Earlier text: Question CornerFORETOKENS OF OUR LORD'S RETURN
By George W. Rine
THE LAP OF PENURY VERSUS THE LAP OF LUXURY.
DURING the past half-dozen years nothing has been more insistently talked about, or more extensively written about, than has the mountain-like tidal wave of economic prosperity that has swept over our country since 1898. Optimists of the secular and utilitarian school are glorying in the fact that we are living in the age of multimillionaires, in an age of bursting money-vaults, in an age of unprecedented capitalistic power and daring. And it must be confessed that never before did the world groan under such a burden of material wealth. It is also true that more of the sons and daughters of Dame Fortune are to-day dandled upon the soft lap of voluptuous Ease and nursed at the breast of Luxury, than ever before. As in the days of Lot, "fulness of bread and abundance of idleness" are everywhere conspicuously in evidence. Yet it was never more true than it is to-day that one (fortunate) half of the race does not know how the other (unfortunate) half lives. Never before were there so many luckless souls slowly starving in the hovels and tenements of Penury. The following statement, recently made by Dr. Washington Gladden, is significantly true: "It is probable that if the facts [regarding the prevalence of poverty] were known, the optimistic ideas of many of our enthusiastic Americans respecting the universal welfare of our people would suffer chastening." Dr. Gladden and all other serious thinkers believe that, of all social problems, the problem of poverty is the most portentous. How startling the social paradox of our day!—vastly greater wealth than ever before, yet vastly deeper and more far-reaching destitution than ever before; more millionaires, yet more paupers; some so rich that they do not know how to spend their income, some so desperately poor that they know not how to procure a crust for the next meal! Is it not an appalling statement which we find in recent discussions—that fully 10,000,000, or one-eighth of the entire population of the United States, are in poverty? This does not mean that all these are paupers or subjects of charity. It is true that many of them are. It does mean, however, that none of this multitude is able to get more than a bare sustenance, that none is able to procure "those necessities which will permit them to maintain a state of physical efficiency." In every industrial nation there is a correspondingly large class who are on the verge of distress. Mr. Robert Hunter, after years of investigation, concludes that about one-sixth to one-eighth of the people in all the nations of Christendom receive too little of the common necessities of life to keep themselves at their best physically. Poverty's Grip on the Cities' Multitudes.
There is in the city of New York an appalling multitude of victims to poverty. As the result of the most thorough and methodical investigation, it has been definitely ascertained that twenty-five per cent. of the population of Greater New York suffer from more or less acute want. It is painfully true that every tenth person who dies in America's chief city is buried in the Potter's Field. Strange, is it not, in the very face of the fact that this same great city is, in point of wealth, second to no other city on earth? From an officer of one of the organized bodies for charitable ends, comes an estimate that 50,000 children in New York City took their seats in school every morning without having had any breakfast. Later Mr. Robert Hunter, a specialist in social-betterment work, affirmed that as many as 70,000 children, of that city, go to school hungry every day. Superintendent of Schools Maxwell published a statement to the effect that Mr. Hunter had "unusual opportunity for forming a judgment in the matter," and that Mr. Hunter would be more likely to underestimate than to overestimate the number. In all large cities there are thousands of school children who, because of insufficient nourishment, are actually so anemic that they are unable to exert more than half the mental effort that is exerted by the pupils who are adequately fed and clothed. There are, on the other hand, scores of affluent families in New York and other large cities who think nothing of paying out $300,000 a year as ordinary family expenses. To some it may seem incredible that the yearly running expenses of one family could swell to