highest type of religious life possible to you. Do your best to attain the full measure of your standard. The very endeavor is an important means to the desired end. If the goal be not attained in a moment you need not be surprised. A complete religious character is the work of a life-time, rather than an hour, and is to be attained by faith and steady, persistent endeavor, rather than by a few faint or spasmodic efforts.—Zion's Herald.
1. OUR BLESSED HOPE.—
What a subject for thought to the mind of the Christian is the coming of our blessed Saviour. What a thought that the dead shall be raised and those that are alive and remain shall be caught up in the air to meet the Lord, be changed from mortal to immortal; to be free from sickness, sorrow, pain, and death, the troubles, trials, and privations of this sinful world, and the infirmities of age; to be ever young, ever happy, and forever live in the presence of God and the Lamb; to join the holy angels in songs of praise around the throne of the Most High! And what a thought that the Word of God teaches us that this will soon take place. Who feels the power of this glorious truth.
The Way of Transgressors.
“Do not go out to-night, Amanda. The pavements are damp, and the air is loaded with vapor.”
“Indeed, mother, I must go.”
“Amanda, there is no necessity for your attending this party; but there are very urgent reasons why you should stay at home. Your cough is still troublesome, and a little exposure might give it permanency. You know that from your father you inherit a predisposition to disease of the lungs.”
“You only say that to alarm me.”
“Not so, my child; I know your constitution, and know how fatally the exposure of a night like this may affect you.”
“But I’ll wrap up warmly, and put on my India rubbers.”
“A necessary precaution, if you will go out, Amanda. But I wish I could persuade you to be guided by me. You know that the Bible says, the way of transgressors is hard.”
“I don’t know how you will apply that to me, mother. I am transgressing no law of divine appointment.”
“Be not sure of that, Amanda.”
“I do not understand you, mother.”
“I will try and make my meaning clear. In our creation, as organized beings, we were so constituted as to bear a certain relation to every thing around us, and our bodily health was made dependent upon this relation. Here then, we have a law of health, which may be called a divine law—for there is nothing good that does not flow from the divine Creator. Violating this law, we become transgressors, and shall certainly prove the way we have chosen to be a hard one.”
“Oh, is that all?” said the daughter, looking up with a smile, and breathing more freely. “I’ll risk the consequences of breaking the law you have announced.”
“Amanda!”
“Don’t be so serious, mother. I will wrap up closely and have my feet well protected. There is not the least danger of my taking cold.”
“Well, you must do as you please. Still I cannot approve of your going, for I see that there is danger. But you are fully of age, and I will not seek to control you.”
So strong was Amanda’s desire to attend a large but select party, that she went, in company with a young man who called for her, notwithstanding the atmosphere was so humid and dense with fog that breathing it became oppressive.
At eleven, after having passed an evening of much pleasure, she started for home with her companion. She was so well wrapped up that she did not feel the cold, and her feet were protected from the damp pavement by the impervious India rubbers.
“I’m safe home, mother, after all!” she exclaimed with a merry ringing laugh, as she bounded into the chamber where her ever-watchful and interested mother sat awaiting her daughter’s return.
“I am glad to see you back, Amanda,” said Mrs. Beaufort kindly, “and hope no ill consequences will follow what I must still call a very imprudent act.”
“Oh, I’m just as well as ever, and have not taken the least cold. How could I, wrapped up so warm?”
Still, on the next morning, unaccountable as it was to Amanda, she was quite hoarse, and was much troubled by a cough occasioned by a slight but constant tickling in her throat. Accompanying these symptoms was a pale anxious face and a general feeling of lassitude.
“I feared all this, Amanda,” said her mother, with manifest concern.
“It’s only a slight cold, mother. And, anyhow, I don’t believe it was occasioned by going out last night, I was wrapped up so warm.”
“What to one is a slight cold, my daughter, is a very serious affair to another; and you are one of those who can never take a slight cold without shocking the whole system.”
Amanda tried to make light of this, but every hour she felt worse and worse. Her hoarseness, instead of diminishing, increased, and her cough grew more and more troublesome. Finally, she was compelled to go to bed, and the physician was called in. “Is there any danger?” asked Mrs. Beaufort, with an anxious and troubled countenance, as the physician, after prescribing among other things a stimulating application to the throat externally, was about leaving the house.
