It is not best to have a stiff neck or a hard heart. If we have these, it is our own fault; for the grace of God is able to make our hearts tender and to create within us a teachable spirit. Now one of those things which is hard for us to receive, but which is withal exceedingly necessary, is reproof. It is not pleasant to the carnal mind, but it is safe and profitable for us. Better by far have reproof than flattery or even too much of encouragement. Accept, then, of reproof. Not, however, in a sullen, inactive manner, but by laying the thing to heart and bringing forth fruit meet for repentance. God means by it our salvation. Why not, then, co-operate with him?
BOTH ARE NECESSARY.
The gospel is needed for our encouragement as the law is needed for our admonition. We can dispense with neither. We must make use of both. One shows us our lost condition and our need of help. The other furnishes the very help which we need. We must not presume and we need not despair. Surely God is gracious to grant us the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.
DIVINE GUIDANCE.
“It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jer. 10:23. God’s guiding hand is needed at every step. Without this, he will surely err from the path of right. The guidance of the Spirit of God is a thing of the utmost consequence. But it is never granted to the careless and indifferent. It is never given to the man whose heart does not bow in submission to God. Those only can have it who seek for it. And even these must seek it aright. If men have other motives than the glory of God, if they seek his guidance merely for their own credit, or for their own advancement, God will not be pleased specially to guide such. “The meek will he guide in judgment; and the meek will he teach his way.” Ps. 25:9. God will guide those who submit without reserve to him. He will delight to lead those who delight in his guidance. He may not always lead men in just the way that would be most pleasant to them to walk; but he will guide them in that path that is safest and best, and in the end they themselves shall see it. He surely will lead them in the path of self-denial and cross-bearing, but he will save them from the snares of the devil, and help them to make every step count in the way to eternal life. Few persons really want divine guidance. Those who do seek it with the one grand object of honoring God will surely find it. J. N. A.
Christian Union.
By R. F. Cottrell
NOT A CONFEDERACY OF SECTS.
Not the least prominent sign of our times is the proposed alliance of all the so-called evangelical churches. If they would form a union such as the word of God requires, they would give up their errors and unite in the truth. They say they cannot see things alike. They cannot, because the carnal mind rules and will not give up traditional errors for the truth. It is a slander upon the Bible and its Author, to say that we cannot understand the requirements of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. It is all false. The blame rests upon men, and not upon God. “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” The commandments say the same thing to all. The difficulty is, men will not let them mean what they say, because they are out of harmony with their traditions and practices.
The sects, well knowing that it is vain to hope that the errors they hold will be given up, each particular party knowing their own unwillingness, propose to form a mere confederacy, letting each one hold all the errors they please; and this, it would seem, is to introduce their fancied millennium of the universal sway of the gospel. Nothing could be more absurd. But such a confederacy fills the idea of many. But what says God to his people concerning it? “Say ye not, a confederacy to all to whom this people shall say, a confederacy.” The people of God have nothing to do with a confederacy of nations or churches. Their only hope is in God. Says the Lord, “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” And what besides? “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” Take the truth of God as he has himself given it. Heal the breaches which apostasy has made and sin has perpetuated. Restore the seal that has been taken from the law. In a word, take it as it is, and not as false traditions have made it. This is all. Let God himself speak. Hear him; and not tell him what he must mean.
When men will be willing to hear the words of God and do them, there will be no further difficulty of coming to unity. It is the carnal mind, which is not subject to the law of God, that has made divisions and perpetuates them. Says an apostle, “For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” If Paul’s reasoning is correct, there might be real unity, but for the carnal mind. Says he, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment.”
Such is the unity which the Lord requires. It might be attained, but for the carnal mind. Hence, a confederacy of sects is a confederacy of carnality. And what is the great object of the proposed confederacy? Civil power. If the object is obtained, civil government, though claiming to be especially Christian, will still be in the hands of carnal men. Carnal men will legislate for God, and religious persecution will be the result.
Let all who love God and his truth keep his word, and stand aloof from the confederacy.
R. F. COTTRELL.
The Righteous.
By A. S. Hutchins
Much is said in the word of God relative to the righteous. They are the highly favored of the Lord. The most precious promises on record are made to them.
“The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.” Ps. 37 : 29-33.
