Earlier text: How We Should Handle the TruthMRS. DEAN sat alone in her little kitchen. She never used her parlor. There was the extravagance of an extra fire, the fact that the best rag carpet, woven by her own hands, must not be worn out recklessly, and the dread possibility of the sunshine fading one of those chair covers. Mrs. Dean was an economist. She believed in making everything last as long as it possibly would. And so she made the kitchen her headquarters, and sat there knitting, with her feet comfortably balanced on the stone hearth, the saucepan of apples bubbling softly away at the back, and the sound of her husband's axe ringing from the back shed as he cut and split the kindling wood piled up there in well-seasoned logs. She was a little wrinkled-faced woman of fifty, with stiff ribbon bows to her cap, hair that seemed dried up instead of silvered, and keen blue eyes that twinkled as if they had discovered the secret of perpetual motion. To save money was her chief end and aim in life. The very mittens she was knitting were to be sold at the village store in exchange for sugar, tea or spices, and all such necessary groceries. "A penny saved is as good as a penny made," was the golden rule by which she shaped her life. "I am glad I took that money out of the savings bank yesterday," said Mrs. Dean to herself, as the bright needles clicked merrily away. "People say it isn't quite safe, and one can't be too careful. But then, again, there's the danger of burglars—though to be sure no burglar," she added, with a complacent, inward chuckle, "would ever think of looking in the folds of that old newspaper in the wall-pocket. It's the bureau-drawers and the trunks and the lock-up chests that they aim for. A fifty dollar bill! A clean, crisp, new fifty dollar bill! And all savings, too, out of the house money." Just then there sounded a knock at the door, and in came old Dr. Bridgman, rubicund with the touch of the March winds, and muffled up in the skins of the animals which from time to time he had shot. "Good-day, Mrs. Dean, good-day!" said he. "No, thank you, I can't sit down. I'm a deal too busy for that. But I heard yesterday that you took fifty dollars out of the bank." "We are taking up a subscription to get little lame Dick Bodley a cart and donkey, so that he can go around peddling tinware," said the doctor. "It's pretty hard for one afflicted like he is to get along, and if you can help us a little—" "But I can't," interposed Mrs. Dean, "the money was an investment. I don't propose to cut it up into little bits." "It's a deed of charity," said the good old man, "to help lame Dick." "I dare say," said Mrs. Dean, irritably, "but I never pretended to be a charitable character." The old doctor went away, and the next visitor was Helen Hurst, a rosy girl of eighteen. "Please excuse me for interrupting you Mrs. Dean," she said "but Larry Johnson was at the bank yesterday, and he tells me that you drew out your money." Mrs. Dean wondered if all creation was there, but she said nothing, only knit away until her needles seemed to glance and glitter like points of fire. "I am trying to get a boarding place at Mrs. Swipes," added Helen coloring, "so as to be near the district school, where I am to teach this spring. But Mrs. Swipes requires payment in advance, by the month, and unfortunately we have used up all our slender means in providing my outfit. A teacher, you know, must be dressed decently to command the respect of her pupils. Could you kindly lend me ten dollars?" "I never lend," said Mrs. Dean, curtly. "I will be sure to pay it up when I receive my first quarter's salary," pleaded Helen, "and I don't know any one else to go to." "It's altogether against my principles," said Mrs. Dean, with her face as hard as if it had been carved out of hickory. Helen went home feeling humiliated and disappointed beyond expression. Mrs. Dean chuckled at her own shrewdness, but she hardly had time to stir up the apples in the saucepan before Mrs. Graham entered with a little memorandum book and pencil in her hand. "I am looking for the charitable people, Mrs. Dean," said the squire's wife with a laugh. "Then you have come to the wrong place," said Mrs. Dean, frigidly. "Poor Patrick O'Harra was killed to-day in the machinery of the rolling-mill," said Mrs. Graham, ignoring her neighbor's response. "He has left a wife and eight children destitute." "And whose fault is that?" said Mrs. Dean. "Will you not contribute something toward relieving their condition?" urged Mrs. Graham holding her pencil for use. "Certainly not! I have no money to spare." "Oh, yes; about that money I drawed out of the savings bank," said Mrs. Dean. "But I intend to keep that money for myself." "He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord," softly whispered Mrs. Graham. "Yes, yes; I know," said Mrs. Dean, "but no one interprets the Bible literally nowadays." Mrs. Graham took her