“Is your daughter subject to these fits of hoarseness, ma’am?” he asked.
“Yes, sir, whenever she takes cold.”
“And does that frequent irritating cough always attend the recurrence of hoarseness?”
“Always.”
“Then, madam, it is but right that you should know, that such results, following a slight cold, indicate a very great tendency to pulmonary or bronchial affections. The predisposition existing, very great care should be taken to prevent all exciting causes.”
“But, doctor, how is she now?” was Mrs. Beaufort’s anxious inquiry.
“Not dangerous, madam, but still in a condition requiring care and skill to prevent unfavorable consequences.”
It was a week before Amanda was able to go about again, and then her pale cheeks, and debilitated frame indicated but too plainly the sad consequences of a single imprudent act.
A few weeks after she had become restored apparently to her usual health, as she was dressing one morning to go out, her mother said:—
“Your clothes are a great deal too tight, Amanda.”
“Oh no, they are not tight at all, mother. Julia Mason laces as tight again. She gets her sister to draw her lacings for her, and she has to pull with all her strength.”
“That is wrong in Julia Mason, and yet half the pressure that she can bear would seriously injure you.”
“How can that be, mother? I am as healthy as she is.”
“I will tell you, Amanda. She has a full, round chest, giving free play to the lungs; while your chest is narrow and flat. Without any compression, the action of your lungs is not so free and healthy as hers would be, laced as tightly as you say she laces. But when to your natural conformation you add artificial pressure, the action of your lungs becomes not only enfeebled, but the unhealthy action induced tends to develop that peculiar form of disease, the predisposition to which you inherit.”
“That is only an idea of yours, mother. I am sure I have quite a full chest.”
“There you are mistaken. I have noticed this defect, with much anxiety, ever since you were a child; and having had my attention called to it, have frequently made comparisons, and have found that you are remarkably narrow-chested, and what is more, have a tendency to stoop, which still lessens the size of the cavity in which the lungs play.”
“Well, mother, my clothes are not tight. Just see here.”
Mrs. Beaufort tried her clothes, and found them to be much tighter than in her judgment was good for her health.
“You are still unwilling, Amanda, to be governed by your mother, where her wishes come in opposition to your pride or inclinations. I know that you are compressing your chest too much, but you are not willing to yield to my judgment. And yet I prescribe no arbitrary rules, but endeavor to guide you by a rational consideration of true principles. These you will not see; and the consequences that must follow their violation will be the transgressor’s reward.”
“Indeed, mother, you are too serious. You are frightened at a shadow. Not one of my friends enjoy better general health than I do.”
“And so might the graceful maple say of the sturdy oak in the first years of its existence. But long after the first had been humbled beneath the hand of decay, the other would stand with its roots more firmly imbedded in the earth, and its limbs battling the storms as vigorously as ever.”
Amanda made no reply to this, for she was suddenly struck with its force. Still she only pretended to loosen her stays to satisfy her mother, while the lacings remained as tense as ever.
It is unnecessary to trace, step by step, the folly of Amanda Beaufort through a series of years—years that caused her mother much painful anxiety—up to her twenty-sixth summer, when, as a wife and mother, she was suffering the penalty of her indiscretion, proving too clearly the truth, that the way of transgressors is hard. In spite of all her mother’s warnings and remonstrances, she had continued to expose herself to the night air in damp weather, to attend parties, and remain at them to a very late hour, and to lace herself so tightly as to seriously retard the healthy action of the vital organs.
It was toward the close of one of those calm days in September, when nature seems pausing to note the first few traces of decay which autumn has thrown upon garden, field, and forest, that Mrs. Beaufort, and the husband of her daughter, with a few friends, were gathered in the chamber of their beloved one, to see her die. How sad, how very sad is the death-bed of the young, sinking beneath premature decay! In the passing away of one who has met the storms of life, and battled with them through vigorous maturity, and sinks at last in the course of nature, there is less to pain the feelings. But when the young and beautiful die, with all their tenderest and earliest ties clinging to them—an event so unlooked for, so out of the true order of nature—we can only turn away and weep. We can extract from such an affliction but few thoughts of comfort. All is dreary, and blank, and desolate.
“Bring me my children,” the dying mother said, rousing up from a state of partial slumber, with an earnest emphasis, that brought both her mother and husband to her bedside.
