The conflict of Christ with Satan in the wilderness will be regarded with sacred interest by every true follower of Christ. We should have feelings of the deepest gratitude to our Redeemer for teaching us by his own example how to resist and overcome Satan. Jesus did not visit scenes of gaiety and feasting to attain the victory so essential to our salvation; but he went into a desolate wilderness. Many do not even contemplate this scene of Christ in conflict with the fallen chief. They do not enter into sympathy with their redeemer. Some even doubt whether Christ really felt the pangs of hunger in his abstinence from food during the period of forty days and forty nights.
He who suffered death for us on Calvary's cross, just as surely suffered the keenest pangs of hunger as that he died for us. And no sooner did this suffering commence than Satan was at hand with his temptations. We have a foe no less vigilant to contend with. Satan adapts his temptations to our circumstances. In every temptation he will present some bribe, some apparent good to be gained. But in the name of Christ we may have complete victory in resisting his devices.
It is more than eighteen hundred years since Christ walked upon the earth as a man among men. He found suffering and wretchedness abounding everywhere. What humiliation on the part of Christ! For, though he was in the form of God, he took upon himself the form of a servant. He was rich in Heaven, crowned with glory and honor, and for our sakes he became poor. What an act of condescension of the Lord of life and glory, that he might lift up fallen man.
Jesus did not come to men with commands and threatenings, but with love that is without a parallel. Love begets love; and thus the love of Christ displayed upon the cross woos and wins the sinner, and binds him, repenting, to the cross, believing and adoring the matchless depths of a Saviour's love. Christ came to the world to perfect a righteous character for many, and to elevate the fallen race. But only a few of the millions in our world will accept the righteousness and excellency of his character, and fulfill the requirements given to secure their happiness.
His lessons of instruction and his holy life, if followed, would stay the tide of physical and moral wretchedness that has so defiled the moral image of God in man that he bears scarcely a resemblance to the noble Adam as he stood in Eden in his holy innocency. Every prohibition of God is for the health and eternal well-being of man. In obedience to all the requirements of God, there will be peace and happiness unaccompanied with shame or reproaches of conscience.
But very few of the Christian world are following their Master in a course of humble obedience, progressing in holiness and perfection of Christian character. Intemperance and licentiousness are greatly increasing, and are practiced to a large extent under the cloak of Christianity. This deplorable state of things is not because men are obedient to God's law, but because their hearts rise in rebellion to his holy precepts.
Repentance toward God, because his law has been transgressed, and faith in Jesus Christ, are the only means whereby we may be elevated to purity of life and reconciliation with God. Were all the sins, which have brought the wrath of God upon cities and nations, fully understood, their woes and calamities would be found to be the results of uncontrolled appetites and passions.
MORE THAN ONE FALL.
If the race had ceased to fall when Adam was driven from Eden, we should now be in a far more elevated condition physically, mentally, and morally. But while men deplore the fall of Adam, which has resulted in such utterable woe, they disobey the express injunctions of God, as did Adam, although they have his example to warn them from doing as he did in violating the law of Jehovah. Would that man had stopped falling with Adam. But there has been a succession of falls. Men will not take warning from Adam's experience. They will indulge appetite and passion in direct violation of the law of God, and at the same time continue to mourn Adam's transgression, which brought sin into the world.
From Adam's day to ours there has been a succession of falls, each greater than the last, in every species of crime. God did not create a race of beings so devoid of health, beauty, and moral power as now exists in the world. Disease of every kind has been fearfully increasing upon the race. This has not been by God's especial providence, but directly contrary to his will. It has come by man's disregard of the very means which God has ordained to shield him from the terrible evils existing. Obedience to God's law in every respect would save men from intemperance, licentiousness, and disease of every type. No one can violate natural law without suffering the penalty.
What man would, for any sum of money, deliberately sell his mental capabilities? Should one offer him money if he would part with his intellect he would turn with disgust from the insane suggestion. Yet thousands are parting with health of body, vigor of intellect, and elevation of soul, for the sake of gratifying appetite. Instead of gain, they experience only loss. This they do not realize because of their benumbed sensibilities. They have bartered away their God-given faculties. And for what? Answer. Groveling sensualities and degrading vices. The gratification of taste is indulged at the cost of health and intellect.