departure, acknowledging within herself that her errand had been a failure, and Mrs. Dean, left to herself at last, indulged in a nap, with her knitting work in her lap—a nap wherein she dreamed that the fifty dollars had taken to itself legs and was running away from a crowd of pursuers, herself among the number. When she woke up, roused by the noise of coal being poured into the stove, a candle was burning and Mr. Dean was laughing at her. "Why, Betsy," said he, "I thought you were never going to wake again! Here you sat, with the fire dead out, and I've had to kindle it up again." "Bless me!" said Mrs. Dean. "I must have been asleep quite a while. But—as she started up she saw that the old wall pocket opposite was empty—where is that old number of the Clinkerville Clarion?" "It was last week's paper," said Mr. Dean, calmly. "We had both read it, so I just took it to kindle the fire." "Yes," said Mr. Dean, "I burned it up. Why shouldn't I?" For half an hour Mrs. Dean sat silent and never spoke a word; and her first utterance was:— "It's the Lord's judgment upon me!" Mrs. Dean was a resolute woman, full of character. She went to her table drawer, took out a sheet of writing paper, and wrote to Dr. Bridgman, inclosing a dollar toward lame Dick Bodley's cart and horse; she sent another dollar to Mrs. Graham for the poor little O'Harras, and promised to donate a barrel of russets, a bushel of potatoes, and some of her husband's cast-off clothes to cut over for the children. And she sent for Helen Hurst to come and see her. "I can't lend you ten dollars, my dear," said she, "because I haven't got it. But I'll tell you what I will do. I'll let you make your home here as long as you please. We've a nice spare room, and it's an eighth of a mile nearer than Mrs. Swipes' to the district school." "Oh, how very good you are!" said Helen, her eyes swimming with grateful tears. "Good!" cried Mrs. Dean. "I'm just beginning to see what a selfish, greedy creature I have been all my life. But you are welcome, my dear, and your board and lodging shan't cost you a cent." She opened her parlor, shook out her curtains, and built a fire in the air-tight wood stove. "Dean likes the parlor," said she, "because it has such nice south windows, and I don't see why we shouldn't enjoy it." She baked a fresh batch of gingerbread, and sent a loaf to old Mrs. Mudge; she took out a basket of hickory nuts to poor little Harry Jones, who was trying to crack dried-up pignuts on the stone by the roadside; she renewed her subscription to the church charities. "I can't be very liberal, but I am determined to do what I can." "That's right my dear—that's right," said her husband. "We shall be prosperous, never fear. I'm awfully sorry about burning up your fifty dollar bill, but if its going to open your heart like this, it's the best thing that could have happened to us." Mrs. Dean was sweeping out the kitchen. She looked around with a smile as she moved the wide-leaved table which always stood under the wall pocket, and took down the pocket itself, a rude structure of splints, lined with red cambric and tied with cord and tassels of red worsted, to dust it out. "Yes," she said, "I am afraid I was getting to be a little miserly, and—why, what's this?" Mr. Dean stooped and picked up a slip of dark green paper, which had fallen out from the wall pocket as his wife turned it upside down and tapped her finger against it to remove all possible dust. "It's the fifty dollar bill!" said he, with mouth and eyes open in unison. "It must have slipped down from the folds of the newspaper and lodged here." "The Lord has sent it back to us," said Mr. Dean, after a moment or two of silence. "There's a lesson in almost everything he does, if we did but know it." And all the theologians in the world could not have improved upon the faith of this simple, unlettered old farmer. Life hath its barren years,
When blossoms fall untimely down,
When ripened fruitage fails to crown
The summer toil, when Nature's frown
Looks only on our tears. Life hath its faithless days,
The golden promise of the morn,
That seemed for light and gladness born,
Meant only noontide wreck and scorn,
Hushed harp instead of praise. Life hath its valleys too,
Where we must walk with vain regret,
With mourning clothed, with wild rain wet,
Towards sunlight hopes that soon may set,
All quenched in pitying dew. Life hath its harvest moons,
Its tasselled corn and purple-weighted vine;
Its gathered sheaves of grain, the blessed sign
Of plenteous reaping bread and pure, rich wine;
Full hearts for harvest tunes. Life hath its hopes fulfilled;
Its glad fruitions, its blest answered prayer,
Sweeter for waiting long, whose holy air,
Indrawn to silent souls, breathes forth its rare,
Grand speech by joy distilled. Life hath its Tabor heights;
Its lofty mounts of heavenly recognition,
Whose unveiled glories flash to earth munition
Of love and truth and clearer intuition.
