It has been a long time, boys, since you and I have had a talk together, hasn't it? But there are one or two little things I feel inspired to speak about, and one is politeness. Now I see you look disgusted, and I hear some of you go so far as to say that you don't want to prance and mince like a French dancing master. But that has nothing to do with what I am thinking of.
When you read of self-made men, and the wonderful way in which they have been enabled to battle against circumstances of faulty education and origin, you feel that all such things are accessories, and if the man "has the true stuff in him," that is all that is necessary. Now don't understand me to be saying anything against a self-made man, for there is no human being I honor more, but I quite agree with the immortal Holmes when he shows that it would have been so much easier for the self-made man to rise to eminence if he had not had the lack of home and school education to contend against.
Plenty of you have all the facilities for this education, but you neglect it and put on a manner that is intended to impress the beholder with your ability—your "smartness," in plain terms—but which only serves to show you up in an unpleasant light; and an impression once made by the boy is very often remembered in the man.
Nowhere should manners be more carefully practiced than in your own homes. "Why," exclaimed a young lady once, "I never saw anyone like your brother. He's just as polite to you as he is to anyone else. He always takes off his hat when he comes in or goes out, just the same as if you were any other girl." The girl thus addressed looked at the speaker in wide-eyed surprise. She had always been used to exchanging the courtesies of life with this same brother. "Why shouldn't he be as polite to me as to anyone else?" she asked. (Truly! why shouldn't he?) "Oh, I don't know! Boys are not, that's all!"
Now, boys, I don't think that's a very good record for you as "boys," is it? And yet I am compelled to attest to the truth of the statement.
Now for manner. It does not hurt a boy a bit, nor make him any the less a man, to know how to make a graceful bow; and many have been the times when a young man would have given all he possessed to appear at ease in the presence of someone whose worldly position made it desirable for him to appear at his best.
While, then, polish is not absolutely necessary to success in some lines of life, it is an emollient that very materially aids the wheels of life to revolve smoothly. And I speak the truth when I say that more than one good position has been lost through some awkwardness or a feeling of diffidence born of a sense of lack of polish when among those whose whole bearing betrayed the daily exercise of the finer courtesies of life.—Christian Work.
SHARP WORDS.
By Christian Union
"NONSENSE!" said Mr. Wheaton shortly. Mrs. Wheaton's face flushed scarlet; she looked up at him; and, if I mistake not, a sharp reply got up as far as her throat, but she choked it down; it did not part her lips. She looked furtively at me, but I looked steadily at the fire. Mr. Wheaton all the time was quite unconscious of the stir his word had made in one tender and sensitive heart. Then Mrs. Wheaton murmured something about her scissors and slipped out of the room.
Mrs. Wheaton had ventured to make some remark on some business question; I think it concerned the morality of some Wall Street operations. The subject was one with which she had no great acquaintance, and perhaps her woman wit was at fault. Indeed, I remember thinking at the time that it was, at least in part; but what she said was not nonsense.
After Mrs. Wheaton had gone out there was a moment or two silence; then I broke it. Mr. Wheaton and I are old friends, and I presumed a little on that fact.
"Tom," said I, "how long have you been married?"
"Twenty-four years next May," said he. "A year from next May, if we both live so long, will be our silver wedding. And yet it seems but yesterday that Lucy and I were sleighing in the moonlight that Christmas that I ran away from home for my holidays, much to the chagrin and vexation of my sisters, because I found greater attractions at Lucy Vine's."
"I wonder," said I, speaking slowly and musingly, and as it were to myself,—"I wonder if that Christmas holiday you would have spoken to Lucy Vine as you spoke to your wife just now."
"How?" said Mr. Wheaton; and he turned sharply upon me.
"Nonsense!" I repeated; and I threw into my own voice all the vigor and the sharpness there had been in his. It was a hazardous experiment, but Tom and I were old friends, and, at all events, there was no drawing back now.
He looked at me sharply for a moment, and I looked at him; then his eyes went back to the fire. "Shoh!" said he, speaking to himself, "I wonder—" and then quickly turning back to me, "Do you suppose she minded it?"