“What did you want, dear Amanda?” asked the husband, laying his hand gently upon her white forehead, that was damp with the dews of coming dissolution.
“My dear babes,” she replied in a changed tone, rising up with an effort. “My Anna and Mary. Who will be a mother to them, when I am laid at rest? Oh, that I could take them with me!”
Tears came to the relief of her overwrought feelings, and leaning her head upon her husband, she went and sobbed aloud. The infant was brought in by her mother, and laid in her arms, when she had recovered herself a little.
“Oh, my babe! my dear babe!” she said, with tender animation. “I cannot give you up!” And she clasped it to her breast with an energy of affection, while the large drops rolled over her pale cheek. “And Anna, dear little girl! where is my Anna?” she asked.
Anna, a beautiful child, a few months past her second birthday, was brought in and lifted up on the bed.
“Don’t cry, ma,” said the little thing, seeing the tears upon her mother’s cheeks, “don’t cry; I’ll always be good.”
“Heaven bless you and keep you, my child!” the mother sobbed, eagerly kissing the sweet lips that were turned up to hers; and then clasped the child to her bosom in a strong embrace.
The children were removed after a time, but the thoughts of the dying mother were still upon them; and with these thoughts were self-reproach, that made her pillow one of thorns.
“I now see and feel,” said she, looking up into the face of her mother, “that all my sufferings, and this early death, which will soon be upon me, would have been avoided, if I had only permitted myself to be guided by you. I do not wonder now that my constitution gave way. How could it have been otherwise, and I so strangely regardless of all the laws of health? But, my dear mother, the past is beyond recall; and now I leave to you the dear little ones from whom I must soon part forever.”
The lips of the young wife and mother moved feebly, and inarticulate whispers fell faintly from her tongue for some moments, and then she sank to sleep—the sleep of death.
Thus, at the age of twenty-six, abused and exhausted nature gave up the struggle; and the mother, who had violated the laws of health, sank to the earth just at the moment when her tenderest and holiest duties called loudest for performance.
Who, in this brief sketch, does not recognize familiar features? Amanda Beaufort is but one of a class which has far too many representatives. These are in every town and village, in every street and neighborhood. Why do we see so many pale-faced mothers? Why are our young and lovely females so soon broken down? The answer, in far too many cases, may be found in their early and persevering transgression of the most palpable physiological laws. The violation of these is ever followed, sooner or later, in a greater or less degree, by painful consequences.
A Sensible Mother.
It is really pitiful to see a good and conscientious mother resolutely shutting herself away from so much that is best and sweetest in her children’s lives, for the sake of tucking their dresses and ruffling their petticoats. How surprised and grieved she will be to find that her boys and girls at sixteen regard “mother” chiefly as a most excellent person to keep shirts in order and to make new dresses, and not as one to whom they care to go for social companionship! Yet, before they are snubbed out of it by repeated rebuffs, such as, “Run away, I’m too busy to listen to your nonsense,” children naturally go to their mothers with all their sorrows and pleasures; and if “mother” can only enter into all their little plans, how pleased they are! Such a shout of delight as I heard last summer from the play-ground, where Mrs. Friendly’s two little girls were playing. “Oh, goody, goody, mamma is coming to play with us!” She was a busy mother, too, and I know would have much preferred to use what few moments of recreation she could snatch for something more interesting than playing with little children. She has often said to me, “I135cannot let my children grow away from me. I must keep right along with them all the time, and whether it is play with the little ones, or Latin grammar and base ball with the boys, or French dictation with the girls, I must be ‘in it’ as far as I can.”—Scribner for March.
You Never Can Tell.
You think it is easy your steps to retrace,
Before the last pitfall is gained,
That a man can stop short of a crushing disgrace,
And find his honor unstained.
But sin is so mighty and conscience so weak,
And under so tempting a spell,
That though you may long other pleasures to seek
Your weakness you never can tell!
The ocean of evil you never can sound,
Its depths you can never discern,
But under your feet there is treacherous ground,
If away from the good land you turn.
You see not the danger, you fear not the foe,
You whisper the soul, “It is well!”
And think that you know just how far you may go
But you never, no never can tell!
You never can tell at what moment you’ll slip
Into snares that are cruelly laid,
By those who are willing another should trip
Where they were as foully betrayed.
