Earlier text: General ArticlesTHE Scripture has lighted up excellent examples of holiness in the lives of the saints upon earth, for our direction and imitation. There is a great advantage in looking on examples; they are more instructive than marked precepts, and more clearly convey the knowledge of our duty. A work done in our sight by another directs us better in the practice of it; it is more acceptable and of more powerful efficacy to reform us than counsel and admonition by words. A reproof, if spoken with an imperious air, wherein vanity has a visible ascendant, is heard with distaste and often with disdain; but an excellent example is a silent reproof, not directed immediately to irregular persons, but discovering what ought to be done, and leaving the application to themselves, so that the impression is more quick and penetrating than of words. In difficult precepts no argument is more effectual than example; for the possibility of performances is confirmed by instances, and the pretense of infirmity is taken away. The command binds us to duty. Examples encourage us to performance.—Selected. The faithful man pursues his way quietly. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Gal. 5: 22, 23. The little fox "selfishness" will spoil the fruit "love." The little fox "discontent" will spoil the fruit "joy." The little fox "anxious thought" will spoil the fruit "peace." The little fox "impatience" will spoil the fruit "long-suffering." The little fox "a bitter word" will spoil the fruit "gentleness." The little fox "indolence" will spoil the fruit "goodness." The little fox "doubt" will spoil the fruit "faith." The little fox "pride" will spoil the fruit "meekness." The little fox "love of pleasure" will spoil the fruit "temperance."—Sel. TRUTH AND ITS IMPORTANCE.
By W.
WHEN Jesus stood before Pilate, accused as a malefactor, he vindicated his character by these simple words: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice." John 18:37. Pilate, unconscious of the fact that Jesus had already given the substance of the best definition of truth, asked, "What is truth?" and immediately went out. His question, and the fact that he did not seem to expect an answer, would indicate that he did not believe in the existence of such a thing as truth. There have always been, and are still, many, many people in the same condition as Pilate. There are many who affect to disbelieve in the existence of truth and goodness. The reason for this is plain. Their own hearts are corrupt, and they have naturally sought the association of those of like character, until they know nothing of truth. The licentious man, who has always associated with men and women of low and depraved tastes, does not believe that there is such a thing as virtue. The knave thinks all men can be bought, providing the price is fixed high enough. Pharaoh, who knew nothing by experience of real worship directed to a God who could discern the motives, did not believe that there existed any such being. Only the man whose heart is pure, or who has longings for purity of soul, can know and appreciate the truth; for it is only the man who will do God's will who shall know of the doctrine. John 7:17. When Jesus said that he came into the world to bear witness of the truth, and that everyone that is of the truth would bear his voice, he expressed in another form what he had already told his disciples: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6. He is the one that is holy and true, "the faithful and true witness." One of the definitions of truth is, "Exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be." This exactly agrees with what is revealed of Jesus. He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever," Jehovah, "the one which is, and which was, and which is to come." In his prayer for the disciples Jesus told what truth is, and what it will do. Said he: "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." John 17:17. But Jesus is the Word of God, the one through whom alone the character, and attributes, and power of God are made known to men. The law of God, the ten commandments, is declared to be the truth, as the psalmist says: "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth;" and, "Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth." Ps. 119:142, 151. These commandments were spoken by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and "he added no more," so that they are, in an eminent degree, the truthful word of which Christ spoke in his prayer, yet it was the voice of the Son of God, the divine Word, who uttered them, so that the commandments of God are inseparably connected with our Lord Jesus Christ. They proceeded from him, being an expression of his own righteousness. That this is so is shown still farther by the words of the prophet concerning Christ: "The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable." Isa. 42:21. There cannot be the slightest doubt that this chapter is a prophecy of the Messiah, and the law is expressly declared to be his righteousness. So when the prophet David spoke by inspiration in Christ's stead, he said: "I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart." Now take these facts, together with Christ's