"What did she get up and go out for without a word in reply?" I asked.
"To get her scissors, I believe," said he. I laughed at him. "It is taking a long time to find them," I replied. "Yes, she did mind it. If you had seen the quick flush on her face, and the quick look, first at you and then at me, and the choking at the throat, and the nervous movement of the hands, you would not have doubted that she minded it. Suppose that she had said to you, 'Nonsense!'" and I fired it at him as explosively as I could; "how would you have liked it?"
He shook his head slowly; he was still studying the fire.
"Suppose I had said to her 'Nonsense!' how would you have liked it?"
"I would have said you were no gentleman," said Mr. Wheaton; "but—but—"
"But what?" said I.
"Pshaw, John, a fellow can't be studying all the time how he'll talk to his own wife, you know! If he can't be free at home, he can't be free anywhere. She ought not to be so sensitive. She knows I didn't mean anything."
"Tom," said I, "if anyone else accused you of saying something when you didn't mean anything, you'd get redder in the face over it than she was just now. You did mean something. You meant exactly what you said. You thought what your wife said was not right, and you blurted it right out."
"Well, it was nonsense," said Mr. Wheaton.
"I am not so sure of that," said I, "but if it were, that was no reason why you should tell her so."
"Do you always weigh your words when talking with your wife, as if you were in a witness box before a Philadelphia lawyer?"
"No matter what I do," said I. "Perhaps I have learned a lesson here to-night that will make me more careful hereafter. Of one thing I am sure, Tom, if we were as careful of our wives after twenty-five years of married life as we are of our girls in courtship—"
But I did not finish my sentence, for just at that moment the door opened, and Mrs. Wheaton came in. I had barely time to notice that she had forgotten what she went for, for she had no scissors in her hand, when Mr. Wheaton, in his warm, impulsive way, reached out his hand, caught hers, drew her to him, and said: "Lucy, my dear, Mr. Laicus here has been giving me a regular going over for speaking to you as I did just now. It was nonsense, you know, but I had no business to tell you so, at least, not in that brutal style."
She flushed redder than before, then stooped down, brushed the rich black hair off from his forehead, put a kiss upon it, thanked me with her eyes, and then said, "I declare, I forgot my scissors after all," and slipped out of the room again.
"John," said Mr. Wheaton, grasping me by the hand, "I am much obliged to you. I remember Lucy always had a sensitive soul; I wonder if I have been pricking it with sharp words without knowing it all these years. I think I have learned a lesson to-night which I shall not soon forget."
"I think I have learned one too," I replied.
THE PIANO EDUCATION.
An Eastern exchange says:—
"The piano is the chief thing in the way of women's education. So long as a girl has to spend several hours a day at her music, the cause of education must languish. There is scarcely a mother who in her own case does not know that the hours spent on music were wasted. Yet she insists that her daughter will repeat her experience."
This is all true enough, but a good deal more might be said about the baneful effects of the piano. Thousands of farms are mortgaged to-day because of the piano habit, and thousands of honest farmers' daughters have554been utterly spoiled by the instrument that has put a plaster on the farm. Idleness, extravagance, dress, expensive music lessons, distaste for work, and a contempt for working people, follow the advent of the piano into the houses of people of slender means. The first cost of the instrument is perhaps more than can be safely borne—too often it represents a wearing and exacting debt—but the consequences are even more disastrous. The girls must bang on the piano when they ought to be at work, or educating themselves for the realities of life, and there is a constant outlay for music and music lessons. Too often the net result is disappointed and perhaps impoverished parents, spoiled girls, and wretched musicians, who can play just well enough to shudder at the thought of cooking or darning socks.—Oakland Times.
DON'T MARRY HIM TO REFORM HIM.
Don't marry a man to reform him.
To God and your own self be true.
Don't link his vice to your virtue;
You'll rue it, dear girl, if you do.
No matter how fervent his pleadings,
Be not by his promises led;
If he can't be a man while a-wooings,
He'll never be one when he's wed.