Christ commenced the work of redemption just where the ruin began. He made provision to re-instate man in his God-like purity, if he accepted the help brought him. Through faith in his all-powerful name—the only name given under Heaven whereby we may be saved—man could overcome appetite and passion, and, through his obedience to the law of God, health would take the place of infirmities and corrupting diseases. Those who overcome will follow the example of Christ by bringing bodily appetites and passions under the control of enlightened conscience and reason.
If ministers who preach the gospel would do their duty, and would also be examples to the flock of God, their voices would be lifted up like a trumpet to show the people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins. Ministers who exhort sinners to be converted should distinctly define what sin is and what conversion from sin is. Sin is the transgression of the law. The convicted sinner must exercise repentance toward God for the transgression of his law, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
The apostle gives us the true definition of sin. "Sin is the transgression of the law." The largest class of Christ's professed ambassadors are blind guides. They lead the people away from the path of safety by representing the requirements and prohibitions of the ancient law of Jehovah as arbitrary and severe. They give the sinner license to overstep the limits of God's law. In this they are like the great adversary of souls, opening before them a life of freedom in violation of God's commandments. With this lawless freedom the basis of moral responsibility is gone.
Those who follow these blind leaders close the avenues of their souls to the reception of truth. They will not allow the truth with its practical bearings to affect their hearts. The largest number brace their souls with prejudice against new truths, and also against the clearest light which shows the correct application of an old truth, the law of God, which is as old as the world. The intemperate and licentious delight in the oft-repeated assertion that the law of the ten commandments is not binding in this dispensation. Avarice, thefts, perjuries, and crimes of every description, are carried on under the cloak of Christianity.
Our Message.
By John Harvey Waggoner
In Rev. 10 : 6, 7, an angel swears to the ending of the time, prophetic time, contained in the little book which was opened, in his hand. This was fulfilled by the first angel's message of Rev. 14 : 6, 7, proclaiming "the hour of his Judgment is come." The Judgment of investigation and of decision of character is identical with the cleansing of the sanctuary; a work to take place at the end of the prophetic period of two thousand and three hundred days. Dan. 8 : 14. Rev. 10 closes with these words: "Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."
Without a full understanding of the fact that the time referred to in the oath of the angel is prophetic time, it would be natural to conclude that this oath announced the coming of Christ, and the end of the dispensation. And this was the view of those who gave the first message. They did not understand that the Judgment was to sit, and the Sanctuary be cleansed, before the coming of the Lord. They fully believed that they were giving the first angel's message, and that, with the close of their message, time should be no longer. But "their eyes were holden," that they did not see that two messages were to follow the one they were giving, and that the coming of the Lord is after the three are all given. The words of Rev. 10 : 11, are a prophecy of the third angel's message, and by this we learn that it is to go to "many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."
Rev. 14 : 9, says the third angel proclaimed his message "with a loud voice." Thus in these texts we learn two interesting and important truths; 1. This message is to go to the nations of the earth. 2. It is to go with a loud voice, or in mighty power.
God's purposes of grace are worked out by instrumentalities. He has committed to man the work of proclaiming the gospel to his fellow man. The responsibility of this message is upon us. Not as a burden, grievous to be borne, but as a privilege granted to us by infinite mercy, that we may be "workers together with God," the highest honor that weak mortals can enjoy. This message must increase in extent and power. God's word has spoken it, and it cannot fail. But to fulfill this, those who proclaim it, who send it forth to the nations, must be clothed with power from on high. It is their privilege to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." As the message rises in power, God will clothe his servants with strength and power to rise with it. He will be "the health of our countenance," if we put our trust in him.
When Israel went out of Egypt they came to a point where they were hemmed in by the sea, the mountains, and the host of the Egyptians. At this point, with every avenue closed before them, the voice of the Lord is heard, saying, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward."
These things "were written for our learning." Let us rise up and go forward. The sea, so dark and forbidding before us, will divide as we approach it, and soon we shall sing the song of victory on the other shore. J. H. W.
Short Sayings.
NEVER talk to a man when he is reading, nor read to a man when he is talking.
If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.
He who thinks his place beneath him will surely fall below it.
Carefully avoid those vices which most resemble virtue; they are a thousand times the most ensnaring of all vices.