“Our fairest proof of knowledge lies
In hating every sin.”
Righteousness is conformity to the divine law. Sin is the transgression of that law. “Light is sown for the righteous.” “The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble.”
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Prov. 28 : 9. “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers.” “Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him.”
Who would not be among the righteous? Who would not desire to be righteous? Let us be of those who shall soon see, experience, and eternally partake of, their reward.
A. S. HUTCHINS.
The Date of the Crucifixion.
By E. S.
HERR FALB, the German savant, in a work recently published, shows that there was a total eclipse of the moon concomitantly with the earthquake that occurred when Julius Cæsar was assassinated, on the 15th of March, B. C. 44. He has also calculated back the Jewish Calendar to A. D. 31, and the result of his researches fully confirms the facts recorded by the evangelists of the wonderful physical events that accompanied the crucifixion. Astronomical calculations prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that on the 14th day of the Jewish month, Nisan (April 6), there was a total eclipse of the sun, which was accompanied, in all probability, by the earthquake when “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matt. 27: 51); while St. Luke describes the eclipse in these words: “And it was about the sixth hour (12 noon), and there was darkness over all the land till the ninth hour (3 o’clock P. M.), and the sun was darkened.” (Luke 23: 44, 45.) This mode of reckoning corresponds perfectly with the result of another calculation our author made by reckoning backward from the great total eclipse of April 20, 1818, allowing for the difference between the old and new styles, which also gives April 6 as the date of the new moon in the year A. D. 31. As the vernal equinox of that year fell on March 25, and the Jews ate their Easter Lamb, and celebrated their Erib Pasah, or Feast of the Passover, on the following new moon, it is clear April 6 was identical with Nisan 14 of the Jewish Calendar, which, moreover, was on a Friday, the Paraskevee, or day of preparation for the Sabbath, and this agrees with the Hebrew Talmud. Thus, by the united testimony of astronomy, archæology, tradition, and biblical history, there can be but little doubt that the date of the crucifixion was April 6, A. D. 31.
Will the person who sent us the above please give the source from which it was taken. It is a valuable testimony, and will be rendered still more so, by a statement of the publication in which it is found. E. S.
Industry as a Living Hymn of Praise
EARNEST, active industry is a living hymn of praise, a never-failing source of happiness. It is obedience, for it is God's great law for moral existence.
An Hour of Triumph for Those Who Wait
An hour of triumph comes at last to those who watch and wait.
Mutual Obligation.
By John Norton Loughborough
TO THE CHURCHES IN CALIFORNIA.
We have all read with interest, and I trust with design to profit thereby, the articles of Bro. White, in the REVIEW, on the subject of “Mutual Obligation.” I believe the principle set forth in those articles is “rock” from the eternal quarry of truth.
God is pleased that his creatures should all realize that they are alike creatures of his creation, care, and preservation, and he best fulfills the will of God who seeks to understand the relation existing between him and his fellow-men, and, in love, faithfully discharges the duties growing out of those relations.
Does the Lord say to you, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”? he says it equally to thy neighbor. If our neighbor fails to recognize and obey that command, it is no excuse for us to disobey it. In many cases, in the Bible, the mutual obligation principle is clearly expressed. It is so in the obligations of husband and wife, parents and children. Paul says: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. Eph. 5:21, 25. Again he says: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” Col. 3:18, 19. Of parents and children we read: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother: which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Eph. 6:1–4. Again he says: “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.” Col. 3:20, 21.
These scriptures show the mutual obligation growing out of mutual relations. Bro. White has beautifully, and forcibly illustrated how this principle underlies all mutual relations. God grant that his words may not lose their force upon all our hearts. Has God called and thrust out men to take heavy responsibilities and burdens in the cause, whose prosperity concerns all of us? Then is it the duty of his people to hold up their hands and sustain them in the work.
John speaks of some who had gone forth with a spirit of sacrifice to forward the truth, and said to the church, “We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth.” 3 John 8. The receiving them was staying up their hands in HELPING them. God has evidently led out in establishing institutions like the Health Institute, the Publishing Association. The General Conference with its missionary operations, &c.
I have feared that here in California many would let these appeals in Bro. White’s articles pass over them, and think that these institutions are very far away, and that if we built our meeting-houses and carried on our operations here, we should be excused from aiding in any of these institutions.