so vast a total. But, Mr. Incredulous, here is the evidence—a typical itemized account as given by an authority on society affairs, in the February (1905) number of Success: Wages and salaries to, say, twenty-five helpers, with food, wines, etc., but no special entertaining, $30,000. Expenses of entertaining, brilliant balls, fetes, flowers, etc., $50,000. Expenses incident to running a palatial yacht, $50,000. Cost of keeping up stables and stud farm, with wages of thirty men, $40,000. Grounds, greenhouses, with wages of twenty men, $20,000. Expense of maintaining two additional homes, one at the seaside and the other in the mountains, $20,000. Clothes, $20,000. Pocket money for the several members of the family, $50,000. Automobiles, $10,000. Traveling expenses with private cars, suites on steamers, at hotels, etc., $10,000. Total, $300,000. This enormous total does not include the cost of gifts, the service of physicians and nurses, of new horses and automobiles, of jewelry, of pet dogs with fur-trimmed coats, of talking dolls in lace dresses at one hundred dollars each, etc., not to omit gambling with thousands of dollars risked by the ladies at "bridge," and tens of thousands by the men at faro, roulette, and baccarat. The original cost of Mr. J. P. Morgan's pleasure yacht was a half-million dollars. The running expense of so magnificent a craft is $20,000 a month. The writer in Success adds: "No doubt ambitious people with only a thousand dollars a day to spend, feel poor when they see rivals spending two or three thousand dollars a day, for such there are, and some who might spend $10,000 a day and keep within their incomes. Perhaps they, too, will soon be complaining that it is impossible to live properly on $10,000 a day!" Is it not heart-rending to think of such pitiful contrasts of grinding want and overflowing riches, of suffering and prodigality? Coming back to our study of poverty's reign, we are informed by Mr. Hunter that in our boasted center of scholastic refinement and culture, Boston, 136,000 persons were compelled to receive charitable aid during the year 1903, when our country was in the plenitude of its industrial prosperity. This number equaled twenty per cent. of Boston's population. In his recent address at Boston, the same gentleman averred that there are 5,000 persons in the Chicago stock-yards who are on the verge of pauperism. The average wage for the common laborers there is five dollars a week. Many of the employees are in practical slavery. "I have seen children ten years old, working all day among the vats of blood," he added. So unhealthful is their employment that they invariably become the victims of incurable rheumatism before reaching the age of twenty-five. Tuberculosis among these children is extremely prevalent. He said further: "They have nothing to look forward to but death. When a girl is made an incurable consumptive, contracted in J. Ogden Armour's service, under the guise of charity, she is presented with five dollars. Just think of it—five dollars for a lost life!" The San Francisco Wasp, of date April 8, reports that a knot of rich women, a few days since, were discussing fashion, in the grill-room of the Hotel St. Francis. The wife of a New York capitalist, who was touring California, was telling her San Francisco sisters of the profusion of Easter hats that some of her townswomen order at that season. "Why," said she, "many of them get as many as ten hats just before Easter!" "Ten!" exclaimed a San Francisco woman.
"Yes, ten; sometimes even a dozen. Doesn't it astonish you?" "Not at all," said the native daughter. I am surprised rather, that that number should be considered remarkable. Why, there's a lady right here in this hotel who has ordered sixteen hats for the present Easter, and all beauties, too."
"Really? Who is she?" meekly asked the New Yorker. The "Wasp" scribe then adds: "The Easterner rose from the lunch table pretty well convinced that our fashionable women have very little to learn in lavish expenditure on personal adornment from the most dashing of their Gotham sisters." It should be remembered that the sort of hats which this lady denominated "beauties" range in cost from $25 to $125. This instance is simply a type of many thousands of such wicked and shameful follies. Did not the prophet speak truly when he said to the rich of this age, "Ye have been WANTON, and taken your pleasure"? London's Famished Multitude.
