THE Mission Board is merely the distributing agency for the denominational work in the mission fields. It must pass on the workers and the means sent of God to the needy fields, and help to keep the churches in touch with the needs.
The various fields are called upon, at the beginning of the year, to make an estimate of the amount required for the year to come to manage the work in hand; and then to specify what additional work ought to be taken up if finances will permit.
With the amount provided by the appropriation, the workers in each field push on the work, ever seeking to extend the frontier lines of the message. They see so many needs that the workers and the funds available seem sadly limited, but the confidence of our missionaries is in the living God. They know that it is not by might nor by an army, but by the Spirit of God that the witness is to be borne. Yet they pray continually that a greater burden for the whitening fields may roll upon the believers at home.
As compared with the amount we spend in caring for ourselves, the amount that is spent abroad seems but a pittance. Yet it represents a sacrifice on the part of many that makes it a precious treasure indeed.
Europe, for instance, with its mission territory in North Africa and Asia Minor, represents five hundred million people. Last year our Board appropriated $12,000 for their work. It seems but a crumb, surely, this amount handed out to five hundred millions of perishing, soul-hungry mortals.
We all know how earnestly the needs of the South have been urged in recent years. The Mission Board last year appropriated $12,000 from its funds for that work. It seems but a pittance to distribute. Yet it is the same amount for fifteen millions of people that the Board distributed among the five hundred millions of the European field.
The various countries in the South American continent, with its thirty-five millions, have had appropriations of about $12,000 also for the last year.
The work proposed for the Dark Continent calls for about an equal sum to that appropriated for the other fields named.
The South Sea Island missions require about $8,000, while India's three hundred millions have required about $6,000. So we might go, from Mexico and the West Indies, round the world to the Malay Straits and far China and Japan. It is a small sum that the fields have with which to operate, while their needs are stupendous.
Mission committees are being formed to watch the local distribution of these funds, and to audit accounts, so that those who know the exact situation may bear the responsibilities. Such a committee binds together the various South African missions.
The General European Conference binds together the work on that continent.
The Polynesian Committee, with its headquarters in Australia, watches over the island missions of the Pacific.
The South American fields are perfecting a union conference organization, which has already done splendid service in unifying that large territory, and in advancing the work in hand.
The West Indies are waiting for similar organization.
During the year past there have been calls for special appropriations not included in the ordinary work of the fields. In response to such a call the Mission Board joined the Review and Herald in giving the Toronto book depository to the Canadian Union Conference. Over $3,000 was thus appropriated. In answer to the call of Australia $5,000 was appropriated for the Sydney Sanitarium enterprise. Thus special calls frequently come from the fields.
There is a vast world before us, and a needy one. Years ago, when the work was small, it was possible easily to turn the attention of the whole denomination upon one enterprise or another needing help. Our enterprises and our fields have now multiplied in far greater ratio than our numbers. Our workers abroad understand that it will not do to launch new enterprises requiring special help without a thorough understanding. The missionary campaign must be one orderly, disciplined, and continuous advance.
The appropriations are based upon an estimate of funds which may reasonably be expected to come in. It is manifestly impossible for the Mission Board to attempt to finance the fields by any methods of borrowing for ordinary missionary expenditure. Emergencies must be met by temporary emergency methods; but no sustained missionary policy can be operated save by resting the work, under God, upon the body of people interested in it. No board has the right to assume the responsibility resting upon a whole people; neither has it the power to do so if it would.
All our workers understand that work beyond the bounds of the appropriations cannot be entered upon unless special funds come in. And even appropriations cannot be guaranteed, save as we may count upon a constant and growing interest in missions among the people.
Just now fields call for extra help. Here it is needed to supply the place of a worker fallen at his post. There it is to relieve the strain, and save a worker from falling. Yonder it is to enter where the cry of need is ever sounding. It will require all the ordinary income of the year to meet the appropriations already made. Yet here are workers ready to go who ought to be sent — who must be sent. It means that all the churches must seek God in behalf of the great harvest fields. Aside from the ordinary weekly offerings, the missionary cause now needs substantial help. The very needs make sure that somewhere God has stewards whom he expects to trade with the talents lent them. No investment will yield greater returns than this. W. A. S.