A moment’s indulgence may lead you to crimes
That merit a prisoner’s cell;
Then quench the hot fever of passion betimes,
For its power you never can tell!
You never can tell at what moment you’ll hear
The signal of death at your gate,
Whose touch will arrest your thoughtless career
And bring your repentance too late.
Stand firm then to-day, the allurements of sin
With earnest persistence repel,
And strive for a prize that is worthy to win
And whose glory no mortal can tell.
The Moderate Drinker.
A so-called moderate drinker was once very angry with a friend who claimed that safety is alone in totally abstaining from the use of ardent spirits, and who allowed his fanatical notion to insinuate that the moderate drinker himself might then be beyond control. “To make plain the question who is wrong,” said the temperance man, “will you just quit one month, not touch a drop during that time?” Said the other: “To satisfy your mind, I will, with pleasure, though I know myself; I will do as you ask to cure overwrought ideas.” He kept his promise, but at the end of the month he came to his friend with tears in his eyes and thanked him for saving him from a drunkard’s grave. Said he: “I never knew before that I was in any sense a slave to drink, but the last month has been the fiercest battle of my life. I see now I was almost beyond hope; had the test come many months later, it would have been too late for me. But I have kept the pledge, and by God’s help I will keep it for life.” Moderate drinker, just try it for one year, and see how near you are to the rapids, beyond which there is no returning.—Temperance Banner.
RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—Messrs. Moody and Sankey will remain in Boston until June.
—The women of the United States support 287 foreign missionaries.
—The largest Sunday-school in the world is said to be in Aintab, India. It numbers about 1,800 pupils.
—Mrs. Jennie F. Willing recently closed a meeting of eighteen days in Indianapolis. More than 150 persons professed conversion.
—In seventy-seven of England's largest cities and towns the Presbyterians show the largest increase since 1851, more than 150 per cent.
—Mr. Moody's sermons have been translated into Spanish, Swedish, and Armenian. An edition of the latter has been published in Constantinople.
—The practice is growing among Universalists, in certain sections, of administering the Lord's Supper once a quarter to the entire congregation.
—The Salt Lake Tribune estimates that since the settlement of Utah over 600 murders have been committed by the order of the Mormon priesthood.
—In St. Louis there are twenty-nine Catholic churches, and a college where the studies are superintended by twenty Jesuit professors, French, Belgian, and American.
—Rev. William Muhlenberg, D. D., who was the author of “I Would Not Live Always,” and several other hymns, died April 8, in New York city, at the age of eighty-one years.
—The London Daily News' dispatch from Rome says that General Oaretti recently presented Cardinal Simeon with an album containing the signatures of over 30,000 volunteers prepared to shed their blood for the temporal power of the Pope.
—The Sandwich Islanders have now for several years given voluntarily about $24,000 per annum for the support of the gospel at home and on adjacent islands. They thus prove their knowledge of its worth.
—The first Protestant church in the Turkish Empire was organized in Constantinople in 1846, and now there are over one hundred. This is a much better showing of religious tolerance than Russia, with her claim of “Defender of the Faith,” can make.
—Rev. Andrew Bigelow, D. D., of Boston, died Sunday, April 1, in his eighty-second year. He was at one time minister of the Unitarian church in Washington, and Regent of Harvard University. He was a gentleman of pleasing and dignified habits, a thorough scholar, the master of a dozen languages, and his services were sought by several prominent parishes. But he relinquished all idea of professional distinction, and gave the last twenty-five years of his life to self-denying labors for the very poor of the city.
The Pacific Churchman thinks “there is, or ought to be, such a thing as a Christian State,” a State which should realize its obligation to discharge “its own duties in the fear of God and in obedience to the will of Christ.” With regard to Sunday observance, the State should prohibit “all games and theatrical exhibitions,” as well as labor and “the sale of intoxicating drinks” on that day, and should “scrupulously close its legislative halls.” “Further than this the law cannot properly go.” “To impose fine or imprisonment for non-attendance at church” is, it thinks, going too far.
—An Eastern paper says that a very interesting experiment is being carried out at Cannes, France, by Col. Dunne. He has placed a kiosque in the market place as a small cafe, and every morning he supplies coffee and bread to the country folks at nominal prices. The panels of the kiosque have texts painted on them, such as Mark 8 : 36; Matt. 25 : 10; and John 15 : 12. The people read these regularly, and gospel portions and tracts are distributed freely in the market, not without much hostility on the part of the Roman Catholic population. A movement in the contrary direction is being attempted by the Roman Catholics. They have opened a “Chapelle de Jesu,” where the Jesuits deliver lectures in English every week, and which are but too well attended.