words, "Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice," and we have the most positive evidence that the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are inseparably connected. No one can keep the commandments without faith in Jesus, and no one ever has real faith in Jesus except as he is driven to it by the terms of the violated law, and by a sincere desire to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in him. The righteousness which is "through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:9), is the only righteousness that will secure one a dwelling-place in the new earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell. The importance of this truth is shown by what it will do for us. Christ showed in his prayer that it will sanctify us. The apostle Peter writes: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit," etc. 1 Peter 1:22. And Christ, who declared himself to be the embodiment of the truth, said to the Jews who believed in him: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31, 32. But the same apostle who wrote, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit," also said of the believing Gentiles: "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Acts 15:8, 9. From these texts which we have just grouped together, we learn that the law of God is the truth that makes men free, and purifies the heart, but that it is not the law in the abstract that does this, but "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," and that this is effected by "the Spirit of truth." The law of God is called a "law of liberty," and so it is, but only to those who obey it; and none can obey it except as they yield to the striving of the Holy Spirit, and come to Christ. The truth which makes free is not an outward compliance with the ten commandments. The Pharisees outwardly appeared righteous unto men, yet they were in the worst kind of bondage. David says: "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom." Ps. 51:6. And speaking of the man who shall abide in the holy hill of the Lord, who shall be "delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God," he says that it is the one that "walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." Ps. 15:2. The man who does that is one with Christ, even as he was one with the Father, because Christ had the law in his heart. The keeping of the commandments of truth is all that God requires of man. Says Solomon: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccl. 12:13, 14. There can be nothing more required of man than to do this; but it cannot be done except by faith in Christ. This does not mean a passive assent to the principles of the Christian religion, but such faith as brings Christ to dwell in the heart, so that he can work in us that which is good. The comprehensiveness of the law of truth is shown by the text last quoted. It is the whole duty of man, and by it every work, with every secret thing, shall be brought into judgment. This shows that the commandments of God are that word of God which is "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:12. Keeping the commandments is something more than a form. It consists in having every act, every word, and every thought just such as they would be if Jesus were dwelling within the man, acting and speaking and thinking through him. It consists in acting and speaking in every instance just as Jesus would act or speak under the same circumstances. Surely this cannot be done unless Christ dwells in the heart. Who, then, has outgrown the ten commandments? Are they of a lower grade of morality than is required of Christians in this age? Nay, verily. Let no one say that to exalt the law of God is to deny Christ; for in no other way can we so exalt Christ, and so appreciate the necessity of having his continual presence with us, as by exalting the breadth and holiness of the law. But will there ever be any people on the earth who will have attained to that perfection of character? Indeed there will be. Says the prophet: "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth." Zeph. 3:13. When the Lord comes there will be a company who will be found "complete in him," having not their own righteousness, but that perfect righteousness of God, which comes by faith of Jesus Christ. To perfect this work in the hearts of individuals, and to prepare such a company, is the work of the Third Angel's Message. That message, therefore, is not a mass of dry theories, but is a living, practical reality. Happy will those persons be who form the remnant of Israel, in whose hearts the righteousness of God's law of truth is perfected. For them mansions will be prepared in that glorious city wherein there shall in nowise enter anything that defileth, "neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." Rev. 21:27. And as they approach that great and strong city, the walls and bulwarks of which are everlasting salvation, the cry will be raised, "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth, may enter in" (Isa. 26:1, 2); and as the everlasting doors are lifted up, they will enter, with the King of glory at their head, and shall henceforth have a right to the tree of life, and dwell in his presence forever. THE CAUSE OF APOSTASY.
By W.