One of the most indefatigable and disinterested workers in behalf of London's poor, is Rev. Mr. C. E. Walters. He has recently declared through the press that poverty in the world's metropolis is more hopeless than9 anywhere else. In London 1,300,000 persons are comprised in the class commonly referred to as the "very poor." Nearly one-fifth of the people one meets in the metropolis will die in the workhouse, the insane asylum, or in some other eleemosynary institution. It is difficult to believe that in one East End parish more than half of its human denizens are destined to be buried in pauper's graves. Mr. Walters most emphatically asserts that the chief reason for this awful sway of poverty is that 1,000,000 persons in that city control more than twice as much wealth as do the 26,000,000 English people who form the manual workers. The conditions which make this inequality possible "form a strong comment, surely, on our boasted civilization; not only that but a strange comment upon our religion." "Religious people will say," he continues, "'Here is a slum—let us start a soup-kitchen.' It is very kind. . . . But the true method would be to say, 'Here is a slum—let us sweep it off the face of the earth.'" Of course, he means that by putting into practise the principles of social and economic justice, the occasion for the existence of slums could no longer obtain. For years it has been known that in London, as in New York, starvation haunts the schools as it haunts the homes. The New Age, a London weekly journal, puts the case strongly, saying: That in this land where riches and luxury unsurpassed in the world's history abound, . . . these thousands of hungry, half-clad children should be trudging wearily every day to school to sit in misery unspeakable for several hours, too starved in body for the brain to do its work—there is the shameful thing, the most shameful thing among all the evils of our day and generation. Strange, indeed, that the world's great centers of wealth and culture, of Christian (?) civilization, should complacently tolerate the existence in the midst of thousands upon thousands of wretched and famishing children—children redeemed with the life-blood of Him who founded our most holy religion, while fortunes are positively wasted on One of the most dashing leaders of New York's "high social caste" has admitted to a regular contributor to a popular magazine that many of her "set" do not hesitate to pay as much as $5,000 for an "engaging" pet dog. The original cost of a "pug" is by no means the chief part of the money required to indulge one's penchant for so refined (!) a luxury. There are not a few women in New York, each of whom spends a thousand dollars a year for clothes for their poodles. The "precious" pug must have a house coat, a walking coat, a duster, a sweater, at least one coat lined with ermine at a cost of $200, an automobile coat with hood and goggles, and each coat fitted with a pocket for the poodle's handkerchief of fine linen or even lace! These women also buy for these currish pets boots of different colors to match the coats, etc., and they cost from five to eight dollars a pair. A half-dozen pairs is the usual number bought at a time. Furthermore, they buy collars, set with pearls, rubies, or diamonds, at several hundred dollars each. A merchant who makes a specialty of such collars, recently told a newspaper reporter of a woman who imported from Paris a complete outfit for her poodle costing $2,000. Another lady had a house built for her dog, the exact model of a Queen Anne cottage, with rooms papered and carpeted and the windows adorned with lace curtains. Every morning the dog governess calls to bathe, comb, curl, and perfume the "little darling," and then to take him out for his airing. The pet feasts and drinks from silver dishes, and if his feasting costs him a stomach ache, a specialist is hastily summoned. Can you believe that each large city has its fashionable dog doctors, who get ten dollars a visit and sleep with a telephone at their bedside for night calls? But it is true! Last season a lady summoned a specialist from New York to Newport and kept him there for an entire week at $100 a day, because her poodle was indisposed! Yes, and during that same week, in the Eastside tenement district, a score of babies died immediately at birth because the wretched mothers were too poor to afford the services of a physician. "Hundreds of tenement infants die every week for the want of pure milk," declares a famous writer on social subjects. Were instances of heartless extravagance of this sort only sporadic, they might be excused, but, instead, they are the rule with our modern society Nabobs. Millions Squandered on Golf.
A conservative weekly, of San Francisco, reports that nearly $50,000,000 is expended yearly on the game of golf, in Great Britain and the United States. On each of the 3,000 golf links there has been sunk $15,000, showing a total permanent investment of $45,000,000. Each of these links costs $20,000 a year to run. The 750,000 golf players spend $15,000,000 yearly for clubs alone, while they fritter away an additional $13,000,000 on balls. Now, by way of contrast I append the following from Mr. Robert Hunter. In reference to the vast multitudes who toil like galley slaves, in the large cities, for the pittance necessary to maintain a bare existence, he says: "The heavy brooding men, tired, anxious women, frail, joyless little children, are toiling fiercely, monotonously, in the dull struggle against want." It is remarkable how many of the most noted thinkers of our day are repeatedly declaring their conviction