We often hate for one little reason, when there are a thousand why we should love.
If we would fully enjoy the light, let us have no deeds that we wish to cover.
Prayer in the Family
PRAYER IN THE FAMILY.—I shall never forget the impression made upon me during the first year of my ministry by a mechanic I had visited, and on whom I urged the paramount duty of family prayer. One day he entered my study, bursting into tears, as he said, “You remember that girl, sir? She was my only child. She died suddenly this morning. She has gone, I hope, to God. But if so, she can tell him what breaks my heart—that she never heard a prayer in her father’s house, or from her father’s lips! O that she were with me but one day again!”—Dr. Macleod.
A Wife Overjoyed.
A MAN at whose house I was a guest, says Gough in his Autobiography, told me he had been a hard drinker and cruel husband; had beaten his poor wife till she had almost become used to it.
"But," said he, "the very moment I signed the pledge, I thought of my wife—what will my wife say to this? Strange that I should think of my wife the first thing; but I did, and as I was going home I said to myself, 'Now, if I go home and tell her all of a sudden that I have signed the pledge, she'll faint away, or she'll up and do something; and I must break it to her by degrees.' Only think of it. Why, the night before I'd have knocked her down, just as like as not, if she hadn't looked to please me; and now I was planning to break good news to her, for fear it would upset her."
As near as I could gather from what he told me, he found his wife sitting over the embers, awaiting for him. As he came into the house, he said:
"Nancy, I think that—"
"Well, Ned, what is it?"
"Why, I think I shall—that is—I mean to—to—Nancy, I mean—"
"What's the matter, Ned? Anything the matter?"
"Yes," said he; "the matter is just this: I have signed the temperance pledge, and, so help me God, I'll keep it."
"She started to her feet, and she did faint away. I was just in time to catch her; and as she lay in my arms, her eyes shut and her face so pale, thinks I, she's dead, and I've done it now. But she was not dead; she opened her eyes, and then she put her arms around my neck; and I didn't know she was so strong, as she pulled, and pulled, till she got me down where I had not been before for thirty years—on my knees. Then she said:
" 'O God help him;' and I said, 'Amen!' and she said, 'O God! help my poor Ned, and strengthen him to keep his pledge;' and I hollered, 'Amen!' just as loud as I could holler. And she kept praying and I kept hollering. You never heard a Methodist in the biggest revival you ever saw holler as loud as I did. I had like to split my throat, I hollered, 'Amen,' so loud. That was the first time we ever knelt together; but it was not the last."
The Pope against Universal Suffrage.
In the time preceding and during the recent civil war, when the Protestant clergy took frequent occasion to utter their views upon the great questions involved, our Catholic brethren claimed it as the merit of their religion that their priests did not preach politics. But, behold! the Pope himself does not hesitate to take a part in political affairs, and always on the side of the aristocracy, and against the rights of man. For example, in addressing the French pilgrims the other day, he spoke of “universal suffrage” as “a horrible wound which afflicts human society—a wound destructive of social order, and which would justly deserve to be called universal falsehood.” Does the Pope like universal suffrage in the United States any better than in France?
System.
As this work increases, the necessity of carrying out system is more and more apparent. One object of system is that there may be a uniformity of action, and thus the burden of labor be equalized in all parts of the field, and also that all parts of the field may bring their united strength to bear at the same time and in the same manner.
Our work is an aggressive one. It is to present the truth beyond our own limits. The field is the world. And the last message of mercy must reach all that are in danger of the wrath of God, which is all mankind; for all are embraced in the call, "Whosoever will let him come." But to enter this work in a hap-hazard manner, without any definite object before us, or without any definite plan to accomplish that object, would be folly in the extreme. Our church organization answers well its end. Our Systematic Benevolence amply supports our ministry. But something further is needed. The spread of this truth has been, and must ever be, largely by the scattering of publications, and therefore a system should be adopted whereby the influence of each individual can be felt in the advancement of this work. Where the tract organization is carried out, it answers this purpose well thus far. Those of the least influence, as well as those of great influence, can unite their strength in such a manner as to tell most effectually against the powers of Satan.—S. N. Haskell, in the True Missionary.
Responsibilities of the Work.