The Word of Life
“Our happy eyes may behold and our blessed hands may handle the Word of life which was manifested to us. Let us beware that we turn not away from the one thing worthy to be looked at, to gaze upon a desolate and dreary world.”
Government by “Some of the Governed”
By L. A. S.
The great coal strike, which to the great relief of the public is at last ended, represents a desperate effort on the part of the miners to better the dismal conditions of existence which are experienced by the average employee at the mines. These conditions, as every one who has investigated them knows, are but little removed from a state of actual slavery. They represent, beyond question, a lack on the part of the mine owners of that feeling of regard for their employees which is due to an individual as a human being. In spirit, if not in letter, they represent an invasion of human rights. They represent a strong tendency downward to the social and political levels of the laboring classes in the Old World monarchies.
What is true of the industry controlled by the coal trust is true of other leading industries to a greater or less extent. There is a strong tendency on the part of all great combines of capital known as the trusts, to crush out individuality from their employees, to consider men as mere units of force, to make of them mere pins in the great machinery of their industrial enterprises, to be used as long as they will stand the grind, and then to be thrown out and replaced by new ones from the inexhaustible human supply which the country affords. This tends to the division of the people into two widely separated bodies—the “masses” and the “classes,” the latter being the masters, and the former the servants, or slaves; the “classes” having control of the machinery of the government, and the “masses” being under their dictation, the one division being the lords and the other the serfs of the new feudalage into which the industrial system of the nation is rapidly being merged. This is white slavery, and is squarely contrary to the principles of republican government.
And at the very time when this tendency to industrial serfdom was beginning to be felt, the pivotal questions upon which the whole matter turns—that of the right of all persons to participate equally in the control of the government under which they live—came up before the American people; and in the national legislature at Washington voices were heard declaring that the Declaration of Independence is false in asserting that governments derive their just powers from “the consent of [all of] the governed,” but that “the consent of some of the governed” is the right source of governmental authority. And those voices have been listened to with respect both at Washington and throughout the States. More than this, that doctrine has been accepted and approved by the American people. It is a recognized principle of the national policy to-day. The very men who are now desperately struggling to keep from sinking beneath the social and political level of free and self-governing human beings, have sanctioned and put into effect in this republic the doctrine of government by consent of some of the governed. What have they done but voted themselves into bondage? In denying that “all men are created equal” in respect to their natural rights, they have admitted that they themselves may not be the political equals of others in the government; that they themselves may not have rights which all others are bound to respect. Right at the time when they most needed to make use of the logic of the Declaration of Independence, they have deprived themselves of all logic by which they might maintain their political vantage ground against the encroachments of unscrupulous wealth. In voting for a system of serfdom under this government for others of a different race, they have unwittingly, but none the less surely, set up a despotism of which they themselves are the destined victims.
The wise founders of this republic, having in view the miseries of the people under the bondage of the Old World systems of government, where the “divine right” of kings and the “right” which was synonymous with might were the only rights acknowledged and maintained, set up a government in this New World upon the principle that “all men are created equal.” To-day, this principle has been repudiated with reference to certain foreign peoples that have been subjected to the national authority; but the repudiation will not stop there. A part of the barrier having been torn down, the entering flood soon widens the breach, and no natural stopping point is reached in the process until the whole is leveled. And in the process of establishing control of the government by “some” of the governed, there is no natural stopping point short of the position that “some of the governed” are simply those who have the power to rule their fellows; a return to— “The good old plan
That he may get who has the power,
And he may keep who can.”
White men are as ready to make slaves of white men as of black men. White slaves have never been less numerous the world over than those of another color.
The principle of the political equality of all men, expressed in the words of the Declaration of Independence, is a safeguard against the creation of such abnormal social gaps as exist between the slave and his master, or between the lords and barons and the serfs who perform their bidding. Now the specter of an industrial serfdom in which, at most, only the forms of civil liberty will be left them, is looming over the heads of American workingmen; and whom but themselves will they have to blame if they shall find themselves excluded from that favored class designated by the phrase “some of the governed,” in whose hands the governmental power shall be reposed? L. A. S.
“What Is the Matter?”
By L. A. S.
“In spite of the optimistic sentiments that so often find expression regarding the present condition and future prospects of Christianity in this country,” says the Literary Digest, “an undercurrent of dissatisfaction—a widespread feeling that religion is losing rather than gaining ground—is to be detected in many of the church papers.” As evidence upon this point the Digest quotes from several of these papers, beginning with The Evangelical Messenger (Cleveland, Ohio). In a recent article considering the question, “Why Do Not the People Go to Church?” the editor of this journal says:—
There is a general lament over empty pews. We seem to be experiencing a decline in church attendance, especially in the cities. We build large and beautiful churches, equip them with every convenience and comfort; we have fine music, and there are many able preachers in our pulpits, men who keep abreast of the times, who read and think, who have something to say, and know how to say it. Yet the pews are sparsely filled. The people are elsewhere, on the street, in the parks, or at home reading the newspapers and novels. What is the matter?
The testimony of Dr. J. E. C. Sawyer, in the N. Y. Observer (Presbyterian) is next quoted. He says:—
The average preacher goes along year after year preaching mainly to women, leading prayer meetings mainly attended by women, devoting most of his hours of whole pastoral labor to calling on women, and is seemingly not greatly troubled because the overwhelming majority of the church membership consists of women. There are millions of men in this republic who have no personal relation to Christian churches, and no interest in them. . . . The revival which the church most needs is one which will crowd its meetings and its altars with young men.
The Digest quotes from several other journals which offer suggestions regarding what is needed to remedy this lamentable situation. The New York Examiner (Baptist) calls for a revival of “old-fashioned Christianity,” and the Chicago Advance (Congregationalist) sees some hope in an evangelistic crusade initiated last August at the Winona Bible Conference, under Presbyterian auspices. But there is only one true remedy for the situation, and that is a return of the churches to the point where they diverged from the pathway of gospel truth sixty years ago, when they heard and rejected the great and solemn message, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:7. L. A. S.
God's Sign
By Ellen G. White
MRS. E. G. WHITE
“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work.”
“And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.”
God gave the Sabbath to his people to be a continual sign of his love and mercy and of their obedience. As he rested on this day and was refreshed, so he desired his people to rest and be refreshed. It was to be a constant reminder to them that they were included in his covenant of grace. Throughout your generations, he said, the Sabbath is to be my sign, my pledge, to you that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you, that I have chosen you and set you apart as my peculiar people. And as you keep the Sabbath holy, you will bear testimony to the nations of the earth that you are my chosen people.
During their bondage in Egypt, the children of Israel lost their knowledge of the true Sabbath, and with it their knowledge of the Creator. God called his people out of Egypt, and in the wilderness gave them his law, the expression of his character and authority. From Mount Sinai he spoke the commandments in an audible voice, and then wrote them with his own finger on tables of stone, thus denoting their enduring character.
In this law God declared, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Before the law was given from Sinai, God wrought a miracle each week to impress the people with the sanctity of the Sabbath. He rained manna from heaven for their food, and each day they gathered this manna, but on the sixth day they gathered twice as much as usual, according to the directions of Moses: “This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. . . . The Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.”
“And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.” Thus for forty years God worked each week a miracle before his people, to show them that his Sabbath was a sacred day.
Sacredness of the Sabbath
God directed that a tabernacle should be built, where the Israelites, during their wilderness-journeying, could worship him. Orders from heaven were given that this tabernacle should be built without delay. Because of the sacredness of the work and the need for haste, some argued that the work on the tabernacle should be carried forward on the Sabbath, as well as on the other days of the week. Christ heard these suggestions, and saw that the people were in great danger of being ensnared by concluding that they would be justified in working on the Sabbath that the tabernacle might be completed as quickly as possible. The word came to them, “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep.” Though the work on the tabernacle must be carried forward with expedition, the Sabbath must not be employed as a working day. Even the work on the Lord’s house must give way to the sacred observance of the Lord’s rest day. Thus jealous is God for the honor of his memorial of creation.
The Sabbath is a token between God and his people. It is a holy day, given by the Creator to man as a day upon which to rest, and reflect upon sacred things. God designed it to be observed through every age as a perpetual covenant. It was to be regarded as a peculiar treasure, a trust to be carefully cherished.
As we observe the Sabbath, let us remember that it is the sign which heaven has given to man that he is accepted in the Beloved; that if he is obedient, he may enter the city of God, and partake of the fruit of the tree of life. As we refrain from labor on the seventh day, we testify to the world that we are on God’s side, and are striving to live in perfect conformity to his commandments. Thus we recognize as our sovereign the God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh.
The Sabbath is the clasp which unites God and his people. But the Sabbath command has been broken. God’s holy day has been desecrated. The Sabbath has been torn from its place by the man of sin, and a common working day has been exalted in its stead. In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah is outlined the work God’s people are to do. A breach has been made in the law, and this breach is to be repaired. The true Sabbath is to be restored to its rightful position as God’s rest day. The law is to be magnified and made honorable. To those who do this work the Lord says: “Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thine own pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
The Law, Faith, and the Inheritance
WHEN God chose Joshua to succeed Moses, and to conduct his people into the land of Canaan, he said to him: “I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua 1:5–8.
“Is the law then against the promises of God?”—Not by any means. On the contrary, the law is the soul and life of the promise. The promise is, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” The law is the strength of promise,—it is itself a promise,—and on its stability and unchangeableness rests our faith in God, that he will do all that he has promised.
So when the Israelites crossed the Jordan, they were instructed to follow the ark of the covenant of the Lord, which contained the law, and to keep9it well in sight. See Joshua 3:3, 4, 11, 13–17. Likewise when they compassed the city of Jericho, it was with the ark of the testimony at the head. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,” because the people were following God’s holy law,—walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Their faith did not absolve them from obedience to the law, but, on the contrary, it was manifested in their following it—walking in its track.
Even so it is to-day; for the promise that was given to them is left to us. The inheritance of the land of Canaan, which is offered to us as well as unto them, is ours by the righteousness of faith; by faith which causes the righteousness of the law to be fulfilled in us. Though a nation should seize on the whole earth, and not have the whole of God’s holy law enshrined in their hearts, they could not hold it, except seemingly, for a time. The world empires of history have demonstrated this. They crumbled into dust, because they were not built on God’s law, and permeated with it. Righteousness alone exalteth a nation; not a modified righteousness consisting of custom and tradition, according to the will of the people, but the righteousness demanded by the ten commandments without the alteration or abatement of a single jot or tittle, and exemplified in the life of Christ.
Why is it so essential that we understand the true nature of the inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed? Why should we know that the real inheritance was not the earth nor any part of it in its present sin-cursed state, but made new, and freed from every vestige of the curse, as Eden itself?—It is in order that we may, as we read the ancient, sacred records, learn the true lesson that they teach us,—that by the power by which God made the earth in the beginning, and will restore it again to its original state, we are to overcome sin and Satan working in our flesh, and thus be prepared for the glorious inheritance. All the deliverances wrought for ancient Israel can become ours in our struggle against sin. We shall overcome “as sure as the world.”—Present Truth.
The Cross, My Joy
By Charles M. Sheldon
O GIFT of God, I bring to thee
Myself, for thou hast ransomed me,
And day by day my song shall be,
The cross, the cross, is all my joy!
I place my faith in thee alone;
For in my darkness thou hast shown
The path of life, before unknown:
The cross, the cross, is all my joy!
O sacred hope of endless peace,
Where sorrows shall forever cease!
My soul from sin has found release!
The cross, the cross, is all my joy!
And when the end shall come, I'll sing
The song of my eternal King,
And rise on life's exultant wing:
The cross, the cross, is all my joy!
— Charles M. Sheldon, D. D., in Christian Endeavor World.
All Must Help
THE world never commits a greater sin than when it lets any one know that nothing is expected of him. The church never commits a greater sin against one of its members than when it gives him to understand that the church expects nothing of him,—no offering, because he has little money,—no time, because he has little leisure,—no service, because he has little talent. Expect nothing of a man, and you shall not be disappointed. There are thousands of men to-day whom we have pauperized by simply giving them to understand that they did not count!
When we tell a man that he need not contribute to the church, we make a difference between him and others, which cuts him to the heart. The man is humiliated, and if he consents to the humiliation, he is degraded forever. If we hint that he is not worth counting, he will soon cease to be worth counting. The church ought to look to every member for an offering, if that offering be but a potato a year. We have no right to insult men and women by putting them on the dead-head list on our own motion. Even those who are reduced to utter poverty, and whom the church must help, should be made to feel that it is their privilege to contribute an occasional penny to the support of the gospel.—Selected.
Deal Gently With the Erring
By George O. States
GEORGE O. STATES,
OVER twenty years ago while engaged in business in Michigan, I formed the acquaintance of many business men whom I highly respected. I was naturally much in their society, and learning that a number of them were members of a certain secret lodge, I finally decided to hand in my name for admission, and in due time I was initiated into the order.
My associations with them were always very pleasant as far as the world goes, but I always had a feeling that my spirituality was not increased thereby. After I had been a member for some time, I attended a special meeting in Battle Creek conducted by our late Brother White. I shall always remember his earnest words of admonition and counsel. One night after his sermon he called for those on the background to come forward, and I with others did so. It was a custom with Brother White to call persons by name in prayer, and that night as I listened to his earnest pleading, and my name was called, I thought, “Surely God heard that.” I at once felt that if I wished to put my interest entirely with the remnant people, I must withdraw from the lodge. Then began the struggle, and no person who has never passed through a similar experience can know what it meant.
As far as the world goes my associations in the lodge had always been the most pleasant. I felt that I wanted some one to talk with, that I needed human sympathy, and I went to one of our brethren whom I had known for years, and cautiously told where I stood. Instead of sympathizing with me in my time of need, he at once began to censure me for tying myself up with the devil, and to tell me how surprised he was that a man who had always been a Seventh-day Adventist should do such a thing.
I walked off thinking that my friends in the lodge would not treat me in that cold manner, and I almost decided to take the train for home, but meeting our late Brother B. L. Whitney, I decided to make one more effort to get help. I very timidly opened up my troubles to him, and he at once put his arm around me, and cautiously drew out my state of mind. After a long talk he said to me, “Brother States, I have never had the experience you have, and I do not know the struggle it will cost you to withdraw, but I do believe, my brother, that the third angel’s message is worthy of your best energies.” Who could have given better counsel? Brother Whitney promised to help me with his prayers, and I fully decided the matter, and from that day to this I have never been inside of a lodge room as a member.
When I united with the order, there were but a few lodges as far as I knew; but of late orders have been springing up all over the land. Soon after, I began preaching the message, and I frequently meet men whom I know to be members of secret orders, but I always try to refrain from scathing criticisms, believing that the better way to help them is to get near them in the spirit of Christ, and show them something better. I have never had any sympathy with the so-called exposures of secret societies, and would not be seen attending one.
Just a few weeks ago a person told me that he had recently united with a certain lodge, and had paid out quite a sum of money, and asked me what I would advise him to do. I gave him the advice that I believed God wanted me to give.
I tell you, dear brethren and sisters, these things are from the world, and do retard our spirituality in the message; and as we come down nearer the end, there will be more and more to draw off from the testing truths for this time.