SECULAR NEWS.
—The various New England colleges have 120 Chinese students.
—There are twelve miles of shelving for the books in the British Museum.
—Ex-Mayor Hall is in London, and admits that he is himself, and not Mr. Sutliff.
—Four hundred employees in the printing and engraving department at Washington will be dismissed this month.
—A school-house in the Norwegian village of Ellengso was lately burned and sixteen children perished in the flames.
—Five of the Rothschild family have been appointed members of committees for the organization of the Paris Exposition.
—It is now certain that the grasshopper eggs in Kansas are unproductive, none having hatched out, though circumstances are favorable.
—Sunday, April 15, an entire block of buildings was destroyed by fire in Ashland, Ohio. The loss is estimated at $60,000. The insurance is $20,000.
—The State of North Carolina has recently appropriated $20,000 for an insane asylum for colored people, and $2,000 for the education of colored school-teachers.
—It is stated that President Hayes received over 4,000 applications for office last month. Becoming tired of the throngs of office-seekers, he now leaves his office before 12 o’clock each day.
—The Emperor has declined to accept the resignation of Prince Bismarck of the imperial chancellorship, but has granted him a year’s leave of absence. The prince has left Berlin for Varzin.
—The San Francisco Mail of April 9, speaking of hard times, says: “Working men who think of coming here had better stay away, and those who are here, and have money enough to go away had better go.”
—A Berlin special says: “Two hundred thousand German colonists in Southern Russia intend to migrate to Brazil and other parts of America, to avoid draft into the army. The emigration has already begun.”
—The Chinese Empire contains 600,000,000 people, while the United States contain only about 50,000,000. China could spare a population equal to that of this country, and be benefited rather than impoverished by the loss.
—The Post-office Department has prepared advertisements inviting proposals for mail service on about 600 routes, in all parts of the country, for terms ranging from one to four years, from the first of next September. Bids received until June 9, and awards made by June 20.
—President Hayes does not use tobacco in any form, and is said to be a strict teetotaler. His fair, healthful, fresh countenance would indicate this. He and Mrs. Hayes attend the Foundry Methodist Church, Washington, of which Rev. B. Peyton Brown is pastor.
—Paris is one of the most heavily-taxed cities in the world. It is stated that the average share per head of the national tax paid by the Parisians is $15, and that in addition to this their municipal taxes amount to $22 per head. The interest on the debt alone is $8,400,000.
—Mr. Abner Huntly, of Cuba, Alleghany county, New York, died a short time ago at the age of 109 years. He is said to have become of age just in time to vote for George Washington for President at his first election in 1788, and has voted at every Presidential election since.
—Mr. Edward Martin, of N. Y., has donated one hundred and sixty acres of land just outside the city limits of Chicago, to be held in trust by a committee, for the foundation of a college to be under the auspices of the Reformed Episcopal Church. The land is valued at $150,000.
—The last British balance-sheet shows the receipts over expenditures for the year to be $25,000,000. The English debt is within a fraction of four thousand millions of dollars. The government has barely kept even with the interest during the last ten years, and now slips behind the amount of the deficit on that.
—The south-western portion of the city of Chicago was recently flooded by the falling rain and melting snow. In some cases the water rose to the first story of the houses, driving the people from their homes and obliging them to make their way on rafts improvised from floating timbers and sidewalks. The damage is great.
—April 11, nine men were imprisoned behind a column of coal 40 yards thick, at Pontypridd, Wales, by an explosion and inundation in a colliery. After continued effort for their rescue, a communication was opened with them, April 19. Five of them were found alive. The other four had wandered to other parts of the mine and perished.
—The London Spectator says: “A curious rumor is afloat, for which we do not vouch, that the Porte, in its eagerness for money, has offered to sell the hereditary Pashalic of the Holy Land to any candidate accepted by the Jews, in return for a loan. The transaction would be one of the most singular in history, but it is not beyond the range of possibility.”