FROM Review No. 4, we quote some important remarks of Bro. Haskell relative to T. & M. work.
Probably among those who will read these lines there will be individuals who have friends in every part of the world wherever the English language is spoken. We have in our midst channels through which the rays of light might find their way to thousands who now sit in darkness in different parts of the earth. Why has God thus arranged this matter if it be not for this very purpose?
To every one of God's servants there has been at least one talent committed which the Judge of all the earth will require with usury in the day of final reckoning. If our lives have been such that we have no influence for good over those with whom we have been and are acquainted, we alone are held responsible for it. If we excuse ourselves by saying we can do nothing in this cause by our means or our influence or by sending the publications which have been so carefully prepared by those whom the Lord has called for this purpose, and then made ready to our hand by the Tract Societies, we shall find in the day of Judgment that we have digged in the earth and have hid our Lord's money. Truly it is said that we are not doing one-twentieth of what we might do, did we feel the responsibility that rests upon us. Shall we not as a people wake up to the importance of this matter, and like a well-disciplined army put forth more of a united effort to prepare the way of the angel which shall come down from Heaven and the earth be lightened with his glory? Rev. 18:1.
Especial attention should be paid to correspondence by the proper persons with those who may become interested even if we may not be acquainted with them. Every opening should be sought whereby the attention of individuals may be favorably called to the subject of present truth.
We do not say, scatter tracts promiscuously without any reference to whether persons may be interested to read or not. But we should individually feel that God has laid upon us a responsibility of not only doing something, but doing that something in such a manner that God can bless the effort to the salvation of others.
Our responsibility does not cease in simply giving away a few tracts or in obtaining subscribers for our periodicals. Yet these are very important in the discharge of the duties that rest upon us. Obtaining subscribers for our periodicals and a judicious distribution of our publications are essential means of accomplishing the object we have in view; namely, to bring men and women to a saving knowledge of the truth.
We must have the Spirit of God to accompany our efforts if we would be successful. There should be a living connection between Heaven and our own souls. We should be men and women that walk and talk with God and that can recognize and understand the voice of God and tell when good cometh.
We are placed here as sentinels, not only to guard the sacredness of the truth by a well-ordered life and a godly conversation, but to seek every avenue by which the truth may reach the hearts of others. Every lawful means should be seized upon with courage to carry the glorious light of God's truth into regions beyond, and make favorable impressions upon honest minds.
In view of the work as it opens before us, we might well say, Who is sufficient for these things? Where are the young men and women who fear God who will devote their lives to a cause which has been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The providence of God and his Holy Spirit call loudly for laborers to enter the great harvest field. The harvest truly is plenteous and the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.
The work in which we are engaged is of the utmost importance. A great work must be done, and the time is short in which to do it. But it is the most sure and certain enterprise that men ever engaged in. Banks may suspend payment, railroad and mining stock may fall in the market, currency may depreciate in value, be counterfeited, &c., but there is no failure in the cause of truth. "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." John 4:36. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Ps. 126:5, 6.
The promise is not to them who go forth in a careless and indifferent manner, and recklessly engage in this work, but to them who feel the burden of souls and the sacredness of the cause of Christ. All such are invited to come to the great source of light and strength, and draw from the never-failing fountain that grace which is needed to discharge the responsibilities resting upon us.
Questions and Answers.
By John Norton Loughborough
BRO. W. O. S., of district No. 8, inquires, "What is meant by the librarian's list book?" and he also asks for an explanation of both books of the librarian.
Reply. The list-book of the librarian is simply a list of the names, in the church of which he is librarian, of those persons who have paid $1 each to become members of the State T. & M. society. The other book of the librarian is a cash-book, and is kept on a similar plan to that of the secretary's cash book, with this difference, the secretary's account is kept with the churches in his district while the librarian's account is kept with the individual missionary members of his particular church.
From 15 to 20 pages in the fore part of the book should be used to keep an account of T. & M. documents received by that church from the director. Then an account should be opened with a debt and credit page with each member, charging him with the number of tracts or pamphlets he may draw from the library, and stating the number of pages of the same, and the value. They should also be charged with Signs, Reformers, or other missionary documents. That is, the number should be stated that each member receives. The members should be credited with all money they may receive for memberships, donations, or book sales.