that no deserving man, woman, or child, in the world, could be a victim to the harrowing ills of poverty if the principle of exact justice were everywhere to hold sway. Under the caption, "Justice, Not Alms," the editor of the Saturday Evening Post writes: A young man from Harvard, put at the head of a great corporation, proceeded to try sundry schemes for uplifting the workingmen. After a few years he abandoned them in disgust and left the "ungrateful" toiler to his fate. "They appreciate nothing one does for them," said he. "All they can think of is higher wages." How sad! Instead of humbly thanking the young man for graciously bending to help them up to his level they put themselves on the lofty ground of American manhood and looked down at him and said: "Justice, not alms! Give us our due, and let us use it as we think best." No doubt these ingrates would prefer to the "Harvard plan" the plan of shrewd old John Rockefeller who has always paid a little above the market rate of wages and so has never had a strike or even a serious "kick." The inspired forecast of present-day conditions in the social and industrial realm, as given in James 5, entirely justifies these thinkers in the judgment they so insistently iterate. The divine Spirit directly charges the "rich men" with keeping back by fraud a just compensation for the services of those who reap their fields. Read the fourth verse, and to complete the antithesis read the fifth verse. Again, in Mal. 3: 5, our Lord foretold that just prior to the final judgment, there would be those "that OPPRESS THE HIRELING IN HIS WAGES." For He says, "I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness . . . against those that oppress the hireling in his wages." Note, please, that this prophetic warning applies to precisely the same time as that given through James; and do they not prove to even the most skeptical that "in the last days," in these days, the common toilers are systematically oppressed, defrauded, by their rapacious masters? All the noted philanthropists never tire of telling us that this regrettable fact is notoriously TRUE to-day; and the Spirit of God, as we have seen, centuries ago declared that it WOULD be true. In respect to these prophetic warnings we need not walk by faith merely to-day, but by the testimony of sight as well. In closing, I am constrained to add the following incisive words from Dr. Gladden, so pertinent to this phase of the theme: "It is idle to think of meeting the demands of humanity by imaginable systems of relief, while these mills of cruelty and greed are grinding out their fearful grist of destitution and helplessness." May the Spirit of divine Wisdom enable us to read the history of present-day society in the white light of divine Revelation! TAUGHT OF GOD.
By Ellen G. White
THE education received by Moses in the court of Egypt, as the adopted son of the king's daughter, was very thorough. Nothing was neglected that was necessary to make him a wise man, as the Egyptians understood wisdom. But this education did not fit him to do the work to which God had appointed him. In the wilds of Midian, Moses spent forty years as a keeper of sheep. Apparently cut off forever from his life's mission, he was receiving the discipline necessary for its fulfilment. As he led his flocks through the wilds of the mountains and into the green pastures of the valleys, the God of nature gave him the highest and grandest wisdom. In the school of nature, with Christ Himself for teacher, he learned lessons of humility, meekness, faith, and trust, and daily his soul was bound closer to God. In the solitudes of the mountains he learned that which all the instruction received in the king's palace was unable to impart to him,—simple, unwavering faith and trust in the Lord. Prior to gaining this experience, Moses thought that his education in the wisdom of Egypt had fully qualified him to lead Israel from bondage. Had he not had the greatest advantages of the best schools in the land? Was he not learned in all things necessary for a general of armies to know? He felt that he was fully able to deliver Israel. Moses set about his work by trying to obtain the favor of his people by redressing their wrongs. He killed an Egyptian who was ill-treating an Israelite. In this he manifested the spirit of him who was a murderer from the beginning, and proved himself unfit to represent the God of mercy, love, and tenderness. He made a miserable failure of his first attempt. Like many another, he immediately lost confidence in God and turned,10 his back on his appointed work. He fled from the wrath of Pharoah. He concluded that because of his mistake, his sin in taking the life of the Egyptian, God would not permit him to have any part in the work of delivering His people from their cruel bondage. But the Lord permitted him to make this mistake in order that He might be able to teach him the gentleness, goodness, longsuffering, that is necessary for every worker for the Lord to possess. A knowledge of the attributes of God's character can not be obtained by means of the highest education in the most scientific schools. From the great Teacher alone is this knowledge obtained. Only in the school of Christ are taught effectively the lessons of meekness, lowliness, and reverence for sacred things. Moses had been taught to expect praise and flattery, because of his superior abilities; but now he was to learn a different lesson. As a shepherd, he was taught to care for the afflicted, to seek patiently for the straying, to bear long with the unruly, to supply with loving solicitude the necessities of the young and the feeble. As