—In the steamship Wyoming, which arrived in New York, April 21, were several prominent Turks, most of whom have been engaged in the government armories of Turkey. The avowed object of their visit to this country is to inspect the arms ordered from here, and ascertain their capacity and fitness for the service required, and also to learn our method of manufacturing arms.
—Information was received in New York, April 21, of the terrible slaughter of a Moravian missionary and his family at Lance, a camp on the Labrador coast, during the absence of the young ministers from the mission. The bodies were frightfully mangled, and a large quantity of English and Canadian money stolen. The murder is believed to be traceable to four Esquimaux, who had been refused rum at the mission.
—On Saturday night after the adjournment of Congress the Washington police made a raid on the most prominent gambling house in the city and arrested those who were gambling. Among the number was an ex-Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, a prominent Judge of South Carolina, an ex-United States Senator and several members of Congress. They were taken to the station-house, where they passed the night and were allowed to go home in the morning.
—One of the largest cultivated ranches in the State is said to be in Kern county, near Bakersfield. It consists of 30,000,000 acres. The crops this season are 2,000 acres of barley, 1,000 acres wheat, 175 acres corn and 3,000,000 acres alfalfa. The stock consists of 10,000 head of cattle, 20,000 sheep, 500 horses and 1,000 hogs. The working force at the present time is 625 men. All the crops are irrigated by an extensive and costly system of canals, which, with the other improvements on the place, added to the cost of the land, brings the total investment up to $1,400,000.
Fermented wine is not a “creature of God.” It is the poisonous product of a destructive process, and not the result of a creative act, so that it can in no sense be called a “creature of God.” Unfermented wine, the fresh juice of the grape, is certainly good and wholesome, and it may with propriety be called a “creature of God;” for it is one of the products of his hands, as shown by Ps. 104:14, 15.
“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.” 1 Tim. 5:23.
This text is regarded by moderate drinkers as their stronghold. Whenever reasoned with on the subject, they quote Paul’s advice to Timothy and apply the same to themselves irrespective of the state of their stomachs. In the great majority of cases, the stomach makes no complaint until after the habit of wine-taking has been formed. This fact alone is quite significant, but we would invite the attention of those who seek consolation from this text to the following points:
a. The fact that it was necessary for Paul to advise Timothy to “drink no longer water, but wine,” proves conclusively that Timothy was not in the habit of drinking any kind of wine.
b. Paul recommended wine as a medicine for Timothy on account of some weakness of his stomach, and other infirmities. This would not be recommending it for the habitual use of well persons.
c. The wine which Paul recommended was such as would be good for Timothy’s stomach, else he would not have advised him to use it. Alcoholic drinks are notoriously bad for even a healthy stomach. They interfere with digestion, and are one of the most prolific causes of dyspepsia. Unfermented wine, on the other hand, has just the opposite properties. It is a most wholesome article, and was much esteemed by the ancients for the very purpose for which Paul recommended wine to Timothy. The conclusion is irresistible, then, that the kind of wine recommended by Paul was the unfermented juice of the grape. This position is confirmed by Athenæus, who recommended sweet wine “as being very good for the stomach.” Paul certainly could not have recommended fermented wine to Timothy, for Pliny, Philo, and Columella, in speaking of fermented wines, say that they produced “headaches, dropsy, madness, and stomach complaints.” Who will believe that Paul advised Timothy to use the very article that would cause his stomach to become diseased if it were not already so?
Moderate drinkers claim to find in these and similar texts ample support for their practice. They argue that Paul did not condemn the use of wine entirely, but only its excessive use. In 1 Tim. 3:3, Paul says, “Not given to wine,” no qualifying word being used. The other expressions evidently do not mean that the use of intoxicating wine in any degree would be allowable. If such a rule of interpretation as moderate drinkers adopt were followed in explaining other similar expressions, we should have some very strange doctrines taught. For example, we read, in Eccl. 7:17, “Be not over-much wicked.” According to the rule referred to, we must understand this to mean that a man may sin in moderation if he is careful to avoid becoming excessively wicked. Such a doctrine would be fatal to Christianity, and obnoxious to reason. Any degree of indulgence in sin is wrong. Any degree of indulgence in intoxicating drinks is also wrong.
We may allow a literal interpretation of the text by reference to the fact that even unfermented wine may be used in excess, just as food may be indulged in to a gluttonous extent. Such use of wine may have been referred to by the apostle.