J. N. L.
Commandment Keepers and Christ’s Coming
By R. A. Morton
From Brother Morton.
It has been some time since I became connected with those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Six years' investigation has confirmed me in the belief that their teachings are in harmony with the Bible, their only discipline.
They believe that the sinner must repent toward God and have a special faith in Christ before he can be justified. They believe that God's law is the eternal rule by which the justified sinner must measure his conduct. They realize the awful condition of the world, in that more than a billion of its inhabitants are breaking the law of God as often as the holy Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, comes to them.
They believe that the Saviour is soon to appear with the holy angels to take vengeance on this careless and lawless generation. They believe the various lines of prophecy, of which too many are willingly ignorant, unmistakably show that this great event is near at hand.
The signs Christ gives of his immediate coming have already appeared, and are read and known by all who prayerfully seek light from the Holy Scriptures. Dan. 12 : 10. They are seen in every movement of society. They are engraven in unmistakable characters upon a fallen church. They come forth from the halls of fallen justice. In short, they are emitted from one vast volcano of crime and corruption and borne upon every breeze, so that he who will may look up and behold the Lord's tokens abroad in the land. “None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.”
This people are engaged in proclaiming the most solemn message the world ever heard, because it is the last. When it shall soon have done its work; when the sheaves of good are gathered in, and the door of mercy is closed, then the careless, the unconcerned, the scoffing world (2 Pet. 3 : 3, 4), will be involved in one common ruin. Youth, manhood, and old age alike must bid farewell to every trace of hope, and die, drinking the cup of the wrath of a long-offended God, which is filled up in the seven last plagues. Rev. 15 : 1; 16 : 1.
Thus ends probation. The dark stream of sin leaves the shores of time and empties into eternity. Solemn thought! Thousands in the youthful halls of pleasure; thousands listless and lustful; thousands filled with covetous avidity in the various avocations of life; thousands wearing the mantle of Christian faith; all, all will soon behold with untold grief, the Son of man on the throne of his glory to execute judgment upon the ungodly. 2 Thess. 1 : 6-10.
Six thousand years God has been manifesting his attributes to mankind. The last generation may know his dealings in the past and avoid the awful consequences of unbelief. They may know that he warned the antediluvians119with fewer evidences of impending destruction than those with which he is warning this last generation, of his soon coming. They know he warned Sodom and “condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that should after live ungodly.” This generation have his dealings with man for 6000 years. They have the fulfillment of various lines of prophecy, with numerous other scriptures now in fulfillment, all of which show the day of the Lord near at hand.
Now to reject this last solemn warning; to refuse to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and enter the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, is to tread under foot the mercy and righteous government of him who sent his dear Son to open a cleansing fountain for all sin.
Very justly, then, may God soon close the door of mercy and let fall the vials of his wrath upon the scoffer and unbelieving, and thus vindicate his holy and immutable law.
“Blessed are they that do his (the father's) commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22 : 14.
R. A. MORTON.
Live for Something.
LIVE for something; be not idle,
Look about thee for employ!
Sit not down to idle dreaming;
Labor is the sweetest joy.
Folded hands are ever weary,
Selfish hearts are never gay;
Life for thee hath many duties—
Active be, then, while you may.
Scatter blessings in thy pathway!
Gentle words and cheering smiles
Better are than gold or silver,
With their grief-dispelling wiles.
As a pleasant sunshine falleth
Ever on the grateful earth;
So let sympathy and kindness
Gladden well the darkened hearth.
Hearts there are oppressed and weary;
Drop the tear of sympathy;
Whisper words of hope and comfort,
Give, and thy reward shall be
Joy unto thy soul returning,
From the perfect fountain-head;
Freely as thou freely givest
Shall the grateful light be shed.
—Sel.
THOSE who go forth to engage in a work they are satisfied is the work of God, have reason for hope and courage. When they read of their message, “The earth was lightened with his glory,” they can but lay their plans for success to follow humble labor.
That is true of the work in which we are engaged. The reports from the Review given elsewhere by Bro. White are what we may expect to result from earnest labor. Other reports show, in Kansas, a score coming out in one place. In Wisconsin, fifteen additions in one place, and besides this many taking their stand by reading periodicals and tracts.