these phases of his character were developed, he was drawn nearer to the great Shepherd. He became united to the Holy One of Israel. Through humble prayer he held communion with the Father. He looked to the Highest for an education in spiritual things and for an understanding of his duty as a faithful shepherd. So closely linked with Heaven did he become that God talked with him face to face. Thus prepared, Moses was ready to heed the call of God to exchange the shepherd's crook for the rod of authority; to leave his flock of sheep to take the leadership of more than a million idolatrous, rebellious people. But he was ever to depend on his invisible Leader. Even as the rod was simply an instrument in his hands, so he was to be a willing instrument in the hands of Christ. Faith moves forward in the strength and wisdom of God, not in human self-sufficiency. By faith Moses was enabled to press through difficulties, and to overcome obstacles which seemed almost unsurmountable. It was this implicit faith in God that made Moses what he was. According to all that the Lord had commanded, so did he. All the learning of the wise men could not make him a channel for God's working. But when he lost his self-confidence, and, realizing his helplessness, put his entire trust in God; when he was willing to obey Heaven's commands, whether they seemed to human reason proper or not, then the Lord could work mightily through him. By submitting to God's discipline, Moses became a channel through which the Lord could work. He did not hesitate to change his way for the Lord's way, even tho it did lead him in strange, untried paths. He placed a very low estimate on his own ability to carry forward successfully the great work entrusted to him. But he did not endeavor to show the unreasonableness of God's commands, and the impossibility of obeying them. To all human appearances, he had started out in a hopeless undertaking; but he put his trust in Him with whom all things are possible, and went forward without faltering. The faith of Moses puts to shame the unbelief of many in our day who have had far greater opportunities for obtaining a knowledge of God than Moses had. At the command of God, Moses moved forward, tho often it seemed that there was nothing ahead for his feet to tread upon. More than a million people were depending on him, and, step by step, day by day, he led them through the wilderness. It was not the education received in Egypt that enabled Moses to triumph over his enemies, but an ever-abiding, unflinching faith, which did not fail under the most trying circumstances. When Moses received a command from God to do a certain thing he did it, without stopping to ask what the consequences might be. Those who refuse to move forward until they see every step plainly marked out before them, will never accomplish much; but those who have unswerving trust in the Lord, and who obey without questioning, will be successful workers. To-day God is not seeking for men of perfect education, but for men who will honor Him by rendering implicit obedience to His requirements. There is no limit to the usefulness of those who, putting self out of sight, make room for the working of the Holy Spirit on their hearts, and live lives wholly consecrated to God, enduring the discipline imposed by the Lord without complaining or fainting by the way. God longs to reveal His salvation to the children of men; and if men and women will remove the obstructions, He will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through human channels. Many who are seeking efficiency for the service of God by perfecting their education in the schools of the world will find that they have failed of learning the more important lessons which the Lord would teach them. By neglecting to submit to the impressions of the Spirit, by refusing to live in obedience to God's requirements, they have weakened their spiritual efficiency and lost their ability to do successful work for the Lord. By absenting themselves from the school of Christ, they have forgotten the voice of the divine Teacher, and He can not direct their way. Men may acquire all the knowledge that human teachers can impart, but God requires them to gain a higher wisdom than this. Like Moses, they must learn meekness, lowliness, and distrust of self. They must learn that in humanity alone there is no strength. Only by becoming partakers of the divine nature can we gain efficiency for the work of God. WHERE WISDOM IS TO BE HAD.
By Sunday-School Times
WISDOM is not shut up within the colleges. It may be found there; and it may be as truly found by one who has never been within school or college. No man who wants wisdom need bewail his lack of opportunity to possess it. “Wisdom crieth aloud in the street;
She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
She crieth in the chief place of concourse;
At the entrance of the gates,
In the city, she uttereth her words.” Knowledge in many fields is to be had, not for the asking, but for the seeking. If you believe that you might make your life count for more and better if you had had a training in certain lines of knowledge, get that training now. It can be done, in moments that are going for less important things. Knowledge makes for wisdom, and “the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom.” No man’s knowledge is profitable, nor his wisdom to be trusted, whose life is not daily controlled by the spirit of truth: “whom the world can not receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.”—Sunday-School Times. Prophetic Study of the Bible
By William S. Sadler
HOW TO ENJOY YOUR BIBLE. No. 4.