THE apostle Peter, speaking of a class of false teachers in the Christian church, and to be especially abundant in the last days, says of them: "For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error." 2 Peter 2:18. There is here the expression of a most important fact, and one which, if overlooked, will cause the ruin of many. That is, that the false teachers of the last days will allure believers into the acceptance of false doctrines, not by directly preaching those errors, but by the seductive influence of the lusts of the flesh. The situation as indicated by the apostle is this: Here are some who are "clean escaped from them who live in error." They have accepted the truth concerning the Sabbath of the Lord, the nature of man, the ministration of angels, the coming of the Lord, and the inheritance of the saints, and are free from the gross errors that have been handed down to the popular churches as a legacy from the Catholic Church. And now these false teachers come around, and by acting as the devil's agents in appealing to the lusts of the flesh, they accomplish the ruin of those souls, and cause them to deny the truth which they once held.791 This proves again the truth that infidelity is not a thing of the intellect, but of the heart and life. Many men have apostatized from Christianity as a whole, and others from what is known as the Third Angel's Message, ostensibly because they found it impossible any longer to hold to the doctrine. But if the inner life, the secret thoughts, of those men were known, it would be found in every instance that the cause of their unbelief was impurity of thought and life. The cherished lusts of the flesh will be found to be the worm at the root, which destroys the vitality of the plant, and makes it impossible to maintain its position in the soil of faith. It is a universal truth that, "if any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." That is, if any man has a sincere desire to have the will of God wrought in him, to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, God will reveal to him in some way what is truth. And the man who has some truth, who is in that condition, will not only have no difficulty in retaining his faith, but will receive greater light of the same kind. "Light is sown for the righteous," and "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." It is a very common saying that the man who holds the Bible doctrine of the soul, and the condition of man in death, can never be a Spiritualist. That is true, providing he retains his belief in the Bible doctrine of the soul, and of the condition of man in death. But if he lets go his hold on that doctrine, he has no safeguard whatever against that great masterpiece of deception. The question, then, is, How can he continue to believe the Bible doctrine, so as to be safe from that deception? The answer, and the only answer, that can be given is that he can hold to his belief only by living a pure life, by cleansing the soul from every defilement, by being pure in heart. The man who fails to live such a life, who regards iniquity in his heart, who loves sensual pleasures, and who indulges in impure imaginings, will surely fall away from the truth, and no power can prevent him; while the man who has true charity, godliness, temperance, patience, virtue, etc., can never fall. Paul says that when Satan works with "all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness," he will cause the ruin of those who "received not the love of the truth." He does not say that those are deceived who received not the truth, but who received not the love of the truth, intimating that many who have received the truth may be led captive by the deceptions of Satan. The love of the truth is to be distinguished from love for the truth. The "love of the truth" is the love of God, the love which brought the truth to man, a portion of the same love which God has in his heart for man, in which is no trace of impurity; for "the truth" of God is nothing else but the wisdom which is from above, and that is "first pure." The man who has not "the love of the truth," might as well be destitute of the form of the truth. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." This is a truth that applies to this present life as well as to the future. It is true that when we reach the heavenly Jerusalem, we shall see God face to face, with no evil between; but all who share that inestimable blessing must in this life have, like Moses, "endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." The soul that is as pure as the sunlight may enjoy the closest communion with God, and has a hold that will keep it when others fall around him. There shall in nowise enter into the New Jerusalem "anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abominations," but only those who have washed their robes of character, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. W. HOW TO "CHRISTIANIZE THE MASSES."