Hail! mount of all delights. The Power of Silence
By Wm. M. Taylor
THERE is a mighty power in silence, and silence is frequently an evidence of power. There are many men so weak that they cannot hold their tongues, or keep their mouths shut. The man who offends not in word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body. He who can control his tongue can control his higher nature. Hence silence is a token of power, of reserved force. He who knows how to keep silence knows how to speak; and often his silence is more impressive than his speech. "Brilliant flashes of silence" is by no means a senseless expression. How often have we seen the babble of the foolish hushed by the silent glance of an earnest soul; how often the ribald jest or scurrilous word has died upon the lips when an indignant silence was the only reply it could evoke. That man or that woman who can stand silent amid reproaches and accusations and sneers and scoffs shows a degree of strength and power which falls not to the lot of every one.—Wm. M. Taylor. The Foolishness of Unpreparedness
Bishop Hall tells of a certain nobleman who kept a fool, to whom he one day gave a staff, with a charge to keep it till he should meet with a greater fool than himself. Not many years after the nobleman fell sick, even unto death. The fool came to see him. His sick lord said to him: "I must shortly leave you." "And whither are you going?" said the fool. "Into another world," replied his lordship. "And when will you return, within a month?" "No." "Within a year?" "No." "When, then?" "Never." "Never!" said the fool. "And what provision hast thou made for thy entertainment there whither thou goest?" "None at all." "No!" said the fool; none at all! Here, then, take my staff, for with all my folly I am not guilty of any such folly as this.—Sel. Earning a Dollar Honestly
“The darkest day in any man’s career is that in which he fancies there is some easier way of getting a dollar than by squarely earning it.”
Faith Rewarded by Knowledge
By Coleridge
BELIEVE, and if thy faith be right, that insight which gradually transmutes faith into knowledge will be the reward of thy belief.—Coleridge. —A Scotch Baptist Church has been organized in Patagonia. —The Lutherans in this country built 141 churches last year, and 505 in the last four years. —The average length of the pastorate in Congregational Churches in London, is nine and a half years. —An apostate from the Greek Church in Strumnitza, Turkey, is to be tried for cursing the hat and beard of a Bishop. —The leading Universalist paper asks, “From what source did St. Paul derive his Universalism?” We give it up.—Examiner. —A preacher in New York announced as his subject on a recent Sunday, “How the Unknowable is Known to be Unknowable.” —Count Campello, who was recently converted from Romanism, is about to start a paper in Rome, in the interest of Protestantism. —Eight members of the present Senior Class in the Princeton Theological Seminary have announced their purpose to enter the foreign mission field. —Mrs. Cooper, who recently left the Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, has joined the First Congregationalist Church, and will conduct a Bible class there. —Professor Revel, of Florence, Italy, has published a new Italian version of the New Testament, in the preparation of which he has been engaged for ten years. The version now in use is about 200 years old. —The International Sabbath [Sunday] Association has called a Conference to meet in Pittsburg, Pa., March 28, to continue three days. The best methods to adopt to secure the observance of Sunday will be discussed. —The Roman Catholic Church of Rapperschwyl, in the canton of St. Gall, one of the most ancient ecclesiastical edifices in Switzerland, built by Rudolph of Hapsburg in the thirteenth century, has been burned down. Rev. Dr. Howard Osgood has resigned his place on the Committee on Versions, of the American Bible Society, because the Society refuses to circulate Dr. Judson’s Burmese Version of the Bible. Their only objection to this version is that the Greek word baptizo is translated by a Burmese word meaning “immerse.” —The Christian Union concludes that skepticism is on the wane, because the Scriptures are more eagerly read now than ever before. But of what use is it to read the Bible and then declare that it is insufficient to convert men and thoroughly furnish them unto all good works, and that a civil law must accomplish what the Bible cannot. —According to Rev. Mr. Miln, the church of the future will be a think-as-you-please and do-as-you-please club, to which nobody is expected to belong,—a sort of cask without hoops or staves, bottom or top, and full of nothing in particular. A church that is all outside would be a destitution rather than an institution.—Christian at Work. —In its issue of February 25, the Methodist reports 4,855 conversions in the Methodist Churches making the total number of conversions reported by it since the 1st of January, 23,398. And this from only a portion of the churches holding revivals. We hope that proper care will be taken in these revivals to have the names of the converted ones recorded, so that they may be known as such a year hence. —The Unity Church in Chicago having informed Dr. Miln that his connection as pastor would cease when contract expires, which will be in three months, the Examiner pertinently asks what he will find to preach about during these three months, since he does not believe in the existence of God nor a future life. The Examiner must know that many ministers have the faculty of preaching about nothing. —A secular paper, commenting on Mr. Miln’s denial of the existence of a personal God, asks the following pertinent questions: “Does the man Miln believe in himself as an organized personality? If so, could he, an effect, come