"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what He will speak with me."
THE POPE LEO XIII. AND AMERICA.
BOURKE COCKRAN, the eloquent political orator of New York, on his recent visit to Europe, had an interview with Pope Leo XIII. The Thrice-a-Week World, of July 7, printed an authorized interview with Mr. Cockran. Among other things the pope said to him is the following, which Americans will do well to ponder:—
"I would gladly take to my bosom the whole world and embrace it in the holy Catholic faith, not for any benefit it could do me personally, but to advance the welfare of men in this world, and promote their prospects of happiness in the next. The Catholic Church is universal, and the whole world is dear to me, but your country lies especially close to my heart. The Catholic Church has shown, here in the Old World for nineteen centuries, that it is not merely a depository for spiritual truth, but that, as it was in the beginning the cradle of civilization, it now is its bulwark.
"But if the history of the Catholic Church lies in Europe, its future lies in your great nation. You can therefore understand the great interest that I take in the American people, and the anxiety with which I look for tidings of the growth of the church in the United States."
Says Mr. Cockran:—
"I ventured to say that it was a mistake to assume there was a divorce between Church and State in this country—that on the contrary there was an intimate and indissoluble connection between them, but that instead of the State supporting the church in America, the Church supported the State by promoting obedience to law through her teachings and discipline. This remark appeared to please him very much, and he inquired with great particularity into the operations of the various charitable and religious institutions maintained by the Diocese of New York with which I was myself familiar."
How long will it be ere the "church" will direct the State in the laws which shall be made, and in the enforcement of law?
GOOD ADVICE FOR BREAD-MAKERS.
MR. JOHN MUIR, scientist, geologist, mountaineer, and writer, is on an expedition to the Yukon country. He gives, in an article to the San Francisco Examiner, the following excellent advice on bread and bread-making, which is as good for people elsewhere as in Alaska. He says: "We are all in bondage to bread. If only stomachs could be abolished, how free to wander we would be! . . .
"Little or no dependence is to be placed on game by the miner. Nevertheless, most inexperienced travelers carry too much. From nearly every 1,500-pound pack that I saw this summer, at least 500 pounds could have been got rid of as worse than useless. As well put the devil in your pack as a case of yeast powders [baking powder, soda, etc., is evidently meant]. It is in every way a hard case. It leads straight to dyspepsia. It will rub the skin off your shoulders, and eat the skin of your stomach—dissolve or inflame it, as if it were lye, slowly, but surely. Not in a day or week will its deadly work be made manifest, for it works insidiously, like dry rot in trees.
Good Bread.
"Good bread, on which your climbing and digging depends, may be made direct from the flour-sack, with a little salt and water stirred in. After the dough is worked to the required firmness, squeeze it into thin cakes about the size of ship biscuits, throw them on hot coals raked from the heart of your camp fire, turn them before they begin to burn, and, when firm enough, set them on edge to be toasted until thoroughly baked through. Or, if the weather is bad, or you are camped in a boggy place, cut a stick about the size of a whip handle, of birch, pine, spruce, cottonwood, or willow, according to the flavor desired, and sharpen it, squeeze out a handful of dough, coil it in a thin spiral around the stick, and set it upright in the ground at baking distance from the fire, giving it a quarter turn from time to time, until the bread spiral is thoroughly baked and browned all around. Wholesome bread may be quickly made in this way, in any kind of weather, with the flavor of sunny wheat fields in it, and that of the stick on which it is baked; while the losses from the smearing of pans, and the soggy heart of thick loaves, and dampers, that must be thrown away, are avoided. If you must have your bread old-fashioned and light—bloated into a fluffy mass full of air-holes—then instead of a heavy case of powders take a quarter-ounce cake of baker's compressed yeast to start with, and after each baking put a handful of fermented dough into the flour-sack, and with this store you may go on raising cerealian billows as long as you like."
THE ONE POINT OF UNITY.
By W. N. G.