By Editor
The Philadelphia Times has the following pertinent remarks relative to "Christianizing the Masses," a question which is now being generally discussed by both press and pulpit:— "The first and essential step toward Christianizing the masses in our centers of population is to Christianize the Christians. Until that is done, nothing else can be done that will be effective. While the churches remain pleasant and fashionable, Sunday clubs, whose sittings are sold to the highest bidder, and in which the worship is conducted in a fashionable manner, that says to the poor, 'These are no places for you,' the poor will stay away. Until Christians are willing to make their religion one of self-sacrifice—willing to worship on equal terms with the masses—they will have little influence in the way of inducing them to come into the churches. . . . The great wall which riches and social distinction have raised between the Protestant church and the masses must be broken down, or, in spite of all, the proportion of church goers to population in our large cities will continue to decrease." The Times is not, we believe, a religious journal, but it has stated this matter much more aptly than even many of the ministers who have discussed it. Unconverted churches can have but little power for good, and before they can reach the masses they must gain the experience for which David prayed. "Restore unto me the joys of thy salvation," he cried, "and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." Truly, "the first and essential step toward Christianizing the masses, is to Christianize [convert] the Christians." WITH the next issue we begin a series of articles of a practical nature upon the book of Romans, designed to aid the Bible-reader to a better understanding of that portion of God's word, that he may read and study it with more pleasure and profit. Our plan is to make each article distinct and complete in itself as far as possible, so that whoever has only a single number of the paper, may read with profit the article which it contains; and yet, from the very nature of the case, many of the articles will depend much upon what has gone before. Under the heading of each article will appear the chapter and verse of Romans which is the subject of comment, so that all who desire to do so may keep the connection of thought. Quite often a single sentence will furnish the basis for an entire article, and around it will be gathered other passages of Scripture relating to the same topic, so that as the thoughtful reader peruses the book of Romans each verse may teem with suggestions of deep spiritual truths. It is very true, as Chalmers says, that "people, in reading the Bible, are often not conscious of the extreme listlessness with which they pass along the familiar and oft-repeated words of Scripture, without the impression of their meaning being at all present with the thoughts,—and how, during the mechanical currency of the thoughts through their lips, the thinking power is often asleep for whole passages together." One object of these articles will be to make this impossible to the reader of the book of Romans, by linking so many thoughts with each passage that they will involuntarily come to his mind as he reads it. Very little heed will be given to the varying opinions of the numerous commentators, our object being to lead the mind of the reader directly to the truth contained in the sacred word, and help him to draw from it for himself some of its wealth. Questions which any who read this may wish to ask upon any portion of the epistle, will be thankfully received, and will be considered in their proper order. As to the time and place of the writing of this epistle, there is little doubt. When the apostle wrote it, he had never visited Rome, but was planning to do so. Rom. 1:10, 11; 15:23-28. From this last text we learn that he was just about to visit Jerusalem, with the contributions which the Gentile Christians had made for the support of the poor saints in that city. Now this contribution was taken on Paul's last visit to Jerusalem. Acts 20:2, 3; 24:17. On this trip he was accompanied by certain brethren whose names are mentioned in the first epistle to the Corinthians, some of whom undoubtedly lived there; and the letter itself commends, and was evidently delivered by, Phebe, "a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea" (Rom. 16:1), the port of Corinth. The epistle to the Romans was, therefore, undoubtedly written from Corinth, about 58 A. D. There is probably no other epistle of Paul to which Peter's words (2 Peter 3:16) have more special application than to the epistle to the Romans. In it there are "some things hard to be understood," and thousands of unlearned and unstable souls have wrested them to their own destruction. But the apostle does not say that there are things in Paul's writings that cannot be understood. That there are some things in the book of Romans, as well as in other portions of the Bible, that no man does fully understand, cannot be doubted. Yet no one will wrest these things to his own destruction, unless he has previously done so to the other portions of Scripture, which are more plain. That is, the man who has a sincere desire for truth, and who reverently accepts and firmly holds to those portions of Scripture which are comparatively simple, will not be harassed by doubts as to those things which seem utterly to baffle his comprehension. Believing that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," he will know that the more obscure parts cannot conflict with any other part, and so will possess his soul in patience until prayerful study, or the arising of the Day-star, shall lighten up the whole. That the epistle to the Romans is not a book for learned theologians alone, but that the common people may understand it, will be evident to all who think for a moment of the persons to whom it was written. It was written as a letter to the church in Rome. Although Rome was the metropolis of the world, it is not at all to be doubted that the apostle could have written to them as he did to the church in the proud and opulent city of Corinth: "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." 