There's many a maiden has tried it,
And proved it a failure at last;
Better tread your life's pathway alone, dear,
Than to wed a lover that's "fast."
Mankind's much the same the world over;
The exceptions you'll find are but few;
And the rule is defeat and disaster;
The chances are great against you.
Don't trust your bright hopes for the future,
The beautiful crown of your youth;
To the keeping of him who holds lightly
His fair name of honor and truth.
To "honor and love" you must promise;
Don't pledge what you can't fulfill.
If he'll have no respect for himself, dear,
Most surely you, then, never will.
Make virtue the price of your favor;
Place wrongdoing under a ban;
And let him who would win you and wed you
Prove himself in full measure a man.
—Selected.
THE PARTITION OF AFRICA.
ONE of the wonders of the nineteenth century is the opening of the continent of Africa to the world. The epoch of discovery began barely thirty-five years ago with Livingstone, and is so far completed that few, if any, mysteries remain to the explorer. The sources of the Nile and of the Kongo, the systems of lakes and mountains, and the general character of the country and people of the great interior, are no longer questions of speculation, but of actual knowledge. Discovery has solved the old enigmas of this mysterious continent, and the latest maps have no “gaps,” like those of Swift’s day, to be filled with “savage pictures,” and with conjectures.
We know that the interior is not a burning desert, nor a steaming morass exhaling death to all but native tribes, but much of it high and salubrious ground, covered with luxuriant forests, watered by copious rains, and tempered by mountains and great lakes. Keltie’s maps, representing the sum of latest information, show that the annual rainfall is between forty-eight and eighty inches in a belt ten degrees wide, extending from coast to coast across the continent just north of the equator. This belt also extends ten degrees south of the equator, from the great lakes to the East Coast. The rest of Southern Africa, excepting the Kalahari Desert and a strip north, or the West Coast, receives from twenty-four to forty-eight inches of rain. Excepting this desert region, nearly all of South Africa is represented in the vegetation map as “cultivable land and woodland,” together with all Sûdan. Most of the Kongo Free State is heavily wooded, and lies at a low elevation (500 to 2,000 feet), while all the rest of the continent to the south and east ranges from 2,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, with considerable portions above 5,000. Moreover, the meteorological charts show that the mean annual temperature ranges from sixty in Cape Colony to eighty at the equator.
If the discoverers have made the map of Africa in a single generation, the greedy powers of Europe have changed it in less than a decade. Division has followed hard upon discovery, and there remain no unappropriated spots south of the equator, and not many north of it. The European possessions before555this partition were scarcely more than dots on the coast outline of the continent. England had Cape Colony and small areas on the West Coast; Portugal had two narrow sea-coast strips in South Africa and a speck of land in Upper Guinea; France had Algeria, Senegal, and Gabûn, and Spain had Corisco. Germany and Italy had nothing. Now these six powers, with the independent States, divide the continent, excepting Egypt, Egyptian Sûdan, Tripoli, Morocco, and part of the Great Desert.
France has the lion’s share. Beginning with Tunis and Algiers, on the Mediterranean, its territory runs south to Lake Tchad, thence west to the coast above Sierra Leone, embracing most of the Great Desert, Senegal, part of the Gold Coast, and a small strip next to British Lagos, on the Guinea Coast. In this immense stretch of country, 1,700 by 2,000 miles in extent, France has a possession equal to two-thirds of the area of the United States, including Alaska. She has also the colony north of the Kongo, giving her in all nearly 2,800,000 square miles of African territory, or nearly one-fourth of the entire continent.
