Earlier text: THE GOOD SHEPHERDSugar Trust and Tariff Profits
Trust, and 50 cents to sugar growers and wholesale groceries. "As our sugar account amounts to about $200,000,000 a year, the trust will this year pocket about $30,000,000 of our sugar tax. Nearly $10,000,000 more will go to sugar growers, wholesale grocers, and Sandwich Islands speculators, who are the chief beneficiaries of reciprocity." "The sugar leech has cost us $550,000,000 during the last seventeen years," declared the speaker, "and all but $35,000,000 has been filched from us by means of the sugar tariff, manipulated by its friends." "What have we to show for it? A score or more of millionaires, whom De Witt Warner has said are the most dangerous Anarchists this country has ever seen. They both make and break our laws and corrupt our politics, legislators, executives, and judiciary." "Mr. Holt maintained that enough senators are owned by the trust to carry out its will in regard to the tariff, and this end is gained, he asserted, by electing legislators in the various States who will choose Sugar Trust senators. In substantiation of this he quoted Mr. Havemeyer's testimony before the Senate in regard to the trust's local political contributions always given to the party in power." "Mr. Gamaliel charged that we are where Europe was three or four hundred years ago,—ruled by feudal barons, alias United States senators. He declared that the present conditions continued mean revolution, and that unless we meet the situation, this government will go to pieces. Hon. John E. Russell followed in the same line." "Professor Cummings, who is a very young-looking man, expressed his opinion that it was beneath the dignity of the Reform Club to echo the sentiments heard on the street corners from Socialists and Anarchists and would-be debasers of the currency." "He averred that the difficulty is not so much in the trusts and millionaires and the government as it is in a lack of sound moral sense among the people. To cultivate that should be the first thing in the way of reform." "At the head of the table, in addition to the speakers referred to, were Vice-president Moorfield Storey, who presided; Archibald M. Howe, H. H. Fletcher, Winslow Warren, Samuel Y. Nash, Charles Warren, J. J. Myers, Dana Estes, Henry W. Lamb, and Robert Treat Paine." "In closing the meeting Moorfield Storey answered some of the criticisms of Professor Cummings, and said the radical views uttered during the evening were to be the more seriously considered in view of the high character of the men who advanced them." Truly such a condition of things tends to revolution. "Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey,
When wealth accumulates and men decay." Spake the prophet of old: "Wo unto them that join house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth." Isa. 5:8. Said another: "He is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and can not be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all peoples. . . . Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee." Hab. 2:5-8. "And the songs of the palace shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God; the dead bodies shall be many; in every place shall they cast them forth with silence." Amos 8:3, R. V., margin. And Isaiah completes the picture: "Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant." Isa. 5:9. The overreaching and grasping of the rich and the class feeling engendered by it in the poor are rapidly bringing us to a fulfilment of the above divine predictions. We are nearing the end. See James 5:1-7. NOT THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST.
By W. N. G.