May we all be energized with the Spirit of him who said, “I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.”
Tithes and Offerings
By William Covert
WILLIAM COVERT
Knowing that all should be mutually interested in the Lord's cause, I write concerning its progress. It is by exchanging ideas relative to it, that our interests are increased in its advancement. There are financial considerations connected with its upbuilding which must receive special attention at our hands. Our own good, and the good of the whole precious cause, are very materially affected by this question according to the manner in which we deal with it.
In speaking of this, the Lord says, “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” 2 Cor. 9:6, 7. We get good from the good which we do. In helping others, we are also helped.
The obligation of tithing, so strongly enjoined, bears within itself the fragrance of divine favor. But if the tithe is withheld from the cause of Christ, it becomes a curse to the one who retains it. The Lord's words through the prophet Malachi should be forcibly impressed10upon every soul. He does not speak in vain when he says, “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Mal. 3:7-10.
The charge against us is that we have robbed God in tithes and offerings. And yet we seem to think that we have done nothing wrong. We say to the Lord, “Wherein have we robbed thee?” The very question implies that we do not confess the sin to which the Lord calls our attention.
We long for the blessings promised in connection with the obedience required, but do not allow ourselves to stand up nobly and learn that which is indicated in the lesson enjoined. What sin has been committed? — God has been robbed. Who did it? — Those who claim to be his children. When? — From the days of the fathers until now. Are those who claim to be giving the last message of mercy to the world doing this? — Yes, they too, are guilty. Of what has the Lord been robbed? — Tithes and offerings. Probably not every one is guilty, but somebody has stolen the funds which the Lord intended to use in sending the gospel to the world. The money that was to have paid the traveling expenses of missionaries to different parts of the earth, and to have supported them there while they made known Jesus to our benighted brethren in heathen lands, has been taken. Money, too, has been retained which should have gone into the Lord's treasury in our conferences. A thousand million of our heathen brethren know not of the blessed Saviour. They are sleeping in their sins, and must soon perish in this lamentable condition unless we go to their rescue.
Our Father in heaven cries out that he is robbed of his sacred funds, and calls upon us to return that which we have taken from him. Please consider well the charge that he makes against us. Not only is the tithe taken and appropriated by us, but the offerings which have been sanctified unto the Lord are also used by ourselves.
There are specified offerings, such as the first fruits, the freewill offerings, thank offerings, etc., etc., which should be turned into the treasury or storehouse of the Lord. Let us inform ourselves on these matters, and perform the thing which is required without waiting longer. One writer has said of the present situation: “God's people are on trial before the heavenly universe; but the scantiness of their gifts and offerings, and the feebleness of their efforts in God's service, mark them as unfaithful. If the little that is now accomplished were the best they could do, they would not be under condemnation; but with their resources they could do much more. They know, and the world knows, that they have to a great degree lost the spirit of self-denial and cross-bearing.” — “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, pages 445, 446.
Our people will sometime come up to the help of the Lord, and make it possible to do that which has been called for so long. Shall the cherished desires for a complete work be realized soon? Shall the angels bear the welcome news up to heaven that a whole people has been found who are full of faith, and whose works bear witness to their profession?
The Way
By Mrs. M. E. Gates
The depths of the sea
(Sorrow’s wide, anguishing sea),
Thou hast made a wonderful way;
The redeemed pass over it singing to
thee!
The depths of the sea
(Sin’s trackless and treacherous sea),
E’en of this thou hast said, “Fear not,
Fear thou not, with my hand I have
covered thee.”
The depths of the sea
(Death’s dark, inscrutable sea),
A way for the ransomed to pass
Thou hast made, and sorrow and sighing
shall flee!
— Mrs. M. E. Gates.
Feeding in the Ways
By Alexander Maclaren, D. D.
“THEY shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.” Isa. 49:9.
This is part of the prophet’s glowing description of the return of the captives, under the figure of a flock fed by a great shepherd. Whilst, then, this prophecy is originally intended simply to suggest the abundant supplies that were to be provided for the band of exiles as they came back from Babylon, there lie in it great and blessed principles which belong to the Christian pilgrimage, and the flock that follows Christ.
They who follow him, to begin with, shall find in the dusty paths of common life, and in all the smallnesses and distractions of daily duty, nourishment for their spirits. Do you remember what Jesus said? “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” We, too, may have the same meat to eat which the world knows not of, and he will give that hidden manna to the combatant as well as “to him that overcometh.” In the measure in which we “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth,” in that measure do we find—like the stores of provisions that arctic explorers come upon, cachéd for them—food in the wilderness, and nourishment for our highest life in our common work.
That is a great promise, and it is a great duty. It is a promise the fulfillment of which is plainly guaranteed by the very nature of the case. Religion is meant to direct conduct, and the smallest affairs of life are to come under its imperial control; and the only way by which a man can get any good out of his Christianity is by living it. It is when he sets to work on the principles of the gospel, that the gospel proves itself to be a reality in his blessed experience. It is when he does the smallest duties from great motives, that these great motives are strengthened by exercise, as every motive is. If you wish to weaken the influence of any principle upon you, do not work it out, and it will wither and die. If a man would grasp the fullness of spiritual sustenance which lies in the gospel of Jesus Christ, let him go to work on the basis of the gospel, and he “shall feed in the ways,” and common duties will minister strength to him, instead of taking strength from him.
The food which God gives us is not only to be taken by faith, but it has to be made ours more abundantly by work. Saint Augustine said, in another connection, “Believe, and thou hast eaten.” Yes, that is blessedly true, but it needs to be supplemented by “they shall feed in the ways,” and their work will bring them nourishment.
But this is a great duty as well as a great promise. How many of us Christian people have but little experience of getting nearer to God, because of our daily occupations? To by far the larger number of us, in by far the greater space of time in our lives, our daily work is a distraction, and tends to obscure the face of God to us, and to shut us out from many of the storehouses of sustenance by which a quiet, contemplative faith is refreshed. If you go to your countinghouses and shops, and I go to my desk and books, and forget the Shepherd, then there is no grass by the wayside for such sheep. But if we subject our wills to him, and if in all that we do we are trying to refer to him, and are working in dependence on him, and for him, then the poorest work, the meanest, the most entirely secular, will be a source of Christian nourishment and blessing.
We have to settle for ourselves whether we shall be distracted, torn asunder by pressure of cares and responsibilities and activities, or whether, far below the agitated surface which is ruffled by the winds and borne along by the tidal wave, there will be a great central depth, still but not stagnant—whether we shall be fed or starved in our Christian life by the pressure of our worldly tasks. The choice is before us. “They shall feed in the ways,” if the ways are Christ’s ways, and he is at every step their Shepherd.—Alexander Maclaren, D. D.
A Glorious, Helpful Ministry
By Susan Coolidge
As we meet and touch, each day,
The many travelers on our way,
Let every such brief contact be
A glorious, helpful ministry:
The contact of the soil and seed,
Each giving to the other's need,
Each helping on the other's best,
And blessing each as well as blest.
— Susan Coolidge.
What Know We?
By L. M. Montgomery
WHAT know we of the gnawing grief
That dims perchance our neighbor's
way,
The fretting worry, secret pain
That may be his from day to day?
Then let no idle word of ours
Sting to his heart with more dismay.
What know we of temptations deep
That hover round him like the night,
What bitter struggles may be his,
What evil influences blight!
Then be not hasty to condemn,
If he have strayed from paths of right.
We know so little of the hearts
That everywhere around us beat,
So little of the inner lives
Of those whom day by day we greet;
O, it behooves us one and all
Gently to deal with those we meet.
Gently to deal and gently judge,
With that divinest charity
That thinks no evil, but would seek
The good in every soul to see,
Measuring not by what it is,
But by that which it strives to be.
—L. M. Montgomery, in the First Baptist Monthly, Hartford.