What is true in the East is also true here. Since our last issue we have received a number of encouraging letters from persons who have become interested by reading tracts, or a copy of the Signs. A friend who had been reading the paper writes from Seattle, Wash. Ter., ordering several copies to his friends there and in other places. He says of these times, “There are only a few, a remnant as in the days of old, that have not bowed the knee to Baal. May God save out of the mass salt enough to save the country from sharing the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Another, a letter from a sister in Oregon who embraced the truth by reading. She sends to have the paper sent to others whom she has interested to subscribe for it.
And here is a letter from an intelligent Catholic in California who has been reading our tracts and papers. Ordering books he says, “I have been a Catholic from early childhood, and have been taught to believe, and do believe that a person can be a good Christian in that church, if he so wills, without accepting as an article of faith everything which the authorities of the church have introduced therein.” Again, he says, “Did God rest from his work on the first day, or on the seventh day? The only answer is, on the seventh day. Any other is sheer nonsense. . . . How reasonable in the nature of things that God should set apart his own resting day as the day of rest for all men, and not for the Jews alone?”
The same principle carried out will bring this friend ultimately to the Adventist ground. So may the truth advance. J. N. L.
Instructions.
By John Norton Loughborough
WE have entered upon the work of making a thorough canvass, if possible to increase our subscription list to the SIGNS one thousand copies before our next State quarterly meeting. In order to do this, with our present number of missionary workers the ratio of subscribers for each member will be about three. Almost any one with an earnest effort can get three persons somewhere to either pay for the paper six months or a year, or to consent to read it three months on trial, and advance the postage. All will not interest themselves or succeed in getting three subscribers each, so some will have to do more than that.
One brother, in district No. 3, made up his mind a few weeks since that he would get ten subscribers. He has already sent us seven paid ones, and thinks when he gets his ten made up, he shall strike for ten more. Who will do likewise? One brother has sent us sixteen new subscribers, part of them full pay, in the last six weeks.
We have SIGNS, prepared with supplements, to aid you in soliciting subscribers in parts of your district away from your churches. District No. 3, the only one we have heard from, has, by its director, ordered 500 copies of these papers to be used in that district. The director writes that he has 50 names himself to whom he can send trial copies. Wake up, brethren and sisters, now is the time to strike. Can we not be moved to action in this matter, when we see so many becoming interested by simply reading one copy of the SIGNS? There is not a week passes but we receive letters from parties, subscribing for the SIGNS, who, some of them, had got hold of only one copy of the paper.
Think up the names of your friends and acquaintances, mail them a copy of these supplement papers. It will cost you only one cent each. We are responsible how we use our talent of influence with friends and acquaintances we may have formed in the past.
I hope each district will be active in all these matters. I am informed by the State secretary that there are two districts that have not as yet even furnished her a list of their paid members. When are they going to get started in the work? Some are taking hold zealously and their efforts are crowned with success. It might be so with all. Who will try? J. N. L.
Duties of Directors.
By Stephen Nelson Haskell
In defining the duties of the directors our Constitution reads: "He shall order all his books through the president." The query often arises, Why not each district or director order his books direct from the Office? Why through the president of his Conference Tract Society? The answer we give is, that union and harmony may exist throughout your Conference Tract Society. The president and State Tract Society secretary are supposed to understand better what would be for the general interest of the Tract Society than any one director. And if each director manages his own district independent of other parts of the Conference, we might as well have as many independent Tract Societies as districts. Then so far as a general system is concerned it would be out of the question. No movement of general interest, such as putting books in libraries, sending Review on trial, &c., could be successfully carried out. The financial strength of a Conference Tract Society could not be known. And in a short time a Tract Society would become inefficient by its lacking the only element of strength—union of action.—Stephen Nelson Haskell, in the True Missionary.
Church Members Active in Missionary Work
By Church
From Bro. Church.
I BELIEVE the members of our church are all in good spirits and mean to do all we can for the Lord. We intend to be more active in Missionary work in the spring when the weather becomes settled. I live five miles from our place of meeting. I see I have traveled about 500 miles to attend our Sabbath meetings, besides our evening prayer meetings, and most of this I have done on foot. I feel well paid for my trouble. It is good to hear good testimonies for the truth. Paul says we must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhort one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching. Heb. 10:25.