THE Pastors' Association of Auburn, N. Y., are out in a new role. They have determined to play the part of Roman persecutors as far as the law will sustain them. They first instigated a mass meeting in one of the churches in the interest of compulsory Sunday observance. At this meeting a Law and Order Committee was appointed. Soon thereafter nine young men were arrested for playing ball on Sunday, and fined $5.00 each. This so encouraged them that they asked and secured of the sheriff three deputies for Sunday police duty, the committee selecting the men. The sheriff gave them to understand that the county supervisors would pay the deputies $2.00 a Sunday. But when the bills for service amounted to $52, and were presented to the board, they were not allowed. Finally the Pastors' Association paid the bills of these armed policemen for prowling about on Sunday spying out people who in their estimation were "breaking the sabbath." The Rome, N. Y., Indicator says: "What is their estimate of Jesus Christ, if they think they are following him? Either they have a very low estimation of him, or else they know they are not following him." Now, however, they propose to push the matter further and try to prevent the election of supervisors who have so little regard for the morals of the people. So in Auburn, as in so many other places, Sunday observance, compulsory if not voluntary, is to be the standard of Christianity. How far below the mark! W. N. G. THE Word of God predicts that in the last days, when men are crying, "Peace, peace," and predicting that the weapons of war shall be converted into implements of peaceful industry, there will be such war preparation as never before was seen. See 1 Thess. 5:1, 2; Isa. 2:1-6; Joel 3:9-14. We hear the cry of "Peace and safety" from pulpit to grogshop, and we see the preparations for war. The head of the United States army, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, recently made a visit to Europe, a tour of inspection among the nations, a tour for special observation of works, and arts, and implements of war. In Associated Press report, in the Los Angeles Times of October 3, under date of "London, October 2," among other things, this is what he said:— "What I have seen does not indicate that the millennium is at hand, when swords will be beaten into plowshares. There never was another time in the history of the world when such energy, ingenuity, and wealth has been devoted to war purposes. The resources and industries of many people are largely devoted to maintaining large standing armies and formidable navies. Fortunate are the people of the United States that they are walled in by two great oceans, yet this fact would not warrant them in any policy other than keeping a reasonable percentage of the population fully equipped and instructed in modern appliances and methods of war. It so happened that important events which occurred in Europe this year have contributed to my opportunity for observation, giving me chances to see everything." After speaking of the great military display at the Queen Victoria's jubilee, and of the strength and effectiveness of the Russian army, General Miles says:— "Germany is one vast military camp. It is geographically in such a position that it is compelled to maintain a great military force. On one side is Austria, that they have overrun, and France, that has been conquered and a part of her territory taken away by fighting her when she was at a great disadvantage. On the other side stands the great Russian bear, and between these two Germany finds it necessary to keep her powder dry. The German army is kept under rigid discipline, is well drilled, makes the finest appearance on parade, but its fighting qualities are no better than the English, Russian, or French armies." God's Word is true, tho some will not believe it till it is written in the blood of the great battle of Armageddon. THE following has appeared in many of the great newspapers of the east; it is a most significant straw:— "TROY, N. Y., September 24.—Police Magistrate Donohue considerably surprised the loungers about the police court this morning when he sent John Burns, a Catholic, to jail for attempting to eat meat on Friday. Early this morning Burns went into a restaurant on Ferry Street, and ordered beefsteak. Burns got into an altercation with Stephen Johnson, a colored waiter, and both were arrested. When arraigned before the magistrate, the men told different stories.
'Burns,' said the magistrate sharply, 'what church do you go to?'
'This ain't the place to talk religion,' replied Burns.
'Never mind about that. What church do you go to?'
'Well, I go to St. Francis.'
'Thought so; I'll send you to jail for eating meat on Friday. Johnson, you're discharged.'
'Burns will have to stay in the county jail until next Tuesday because he attempted to eat meat on Friday.'" SLEEP sweet within this quiet room,
O thou, whoe'er thou art,
And let no mournful yesterdays
Disturb thy quiet heart;
Nor let to-morrow fright thy rest
With dreams of coming ill;
The Maker is thy changeless friend,
His love surrounds thee still!
Forget thyself and all the world;
Put out each feverish light;
The stars are keeping watch o'erhead,
Sleep sweet; good-night, good-night.
—Anon. LIFE'S EPITOME.
By Richmond Despatch
THERE was a man in our town
Invested all his health,
With madly avaricious aim,
To win the goal of wealth;
And when the same he had attained,
With all his might and main,
He vainly lavished all his wealth
To get his health again.
—Richmond Despatch. THE GIRL AT THE FOOT.