Great Britain has, of course, Cape Colony and a broad belt extending northward to the southern limit of the Kongo Free State and Lake Tanganyika, bounded on the left by German and Portuguese territory and on the right by Portuguese East Africa. It has the southern coast to the Orange River on the west, and to the Kosi River, just below Delagoa Bay, on the east. The rest of its immense South African possession is interior territory. British East Africa begins on the coast at a point above Zanzibar and extends northward to the southern boundary of the Italian protectorate, stretching into the interior as far as the Victoria Nyanza, the shores of the upper half of which it embraces, and thence northward to the country of the Mahdi. There is, besides, the north Somali coast, on the Gulf of Aden. On the West Coast are the Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Gold Coast colonies, and the Niger and Oil River protectorates. This is all of British Africa. In extent it is a little smaller (though far more valuable) than French Africa, embracing about 2,500,000 square miles. If Egypt be regarded as a British protectorate, the area of the two powers in Africa is about the same. The British territory, however, has a third more of population than the French.
Next in territorial extent comes Portugal, with a coast line in East Africa of about eleven hundred miles, from Cape Delegado south to the Kosi River, and with a still larger possession south of the Kongo on the West Coast, and a small colony in Guinea. Its possessions aggregate 841,000 square miles.
Germany is fourth, with 822,000 square miles. It has Togoland, in Guinea, the Cameroon country, just north of French Kongo, a large territory on the southwest coast extending north from Orange River to Portuguese Angola, and a possession in West Africa, stretching along the coast from Cape Delegado north to Pongwe, and into the interior to the borders of the Kongo Free State and the Victoria Nyanza.
For the rest, the Kongo Free State embraces 864,000 square miles. Italy has Abyssinia, Erythrea on the Red Sea, and Somaliland on the West Coast—602,000 square miles; Spain has a protectorate north of Senegal, and a claim on a small portion of French Kongo—214,000 square miles. The Republics of Liberia, Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, complete appropriated Africa.
Of course the tribes go with the territory. The number of souls belonging to each division is not known in many cases. The protectorates are too new for the census man. He must wait for the railroads. There are steamers in the rivers and lakes; but the pioneer railroad along the lower Kongo is not yet ready. Civilized powers, however, control the continent, and we may expect that they will introduce so much of civilization as will suffice to develop commerce. In this the natives must be the prime factor. Savagery, and particularly slavery, are barriers which will need to be removed, and in the end they will be removed. Christianity and commerce will be the chief agents in accomplishing this great work for humanity.—The Independent.
SCOPÆ EXERCISE FOR GIRLS.
Young women in search of physical culture are respectfully referred to the following rule, laid down by Mrs. Bridget Maguire, of New York:—
“Take the scopæ in the hands, which should be held at half reach reversed grasp, allowing the bushy portion of the scopæ to rest upon the floor, and holding firmly to the upper end of the handle. Bend the body slightly forward, give the arms a horizontal movement, lift the scopæ slightly, and move one foot before the other. Repeat these movements until the scopæ has been brought in contact with every portion of the floor.”
P. S.—Scopæ is Latin for broom.
OPINIONS CONCERNING TOBACCO.
[Printed in Mail and Express, December 16, 1893.]
FRANKLIN CARTER, president of Williams College, says:—
“WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec. 9, 1893.
“I have not made a study of the effects of tobacco on students, but, from observation extending over a long period, I have become convinced that the smoking done by young men in our colleges weakens, in many cases, both the physical and mental constitution. The students most frequently absent from college duties on the ground of physical ailments are commonly addicted to the use of tobacco. I believe that the quality of the voice is often injured by smoking, so that good singers, especially clear tenors, are rarer among college students than formerly. I recall but one instance in this college in the last dozen years where the highest honor was taken by a habitual smoker. I fear that the intellectual and moral life in our colleges is now lowered by the habit. A thorough reform in college sentiment on this subject would help to promote a simpler and more earnest life, and would, I am sure, save some young men from yielding to other evil habits.”
E. Benjamin Andrews, president of Brown University:—
“PROVIDENCE, R. I., Dec. 7, 1893.
“We have at Brown University no statistics which would demonstrate the evil effects of the use of tobacco. I have, however, a strong belief, based upon long general observation, that its effects, both physical and mental, are highly deleterious. There seems to be among our students a visible decline in the use of cigarettes just now. In part this means less smoking; in part it is simply a change to the pipe, which I believe to be far healthier. On every occasion I urge students not to smoke at all or use tobacco in any form.”