from anything less than an organized personality as a cause? If there is no personal God, can there be a personal man? Can an effect be greater than its cause?” There are others besides Mr. Miln, who might consider these questions with profit. —A Baptist Church in Missouri is divided on the subject of whether or not they shall have an organ. Some of the members think that “instrumental music” has no place in the service of a Christian Church. The Examiner has been asked what it thinks about it, and says: “It would of course be better to have no organ than to have a divided and alienated church, but in this part of the world organs and melodeons are about as common as choristers; and of the two the organ is the more harmless. It never frets, nor scolds, nor giggles, nor whispers to anybody around it, but is always sedate and well-behaved. How any reasonable man or woman should be opposed on principle to a church organ is beyond our comprehension. Nevertheless it is better to have no organ than to have a church-fight about it.” —The following paragraph we find going the rounds of the religious press, and recommended as having a moral. Those to whom it applies, please take notice: ‘Colloquy: ‘Have you had a revival in your church?’ ‘No; our minister does not believe in them. We have not had a conversion in ten or twelve years.’ ‘Well, what are you doing?’ ‘O, we are having the grandest fair you ever saw; the seats are all taken up in the church; we have a promenade concert every night, and a shooting gallery, and a grab bag, and a post-office, and the ladies dress up in all sorts of old-fashioned costumes. We expect to clear $1,200.’ ‘What is to be done with it?’ ‘It is to fit up a church parlor.’ And ‘so they wrap it up.’ (Micah 7:3.) ‘And what will ye do in the end thereof?’ The above is not a supposed, but a real case.’ A Methodist paper on this coast quotes this approvingly, and in the same column announces that the ladies of a certain M. E. Church will give in the church parlors, an Oriental Tea Party, to raise money for a pipe organ, and puffs a “bon-bon social” that was held in another church. “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” —The widow of Daniel Webster died at New Rochelle, N. Y., last week. —The number of paper mills in the United States is set down at 960. —The coinage at the Mints during the month of February was $9,049,870. —During sixteen and one-half years, the public debt has been reduced $833,000,000. —By the burning of an old building in East St. Louis, Feb. 26, a library worth $120,000 was destroyed. —Mississippi floods still continue and the river is rising. Many people are on the verge of starvation. —President Vidal of Buenos Ayers has resigned his position, and Senator Santos has been elected as his successor. —In the Parliamentary election, March 2, Bradlaugh was re-elected to the seat from which he was recently ejected. —One hundred and fifty persons are reported to have been killed by an explosion in a coal mine at Leoben, Styria. —February 28, a car containing twenty-five sea-lions, was shipped from San Francisco to a firm in New York, for transportation to Europe. —It is calculated that the drink bill in Philadelphia last year amounted to $23,220,000, or more by $1,000,000 than the entire rental of the city. —Ten of the nihilist prisoners, including one woman, have been sentenced to death. The remainder were sentenced to various terms of penal servitude. —In skirmishes with the insurgents in Herzegovina, during the last twelve days of February, the Austrians lost 116 killed and wounded, including ten officers. —Conkling and Sargent have both been confirmed by the Senate as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Minister to Germany respectively. —On the 2d inst. Queen Victoria was shot at as she was entering her carriage at Windsor. No one was injured, and the would-be assassin was immediately arrested. —It has been decided that mutilated coin should be considered as bullion, and that refilling with silver or gold does not make the coin fit for circulation as legal currency. —Advices from London, March 2, state that a ferry-boat while crossing a lagoon in West Africa, capsized, and forty-seven of the sixty persons on board were drowned. —The Iowa State Senate has agreed to the constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. The measure will now be submitted to the people. —A Judge in Japan has been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for having accepted a bribe of $300. If he had not been of exalted rank he would have been sentenced to imprisonment for life. —A dispatch from Constantinople says: The mobilization of 150,000 troops is projected, in view of the probable complications is Bulgaria, which make necessary the occupation of the Balkans. —A passenger train on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was thrown from the track, near Parkersburg, W. Va., by a stone. The engine ran into a store, setting fire to it, and the whole train, with the exception of one sleeper, was burned. The engineer and fireman were instantly killed. —A party of men in a Texas town, lynched a man recently, and the Sheriff was compelled to arrest the ringleader, in order to prevent him from being lynched by the friends of the man who had been hung. Lynching will probably be the order of the day in that town or else it will stop entirely. —Forty tons of blue gum timber have been shipped to the State Prison at San Quentin, Cal., there to be experimented upon to see if it is suitable for the manufacture of furniture. Should the experiment prove successful, the raising of blue gum will be profitable business, on account of its rapid growth. —The Baptist Church at San Jose was burned on the night of the 26th ult. It was the work of an incendiary. Two attempts had been made before to burn the