By Agnes L. Carter
"MISS GRAFTON! O Miss Grafton! Lou Williams has come back!" This was the cry which greeted the teacher as she entered the class-room one bright morning. Miss Grafton smiled at the eager faces, and stooped to kiss a little girl who was pushed forward by her young friends. This girl had shy brown eyes, wavy brown hair, which had been cut short during her long illness, and roguish dimples in her thin cheeks. She had been away from school for six weeks, and everybody was glad to see her again. All the girls were mourning the loss of her pretty hair, except Kitty Lawrence, who said it was prettier than ever, and she was going to have her own cut short, just like Lou's. While they were talking, the bell rang. "Now, dear, you will have a new experience," said Miss Grafton kindly. "You have never tried the back row." Lou smiled; but there was a queer lump in her throat as she took her seat at the foot of the class. It was the first time she had ever been behind the first row. It seemed very lonely back there. All her former companions were quite out of reach; and, tho some of them looked back at her now and then at first, by and by they gave it up, and appeared to have forgotten her. The girls near the foot were very different. They whispered, passed notes, and prompted each other constantly. They prompted Lou, too, much to her discomfort; and she found it difficult to pay attention to the recitations, with such an uneasy rustling around her. Before the first hour was over, poor Lou felt quite unhappy. When May Whitney asked her a question, she blushed and shook her head, to signify that she would not break the rules by speaking, whereupon May tossed her curls and said spitefully, "O, you sweet little angel!" Then Lou had hard work to keep from crying. She thought it very hard to be good at the foot of the class. She wondered how long it would be before she could get away from these disorderly girls. "If I have to stay here two or three weeks," “or even longer,” she said to herself, “how shall I ever bear it? I’m afraid I shall forget sometime and do something wrong. I wish Miss Grafton would let me sit on a chair in a corner; but maybe that would look like favoritism. Perhaps mama would say I ought to be strong enough to be good even among these girls, like the apostles and martyrs.” Just then the bell rang for recess, and Lou’s friends came to take her downstairs; and twenty minutes was not long enough for them to tell her all that had happened at school while she was away, and how they had missed her, and to explain why Dolly Brown’s father had taken her to Europe. After recess came an exercise which the girls called “going up and down.” Miss Grafton had been reading ancient history to the class during the closing hour on Fridays, and she occasionally examined them on what she had read. These examinations were not recorded in the roll-book, but those who answered questions correctly “skipped” above those who failed, so that this exercise frequently caused important changes in the positions of scholars. Lou usually enjoyed such examinations very much, and answered questions very readily; but as she had been so long absent, she had no hope of any success. A few attempts, partly happy guesses, partly dim recollections of something she had heard her father reading at home, helped her over three or four rounds, and brought her above half a dozen scholars, tho she was still on the back row. “Next! next!” said Miss Grafton. The question was passed rapidly down the line. “How funny!” thought Lou: “surely they know who captured Babylon! Why it’s in the Bible!” Two or three hands were raised. It was coming down the next line. Lou’s hand was up. “Next! next! Well, Lou, who was it?” “Correct. You may go up. Where did the question begin?” More than half the class was moving down, and Lou took a seat beside Kitty Lawrence, who squeezed her hand delightedly. “I knew she wouldn’t stay down there long, Miss Grafton,” said Lena Snow. She could not speak to Lou, so she said it to the teacher. Then the questioning began again, at the head. “How did they enter the city?” Marion, the head girl, started, flushed, hesitated, and finally sat down with tearful eyes. Mabel, the second, looked up in consternation, exclaiming, “O Miss Grafton!” and gave it up without an effort. Lena Snow hazarded a guess. “They broke open the gates.” It ran down the first line—down the second—that relentless, “Next! next! next!” Nobody was quite sure how far it had gone. Minnie Venn sprang up, she had been passed, and gasped out, “O, I know!” and sank into her seat again. It was doubtful if even Miss Grafton knew who was “next.” Lou held up her hand, for fear she would be passed. Her heart beat very fast. At last her turn came. “They turned the Euphrates into another bed, and passed over the old bed to the gates, and then a traitor inside opened the gates.” Lou rose, blushing very much, and took her place. The girls clapped. They couldn’t help it. The girl at the foot had become the girl at the head!—The Occident. PUNISHMENT AND OFFENSE.