George Williamson Smith, president of Trinity College:—
“HARTFORD, Conn., Dec. 8, 1893.
“In my opinion the excessive use of tobacco by young men renders them at once sluggish and nervous, retards healthy and symmetrical development, and produces a craving for stimulants. It affects the memory, especially for proper names. It impairs intellectual ambition, and weakens the power of continuous and sustained thought.”
THE SOCIOLOGY OF ANIMALS.
By James F. Richards
BY JAMES F. RICHARDS.
AMONG some animals a number of families will join together, forming a tribe, or clan. This is governed by a leader, or chieftain, generally chosen from among the older males. The choice is either dependent upon mental or physical superiority, or the head of the family from which the tribe emanates is chosen. Such forms of government exist among several different kinds of birds and mammals, including parrots, wild horses, bison, beavers, monkeys, deer, and others.
Where the tribe has enemies to face, as well as journeys to take, the leader must be a warrior of unusual strength and bravery, besides a capable general, thoroughly acquainted with the surrounding country, and able to look after the welfare of the tribe, by reason of his farsightedness and astuteness. Thus the American bison were usually led by a male, old in experience and fearless in battle.
The monkey tribes require an unusual amount of sagacity and astuteness on the part of their leader. He must be able to lead them to good feeding grounds, and preserve peace in their midst.
In this form of government the leaders are not the only members of the executive department. Besides these there are outposts, guards, and soldiers. The sentinels take regular turns in guarding the tribe during both day and night, and are expected to warn their fellows when danger is near. The communities of beavers, deer, monkeys, and bison, always have one or more sentinels on the lookout for danger, and the huntsman must first either slay or elude these, if he desires to come within gunshot range of his game.
At a certain signal from the sentinel, who is usually posted at some point from which he can command a good view of the surrounding country, the whole tribe either fly for a place of safety or make ready to defend themselves. In the latter case the young are huddled together with the breeding females, while the males, or soldiers, prepare for battle. The duty of the outposts is most important when the tribe is traveling, for they go ahead, finding suitable roads for travel, and keeping a sharp lookout for approaching danger.
The power of the chief is supreme. It is he who directs the course to be taken in travel, and decides upon flight or battle in case of attack. Insubordination is always severely punished, frequently by death; but should the reigning chief prove untrustworthy, he is usually challenged to battle by a new aspirant for power, and the victor is made leader.—Home and Country (New York) for May.
DILIGENCE NOTICED.
A BOY was once walking along a dusty road. The sun was very warm and oppressive; but, as was his usual way, he stepped along quickly, thinking that the faster he walked the sooner he would reach the end of his journey. He soon heard a carriage coming, and, when it had come up to him, the driver reined in his horse, and kindly asked the boy to ride, which invitation he gladly accepted. When he was seated in the wagon, the gentleman, a good Quaker, said, "I noticed thee walking along briskly, and so asked thee to ride; but if I had seen thee walking lazily, I would not have done so by any means."—Morning Star.
THE KING'S MESSENGERS.
WHEN a king would send a message,
How fast the carriers ride,
Through darksome wood, through torrent,
Whether good or ill betide;
No pleasures can entice them,
No lurement in love's wiles;
On, swiftly on, by day, by night,
On, on, for weary miles.
If a messenger should tarry,
Should a servant idly wait
For fear, or love, or pleasure,
Outside the palace gate,
If the king upon the feast day
Should miss a well-loved one,
How think you would he fare
Who should have bid him come?
King's messengers must hasten;
King's servants must be wise;
Then loiter not, nor dally,
When He bids you arise,
For men grow weary waiting
For servants who should bring
Their burdened, famished, longing souls,
A message from the King.
—Selected.
LEPROSY CURED.
IN a recent number of the Harbinger (Christian) is a report of the corresponding secretary of the Foreign Mission Society, including a letter from Dr. Durand, of India. The particular locality is not given, but the letter makes the following statement, which is too indefinite as to means used and the form of the disease cured to be of any worth:—
"The first leper, who was received for treatment and support January 20, an old man, who, I thought, would die very soon, as his disease was making rapid progress, is discharged to-day to all appearances entirely well. He has confessed the Lord, and I baptized him to-day. He is to go to his village to-morrow and tell his people of his recovery and of the Saviour. A second leper, admitted about a month ago, was baptized to-day also. This man is not entirely well yet, but is improving rapidly. The medical work is increasing and prospering as never before."
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF TAOISM.
TAOISM is a religious system in which men are finally judged according to their merits and demerits. Rev. George Owen, of Peking, gives the following illustrations: On the credit side: "Giving a coffin to the poor counts 30; exhorting a mother not to commit infanticide, 30; saving a child from being destroyed, 50; refraining from beef and dog flesh one year, 5; destroying plates of obscene books, 300; preserving lifelong chastity, 1,000." On the other side, demerits score as follows: "Loving a wife more than father or mother scores 100; drowning an infant, 100; cooking beef or dog flesh, 100; misusing written paper, 50; for publishing immoral books the demerit is measureless." All Taoists admit that even for the best of men the score is on the wrong side. And it is said of one of their good men who lived forty-seven years that his score stood 4,973 merits and 298,000 demerits.—Sel.
MOHAMMEDANISM IN ARABIA.
A MISSIONARY in Arabia writes: "Islam is the name by which Mohammedans call their religion, and the very name shows us much of what they mean by religion, for Islam means submission to God. Now you may say, Surely the Mohammedans must be good people if their chief object is to submit themselves to the will of God. That would be true if they had any good and holy idea of what God desires us to be. But the people here do not look on God as Father in the way that Christ taught us. They regard him as a great master, very much like a slave master. In fact, they say men are not the children of God; they are his slaves. And so they feel that they must submit themselves to God, just as a slave submits to his master.
"But this is not all; they even say that all evil that a man does is from God. One day I said to my boy, 'Mohammed, put some water in the jug in my room.' A few minutes afterward I saw him and asked him if he had done it. 'Yes, sahib,' he said; so I went into the room, and when I looked there was no water. 'Mohammed,' I called, 'why did you lie to me?' 'From God,' he answered, meaning that God had willed he should tell that lie, and he could not do otherwise than according to his fate. So, too, when I ask a man whether he wishes to go to heaven or to hell, he does not say simply, 'I wish to go to heaven.' He says: 'I wish to go to heaven, if God pleases. God created me, and he can put me where he likes.' So they throw off all responsibility from themselves."
—Gospel in All Lands.
RISE AND PROGRESS
By John Norton Loughborough
--OF--
Seventh-Day Adventists.
Tokens of God's Hand in the Movement, and Brief Sketch of the Advent Cause from 1831 to 1844.
By J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
This new book, fresh from the pen of one of the oldest ministers in the advent movement, cannot but be of great interest to all, and especially to those who have become Seventh-Day Adventists in recent years and know but little of the early history of the cause and its leaders.
The following are some of the chapter headings: Extent of the Advent Proclamation; The Tarrying Time; The Midnight Cry; The Disappointment; Fresh Tokens of Divine Guidance; Perils, Reproaches, Victories; New Features in the Work; Providence of God in the Publishing Work; Organization; Rapid Advancement; Though Workers Faint, God's Work Advances; Truth Advanced Even by Opposition.
The book contains nearly 400 pages, with 50 illustrations, several of them full page, and is neatly bound in cloth, and furnished in two styles.
Address,
PACIFIC PRESS PUB. CO.,
OAKLAND, CAL.
Or 43 Bond St., New York.
CHRIST
By Editor
AND
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
By E. J. WAGGONER.
The above is the title of a new pamphlet just issued in the Bible Students' Library.
There has been a demand for a treatise of this kind and we are much pleased to announce this new publication.
The following is a brief synopsis of the contents: How Shall We Consider Christ? Is Christ God? Christ as Creator, Is Christ a Created Being? God Manifest in the Flesh, Important Practical Lessons, Christ the Lawgiver, The Righteousness of God, The Lord Our Righteousness, Acceptance with God, The Victory of Faith, Bond Servants and Freemen, Practical Illustrations of Deliverance from Bondage.
Issued as No. 72 of the Bible Students' Library. Price, 15 cents. Order of any State Tract Society, or PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, Cal. Or, 43 Bond St., N. Y.
Cleveland Bicycles,
STODDARD & LEE,
306 McAllister St., San Francisco, Cal.
CHURCH SERVICES.
By Editor
All of our churches, especially on this coast, who desire their regular weekly services announced in this column, may have it done by reporting through the proper officers.
Chicago, Illinois.—Church on Forty-sixth Street, corner of Champlain Avenue. Regular preaching service at 11 A.M. Sabbath school at 9:30 A.M. every Sabbath. Prayer meeting, Monday evening at 7:30 P.M. The above services are held in the Forestville Congregationalist Church building until our own church will be completed, when proper notice will be given. All are cordially invited.
Oakland.—Church at corner of Twelfth and Brush Streets. Regular preaching services or Bible study, Sunday at 7:30 P.M., Friday at 7 P.M., and Sabbath at 11 A.M. Sabbath school at 9:30 A.M. Sabbath. Prayer and missionary meeting Wednesday at 7:30 P.M. All are cordially invited.
San Francisco.—Church at 914 Laguna Street. Regular preaching services at 7:30 P.M. Sunday and 11 A.M. Sabbath. Sabbath school at 9:45 A.M. Prayer meeting Wednesday 7:30 P.M. Missionary meeting Thursday 7:30 P.M. Seats free.557Los Angeles.—Church at 143 Carr Street. Preaching service Sunday evening 7:30. Missionary meeting Wednesday evening 7:30. Sabbath school on Sabbath at 9:45, and preaching service at 11 A.M. All are welcome.
East Portland, Oregon.—Church at corner of Eleventh and East Everett Streets. Services every Sabbath 11:30 A.M. Sabbath school 10 A.M. Missionary meeting evening after Sabbath 7 P.M. Prayer meeting every Wednesday evening 7 o'clock. All welcome. Seats free.
Washington, D. C.—Church on Eighth Street between F and G Streets, N. E. Regular preaching service at 11 A.M. Sabbaths. Sabbath school 9:45 A.M. Sunday, 7:30 P.M. Bible study. Prayer meeting Friday at 7:30 P.M. All are welcome.
H. W. HERRELL, Clerk.
Sacramento.—Church on G Street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets. Regular services: Sabbath school at 10 A.M., preaching service at 11 A.M., Sunday at 7:30 P.M. Prayer and missionary meeting Wednesday evening at 7:30. Seats free. All are cordially invited.
Pasadena.—Church at corner of Summit Ave. and Mountain Street. Sabbath services every Sabbath at 11:30 A.M. Sabbath school 10 A.M. Prayer meeting every Sunday evening 7:30. Missionary meeting Tuesday 7:30 P.M. All are cordially invited.
Box 261. O. S. SMYTH, Clerk.
FAITH MUST HAVE EXERCISE.
By Ellen G. White
THE one to whom is intrusted one talent is not responsible for five, or for two, but for the one. Many neglect to lay up for themselves a treasure in heaven by doing good with the means that God has lent them. They distrust God, and have a thousand fears in regard to the future. Like the children of Israel, they have evil hearts of unbelief. God provided this people with abundance, as their needs required; but they borrowed trouble for the future. They complained and murmured in their travels, that Moses had led them out to kill them and their children with hunger. Imaginary want closed their eyes and hearts from seeing the goodness and mercies of God in their journeyings, and they were ungrateful for all his bounties. So also are the distrustful, professed people of God, in this age of unbelief and degeneracy. They fear that they may come to want, or that their children may become needy, or that their grandchildren will be destitute. They dare not trust God. They have no genuine faith in him who has intrusted them with the blessings and bounties of life, and who has given them talents to use to his glory in advancing his cause.
Many have such a constant care for themselves that they give God no opportunity to care for them. If they should be a little short at times, and be brought into strait places, it would be the best thing for their faith. If they would calmly trust in God, and wait for him to work for them, their necessity would be God's opportunity; and his blessing in their emergency would increase their love for him, and lead them to prize their temporal blessings in a higher sense than they have ever done before. Their faith would increase, their hope would brighten, and cheerfulness would take the place of gloom and doubts and murmuring. The faith of very many does not grow for want of exercise.
That which is eating out the vitals of God's people is the love of money, and friendship with the world. It is the privilege of God's people to be bright and shining lights in the world, to increase in the knowledge of God, and to have a clear understanding of his will. But the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches choke the seed sown in their hearts, and they bear no fruit to his glory. They profess faith, but it is not a living faith, because it is not sustained by works. Faith without works is dead, being alone. Those who profess great faith, yet have not works, will not be saved by their faith. Satan believes the truth and trembles; yet this kind of faith possesses no virtue. Many who have made a high profession of faith are deficient in good works. If they should show their faith by their works, they could exert a powerful influence on the side of truth. But they do not improve upon the talents of means lent them of God. Those who think to ease their conscience by willing their property to their children, or by withholding from God's cause, and suffering it to pass into the hands of unbelieving, reckless children, for them to squander, or hoard up and worship, will have to render an account to God; they are unfaithful stewards of their Lord's money. They allow Satan to outgeneral them through these children, whose minds are under his control. Satan's purposes are accomplished in many ways, while the stewards of God seem stupefied and paralyzed; they do not realize their great responsibility, and the reckoning which must shortly come.—Testimony for the Church, No. 20.
FIELD NOTES.
By Editor
A THREE weeks' canvassers' institute at Baltimore closed on the 1st inst.
AT San Jose, Cal., four candidates were baptized by Elder D. C. Hunter on the 23d ult.
ATLANTIC CONFERENCE has planned for a canvassers' school next winter, also for a permanent Conference Preparatory School.
ELDER S. B. HORTON states that Brother Whaley, of Church Hill, Md., whose arrest for garden work on Sunday has heretofore been mentioned, was again arrested June 18, for chopping wood on Sunday. He adds that "wood chopping on Sunday is common here, and is considered harmless except when done by Seventh-day Adventists."
ELDER D. E. LINDSEY, who is holding tent meetings in connection with Brother J. S. Iles, at Holgate, Ohio, states that they "have more to listen than the tent can accommodate."
TENT work is being conducted in the State of New York at the following places: City of Buffalo; Binghamton, Broome County; Gouverneur, St. Lawrence County; State Hill, Orange County; Nunda, Livingstone County. These points include almost the extreme limits of the State, west, northeast, and southeast. The State camp meeting is to be held at Auburn, commencing on the 26th inst.
ONE of our canvassers, whose field is Braxton and Clay Counties, W. Va., reports having "learned something of what hard times really mean." He says: "I found some of my subscribers in the mountains digging ginseng to buy bread to keep their families from starvation. Another told me that he had had just five cents in money since last March, and, having loaned that, he never got it back."
OF the tent interest at Bushy Creek, Anderson County, S. C., mentioned last week, Elder E. W. Webster writes very encouragingly. Twenty-five had begun to keep the Sabbath of the Lord; they had organized a Sabbath school of thirty members, and there was still a growing interest. It was the first tent effort in the State, and the tent was pitched in a country place. Brother J. O. Johnston was connected with Brother Webster in the work.
ONLY.
By The Christian
Only a tiny candle
Lit by Him,
Not lost, though he has many
Lamps to trim.
Only an earthen vessel
Used to-day,
Although in the Master's pathway
Gold ones lay.
Only a cup of water
Given in love,
But the Saviour saw and owned it
From above.
Only the world's derision
Meekly born,
Yet he notes the word, the action
Done in scorn.
Only a little service
By the way;
He'll reward the smallest effort
"In that day."
Only follow Jesus
To the end;
And then his promised glory
He will send.
-The Christian.