same building, and one week before an attempt was made to burn the Methodist Church. Six months ago the Jewish Synagogue was nearly destroyed in the same way. —A special delegate of the Jewish alliance has returned to Vienna from Broody, whither he went to assist 1,300 Jews to return to Russia. He was not successful, as it was learned that if sent back they would be exposed to certain death. One thousand florins will be devoted toward the expense of their emigration to America. —Saturday March 4, was declared a legal holiday by the Governor of California, to allow the people of the State to give expression to their anti-Chinese sentiments. Business was largely suspended, and mass-meetings were held in all principal towns. Resolutions were adopted, begging Congress to speedily take measures to stop Chinese immigration. —According to Mr. Comstock, the President of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, half the criminals arraigned in the courts of New York are twenty-one years old or under, and one-fourth are sixteen years or under. He attributes this state of things to the "half-dime periodicals and novels, which fill the minds of the boys with criminal fancies." McFEELEY.—Died in St. Helena, Cal., Feb. 24, 1882, Sr. Martha McFeeley, aged 31 years, 8 months, and 22 days. Her disease was pleuro-pneumonia, and the immediate cause of her death was the rupture of abscesses in her lungs. She was born in Scotland, Co., Missouri. United with the Disciple Church, but connected herself with the Seventh-day Adventists about seven years ago. She was entirely willing to fall asleep, except for her family's sake. She left a husband and four children who, with the church of St. Helena, mourn their loss. TEACHERS' BIBLES—OXFORD EDITION.
ACKNOWLEDGED to be the best in the market, and celebrated for CLEARNESS OF TYPE, EXCELLENCE OF BINDING, COMPACTNESS, FULLNESS AND COMPREHENSIVENESS OF NOTES AND TABLES, And prices which place them within the reach of all. They contain in addition to the authorized text, with References, all that is essential in the study of the Bible. Furnished with one of these Bibles, no teacher would be at a loss anywhere, or at any time, in the preparation of his lesson. With the notes and tables are embodied the results of the most recent and authentic research of Biblical scholars, and it is believed that nothing has been omitted that can be desired in a The following list is a careful selection of the best styles: PEARL 16 mo. (Size 4 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches.)- French Morocco, boards..........................................$1.50
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715 1/2 As No 715, with round covers..................................8.50 By mail, Post-paid.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE FORETOLD.
By Uriah Smith
THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
THIS is a full exposition of a portion of prophecy which applies to our own Government, showing the position the United States holds in prophecy, and the part it has to act in the closing scenes of time. Which is now attracting such general attention, is thoroughly canvassed; and abundant testimony is given to prove that in a few years this will be the In this country. Facts and statistics are largely presented, showing in the most conclusive manner that this government is the one pointed out in the prophecy quoted. 200 pages. Bound, 40 cents. Paper covers, 20 cents. Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. COMPANION TO THE REVISED NEW TESTAMENT.
Explaining the Reasons for the Changes made in the Revised Edition, with Explanations to the Appendix of the Revised New Testament,
Which contains the Changes Suggested by the American Committee but were not assented to by the English Committee. Paper covers, 8vo., 25 cents. Cloth. 16mo., 75 cents. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. THE California Christian Advocate, the organ of the M. E. Church on the Pacific Coast, and one of the most ably-conducted of Methodist journals, has announced the true status of the Sunday. We quote a paragraph from its issue of March 1. The italics are ours— "There is but one ground the Christian citizens of the State can occupy in reference to the Sabbath: They must keep it holy. But when we plead for a law for it as a day of rest, we can justify that only on the ground that it is according to the law of nature, and necessary to men. Unless it is legalized, we cannot have it, for heartless greed will compel perpetual toil. The Government of Japan enforces a Sunday law: that is, they close government offices, and stop work. The State of Indiana has a Sabbath law, and the 'saloonatics' tried to break it down, but the Supreme Court of the State has recently decided the law to be constitutional, and it stands, the friend of the poor man and of all. We cannot sustain it before the people, if we claim its sanctity as a religious institution. It is necessary to the life and health of the people." Men will always use the strongest arguments they have, and we expect soon to see all the religious teachers abandon the attempt to prop up the Sunday institution by Scripture testimony, and resort to the civil law. When they do this, many honest souls who have been blinded by their sophistries, will step out into the clear light of God's truth. But what a humiliating position for a religious journal to occupy, to plead for a civil enactment to enforce a religious custom which it is forced to confess cannot be supported by the Bible. In the next paragraph, the same writer says that "the great and imperative need is personal and entire consecration to God, on the part of ministers and laymen." This taken in connection with the above statement, seems like mockery. "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth."