THERE was a king long years ago;
His name historian doth not know.
He lived beneath Italian skies,
A noble monarch, just and wise.
That he might serve his people well,
In a high tower he hung a bell.
He who was wronged had but to ring
The bell of justice, for the king
Was bound to make the humblest prayer
The subject of his royal care.
At first men rung it every day.
Rotted at last the rope away,
And, growing shorter by degrees,
Swayed lightly to each passing breeze.
For many a month it idle hung,
No longer needed. No one rung
For justice; men had learned to fear,
And dreaded now the bell to hear.
At length a wandering grape-vine clung
Tight to the rope that idle hung,
And firmly held it, sweetly grasped,
As if one hand another clasped.
A starving horse, turned out to die,
One summer day was passing by,
And browsing where the grape-vine hung,
The bell of justice loudly rung.
Straightway a royal herald came,
And saw the horse, half-starved and lame.
He told the king who rung the bell.
The monarch answered: "It is well.
The brute for justice doth appeal;
For starving brutes I pity feel.
Go seek his owner out for me,
And tell him this is our decree:
Long as he lives this horse must fare
On oats and grass of his. Beware!
If he again for justice call
My wrath shall on his owner fall."
Would God to-day there were a bell
That brutes could ring, and thereby tell
The story of their cruel wrongs,
And win the justice that belongs
To every creature, great and small;
For God, their Maker, loveth all.
—Egbert L. Bangs.
Health and Temperance.
HOW PEOPLE GET CONSUMPTION.
BOSTON has just followed the example of Chicago, and now requires an examination of all cattle slaughtered for food, for the discovery of tuberculosis, or consumption in some of its forms. No meat affected is permitted to be sold. Both cities are acting upon the policy adopted in France. The French Congress, held last year for the study of tuberculosis, decided that the evidence that diseased cattle used for food could transmit consumption to man was clear enough to make it dangerous to permit the sale of such meat. The French Government, acting with its usual precision and promptitude, adopted regulations requiring all tuberculous cattle to be isolated and killed, and prohibiting the use of the meat of any such cattle for food. The sale of milk from tuberculous cows was also stopped, although it can be boiled and fed to animals.
The public is tolerably familiar by this time with the discovery of Koch, of Berlin, that a bacillus or micro-organism always accompanies tuberculosis or consumption in the lungs or any other organ affected, and is probably the cause of the disease. It will be new to most that the same bacillus is to be found in cattle, and that both the meat—although apparently undiseased—and the milk from such cattle fed to animals have been followed by consumption. This was true not only of the diseased organ, as the lung, but of parts of the carcass apparently unaffected, and which, to the naked eye, were as sound as any meat exposed for sale. Consumption is as prevalent among cattle as among human beings, and among men and women it causes one-fourth of the deaths in cities—11,502 out of 50,825 deaths in Paris in 1888—and from one-fourth to one-third of the deaths in a general community. There is to-day every reasonable probability that a large part of these deaths are due to the same disease in cattle. How prevalent it is, and what chance there is that the reader of these lines has dined or will dine to-day on consumptive meat, no one can tell.
In London a metropolitan meat inspector testifies that 80 per cent. of the meat sent to market had tubercular disease. In Hanover, with a population of 120,000, in a recent month 8,000 pounds of meat were condemned for this cause. The same proportion in this city would give a consumption of 960,000 pounds of diseased meat in a year. In New York State an examination of cattle near the Willard Asylum showed that in neighboring herds 21 per cent. of the milch cows were affected, and in some herds 50 per cent. Dr. M. D. Blaine, who made the examination, found tuberculous cattle in every herd he visited supplying milk to Brooklyn.
Dr. Huidekoper, a leading authority in veterinary medicine, says that half the consumption in the country is due to tuberculous cattle. If any proof were needed that a large part of these deaths come from this cause, it would be given by the comparative immunity from consumption of the Jewish race, which has for centuries avoided diseased meat. To this immunity is chiefly due the fact that in Germany the vital statistics of the race show an advantage over the rest of the population from 50 per cent. at birth up to 20 and 40 per cent. in advancing years. The inevitable moral from all this overwhelming and cumulative evidence is the inexorable necessity of a rigid inspection which will exclude this meat from consumption. Taking the consumption of meat in Great Britain as a basis, this country consumes 3,000,000 tons of dressed meat a year, or nearly half as much as all Europe, whose consumption is 8,112,000 tons annually. The yearly meat meal of the United States may easily be greater than this.—Philadelphia Press.
WAIT.
I saw the proprietor of a large garden stand at his fence and call over a poor neighbor.
"Would you like some grapes?"
"Yes, and very thankful to you," was the ready answer.
"Well, then, bring your basket."
The basket was quickly brought and handed over the fence. The owner took it and disappeared among the vines; but I marked that he was depositing in it all the while rich and various clusters from the fruitful labyrinth in which he had hid himself. The woman stood at the fence the meanwhile quiet and hopeful. At length he reappeared with a well-replenished basket, saying, "I have made you wait a good while; but you know, the longer you have to wait, the more grapes."
It is so, thought I, with the Proprietor of all things. He says so to me, and to all, "What shall I give thee? What shall I do for you? Ask, and thou shalt receive." So I bring my empty vessel—my needy, capacious soul. He disappears. I am not always so patient and trustful as the poor woman. Sometimes I cry out, "How long? how long?" At last he comes to me—how richly laden! and kindly chides my impatience, saying, "Have I made thee wait long? See what I have been treasuring up for thee all the while!" Then I look, and, behold! fruits richer than I had asked for; and I pour out my heart's thanks to my generous Benefactor, and grieve that I distrusted him; and I carry away my burden with joy, and find that the longer he makes me wait, the more he gives.—Home Circle.
Bread Upon the Water
'Mid the pleasures and the pains,
'Mid the losses and the gains,
'Mid the hopes and 'mid the fears,
And the restlessness of years,
We repeat the message o'er,
We believe yet more and more,
"Bread upon the water cast
Shall be gathered at the last."
—Selected.
THE NATURAL DIET.
THE food which is most enjoyed is the diet we call bread and fruit. In all my long medical career, extending over forty years, I have rarely known an instance in which a child has not preferred fruit to animal food. I have many times been called upon to treat children for stomachic disorders, induced by pressing upon them animal to the exclusion of fruit diet, and have seen the best results occur from the practice of reverting to the use of fruit in the dietary.
I say it without the least prejudice, as a lesson learned from simple experience, that the most natural diet for the young, after the natural milk diet, is fruit and whole-meal bread, with milk and water for drink. The desire for this same mode of sustenance is often continued into after years, as if the resort to flesh were a forced and artificial feeding, which required long and persistent habit to establish its permanency as a part of the system of every-day life.
How strongly this preference taste for fruit over animal food prevails is shown by the simple fact of the retention of these foods in the mouth. Fruit is retained to be tasted and relished. Animal food, to use a common phrase, is "bolted." There is a natural desire to retain the delicious fruit for full mastication; there is no such desire, except in the trained gormand, for the retention of animal substance.
One further fact which I have observed—and that too often to discard it as a fact of great moment—is that when a person of mature years has, for a time, given up voluntarily the use of animal food in favor of vegetable, the sense of repugnance to animal food is soon so markedly developed that a return to it is overcome with the utmost difficulty. Neither is this a mere fancy or fad peculiar to sensitive men or over-sentimental women. I have been surprised to see it manifested in men who were the very reverse of sentimental, and who were, in fact, quite ashamed to admit themselves guilty of any such weakness. I have heard those who, gone over from a mixed diet of animal and vegetable food to pure vegetable diet, speak of feeling low under the new system, and declare that they must needs give it up in consequence; but I have found even these (without exception) declare that they infinitely preferred the simpler, purer, and, as it seemed to them, more natural food, plucked from the prime source of food, untainted by its passage through another animal body.—Longman's Magazine.
SECULAR.
—North Dakota gives a majority of 1,100 in favor of prohibition.
—The chief of police of New Orleans has ordered the closing of all gambling-places.
—It is asserted that at least seven-eighths of all the opium sold in San Francisco is smuggled.
—Savannah, Ga., had a $400,000 fire on the 9th inst. The loss was principally on cotton, and cotton warehouses.
—A fifteen-year-old boy has been sentenced to the Oregon penitentiary for the murder of a boy six years of age.
—The newspaper El Mundo says that the monster pumps used in draining the City of Mexico bring up many arms and legs of children.
—Postmaster-General Wanamaker will recommend in his annual report that the free-delivery system be extended to cities of 8,000 inhabitants.
—A new printers' union has been organized in New York; this time it is a union of pressmen, independent of the typographical union. It starts out with 1,000 members.
—Two boys, aged 10 and 12 years, were recently killed at Elk Horn, Montana, while playing with some giant powder which they found where some miners had been at work.
—Mayor Grant, of New York City, declares in favor of shutting off electric illumination by overhead wires, on account of the extensive loss of life by means of electricity in that city.
—The commission appointed to inquire into the reports of Turkish atrocities on Christians in Macedonia found Moussa Bey guilty on five charges of murder and outrage. Sentence is deferred.
—A bill to authorize the issue of a loan of 249,000,000 marks has been submitted to the German Bundesrath by the government. A large proportion of this money is to be expended on account of the military.
—The English war office has created some sensation in Canada by a diligent inquiry as to the facilities for transporting troops through that country, and also regarding the stock of horses in various districts.
—It is said that the French residents of Montreal have extended an invitation to General Boulanger to take up his residence in that city until such time as he shall be recalled to France to preside over her destinies.
—Dispatches from Damaraland say that the paramount chief has ordered all Germans to quit the country, and has seized the German missionaries as hostages for the safety of native agents imprisoned by the Germans.
—The proposed prohibition amendment to the Connecticut Constitution has been defeated.
—The representatives of the Congress of American nations are being transported all over the country in a special train which runs on all roads without change of cars. This is said to be the first excursion train ever so privileged.
—The total coinage of standard silver dollars, amounting to over three hundred million, is all in circulation with the exception of about eight million. The amount remaining in the treasury was never so small as at present.
—Judge Day, of Auburn, N. Y., has decided that the law authorizing the execution of criminals by electricity is constitutional. The attorneys of Kemmler, who is under sentence to be electrically executed, will take an appeal.
—The czar of Russia and royal family left Copenhagen for Berlin on the 9th inst. The route to be traversed through the latter city was lined with troops. The emperors embraced and kissed each other in the most affectionate manner.
—At Oneida, N. Y., on the 9th inst., Rev. James Kelley, while celebrating mass, partook of wine which had been poisoned by arsenic. But a few minutes afterward he retired from the altar, and antidotes were promptly administered. He is reported as still seriously ill.
—Advices from El Paso, Texas, state that Yaqui Indians came upon two companies of Mexican soldiers while swimming, and slaughtered them all. The Mexican Government has sent out 1,000 soldiers to punish the assailants. The affair occurred in the State of Sonora.
—Mrs. Emily Pitt Stevens, the noted temperance advocate, has brought suit for $20,000 damages against fifteen members of the San Francisco W. C. T. U., because they protested against the action of the State Board in giving her credentials as a public representative of the Union.
—Preparations are being made for the construction of the great forty-inch telescope to be erected on Mount Wilson, California. The telescope will exceed the Lick instrument in diameter by four inches, making it the largest in the world. The observatory properly fitted up will cost at least $500,000.
—The governor of Kansas has indorsed the appeal from the people of Stevens County for aid, and urges that a hearty response be given to the call for food, fuel, and clothing. The farmers of this county have suffered four successive failures of crops, and they are without means of support for the approaching winter.
—The magnificent stone residence of Mr. Clem Studebaker, at South Bend, Ind., which cost $300,000, was destroyed by fire on the 9th inst. On account of its supposed security from fire, but $25,000 insurance was carried. Spontaneous combustion of some old oil rags left in a closet by painters is supposed to be the cause.
—The San Francisco Chronicle says: “The experience of the party that started out from San Diego to locate a rich mine in the desert in Lower California is a repetition of that of other seekers after real or fabulous lost mines. They had a hard time, wandering about on the desert for seventeen days, and narrowly escaped death from thirst.”
—It appears from the annual report of the Utah Commission that polygamy is still regarded as “a saving ordinance,” although plural marriages are only secretly contracted and practiced. The report expresses the opinion that were Utah to be admitted as a State, it would not be long before the Gentile element, with its advanced civilization, its trade and traffic, would be driven out.
—A Madrid dispatch of the 6th inst. says: “In the course of a crusade against gambling, a judge to-night entered the Casino, one of the most aristocratic clubs in the city. He found the rooms full of senators, deputies, generals, judges, and other distinguished persons, all of whom made a vigorous protest against his action. The result of their protestations was that only four persons were arrested.
—The Western Union Telegraphic Comp. are inaugurating a system of clocks throughout the State to be connected with the Lick observatory, and wound and regulated over the company’s wires by the observatory clock. No clock connected with the system will require any other attention from any person. The clocks will be rented like telephones, and the charge will be one dollar per month.
—The Secretary of the Interior has decided that a man and his wife cannot each prove up homestead entries to adjacent tracts of land. A young couple in Nebraska made homestead entries on adjacent tracts, erected a dwelling on the dividing lines, got married, and lived on their respective tracts, and then claimed a patent to both. The husband was granted a patent to his tract, but the wife was refused.
—Major Powell, of the United States Geological Survey, says that in the great West there are 100,000,000 acres of land, now arid and wholly valueless, which can be made productive by irrigation. This was said in response to questions put to him by the Arid Lands Committee of the Senate; and it is understood that the committee will report the advisability of congressional appropriations for surveys in arid districts.—S. F. Chronicle.
—In New York City, October 11, a lineman of the Western Union Telegraph Company was killed by electricity while working among the wires on a pole fifty feet high. There were a large number of telegraph, telephone, and electric light wires attached to the pole, among which the dead man hung, while “puffs of smoke flew from his nose and from his calcined wrists.” He had neglected the usual precaution of wearing rubber gloves.
—Bismarck asks Signor Crispi to modify, as far as possible, the struggle between the Italian Government and the Vatican, which is, although a matter of minor importance in international affairs, an irritating and extremely uncomfortable element in diplomatic intercourse. The chancellor prefers that the pope should look upon Germany as his friend, and desires to maintain the most amicable relations with the Vatican, as well as with King Humbert, and he has been discontented with the situation ever since the Italian Prime Minister declared open war with Leo XIII.
News and Notes.
By Editor
RELIGIOUS.
—The Episcopalian diocese of California has been divided into two dioceses.
—The latest Sunday-school statistics foot up as follows in the United States: Number of schools, 101,324; scholars, 8,345,431; teachers, 1,100,104.
—When culture, so called, increases, and reverence declines, among a people, it is time to consider what sort of a culture it is.—Nashville Christian Advocate.
—It appears from the Year Book of the Church of England that in 1875 the number of persons confirmed in England was under 138,000, while for 1888 the corresponding total was over 217,000.
—The Southern California Baptist Association, which has just closed its session at San Diego, made two attempts to settle the question of admitting colored students to the Los Angeles University, but the matter was tabled and left there.
—The number of Roman Catholics in Ireland is 3,792,457; the churches number 2,547, and the priests 3,251. In England the Catholic population numbers 1,353,465, the priests 2,340, and the churches 1,261. In Scotland there are 308,643 Catholics, 295 churches, and 329 priests.
—A plan is under discussion, in Episcopal Church circles in India, for the establishment of a Christian university. The idea is to build up an institution of the highest grade, under the exclusive control of Christians, in which the study of the Bible will be required of all who attend, and by which degrees in divinity, as well as in the arts and sciences, shall be given. Government aid is to be invoked.
Books.
By Editor
[Every book sent to us by the author or publisher will be promptly acknowledged, the title of the book, number of pages, the names of author and publishers being given in every case, together with the price, when we are informed what it is. Such other notice will be given as the merit of the several works may demand. Marked copies of the paper containing notices will be sent to publishers.]
“SCIENCE AND ART OF BIBLE-READING,” by G. K. Owen, 35 Carr Street, Los Angeles, Cal.; 68 pages. Price, 20 cents; $10 per hundred.
This is a most valuable pamphlet both for the public Bible-reader and for the private Bible student. It teaches not only how to give Bible-readings, but how to study the Bible and also how to remember that which is learned. It is a valuable little work and should be in the hands of every lover of divine truth.
This book is a story of the Johnstown flood, and, though a romance, it gives, the author claims, the “fully authenticated facts and particulars of the terrible catastrophe which overwhelmed Johnstown, Penn., and its outlying suburbs, on the evening of May 31, 1889, whereby more than 10,000 human beings were hurled to a speedy, fearful death.” The book would be more in accordance with our ideas if it were a history pure and simple; but the sugar-coating of romance which is given to the stern facts may make them more palatable to a novel-reading generation.
Obituary.
By Mrs. Veady Hardy
BRADLEY.—Died at Colton, Cal., September 9, 1889, Joseph, son of Sister Kate Bradley, aged 14 years. Joseph was a dutiful son and was loved by all that knew him. He was a cripple and a great sufferer, but was always cheerful and happy. He showed by his daily life that he loved the commandments of God. He passed away peaceful and happy, with a bright hope of a part in the first resurrection.
“Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep,
From which none ever wake to weep.”
Rev. McMellon, of the M. E. Church, conducted the funeral services, speaking from John 14:1.
Mrs. Veady Hardy.
(Review and Herald please copy.)
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CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE ASSOCIATION.
By J. N. Loughborough
THE annual session of this association for the year 1889 was held upon the Oakland camp-ground. The first meeting convened September 27, at 4:30 P. M. This was a short meeting and was called to order by the president, J. N. Loughborough, after which prayer was offered by Elder N. C. McClure. The secretary being absent, Elder G. K. Owen was appointed secretary pro tem. After the reading of the minutes of the last annual meeting, the chair being thus authorized, appointed the following committees:—
On Nominations—N. C. McClure, H. A. St. John, and W. C. White.
On Resolutions—C. P. Bollman, M. C. Wilcox, and A. T. Jones.
Referring to the minutes of last year, the chairman was asked if anything had been done to carry out the resolutions passed with reference to the Health Retreat. Elder Loughborough said that something had been done. "We have thankfully received some aid in the line of payments of new pledges of stock, and donations to the charity fund of the institution, which has enabled us to bring relief to many." He further said: "For one, I have worked as hard as I could for the success of the institution, and why should I not? The principles of health reform, carried out in my life, have saved me from a consumptive's grave."
A second meeting of the association was held October 6, at 9 A. M. At this meeting the Committee on Nominations reported: For President, J. N. Loughborough; for Secretary, G. K. Owen. These were elected to their respective offices by unanimous vote. The Committee on Resolutions then reported as follows:—
Resolved, That we again give our assent to the following preambles and resolution passed at our last annual meeting a year ago, relative to the Health Retreat, also to the resolution relating to the Pacific Health Journal and Temperance Advocate:—
WHEREAS, God in his providence has permitted the Rural Health Retreat to be established in our midst for the double purpose of relieving the sick and afflicted, and teaching the true principles of Christian temperance and health reform; and,
WHEREAS, He has given repeated evidence that it is his will that this institution should live and prosper, and that his blessing has attended the conscientious efforts of the managers, physicians, and helpers, in their efforts to carry out the purposes of the institution; therefore,
Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to assist the managers of the Retreat by our influence, and that we recommend the sick and afflicted to patronize the institution.
WHEREAS, The Pacific Health Journal and Temperance Advocate has been established for the purpose of educating all who can be reached by it, in the principles of health reform and Christian temperance, and to extend the knowledge of the Health Retreat; therefore,
Resolved, That we will use our influence to increase the circulation of the journal.
WHEREAS, Seventh-day Adventists are often represented, by those in favor of religious legislation, as being in league with liquor dealers because they cannot unite with the Prohibition party; and,
WHEREAS, We believe that there are many in the Prohibition party, and in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, who love liberty and hate oppression, and who support religious legislation simply because they do not understand it, supposing it to be for the good of the community; therefore,
Resolved, That this society adopt the address issued by the New York Health and Temperance Association in 1888, and print a sufficient number to give it a good circulation throughout this State.
Resolved, That this address be placed in the hands of a committee to revise and adapt it to this field.
Resolved, That the printing of an edition of not less than ten thousand be placed in the hands of a committee composed of the Executive Committee of the State Health and Temperance Association, and the Committee of Revision.
Resolved, That we ask our State Tract Society to handle this address for us, and help us to give it a wide circulation.
WHEREAS, The proper care of our bodies, and the practice of Christian temperance, are essential to the highest development of Christian character, besides being for the best interest of society; therefore,
Resolved, That we will study to faithfully live out the principles of health reform and Christian temperance.
Resolved, That we urge all who are in any way connected with this association—even if only in sympathy with its object—to make special efforts to become intelligent on the subject of health reform and Christian temperance, that they may not only practice these things themselves, but that they may be able to teach them to others also.
Resolved, That we request the California Conference to employ G. K. Owen to devote his time to the health and temperance work, under the joint direction of the president of this society, and of whomsoever shall have charge of the canvassing work for health and temperance literature in this field.
These resolutions were discussed by W. C. White, J. N. Loughborough, M. G. Kellogg, M. D., and W. P. Burke, M. D. W. C. White thought more could be accomplished by the plan of "having special ones assigned to special work than by the plan of having all things common, and the temperance work commonly neglected." Dr. Kellogg spoke of many being led by means of the temperance work to give their hearts to the Lord. Dr. Burke said he was in harmony with all the resolutions that had been introduced in the meeting, and especially was he interested in, and working to promote, the cause of true Christian temperance.
This matter of appetite he said was of great moment in connection with the cause of health reform. He spoke of the evil results he had seen from the use of milk and sugar at the same meal, and said he thought such combinations should be carefully avoided by those who would keep the blood pure. He also said that he thought that those who were in the habit of eating three meals in two should leave off one; and that those who are eating two meals in one should leave off one; and that two meals per day at the right time, of the right material, rightly prepared, and eaten in the right manner, were better than any greater number. We should eat to live, and not live simply to eat. He said he tried to learn all that he could concerning these things, and to live it out. Eating and drinking in a wrong manner produce a large share of the ills of life. Much medicine is used by many for the cure of disease, but we use very little. Disease is not cured by medicine. Our efforts should be to properly care for our patients, putting them in proper conditions, and supplying the system with proper substance for building up the body, and the disease will disappear.
Mankind have many wrong ways of living. The object of our Health Retreat is to cure these wrong habits, and teach mankind how to live healthfully. People spend much of their means in getting sick, and then spend the rest of it in trying to get rid of those diseases that they have brought on themselves by wrong habits of living. It would pay much better to spend more time and means in learning how to keep well.
We do not believe in using anything that will injure the body, for that is a violation of the commandment that says, "Thou shalt not kill." A person cannot worship God as well when he is bowed down by pain as he can when free from pain. Sickness is not always disciplinary. If it were it might be well to say, "Let the sickness come." Some will enjoy your society when you are well who do not enjoy it when you are sick, therefore seek to obtain and preserve health that you may be a blessing to all that are around you.
Elder Loughborough followed with remarks on the subject of the improvements in the buildings at the Health Retreat, speaking particularly of the chapel which is now being erected there. He said the building is already erected and ready for plastering, and will cost, when completed, including seating, and the cost of the ninety-foot covered corridor which is to connect it with the main building, less than $4,000. A call was made in connection with this meeting for pledges to aid in the chapel enterprise, and over $900 was obtained in pledges on the camp-ground.
At 2:30 P. M. of the same day of the above meeting Mrs. E. G. White gave a stirring health and temperance address, at the close of which pledge papers were circulated, and over one hundred names were obtained, most of them being to abstain from all stimulants and narcotics, including tea and coffee and tobacco. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, Pres. G. K. OWEN, Sec. pro tem.
Wesley’s Definition of Perfection
For terseness, simplicity, and clearness in a statement, commend me to John Wesley. He defines perfection: "By perfection, I mean the humble, gentle, patient love of God and our neighbors, ruling our tempers, words, and actions." This is Wesley's most simple and sensible statement of the doctrine. Let us abide by that, without any hair-splitting or newly-devised theories or methods, so says an exchange, and so say we, and let all the Methodist people and preachers say, Amen.—St. Louis Christian Advocate.
MISSIONARY MURMURINGS.
THE gage of the piety of a church is its missionary spirit. A church without a missionary spirit will soon be a church without a minister; for emphatically, a Christian is and must be a missionary, and missionary zeal is the inspiration that gives life and growth, breadth and depth, richness and power, to both the Christian and the church.
THE Marathi (India) mission of the American Board has made gratifying progress during the past ten years. The gain in the different departments of work has been as follows: Number of churches, 43 per cent.; communicants, 76 per cent.; baptized, 63 per cent.; native contributions, 228 per cent.; schools, 160 per cent.; pupils, 281 per cent.; Sunday-schools, 930 per cent.; pupils, 452 per cent.
Christ’s Human Nature and Temptations
By Editor
WE are sorry to know that some of our readers have misunderstood the teaching of this paper relative to the human nature of Christ and the strength of his temptations. Some not having a proper understanding of terms have thought that we held that Christ had the carnal mind; but we have not so much as intimated such a thing. The testimony of the apostle is that "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7); but Christ delighted to do the will of his Father, and the divine law was within his heart. Ps. 40:7, 8; Heb. 10:5-7. The Scriptures teach that Christ took upon him human nature so fully and perfectly that he was "tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin." This we believe, and this we teach. We ask our friends to read again the principal article upon this subject which has appeared in our columns, and which we republish on page 630 for their convenience. We would not detract one whit from the dignity of our Saviour, neither would we close our eyes to the precious truth that, as anciently the high priest was taken from among men that he might have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that were out of the way, for that he himself also was compassed with infirmity (Heb. 5:2), so Christ, "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect [as a priest], he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." Verses 8, 9.
Revision of the Presbyterian Confession
THE question which above all others is now agitating the Presbyterian mind is that of the revision of the "Confession of Faith." One article which is making trouble reads as follows:—
“By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and some angels are predestinated to everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.
“These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished.
“As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore they who are elected being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by his Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation.
“The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.”
That the Presbyterians should wish to change this article is not a matter of surprise, but it does seem strange that any of them should insist that the doctrine is correct, and that all that is desired is to make "some change in the wording." If the article as it now stands expresses the faith of that church, why make any change? If it does not express the faith of Presbyterians, then the faith of that people has changed, for they did formerly believe just as the article reads; and it seems that not a few do still so believe.
Sunday Law in San Francisco
By Editor
The Evening Post of San Francisco is authority for the statement that a Sunday law is being quietly prepared in that city, to be sprung when least expected, and that the struggle between the Sunday people and their opponents is not far off. We suppose that the proposed law will appear in the form of a city ordinance. Such an ordinance was recently proposed in Oakland, but its friends were advised by the city attorney that it would not be constitutional if passed.
High License and Prohibition
By Editor
A PROMINENT Catholic paper in New York says: "The liquor interest is unceasingly active, and men are drinking themselves to death, homes are blasted, children turned into the street, sorrow heaped upon families, while delay or debate is continuing." And yet that same paper, which is none other than the Catholic Review, is opposed to prohibition, and is in favor of "high license." Does its editor not know that the only effect of high license is to give a few men a monopoly of the liquor business? Liquor sold over a high-license bar is just as deadly as if sold in the dirtiest doggery in New York City.
An Honest God
By Editor
REV. MR. HARCOURT, a Methodist minister of San Francisco, is credited with the following utterance in a recent sermon:—
"Alexander Pope was scoffed at by the self-righteous bigots of his time because he said, 'An honest man is the noblest work of God.' In the light of a new civilization, even churchmen are coming to see and believe this. But a still deeper and broader thinker than the poet has said, 'An honest God is the noblest work of man.'"
The words so heartily approved by Mr. Harcourt, and which we have italicized, are a blasphemous travesty uttered some years since by Robert G. Ingersoll, and only 2 Tim. 4:3,4 can adequately explain their approval by a professedly Christian minister.
Prohibition in the New States
Two of the four new States adopted constitutional prohibition, and yet the Catholic Review says that "prohibition sentiment received a cold reception in most of the Northwestern States recently admitted into the Union. It will not discourage the upholders of the theory, however. An enthusiast cannot be discouraged until death gives him release from tyranny." Is two the most of four? So the Review must regard it. But if that be the case, then most of the new States adopted prohibition. But certain it is that the result in the two Dakotas will be very far from discouraging to the friends of prohibition, and it may be that it will not discourage the liquor dealers, for they are enthusiasts; but when the traffic is dead the country will be released from the greatest tyranny which has cursed the world since the halcyon days of the papal Inquisition.