1 Cor. 1:26. The church in Rome was doubtless principally composed, as most of the true churches of Christ have been in all ages, of the laboring classes, those whose station in life was lowly, and who had not enjoyed the advantages of what is known as a "liberal education." There were carpenters, and blacksmiths, and masons, and shop-keepers, and shoe-makers, and tent-makers, and gardeners, and housekeepers, among those to whom Paul wrote, and doubtless they formed the majority. Nevertheless the apostle wrote to them, expecting them to understand his letter. The apostle who wrote, "In the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue" (1 Cor. 14:19), could not write an epistle in language impossible to be understood by the common people which composed the church. Of course they needed to receive and study it in the spirit in which it was written. They needed the aid of the792 Spirit of God, in order to understand it. But we have the promise of the same Spirit if we but ask for it, and so we may understand it as well as they. Surely that Spirit which indicted the epistle can make it plain to those who humbly put themselves in the way of being guided by it. On this point, the following remarks by Dr. Albert Barnes, in the introduction to his comments on this epistle, are most pertinent:— “It cannot be denied that one reason why the epistles of Paul have been regarded as so difficult, has been an unwillingness to admit the truth of the plain doctrines which he teaches. The heart is by nature opposed to them, and comes to believe them with great reluctance. This feeling will account for no small part of the difficulties felt in regard to this epistle. There is one great maxim in interpreting the Scriptures, that can never be departed from. It is, that men can never understand them aright, until they are willing to suffer them to speak out their fair and proper meaning. When men are determined not to find certain doctrines in the Bible, nothing is more natural than that they should find difficulties in it, and complain much of its great obscurity and mystery.” “Perhaps, on the whole, there is no book of the New Testament that more demands an humble, docile, and prayerful disposition in its interpretation than this epistle. Its profound doctrines; its abstruse inquiries; and the opposition of many of those doctrines to the views of the unrenewed and unsubdued heart of man, make a spirit of docility and prayer peculiarly needful in its investigation. No man ever yet understood the reasonings and views of the apostle Paul but under the influence of elevated piety. None ever found opposition to his doctrines recede, and difficulties vanish, who did not bring the mind in an humble frame to receive all that has been revealed; and that, in a spirit of humble prayer, did not purpose to lay aside all bias, and open the heart to the full influence of the elevated truths which he inculcates. Where there is a willingness that God should reign and do all his pleasure, this epistle may be in its general character easily understood.” Olshausen, also, after giving an analysis of the epistle, says:— “Such being the nature of the contents of the epistle to the Romans, it may be understood why it is usually regarded as very difficult. Indeed, it may be said that where there is wanting in the reader’s own life an experience analogous to that of the apostle, it is utterly unintelligible. Everything in the epistle wears so strongly the impress of the greatest originality, liveliness and freshness of experience; the apostle casts so sure and clear a glance into the most delicate circumstances of spiritual life in the regenerate; he can with such admirable clearness resolve the particular into the general, that the reader who occupies the low and confined level of natural worldly knowledge, now feels his brain reel as he gazes at those stupendous periods of development in the universe disclosed by Paul, and now finds his vision fail as it contemplates the minute and microscopic processes which Paul unveils in the hidden depth of the soul. Where, however, analogous inward experience, and the spiritual eye sharpened thereby, come to the task, the essential purport of the epistle makes itself clear, even to the simplest mind.” We believe that both of these writers have stated the exact truth. A study of the epistle, with a prayerful, sincere desire to know and do God’s will, and to have him work his own will in the soul, will lead to a general understanding of it, and will aid in giving the spiritual experience of which it treats. But when the Spirit has performed its work so that the individual can exclaim, Oh, the blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! Oh, the blessedness of the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile! he will study the epistle with an enjoyment so much more intense that it will seem as though he never before knew anything about it. That the Holy Spirit, which is given to guide us into all truth, may so soften our hearts as to make them easily susceptible to its influence; that we may have such a longing desire and determined purpose to do the will of God, that he may cause us to know of the doctrine; and that so we may find in this epistle that reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, which shall make us perfect, “thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” is the sincere prayer of the writer. w. CATHOLICS ARE SPIRITUALISTS.
By M. C. W.
THE tenth of this month we had the privilege (or misfortune) to listen to a lecture, on the "Relation of Man to the Spirit World," by the Rev. Father Rooney, in the Church of St. Dominic, San Francisco. He stated that the angels had a connection and communication with this earth, as did also the saints who had died; that modern Spiritualism was of the devil, and should be called "Spiritism" instead of "Spiritualism;" that the only true Spiritualists were the Roman Catholics. The only difference he made was this, that modern Spiritualists professed to call spirits at their will, which could only be the spirits of devils, while Roman Catholics believed that the good spirits of angels and dead saints came to man at the command of God. But the query arose in our minds, What is there in the Roman Catholic view to prevent all Romanists from joining the vast and increasing body of Spiritualists? Nothing. The Bible declares that "the dead know not anything" (Eccl. 9), that "his sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not" (Job 14), that "his thoughts perish" in death (Ps. 146), and many other such like declarations. Then those spirits who appear to devout Roman Catholics, professing to be the spirit of St. Peter, or Paul, or Simeon, or Bridget, or Patrick, or Mary, are lying spirits. Satan "is transformed into an angel of light." 2 Cor. 11:14. Those who worship the dead or sacrifice to the dead, sacrifice to devils. 1 Cor. 10:20; Ps. 106:28, 36, 37. And when these lying spirits come in these guises, and deceive by these guises, what is there to hinder their deceiving as to who sent them? Nothing. They will say, "God sent us," and the devotee is deceived. But he who cleaves to the truth will bring every spirit "to the law and to the testimony;" and if they speak not according to that, they are in darkness and not light. Spiritualists and Roman Catholics will yet unite. Our safety is to depart from both. WHAT OF THE CITIES?
By Editor
“WHAT of the Cities?” is the title of an article in the New York Observer of December 13, in which the needs of the cities, as set forth in a conference held recently in Chickering Hall, New York, is discussed at considerable length. Some of the facts brought out were the same as those presented at the Syracuse convention, referred to in these columns last week, under the title, “Iniquity Abounding,” but some are both new and startling, and relate not alone to New York, but also to other large cities in various parts of our country. “It appears,” says the Observer, “that while in the whole country one in five is a member of some evangelical church, in New York there is only one in thirteen; in Chicago, one in twenty-one; in Cincinnati, one in twenty-three; in San Francisco, one in thirty-seven.” It was to consider these and other facts of a like nature, especially as relating to New York, that the conference was convened; and the paper previously quoted says: “It was undenominational, and met to consider the gospel needs of the city. It met none too soon. We have no more burning question to meet and solve than this.” “There are great masses of humanity in our great cities that are Christless. Could all the church bells in Christendom be rung at one time, these masses would be unmoved. The present means of sowing the gospel seed is utterly inadequate. Learned divines may thunder away at these non-church goers as sternly as they please. The church goers listen and approve, but the thunderbolts never reach their intended victims. They never come where the preachers are.” “They are just as likely to come into our churches as the heathen of the Congo, and no more. They must be reached in the same way. Somebody must take the gospel to them, and preach Jesus to them, or they will live and die ignorant and indifferent, indifferent because ignorant.” Again the Observer says: “The saloon is rightly given as one of the antagonistic forces. New York has twenty saloons to one Protestant church, while San Francisco has sixty-five places for the sale of liquor, to one evangelical church. Multiply the sixty-five saloons of San Francisco by the number of hours per week they ply their business; then take the sum of hours per week in which the churches are in use, and the contrast is too painfully impressive.” Such is the condition of so-called Christian cities; and it was plainly stated in the Syracuse Convention, before referred to, that “the proportion of non-church goers is as great in the country as in the city;” and yet we are asked by some to believe that the world is rapidly growing better, that the world will soon be conquered for Christ, and the millennium ushered in! But the facts do not warrant the belief that the world is improving in morals. On the contrary, the evidences thicken on every hand which show that we are even now in the last days, when the Scriptures assure us that iniquity shall abound. Surely iniquity does abound, and on every hand the hearts of thoughtful men are “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth.”