"LAWS concerning the Sabbath occupy a prominent place in the discussions of the question of religion and the State."—Dr Newman Smyth.
The principal reason for this is that enforced Sunday observance is the only religious dogma upon which the legion of religious denominations could at present unite to ask the government's action. It is their sole point of actual unity. It is the one Church-and-State tuber that was left in the soil when the United States Constitution superseded the colonial and federal systems of government in this country. In a somewhat dormant condition, it was carefully preserved until the arch enemy of civil and religious liberty could again prepare the ground for its cultivation. To-day this monument of man's usurpation of God's prerogative to enact moral law is being "uncovered" and made more and more conspicuous in all parts of the land. Sunday observance is now boldly set forth as the preëminent token of Christian life, and the enforcement of the institution is held to be the highest duty of the government. The Supreme Court has said that "this is a Christian nation," therefore we must sustain the assumption by enforcing the observance of Sunday upon all classes. How different from the Golden Rule! W. N. G.
WAR AND STRIFE AND CRUELTY.
By Editor
REPORTS from England state that the numerous small wars in which Great Britain is engaged make it very difficult indeed for her to find troops to carry them on without greatly weakening her home defenses. It is war and rumors of war everywhere, while the people are heartily sick of strife, after all; and yet mankind is so selfish that he can not bear to think that his neighbor is getting more than he is. The only remedy for strife and war is the rest of unselfishness to be found in Christ Jesus.
With the above comes also the following:—
"The British Government is considering the adoption of an infernal bullet invented in Birmingham. This bullet is made of lead, and instead of being conical, the top is level and has a cup-like cavity. On entering the flesh, this bullet acts like a punch, cutting a clean, round hole, which does not close. The bullet begins to expand immediately after entering, and, after it has traveled six inches, it produces a jagged hole three or four inches in diameter. It is said to be the most terrible known, and it is a question whether its use will not be a breach of the international convention."
To such lengths do the exigencies of war drive the so-called Christian nations. But this very fact of war and war preparations emphatically testifies that the nations are not Christian.
The Thread of Life
By D. M. Craik
I SOMETIMES feel the thread of life is slender,
And soon with me the labor will be wrought;
Then grows my heart to other hearts more tender,
The time is short.
—D. M. Craik.
LAYING ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT.
A SUCCESSFUL worker in one of our rescue missions is a lady who was formerly a society belle, but who has now consecrated her brilliant social and intellectual gifts and her beautiful voice entirely to the Lord's work among the lost and degraded. She once remarked that she clung to dancing and card-playing for years after she made a profession of religion, and that her real joy in the Christian life did not come until these things had been given up altogether. One evening about two weeks after she had made this full consecration, she went into a little mission room, and was there asked to say something helpful to a poor wreck of a man who had been for many years a gambler. The man looked at her suspiciously.
"Do you play cards?" he asked.
"No."
"Do you dance?"
"No."
"Do you go to the theater?"
"No, not now."
"Very well," he said, "then you may talk to me. But I won't listen to one word from your fine folks who are doing, on a small scale, the very things that have brought us poor wretches where we are."
"Can you not believe," added the lady who told the story, "that the joy of being able to teach the way of life to that lost soul was more to me than all the poor little pleasures I had given up for Jesus' sake?"—N. C. Christian Advocate.
BLESSINGS OF WORK.
By Stopford A. Brooke
If you would have sunlight in your home, see that you have work in it, that you work yourself, and set others to work. Nothing makes moroseness and heavy-heartedness in a house so fast as idleness. The very children gloom and sulk if they are left with nothing to do. . . . Every day there is the light of something conquered in the eyes of those who work. . . . In such a house, if there be also the good temper of love, sunshine never ceases. For in it the great law of humanity is obeyed, a law which is also God’s law. For what said Christ?—"My Father worketh hitherto and I work." Sunlight comes with work.—Stopford A. Brooke.
FOR LOVE'S SAKE.
SOMETIMES I am tempted to murmur
That life is flitting away,
With only a round of trifles
Filling each busy day,
Dusting nooks and corners,
Making the house look fair,
And patiently taking upon me
The burden of woman's care;
Comforting childish sorrows,
And charming the childish heart
With the simple song and story
Told with a mother's art;
Setting the dear house table,
And clearing the meal away,
And going on little errands
In the twilight of the day.
One day is just like another:
Sewing and piecing well
Little jackets and trousers,
So neatly that none can tell
Where are the seams and joinings—
Ah, the seamy side of life
Is kept out of sight by the magic
Of many a mother and wife!
And oft when I'm ready to murmur
That time is flitting away,
With the self-same round of duties
Filling each busy day,
It comes to my spirit sweetly,
With the grace of a thought divine:
You are living, toiling for love's sake,
And the loving should never repine.
You are guiding the little footsteps
In the way they ought to walk;
You are dropping a word for Jesus
In the midst of your household talk;
Living your life for love's sake,
Till the homely cares grow sweet,
And sacred the self-denial
That is laid at the Master's feet.
—The Household.
AN INTERESTING EXPERIENCE.
By Dr. Ashley
One of Many.
[From a talk by Dr. Ashley, a former surgeon in the British navy, at a missionary meeting, held in the Sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich., August 14, 1897.]
JUST about forty years ago, while I was sailing in a ship off the Cape of Good Hope, I gave my heart to the Lord and decided to be his faithful soldier and servant. My father was an officer in the English navy, and my mother was the last descendant of an old French family. My father, while engaged in the suppression of slave trade off the east coast of Africa, was wounded. He was carried to Cape Town, where he died. When the sad news reached my mother, it was such a blow to her that the shock killed her. I was but three months old, and was left in Paris with scarcely a relative on the face of the earth, but the Lord took care of me. When I was about five years old, the lord chancellor of England took me into his home, and cared for me until I was thirteen years of age, when I was sent to a university in England.
I came to this country first in 1871. It was a little over seven years ago when, in San Francisco, the Lord called me to do some personal work for him. In going about among the poor, and attending my patients, I had endeavored to bear witness of the great salvation, but I never made special effort in the missionary work. One evening I was called to a notorious house of ill-fame, to see a young woman who, in sheer remorse and shame, had taken a dose of poison, and, by God's mercy, I was enabled to give her the proper remedies, and she was restored to health, and finally became converted, and to-day is a good Christian woman. This led me into the rescue work among the suffering women of San Francisco, and also among the utter outcasts—those whom others had tried to help, but had given up as hopeless cases. The poor fellows that sleep around the walls, and on the walks, and in dens and caves in our large cities, these poor outcasts are men whom the Lord has laid especially on my heart, and for the last seven years the Lord has greatly blessed me in my work. I have been the means of getting over a dozen women out of these dens, and restoring them to their friends, or else placing them with respectable, God-fearing people. The Lord has also helped me to assist a large number of men, whom he came to deliver from the thralldom and tyranny of drink, and opium, morphine, and kindred drugs.
Last year, while in New York, I was taken with typhoid fever, and was confined to my bed from November until March. One of the first things I took into my hands to read, when I was able to read, was the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, and it seemed like an old friend come back to me, for I used to see it in India nearly thirty years ago. I was specially interested in those articles relating to the coming of the Lord, but I never could understand the Sabbath question. I used to think that if I kept one day out of seven that was all that was necessary; but since I became convalescent, and made the acquaintance of the dear brethren in the Chicago mission, my attention was more directly called to the subject. No one spoke to me on the subject of the Sabbath, but my attention was called to the Sunday question. A week ago last Thursday I had a talk with some of the laundry workers. Later, while in my room, I knelt down and asked the Lord to guide me in this matter; that if he wished me to keep the seventh day, he would show me, and that he would give me grace to enable me to accept his words. I opened my Bible to the first chapter of Acts, where the Lord, after his resurrection, was among his disciples, speaking and teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God; but there was not a word mentioned in them about the Sabbath day. Now the plain inference of this to my mind was that there was nothing more to be said about it, and that last word had been said on this subject, and I decided accordingly, and accepted the truth about the Sabbath, and the Lord has greatly blessed my soul ever since. Every day it seems that the Lord has given me some new blessings, some new views of his truths, or some old truth presented in a new light, and this is joy and refreshment to my soul.
I heard of the Workingmen's Home when I was in Denver, Colorado, a year ago. I was walking along the street one day, and the ladies were out shopping. I met a tall man, and of all "weary walkers" and "dusty road-ers" that I ever met, he was the most dilapidated looking. His clothing was tied onto him, and he had an old rusty tin pail tied to his back. He looked as tho he had never been washed since he was born. His feet were out through his shoes, and he was so filthy that the patrol men would not let him stay on the sidewalk, and the ladies shrank from him. Well, when I saw one made in the image of God, and one whom our Lord Jesus was content to suffer for on the cross, my heart turned toward him, and I asked him where he was going. He said he was going to hell. I told him I was glad to hear that he had been led to see the termination of his road, for that was the place he was sure to arrive at if he persisted in his course; but God opened his heart. I found that he was a graduate from one of our universities; that he had been an eminent lawyer, had been district attorney for the State, and had been offered, but refused, the nomination for State senate, as he was getting a large amount of money from his practise. I took him to where I was staying, gave him some hot milk, washed him up, put him to bed, and cared for him for several weeks. He is now restored to society, is a polished, cultured gentleman, and is occupying a position of trust and responsibility, since being restored to his wife and little ones. He told me that his first impulse to turn away from drink and from his evil ways was from the talks he had heard in the Workingmen's Home in Chicago, and he gave me the address of the home. It was there that his mind seems to have been impressed to such a degree that he could not rest. He was determined to turn, but feared his friends would not help him if he presented himself before them. This incident illustrates very well the truth that seed sown may spring up at some distant place, and at some remote time.
SKETCHES FROM THE ORIENT.
By H. P. Holser
IV.
ON visiting a Turkish city for the first time one is struck by the absence of women on the streets. Standing at the end of the main bridge across the Golden Horn at Constantinople, one has before him a sea of red caps, but among the hundreds of men in view very few women are seen. The chief reason for this is that the Mussulman's wife must not be subjected to the vulgar gaze of others. Only her husband, members of the family, and female guests are permitted to see her face. For this reason, the windows of the Turkish house are closely latticed, so that while engaged in their household duties the women can not be seen from the street; and the house is so constructed as to inclose a court, where the usual out-of-door work can be done without observation from the street or near neighbors.
When a Turkish woman appears on the street she is closely vailed, not with the transparent vail of the European, but with an opaque covering, with but a slight opening for the eyes. On the street this vail is kept so tightly closed that passers-by can form no idea of the face within, not even discern the color of the eye. When traveling along a country road, the vail is left open, but when travelers are met, the parts are quickly drawn together. In Constantinople where European ladies appear on the streets unvailed they are a constant gazing-stock to the curious Mussulman. This is a manifestation of brazenness that he can not understand. Rather than become so disagreeably conspicuous, most European ladies in Constantinople wear vails.
Another peculiar feature of the dress of Turkish women is an ornament worn on the forehead, and extending down the nose, as seen in the illustration. This article is usually made to represent a column of gold coins; and being situated between the eyes, it is not an infrequent cause of cross-eyes. But tho it interferes so radically with the delicate organs of the body, the demands of fashion must be obeyed. Doubtless American ladies wonder at the stupidity of the Turkish woman in wearing such a senseless ornament which is capable of producing deformities, but at the same time will herself cling to her corset, which is capable of working much greater mischief with her vital organs, and finally the ruin of her health.
On the whole, the dress of the Turkish woman is much more healthful than that of her civilized and enlightened American sister. Her dress is free from restriction about the waist, and in some districts in the interior, where much of the out-of-door work is done by women, we see a practical solution of the question of divided skirt. The lower portion of the skirt is divided till above the knee, and a piece is cut out on the bias, leaving the lower part of the skirt the narrowest; these parts being joined and fastened about the ankles, leave the lower limbs perfectly free in motion, without exposing the form. Such dresses are a common sight on the streets of Tarsus.
Our illustration presents two women of the laboring class, one bearing a basket of vegetables and green figs, and the other a water jar. One of the most common sights on the markets11in Turkey is green figs,—ripe, undried figs. In this form the fig is much more used than in the dried form; the difference is fully as great as between the fresh apple and the dried apple. The form of the water-jar shown in the illustration is also in general use in the east. As in ancient times, the work of the potter is here quite prominent.
On the whole, customs have changed little in the east since Bible times; but of late years some of the customs of Europe are creeping in; and, tho it may seem surprising to some, in proportion as these customs are adopted, the health of the people is impaired. But this lesson, which has for centuries so oft been repeated and demonstrated with such national calamities, is not yet learned. But few comprehend that simplicity conduces to health and purity, while luxury in dress and diet leads to disease, corruption, and death. That Gospel simplicity leads to health is usually better illustrated among the heathen than among professed Christians. This is but another demonstration of the fact that whoever obeys the principles of the Gospel reaps the unfailing reward. Every transgression of the laws of nature,—the principles of the Gospel,—is a step towards death; and every obedience to these laws is a step towards life. The Gospel is life; its absence is death; the only way to live is to continue in obedience to the principles of the Gospel in eating, drinking, dressing, and all that pertains to life.
TYPICAL LABORING WOMEN IN TURKEY.
H. P. H.
REST IN HEAVEN.
By Sam. Ward Trump
WHEN in the midst of your day's weary toiling,
And on your shoulders the burden doth bear,
Stop not to rest tho the hot sun be boiling,
For there's a long rest for you over there.
E'en tho you're friendless, despised, and forsaken,
There is a joy in the truths of God's Word;
And when God's census at last shall be taken,
You shall be numbered a child of the Lord.
Probation is closing—be up and a-doing,
The third angel's message to the world's being given;
Push up to the front, your duty pursuing,
There's a work here on earth, the reward is in heaven.
SAM. WARD TRUMP.
Salem, N. J.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
A NEW house of worship is being erected by the church at Grand Rapids, Mich.
ELDER C. W. OLDS has just closed meetings at Jaynesville, Wis., with ten converts.
ELDER W. S. SHREVE reports six additions at the close of meetings held at Excelsior, Wis.
BROTHER G. M. BROWN reports an addition of seven to the company at Rock Falls, Wis.
IN Copenhagen our brethren are establishing a bakery for the preparation of health foods.
AT St. Cloud, Minn., two candidates were baptized on the last quarterly meeting occasion.
THE brethren at Kalamazoo, Mich., have established a home for the fallen, with good prospects of success.
ELDER H. J. FARMAN reports four adult converts at New Glasgow, N. S., with others interested in the message.
ELDER J. G. WOOD reports the baptism of four persons at Cincinnati, September 11. Five were added to the church.
A CHURCH of twenty members was organized at Milburn, Neb., on the 14th ult., by Elders W. W. Stebbins and G. H. Smith.
ELDER J. M. ERIKSSON, who is laboring among the Swedes in the vicinity of Iron River, reports the baptism of five on the 19th ult.
A GOOD report of meetings held in Macksburg, Iowa, comes from Brethren H. M. J. Richards and G. A. Larson. Nineteen have accepted the faith, and they have a Sabbath-school of thirty members.
THE Working Men's Home in Chicago has recently moved into larger quarters, Nineteenth Street and Wabash Avenue, for the purpose of doing a more extended work.
AT Kanawha, W. Va., a few weeks ago, a man was baptized who received his first impressions of the truth from seeing our brethren in the chain-gang in Tennessee a few years since.
TWO FAMILIES have decided to accept the truth as presented by Brother J. W. Ingison, in meetings held in the Baptist Church at Philbrook, Minn. An increasing interest is also reported.
A SERIES of seven meetings recently held in Green Bay, Wis., by Elder Wm. Covert, resulted in the baptism of six persons, making thirty-seven additions to that church in the past six months.
AFTER meetings held at Baker City, Oregon, last month, by Elders H. W. Oliver and W. F. Martin, five persons were baptized. A good interest was left in order to attend camp-meetings at Union and Boise, Idaho.
THE latest report we have from the tent work at Fort Worth, Texas, which was continued after the camp-meeting, states that twenty-five had taken their stand for the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
IN his report to the Review, Elder A. J. Haysmer notes a company of sixty and a new church building at Waterloo, Jamaica Island. Elder C. A. Hall and Brother Humphrey had been holding meetings there about ten weeks.
THE Visitor says: "A successful street meeting was held in the slums of Cleveland, Sunday, September 26. A male quartet furnished music, and Elder J. W. Collie spoke. Excellent attention was given by the listeners."
AT Grand Island, Neb., on the 30th ult., Elders G. H. Smith and E. L. Stewart organized a church of twenty-five members. Two candidates were baptized in connection with the occasion, and the ordinances were celebrated.
THE Field Echoes, organ of the Michigan Tract Society, says: "The General Conference Association is arranging to start a new paper at Toronto, Ontario. It is to be a monthly magazine of thirty-two pages, about the size of Good Health, and will be devoted especially to the interests of religious liberty work. Elder Francis Hope, who has recently returned from England, will have charge of the editorial work."
FOUR have been added to the faith at Wausau, Wis., through the labors of a Bible worker. Two additions are reported at Knapp, and three at Aztalan, in the same State. At the latter place a small Sabbath-school has been organized by Brother S. G. Schwarz, and the work is to be continued by Brother John Maas.
THE Biblical institute at Frederikshavn, Denmark, which closed last month, was a source of much instruction and encouragement to all who attended. A part of the new school building there has been fitted up for baths and other treatments, which are already attracting the attention of the afflicted, as well as of physicians.
MONTANA MISSION FIELD has been organized into a State conference, with Elder C. N. Martin as president. The State tract society office is located at 1301 Eighth Avenue, Helena, Montana. Following are the officers: President, W. J. Stone; vice-president, C. N. Martin; secretary and treasurer, L. A. Gibson; State agent, C. E. Shafer.
AT the recent camp-meeting at Menomonie, Wis., it was decided to start a rescue mission in Milwaukee. Elder H. W. Reed has been given charge of the work, and Brethren W. N. Lake and R. J. Marsh, with their wives, are associated with him in the work. Sisters Alice Bramhall and Lenna Michelsen have been assigned to Bible work in the city. At the camp-meeting mentioned above nine were baptized, and as many more deferred the ordinance until returning to their home churches.
THE work still goes on under great difficulties in Asia Minor, the laborers being continually hindered in their efforts. Notwithstanding these impediments, such as arrest on petty pretexts, precious souls are being added to the Lord here and there. Strange as it may appear, Armenians seem to be the most persistent persecutors of those who proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God. They seem to have the National Reform idea of religious liberty, that is, liberty for themselves, but persecution for all who dissent from them.
ELDER WM. COVERT, president of Wisconsin Conference, writes to the Reporter concerning an interest awakened in Ashland and vicinity, by Elder T. B. Snow and Brother J. B. Locken. He says: "The Sabbath-school numbers more than thirty now, and at Deer Creek, ten miles away, is another Sabbath-school of twenty members. These brethren are using the SIGNS and the Scandinavian papers in opening up the work in the homes of the people, and they think these the best means they have ever found for this purpose. One can scarcely fail to get an interest started where our pioneer papers are regularly placed in the hands of the people."
THE enemy, as we learn from Perth Amboy, N. Y., Chronicle, stirred up quite an excitement in that place recently because a woman, previously unconverted, joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and was immersed against the wishes of her husband. He chose to desert her and her four children on that account. In consequence a number of sympathizers, some of whom were said to be saloon men, endeavored to stop the tent-meetings then being held by Elder J. C. Stevens and C. H. Keslake. Some of the tent ropes were cut, and threats of personal violence were uttered, but police protection was guaranteed, and the work went on. The local paper states, however, that the occurrence was "more or less exaggerated in the New York papers." But that is a feature of "enterprising journalism" in these last days, because the people want it so.
THE Worker, published at Minneapolis, Minn., gives the following extract from a letter from Brother W. E. Cornell, of New York: "One of our brethren in Alabama, who was a mail carrier, got discharged by the postmaster for 'insubordination' because he refused to report for duty on the Sabbath, when it was understood that he was to lay off that day. When the matter came to the attention of the Postmaster-General, that official from Washington ordered his immediate reinstatement, sending word that he had a wholesome regard for a man with the courage of his convictions, or words to that effect." To this the Worker adds: "Brother W. J. Newton, who has been carrying mail in Minneapolis for the past twenty-three years, has been called before the postmaster several times for refusing to work on the Sabbath; but the Lord has intervened in his behalf."
PERIODICALS WANTED.
E. P. AUGER, Burnsville, Tishomingo County, Miss., desires clean copies of the SIGNS and Instructor for missionary work. Send post-paid.
24 “AND on the morrow they entered into Cæsarea. And Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his kinsmen and his near friends. And when it came to pass that Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in, and findeth many come together; and he said unto them, Ye yourselves know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to join himself or come unto one of another nation; and yet unto me hath God showed that I should not call any man common or unclean; wherefore also I came without gainsaying, when I was sent for. I ask therefore with what intent ye sent for me. And Cornelius said, Four days ago, until this hour, I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house; and behold, a man stood before me in bright apparel, and saith, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa, and call unto thee Simon, who is surnamed Peter; he lodgeth in the house of Simon a tanner, by the seaside. Forthwith therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all things that have been commanded thee of the Lord. And Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him. The word which he sent unto the children of Israel, preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all)—that saying ye yourselves know, which was published throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; even Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is he which is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him bear all the prophets witness, that through his name every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins.”
QUESTIONS.
1. Tell how Cornelius came to send for Peter, and how Peter was prepared for the message.
2. While Peter was on the way to Cæsarea, before he arrived, what did Cornelius do?
3. How did Cornelius receive Peter?
4. Why would not Peter accept such homage?
5. When he went into the house, what did he find?
6. What did he say to the company? What had God showed him?
7. What, then, did the animals that Peter saw in vision represent?
8. Why did he so readily come to the call of Cornelius? What question did he ask?
9. Relate the reply of Cornelius.
10. For what did he say they were all waiting? In whose presence did they feel themselves to be?
11. What did Peter say that he perceived by all this?
12. How many are accepted with God?
13. What word did those present know?
14. To whom was the word sent? What did the word preach?
15. Where was it made known?
16. What had God done to Jesus of Nazareth? How and with what was he anointed? What did he go about doing? Why? To whom did Christ extend his ministrations? Did he pass any by?
17. Nevertheless, what did the people do to him?
18. What did God do?
19. What command had the witnesses received? What were they to testify?
20. To whom do the prophets give witness? What is it that the prophets testify? How many of the prophets teach justification by faith?
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
1. What marked contrast between Peter and the one who claims to be Peter’s successor?
2. How did it happen that it was unlawful for a Jew to keep company with one of another nation? Did God ever give any such commandment? What proofs can you cite that God desired to have the Jews associate with other people, to teach them the truth? What is the only separation that God wished to have between his people and others? See Ex. 33: 16.
3. Did it first become true in Peter’s day that “God is no respecter of persons”? Had God ever given the Jews any reason to think that he was partial? Deut. 10: 17-19.
4. What did Christ come preaching? Eph. 2: 14-17. Had peace to all, both near and far, been proclaimed before Jesus preached in Judea? Isa. 57: 15-19.