By Nora Smith
THE child who obeys you simply because he fears punishment is a slave who cowers under the lash of the despot. Undue severity makes him a liar and a coward. He hates his master. He hates the thing he is made to do. There is a bitter sense of injustice, a seething passion of revenge, forever within him, and were he strong enough he would rise and destroy the power that has crushed him. He has done right because he was forced to do so, not because he desired it, and since the right-doing of obedience was neither the fruit of his reason nor his love, it can not be permanent. The feeling of justice is strong in a child’s mind. You have wounded that feeling. You have destroyed the sense of cause and effect by your arbitrary punishment. You have corrected him for disobedience, for carelessness, for unkindness, for untruthfulness, for slowness in learning his lessons. How is he to know which of these offenses is the greatest if all have received the same punishment? Why should giving him a sound thrashing teach him to be kind to his little sister? Why should he learn the multiplication table with greater rapidity because you ferrule him soundly? Have you ever found pain an assistance to the memory? If he has little intellectual perception of the difference between truth and falsehood, why should you suppose that smart strokes on any portion of the body would quicken that perception? Is it not clear as the sun at noonday that since he observed the punishment to have no necessary relation to the offense, and since he observed it to be light or severe according to your pleasure, is it not clear that he will suppose you to be using your superior strength in order to treat him unfairly? And will not the supposition sow seeds of hatred and rebellion in his heart?—Nora Smith. Deadly Flowers and Plants.
BUTTERCUPS and daisies are generally associated in one's mind with Wordsworth, children, and Arcadian simplicity. It is difficult to conceive of anything hurtful or dangerous in connection with the pretty little yellow flower, but unfortunately it is not always the most modest and retiring plants or flowers that are the least harmful, for example, the deadly nightshade (atropa belladonna). Not that the buttercup can vie with the deadly nightshade in poisonous qualities, and still when consumed in sufficient quantities it will cause death. A proof of this has lately been afforded in England in the case of a boy who, after eating some buttercups, died within a few hours with all the symptoms of irritant poisoning. The buttercup belongs to the ranunculaceae, and nearly all the members of this group possess poisonous qualities, chiefly of an irritant nature, tho in a few narcotic principles are to be found. Every year some children lose their lives by eating poisonous seeds or flowers, and care should be taken to exclude from gardens or parks where children play, plants or shrubs of a poisonous nature, as deadly nightshade, laburnum, and yew. Fortunately, buttercups, tho nice to look at, do not as a rule tempt children to eat them wholesale, otherwise the mortality from this cause would be much greater than it is at present.—Pediatrics. The Tigris is 1,150 miles long. The Tiber is only 230 miles long. The world-famous Orontes is only 240 miles long. The Zambesi, in South Africa, is 1,800 miles in length. Slow rivers flow at the rate of three to seven miles an hour. Every ancient city of note was located on or near the sea or a river. The Ganges is 1,570 miles long, and drains an area of 750,000 square miles. The Hudson River, from its mouth to the lakes, is 400 miles in length. The Mississippi and its tributaries drain an area of 2,000,000 square miles. The branches of the Mississippi River have an aggregate length of 15,000 miles. For over 1,200 miles the Nile does not receive a single tributary stream. The river Jordan has its origin in one of the largest springs in the world. In islands of too small size to have rivers, creeks are dignified by that name. The Connecticut, the principal stream of New England, is 450 miles in length. During a single flood of the Yang-tse-Kiang, in China, 600,000 persons were drowned. The most extensive protective river works in Europe are at the mouth of the Danube. The Rhine is only 960 miles long, but drains a territory nearly double the area of Texas. The Irtish, in Siberia, is 2,200 miles in length, and drains 600,000 miles of territory. The Nile, from its delta to the great lakes of Central Africa, is over 4,000 miles in length. The Thames of England is 220 miles long. The river of the same name in Canada is 160. The Columbia River, of Canada, is 1,400 miles in length; the stream of the same name in Oregon is 600. The Arkansas River is 2,170 miles long, but at various points in its course is very thin for its length. The Potomac River is only 500 miles long, and its lower course is rather an estuary than a stream. The British Islands are better provided with rivers than any other country of the same size on the globe. The Mississippi, at the point where it flows out of Lake Itasca, is ten feet wide and eighteen inches deep.—Selected. AN ESSAY ON TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
A SCHOOLBOY of Australia put his youthful enthusiasm into an effective essay on total abstinence, as follows: “I abstain from alcoholic drinks because if I would excel as a cricketer, Grace says, ‘Abstain;’ as a walker, Weston says, ‘Abstain;’ as an oarsman, Hanlon says, ‘Abstain;’ as a swimmer, Webb says, ‘Abstain;’ as a missionary, Livingstone says, ‘Abstain;’ as a doctor, Clark says, ‘Abstain;’ as a preacher, Farrar says, ‘Abstain;’ asylums, prisons, and workhouses repeat the cry, ‘Abstain!’” —Sel. A FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT.
By Arnold
A CLERGYMAN, calling upon one of his members, found her cleaning the front steps. She arose in confusion and said, “O, dear sir, I did not know you were coming to-day, or I should have been ready!” His answer was: “Dear friend, you could not be in better trim than you are. You are doing your duty, like a good housekeeper, and may God bless you.”—Arnold. OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
By Editor
THE church at Boise, Idaho, has received twenty-one members since last May. ELDER W. S. SHREVE reports the baptism of three candidates at Debello, Wis. ELDER S. S. SHROCK has been called from Ohio to engage in labor among the German population of Philadelphia. A GERMAN church was organized at Sherwood, Ohio, on the 20th ult., by Elders S. S. Shrock and R. C. Porter. AT the last quarterly meeting of the church in Toronto, Ont., an addition of nine to the membership was reported. THE West Side members of the church in Cleveland, Ohio, have formed a separate organization. In this way the cause is better represented in that large city. AT the late meeting of the New York Conference, held at Syracuse, six new churches were added. At the same meeting Brethren A. R. Hyatt and G. R. Lesch were ordained to the Gospel ministry. THE local camp-meeting at Montrose, Colo., created such a manifest interest that Elders J. E. Leland and B. W. Marsh continued services after the general meeting closed. Previous to the close of the camp-meeting eight persons were baptized. THE little pamphlet issued a short time ago by Mrs. S. M. I. Henry, entitled "How the Sabbath Came to Me," has already reached a circulation of over 200,000 copies, and is doing much to arouse an interest in this important question. Forty-eight pp.; price, $1.50 per 100. DURING the recent camp-meeting at Fremont, Neb., five candidates were baptized; a number of persons took instruction in book-selling, and will engage in that work; the regular conference business was attended to, and Brother E. L. Stewart was ordained to the Gospel ministry. OCTOBER 3, four persons were baptized at Iowa City, Iowa, and since that date three more have been added. Still others were expected to go forward at the time of this report, as a good interest was manifested in meetings conducted by Elder W. B. Everhart and Brother R. H. Habenicht. THE Minnesota Worker gives this interesting item: "For several years past Sister A. E. Ellis, of Dodge Center, Minn., has used a club of 100 SIGNS OF THE TIMES in missionary work. The efficiency of this is shown by the fact that seventy-five persons have accepted the truth during the past three years through this means." There are certainly many others who might do a similar work, if there were first a willing mind, and confidence in the means which the Lord has often endorsed. ELDER D. H. LAMSON, whose long years of service in the cause have made his name familiar throughout the American field, died, at Hillsdale, Mich., October 13, of pneumonia. His field of labor had been mostly in Michigan, and he was in times past a frequent contributor to our church paper, the Review and Herald. Echoes from the Field, organ of the Colorado Conference, says, "We are pleased to hear that new church buildings have lately been erected in Cripple Creek and Florence." It also says, "We learn from a brother at Colorado Springs that a tabernacle is being constructed there for a meeting-place, and will soon be ready for occupancy." THE first camp-meeting ever held in New South Wales, Australia, was at Sydney, October 14-25. Another meeting is appointed for Melbourne, Victoria, from the 18th to the 29th of the present month. It is expected that at this meeting arrangements will be completed for starting the medical work in Melbourne, and that a sanitarium will be opened, which will be a training-school for medical missionaries for the Australasian field. SCHOOLS OF HEALTH are being held in Cleveland, Ohio, under the supervision of Brother W. C. Wales. Dr. Abbie Winegar, Miss Jean Whitney, and Mrs. Nuding, of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, are assisting in the work. The Visitor says, "A most encouraging school was held before the Sorosis, one of the most exclusive societies of ladies in the city." It also states that a school has been opened in Music Hall for the public. FROM the report of Elder J. E. Fulton, of Fiji, in a late Review, we take the following item of interest: "We are thankful for the boat which was lately built for us. This will be a useful auxiliary in our work. Remember, Fiji is not one island, but eighty inhabited islands. When this fact is considered, it is readily seen how necessary a boat is to our work. We have named our boat the 'Loughborough.' This little craft is thirty feet long and ten feet beam, with mainsail and jib, decked all over with a good-sized hatchway, which may be partly or altogether opened, at pleasure. The builder is a practical man, and took pains to make the boat strong as well as nice in appearance. We took a trip in it lately, and had a very interesting and profitable time among the natives. We went some distance from Suva, among a better class of Fijians, who see fewer white people, and are therefore less acquainted with the evils of Europeans." THE Fond du Lac, Wis., Daily Reporter notices our new mission at Milwaukee as follows:— "The Seventh-day Adventists have opened Rescue Mission quarters at Milwaukee in the building at Reed and Oregon Streets, where they have leased five floors for five years. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Marsh, of Fond du Lac, and Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Lake will have charge of the institution. The mission is opened by the National Conference of the Adventists and there will be conducted in connection with the mission a cobbler's department, an employment bureau, in which no charges will be made, a restaurant, and a lodging-house. There will be baths and rooms for the sick, and about 100 cots on the third floor for lodgers. The mission will be conducted on an extensive scale. . . . In an interview with Mr. Lake, he said: 'The employment bureau will be a regular department, but we do not ask a cent either of the man who is furnished work or the employer. We first give the applicant a bath, then we feed him and give him a bed. The question will not be, Have you ten or fifteen cents? If he has a little money to help us out, well and good; if not, it makes no difference. We shall have a cobbler's department, to do light patching or half-soling on old shoes, so as to make them fit for use. We shall have a coal and wood department, where both commodities will be sold in small quantities. We shall have daily religious meetings and also meetings on Sunday afternoon. The mission will be open day and night, watchmen being in charge all the while, so that we may not miss any one who may apply for food or shelter.'" "With thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
LORD, with a thankful heart
I bow before Thee now,
O, let me not from Thee depart,
Help me to keep my vow!
Help me, O Lord, this day
To glorify Thy name;
Help me to walk in wisdom's way;
Do Thou my steps restrain.
D. E. W. A PASTOR relates the following instructive incident: A Christian lady lay upon her deathbed. Her husband was already dead, and reflecting that her little daughter would soon be handed over to the charge of her grandfather, who was an infidel, she was filled with anxiety at the prospect, and calling the child to her side, she obtained from her a promise that for her sake she would read one chapter of the Bible to herself every day. The child soon after was removed to the house of the infidel, and, faithful to her promise, was found by him one day reading to herself in the garden. Inquiring to know what book it was, she replied it was her Bible. He at once began to make light of it, declared that it was useless to read such a book, and asked what was the good of it. She answered that she might learn of God. "God," he said; "there is no God." The effect of this upon the child can scarcely be described, so great was her fright and amazement. For the moment she appeared petrified, but, recovering herself, exclaimed with passionate earnestness, "O grandfather, you're a fool, you're a fool!" The man was amazed at this extraordinary audacity on the part of his grandchild; but the child continued to exclaim: "O grandfather, you're a fool! The Bible says you are a fool. 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.'" Psalm 14:1. The man listened no longer, but to forget it was quite impossible. Wherever he went, by night and by day, every waking moment, seemed to come into his mind, "You're a fool. The Bible says so." The result was he became miserably unhappy and broken down before God, and the Lord graciously used the circumstances to his conversion.—Anon. THE Morning Star tells this story to show that it will not do to jest about the widow's mite unless you are prepared to stand by the consequences:— "A gentleman once called upon a rich friend for some charity. "Yes, I must give you my mite,' said the rich man. "Do you mean the widow's mite?' asked the solicitor. "Certainly,' was the answer. "I shall be satisfied with half as much as she gave,' said his friend. 'How much are you worth?' "Seventy thousand dollars.' "Give me, then, your check for $35,000; that will be half as much as she gave; for she, you know, gave her all.'" The rich man was cornered. Covetous people often try to shelter themselves behind the widow's mite. JAMES F. AGARD, 1847 W. Lexington Street, Baltimore, Md., requests clean copies of SIGNS, Sentinel, and Review, sent post-paid, for ship and city missionary work. PERSONS who have been sending papers to H. M. Oliphant, Hollister, Cal., for missionary work, are hereby notified that no more are wanted at present. BIBLE ELECTION. By M. C. Wilcox. A brief presentation of God's plan and purpose concerning man, showing that the doctrine of election, or predestination, according to the Bible, is full of comfort and instruction. It throws new light on old controversies. Bible Students' Library, No. 67; 24 pp.; price 3 cents. Address Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. THE American Board, says an exchange, pays its missionaries who have families from $850 to $1,050 annually, to single men from $440 to $675, to single women from $390 to $575. The Presbyterians pay to married men from $1,080 to $1,250, to single men $720 to $833, to single women from $540 to $628. The Methodists pay in Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, and India, to married men the first five years $950, single $680; the next ten years, to married men $1,000, single $700; the next ten years, to married men $1,100, single $800; after twenty-five years, $900 to $1,200. Medical Missions in Formosa and China
Dr. Maxwell writes to the Monthly Messenger that "medical missions in Formosa and in China are prospering. He tells of many instances where closed doors have been opened to the medical missionary which would have remained closed but for the known cases of healing. The pioneer power of the medical missionary is unquestionable. Its abiding power for strengthening, extending, and consolidating a Christian mission is also a great fact. The medical missions of the Presbyterian Church of England have done much to bring to the front and to commend to the whole church of Christ the manifold value and power of this agency." LESSON VIII.—SABBATH, NOVEMBER 20, 1897.
THE GOSPEL AT ANTIOCH (SYRIA); A NEW CENTER FOR MISSIONARY WORK.
Lesson Scripture, Acts 11: 19-30, R. V.
19 "THEY therefore that were scattered abroad upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phœnicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the Word to none save 20 only to Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto 21 the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number that believed 22 turned unto the Lord. And the report concerning them came 23 to the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem; and they 24 sent forth Barnabas as far as Antioch; who, when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad; and he exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the 25 Lord; for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and 26 of faith; and much people was added unto the Lord. And he 27 went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church, and taught much people; and that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
28 "Now in these days there came down prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great famine over all the world; which came to pass in the days of 29 Claudius. And the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren that dwelt 30 in Judea: which also they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul." 1. What, as we have already learned, took place on the death of Stephen?
2. Where did the disciples go, and what did they do? To whom only did they preach the Word?
3. Of what country were some of these brethren? To what city did they come? To whom did they preach? What was the burden of their message?
4. What was with them? What was the result?
5. Where did news of this work come? Whom did they send out to see and assist?
6. When he had come, what did he see? How did it affect him? What was his exhortation to the new disciples?
7. Why did he thus regard the work and forward it? What is said of the progress of the work?
8. As the work was growing, what help did Barnabas seek?
9. Where did he find him, and where did he bring him? How long did they continue their labor together in Antioch? What sort of congregations did they have? What name was here given to the believers?
10. Who came to Antioch in those days? From what place? Who among them is specially mentioned? What did he say? By what authority? When did the thing predicted take place?
11. What did the brethren at Antioch determine to do?
12. To whom did they send their gifts? By whom? 1. Read Isa. 51: 15, 16. How is this text illustrated by what is recorded in the lesson? What was preached at Antioch? What was seen? When only the Word of the Lord is heard, and the hand of the Lord is seen, what must be the result?
2. What will a good man always delight in?
3. In what other way also did Barnabas show that he possessed the Holy Spirit?
4. Were there any Christians before the Gospel was preached in Antioch? Did the calling them Christians make any difference with them?