Prophetic Study of the Bible.
THIS is one of the most intensely interesting and fascinating methods of studying the Bible. Its attractive features may not be apparent to the casual reader of the Word at first glance, but the more one pursues it, the more fascinating it becomes. Let us open our Bible, say to the book of Daniel, or perhaps Revelation, some part of the Word that ordinarily is little studied, and is regarded as being so mysterious that the ordinary Bible student can not understand it. Here is a good passage to illustrate what we have in mind; read Rev. 9:13-15: "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men." Now, without going into the context of this prophecy to undertake to prove the identity of the power here represented; we will take this much for granted, that this is a prophecy which concerns itself with the rise and progress and final overthrow of the Turkish Empire. We are here told that the independent power of Turkey is to continue for an hour, a day, a month, and a year. Referring to Num. 14:34 we learn that in symbolic prophecy one day stands for one year; therefore this prophecy, in point of time, would cover 391 years and 15 days as follows: One year (a Jewish year of 360 days) equals 360 years; one month (a Jewish month of 30 days) equals 30 years; one day equals 1 year; one hour, or one twenty-fourth part of a day, equals 15 days. Total 391 years and 15 days. Now the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of the present Turkish Government, came to an end on July 27, 1449; so if we add 391 years and 15 days to this date, it brings us to Aug. 11, 1840. If we are right in this study of prophecy, we should expect something to happen on that day; and it did. The European powers withdrew their support from Turkey on that very day, and ever since that nation has been known as the "Sick Man of the East." It continues to exist only because the powers of Europe can not agree on its division. So there are other great prophetic periods in the Bible, which have to do with the rise and fall of nations; and the one great period of Dan. 8:14, the 2,300 days or years, the longest and the last to terminate of all the time prophecies of the Bible, points out the time of the opening of the judgment of the last great day, in heaven. Reader, if you have never made a systematic study of the prophecies of the Bible in conjunction with history, you don't know what you have missed. Get a good reliable ancient history, take your Bible, and start out with a determined purpose to understand the prophecies, and to all such we would recommend that they get some good book which combines both prophecy and history in the light of their fulfilment, as a guide. The editor or the publishers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be glad to refer any interested reader to such works. THE GREATEST MYSTERY.
By H. A. St. John
ABOVE us, all around us, and beneath our feet, are mysteries as yet unfathomable by man. We may know much about these wonderful works of God, but there remains much more that we can not know in this brief life. Men of giant minds, with opportunities, facilities, and leisure abundant, have studied into these mysteries, and have learned and revealed much by their research, but when they came to die, it seemed to them that they had only crossed the threshold of the temple of knowledge. The great majority of humanity are so absorbed with the practical and necessary concerns of life, that they have neither time nor opportunity to study intently the marvelous mysteries all around them. We are glad to assert, and to feel assured that we know whereof we affirm, that God in His infinite mercy and love has revealed to the world the greatest of all mysteries. He has placed the knowledge of this mystery within the reach of all, high or low, rich or poor, young or old, learned or unlearned. It is called in His Word, "the mystery of His will." Eph. 1:9. Certainly and truly it is a matter of abundant thanksgiving to God that He has revealed, or will reveal, unto us the mystery of His will concerning us from day to day, and continually, as long as we are called to walk through this world of sin, danger, and strife. We may each one, for ourselves, have the Spirit of God working in us continually, both to will and to do His good pleasure. No other mystery is so great, so important, as this; for all who walk in the knowledge of this mystery, will abide "forever." 1 John 2:17. The truly wise are they, and they only, who are wise unto salvation. And to be wise unto salvation is to put our wills on the Lord's side, to be filled with the knowledge of His will, and ever able to say and to pray, "Father, not my will, but Thine be done." When Jesus was about to come into the world he said through David, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. 40:7, 8. And then when He did come, He was particular to make this truth known frequently. Note first one of His utterances, "For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." John 6:38. Jesus always understood the mystery of His Father's will, and performed it with unswerving fidelity. He is our example. We are to walk in His steps. Hence, if we present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, we will be able also, like Jesus, to show what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. How sad to think that so many will, and do, neglect to learn this greatest of all mysteries, made easily accessible to all, and so important that present happiness and eternal life depend upon it. The unfolding mysteries of all other sciences may be known, and yet the individual will perish forever with all his knowledge, if he knows not the science of salvation, the mystery of God's will. All such are building on the sand, and some day how great will be their fall. The humble follower of Jesus is building his character upon the enduring Rock, and will abide forever. In conclusion, give diligent attention to the apostolic benediction, "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to DO His WILL, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Heb. 13:20, 21. SAFE IN CHRIST.
By Mrs. H. W. Smith
WHEN I was in England a lady told me a sweet story illustrative of what it is to have Christ between us and everything else. She said she was wakened up by a very strange noise of pecking, or something of the kind, when she got up she saw a butterfly flying backward and forward, inside the window-pane, in great fright, and outside a sparrow, pecking and trying to get in. The butterfly did not see the glass and expected every minute to be caught, and the sparrow did not see the glass and expected every minute to catch the butterfly, yet all the while that butterfly was as safe as if it had been three miles away, because of the glass between it and the sparrow. So it is with the Christians who are abiding in Christ. His presence is between them and every danger. I do not believe that Satan understands about this mighty and invisible power that protects us, or else he would not waste his efforts by trying to get us. He must be like the sparrow—he does not see it, and Christians like the butterfly—they do not see it, and so they are frightened and flutter backward and forward in terror; but all the while Satan can not touch the soul that has the Lord Jesus Christ between itself and him. CONSOLATION.
By Frances E. Bolton
I SAT at my organ in sorrow one day,
And my fingers passed over the keys;
But the music was minor, the chords were dismay,
And the theme was life's strange mysteries.
My sad heart played echoes of shoutings of war,
The anguish of women for death,
And pictured the fields where the slain lay afar,
Unburied and silent in Lethe. In wild improvision I pictured earth's loss,—
Love's chords that were quivering with pain,
And friendship's harp broken, and hearts crushed
'neath cross,
And the links of life's bonds burst in twain.
The wild, terrible sorrow of all that has been,
Swept under my fingers that day,
And my heart helpless echoed the strange, hopeless
din,
And sobbed, Shall it be so alway? Will Peace never brood with an outstretched white
wing?
Will friendship be ever ajar?
Will love's roses ever leave aught but a sting?
And earth be but planet for war?
Then came God's sweet promise that seemed to
retard,
That bade me look up through earth's gloom,
"The world shall be filled with the love of the Lord,
And the wastes of the desert shall bloom." Then O, like the song of an angel above,
Like psalm from the unblemished spheres,
There swept from my organ sweet measures of love,
That eased my sad heart into tears.
Some heavenly harper struck straight through my
dole
With comfort I never had known,
In high notes celestial that spoke to my soul
Of the Lord who should come for His own. The tumult of war would forever be o'er,
Love's roses have never a sting,
The earth to its first pristine glory restore
By the word of our Saviour and king;
Affliction no more would God's beauty deface,
Love's treasure alone be outpoured,
And there flooded sweet music through earth and
all space
Like the sound of the singer's last chord. 1. What reservation of time did God make in the beginning? "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 [set it apart]." Gen. 2: 2, 3, first clause. 2. For what reason did God sanctify the seventh day? "Because that in it He had rested from all His work which God had created and made." Verse 3, last clause. "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." Ex. 20: 11. 3. Then whose day is the seventh-day Sabbath? "Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze. 20: 20. "The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." Matt. 12: 8. 4. For whose use was the Sabbath instituted? "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord." Ex. 31: 15. 5. How long will the Sabbath endure? It is a "perpetual covenant," a "sign" between God and His people "forever." Verses 16, 17. 6. What reservation of means has the Lord made to Himself? "All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's; it is holy unto the Lord." Lev. 27: 30; also verse 32. 7. What is to be done with the Lord's tithe, or tenth? "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house [support for the Lord's ministers]." Mal. 3: 10. 8. What does the Lord say of those who withhold His tithe? "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." Verses 8, 9. 9. What blessing is promised for faithfulness in bringing in the tithe? "Prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 10-12. 10. What does Jesus say of the duty of paying tithes? "Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Matt. 23: 23.