If you are thus making these enterprises a distant object, let a sense of the mutual-obligation plan bring them nearer home. The cause is one. As Bro. White quoted, “We are brethren.” It is as much our interest, here in California, in proportion to our numbers and ability, to see the cause advanced, as it is for any one else. The prosperity of these institutions is our prosperity. Are we not under obligations to lift in these things according to our ability? Are any of you inclined to excuse yourselves from doing in these enterprises? I have an appeal to make to you which comes a little closer still. Paul said of the Gentiles who had received the gospel through the sacrifice of the church at Jerusalem, “If the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.” Rom. 15:27. The church at Jerusalem had contributed of their substance to get the truth among the Gentiles. Now there came a time when it needed some one to lift with them in their burdens. “Their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.”
The mutual-obligation plan would suggest that the Gentiles should, in consideration of benefits received in turn, lift with the Jerusalem church to benefit others. But could it be really called a “mutual” burden until they had made whole what it had cost to get the gospel unto them? “Their DEBTORS they are.” Verse 27.
Some of you have said to me, “We must be just before we are charitable.” That is true, and I am going to apply that principle in this article. It is just to pay our debts. Paul’s reasoning was, that a sacrifice made by one church to get the truth to others, brought those receiving the truth in debt to that church. If that church was in need, it would be strange if they could not be induced to pay them the debt. If that church was not in actual need of the necessities of life for themselves, but was making earnest effort to benefit others still, would not the mutual-obligation plan suggest to those benefited by that church, as follows: “Now, as they made a sacrifice to get the truth to us, here is a chance to show our appreciation of their efforts to us, and to do our Christian duty in taking hold to lift with them.”
Well, you are ready to ask, How does this affect us here in California? I will tell you. If I am not mistaken, there is a debt to the general interests of the cause, undischarged, hanging over California; and it is not meet for us to settle down in ease, as though we had nothing to do, until something has been done toward lifting that debt. “Well,” say you, “but I thought we were out of debt, and had some funds in our State treasury.” Yes, so far as matters in the State are concerned, that is so. But I am going to speak now of our relation to this cause as a whole. The cause is one. Is it meet, that, in its general burdens, some of its workers be eased to have others bear all the burdens? Nay, verily.
Well, to the point: By the General Conference Committee, in the month of June, 1868, a call was made for means to purchase a tent, and open a mission in California. The tent was bought, the missionaries came, you received the truth. With some realizing sense of what had been done for you, you took hold nobly and with promptness in your pledges and payments on S. B. You have made this cause self-sustaining, and have some means in your treasury, and encouraging pledges to the State fund for the year to come. Now is certainly a favorable time to look about us and consider our general relations to this cause as a whole. Our meeting places are nearly all clear of debt; and this has cost some effort and perseverance. We have great reason to thank God for his blessing that has favored all our enterprises in the State, and I think with many, when they consider their present financial condition, compared with what it was when they embraced the truth, that they have reason to make thank-offerings to God, as also for his goodness in giving them the truth.
The call of the General Conference raised over $1700.00 to purchase the tent, send laborers here, sustain the work here for eleven months, and furnish us $100.00 worth of books that were given away from the general book fund. What have we done to refund to the general interests of this cause even what we have received from it?
There have been raised for the general book fund $100.00; shares in Health Institute, $25.00; shares in Publishing Association, $30.00; donations to send REVIEW to the poor, $12.00. You see, brethren, how it stands. Is there not evidently something for us to do, if, indeed, we would act on the great plan of mutual interest in this work?
I do not write this to censure any one, but to get the facts before you for consideration and action. Your forwardness to do in other enterprises that have come up gives us confidence that you will do in this also. Can we consistently call the California tent and mission “our work” until we have discharged the debt that started the work here? The same spirit of sacrifice, prayerful consideration of the wants of the cause, and self-denial that characterized those who contributed of their means to get the cause to California, will enable us as a people to do something toward these enterprises that concern the general welfare of the cause, and thus give proof of the sincerity of our love to God and our fellow-men, as well as our recognition of the great principle of mutual obligation. But I design to say more to you hereafter. Pray over it, think upon it, and be ready to act.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Saying and Doing.
By L. A. Cartright
TRUTH is the same through whatever medium it is given. But when we hear or read an eloquent or logical discourse, we are eager to know if the daily life corresponds with the sublimity of utterance. The most unworthy persons may be greatly gifted. And the Lord has given a general invitation to all to work in his vineyard. “Many are called, but few chosen.” Judas had a place among the apostles, but who was ever converted by his preaching? Ungodly professors of religion are Satan’s most successful emissaries. They will never enter Heaven, and those that would they hinder. It is this saying one thing and doing another that prejudices minds, and causes the way of truth to be evil spoken of; while it is a fact that truth has a ten-fold power aided by a consistent life. Then it touches the hearts and consciences of men, and becomes a “savor of life unto life, or of death unto death.” That which comes from the heart reaches the heart, and the lukewarm can communicate no greater warmth than their own. But where the Holy Spirit kindles a flame and points the truth, the speaker is no longer prominent. His subject absorbs the attention, and cold, hard hearts are melted and prepared for the likeness of Christ. This is being “endued with power from on high.” Then he can do all things through Christ strengthening him, while without Christ we can do nothing.
The writer was once in a protracted meeting where there was a deep interest. A professor of religion, one of the long-winded kind, occupied from ten to fifteen minutes two or three times each meeting with an array of words of that uncertain temperature that wearies a congregation, and it proved so nauseous to a poor lunatic that after listening for the third time, he sprang to his feet with “I’ve heard enough say so, I want to see some do so.” The effect was startling. If amen was not heard in Heaven, it was certainly felt on earth. Friends, let us be careful that our “do so” agrees with our “say so.” Lord, help us to be consistent.
L. A. Cartright.
High Time to Awake out of Sleep.
By Chas. B. Reynolds
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” Rom. 13:11, 12.
Oh! it is high time to wake out of sleep; the night is indeed far spent. Alas! that so many should be heedless of the sure signs, multiplying on every side. By many we are told the third message must go with a loud cry, ere the great and eventful day of the coming of the Lord; that the messengers of the truth are very few in number, and some of them feeble, lukewarm, or idle; that able messengers ripen to the work, very slowly, are raised up only at long intervals, and therefore there can be no immediate need of exertion, no present cause of alarm. Satan rocks them in the cradle of delusion, sings to them this false lullaby of peace and safety, and they compose themselves to slumber on in dreamy content that the coming of the Lord is farther off than when they believed.
Yet nearly every issue alike of the religious and secular press gives indication that the two-horned beast, while feigning lamb-like simplicity and innocence, betrays the dragon-like character. The present murmurings of its dragon voice will rapidly increase to angry and aggressive roarings. Read the following specimen from among the leading articles of the Examiner and Chronicle of Dec. 21:
“The right of the people to their Sabbath—a right which the vast majority of American39citizens, whether professedly religious or not, cherish with the warmest regard—should be zealously guarded from the machinations of those who hate it, and desire its abrogation. These are questions which the next Legislature should consider with conscientious care.”
This question of a “Sunday law” is rapidly assuming great political importance. A thorough sifting of the evidence in regard to the Sabbath is inevitable. God rules and reigns by the wondrous power of the Holy Spirit, illumining the mind of God’s faithful servants. The fraud, falsehood, and sophisms of the opponents of truth have been most effectively and thoroughly exposed, the absurdity and untenableness of the positions of the first-day advocates fully demonstrated, and just at this critical juncture the means of disseminating the evidences for the truth thus brought out have been miraculously provided. The record of the prosperity of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association during the last twenty-nine months would be declared wild exaggeration, a monstrous fable, would really be incredible but for the glorious self-evident facts and the known veracity of its president, God’s tried servant, under whose Heaven-directed efforts such important results have been achieved.
Actuated by the desire to uphold creed or advance the interests of party, an eager and very general searching of God’s word will result in the truth being impressed on honest hearts, which, by the ministration of the Holy Spirit, must eventuate in conviction, conversion. Thus thousands from every station and position of life will become proclaimers of present truth, and the third angel’s message go forth with a mighty cry, a loud voice.
Faith! faith is needed, a sure, abiding, cultivated faith, to be able to stand in the time of trouble and real persecution immediately to follow. Now! now! this very day, we should make a new, a real, an entire consecration of all to God. The trial of our faith is just before us. If we hesitate, we are lost; if we delay, the hour of preparation so swiftly passing can never be recalled. Awake! awake! Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.” Eph. 6:13.
CHAS. B. REYNOLDS.
TRUST IN JESUS.
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Heb. 12: 2.
CHRISTIAN! wherefore yield to sadness?
Fix thy heart and hopes above;
Look to Jesus—and with gladness,
Trust his gracious, pardoning love;
Trials here will sorely press thee,
Let thy trust on him be stayed.
He will cheer, and guide, and bless thee,
With his ever-present aid.
Think how kind, how condescending!
Jesus calls himself thy “Friend;”
From his throne in glory bending,
He will every prayer attend.
He will never, never leave thee,
Through thy pilgrim days below;
Then, at last, he will receive thee,
And a crown of life bestow.
—S. S. Times.
No Cross, No Crown.
By N. D. Richmond
THESE words were suggested to my mind while looking at the engraving, “Cross and Crown.” While the company that were going up the narrow way, with the cross upon their shoulders, were in sight of the prize, the other company, who bore no cross, were going far away from the crown; and the thought came very forcibly to my mind, How necessary that we bear the cross, if we would finally win the prize, and wear the crown.
And in how many ways we may bear the cross. Jesus says, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me.” The first step is to deny self. Now, in what way can we the most effectually do this? Is it not by leaving the world and its pleasures far behind? We may have friends in the world who may wish us to associate with them in worldly pleasure, and it may at times seem very hard to deny ourselves, by refusing to join them in their amusements. But if we really love the Lord, and wish to walk in his footsteps, how easy to deny ourselves, even though it may bring the frown of those we love upon us. And as professed Adventists, looking for the soon coming of our King, how sweet the privilege to bear the cross after him.
Especially have I felt this to be true during the past summer and autumn. My employment has called me from home, and, on account of my wearing the reform dress, I have had the finger of scorn pointed at me, and have heard words of derision spoken by some. Yet I felt that in even this, if I could take up my cross, it was a sweet privilege. Not that I took pleasure in being odd and singular, far from it; but as we understand the health reform is given as a means whereby we may insure to ourselves strong bodies and sound minds, I have felt willing to lay aside the fashions of the world, and, if need be, bear reproach.
The words of Peter have been very comforting at such times. 1 Pet. 4:14: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”
Pardon me for thus speaking of self. I have done it only for the encouragement of others, and to exalt my Saviour and the truth. Let us try to raise the standard high and yet higher. It is a noble work in which we are engaged; and I want and mean to enlist my whole energies in his service. I will try to keep very humble, and work in my little sphere, so that soon it may be said to me with the rest of God’s dear people, Ye have kept my law, stood stiffly for my truth, enter in.
N. D. RICHMOND.
Greenville, Mich.
The Old Year and the New.
By N. Orcutt
Our old friend A. D. 1871 reached the close of his eventful life yesterday. As an intimate acquaintance and tried friend, he will be greatly missed, and held in grateful remembrance. He brought us many blessings, and, through his kind offices, we have been permitted to enjoy many precious privileges. He has brought rich lessons of instruction—taught us the evanescent nature of earthly things, admonished us of the shortness of time, the imminence of the closing scenes of this world's history, and the importance of preparation for events before us.
During the three hundred and sixty-five days he was with us, in no instance did he fail daily to bring time for the varied, active duties of life, and afford the quiet hours of night for rest. He has disappointed no reasonable expectations, and so far as it was his province to do, he has supplied every actual want.
The parting hour has come—is past. If that parting has seemed to come too soon, we cannot blame him, only ourselves. If we have put off, until another year, the work that should have been done while he was with us, we may show our respect for our old friend by profiting by the lessons he has taught us, by being no more guilty of procrastination, by improving the present hour, the only period we can call our own.
His brother, 1872, succeeds him. We have made his acquaintance. He comes with promise of seed time and harvest, of favors scattered with lavish hand, as the changing seasons come and go, with their vicissitudes, their cares and labors, their blessings and privileges. He proposes to afford us time to accomplish our earnest life work while he is with us, and also to bring the needed seasons of repose.
But the departed year did not do our work for us. It only brought us time to work. So with the present. The golden moments, rich with blessings, if not faithfully, wisely improved, will avail us nothing in the great consummation if we heedlessly and indolently let them pass unimproved. They will surely come up as witnesses against us, and insure our condemnation.
Wisdom, then, would counsel great carefulness and circumspection while the new year strews our pathway with blessings, opportunities and privileges. It would admonish to earnestness and faithfulness in the great work before us, to consecration and self-sacrifice, to fight the good fight of faith, to so run that we may obtain. May the record of the present year, if we live to write its obituary, be less marred with blots and stains, be marked with more advancement in the divine life, that we may be able to review it with less regret than the one just closed.
N. ORCUTT.
Jamaica, Vt., Jan. 1, 1872.
Our Sure Support.
By L. E. Milne
“I will pray the Father, and he shall send you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.” Blessed promise! O weary child of God, does the way look rough and thorny? Have all earthly friends failed you? Do you feel the cruel ire of the dragon, because you are trying to keep all God’s commandments which are pure, enlightening the eyes? Oh! let not your hearts be troubled. Though Satan and his hosts, are raging around you, the angel of the Lord encampeth about you, and why should you fear? Was not Daniel, the servant of the living God, safe in the lion’s den; and do you not think his heart was rejoicing in God the rock of his salvation? You who are looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our adorable Redeemer, who are living amid the perils of these last days, do you not think our kind Heavenly Father has a peculiar care for his tried and tempest-tossed children? Have you received the blessed promise of the Father, and has the Comforter taken his abode in your heart? Does Jesus abide with you a welcome guest? oh! then is your peace like a river, and your joy unspeakable and full of glory. God is your sun and shield. You are enjoying the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and you can say that his law is your delight; yea sweeter than honey and the honey comb, and better to you than thousands of gold and silver; and you behold wondrous things out of his law. And the blessed hope that we are so near his kingdom, how it lifts us above the storm-cloud of this poor world. I can say to the praise and glory of God, that the Comforter abides with me. Yes,
I have entered the valley of blessing so sweet,
And Jesus abides with me there;
And his Spirit and blood makes my cleansing complete,
And his perfect love casteth out fear.
Oh! come to this valley of blessing so sweet,
Where Jesus his fullness bestows,
And believe and receive and confess at his feet,
That all his salvation may know.”
L. E. MILNE.
The Praying Teacher.
By Ralph Wells
Let me take you to the house of one of my teachers. It is early Sabbath morning. The teacher, you know, rises an hour earlier than usual on the Lord’s day—not an hour later. I suppose it is your custom to rise earlier. (Broad smiling.) I went to the house of this teacher, and the girl told me he was not in his room, but would I walk up? I went to the third story, as directed. No one was there. My glance at the room was arrested by a little piece of paper pinned to a green window curtain. It so interested me that I could not resist the temptation to go nearer and see what it meant. (It was not a secret, you know, for secrets are put into drawers.) There was a little stool under the bit of paper. Casting my eyes at the paper I saw that it was blistered! Looking closer I found writing on it. It was the names of that teacher’s class, and penciled notes opposite each. During the last summer our school was a good deal broken up in its classes, and I heard some one say, “How wonderfully that brother’s class keeps together!” They were all converted. They are “mission” girls, and were of the hardest, most difficult kind to reach, and to hold. But not one of them drifts away. They stand. Do you see the secret? That blistered paper! It is the anchor which holds them fast, and which, by a strong faith and wrestling with God, enters within the veil, and lays hold on the eternal rocks of the promises.
Go with me a moment again, and see. That teacher saturates his lesson also with prayer. It is thus he makes the lesson go down into his scholars’ hearts. The scholars know that he has been praying over the lesson. They can see it in his eye. We must all pray more over the word we teach. We must pray freshly over it. Last Sabbath’s prayer will not do for this Sabbath’s lesson. We must pray at every point in it, for every special need that arises. Oh! we shall thus get help and relief, just as we need it, and with most clear and convincing proof that the answer is directly from the Lord.—Ralph Wells.
The Heavenly Home.
REV. H. BONAR, D. D., sets forth the “great city, the holy Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:10), the blessed and eternal home of all who love Jesus, in the following interesting way:
1. It is a great city. “That great city,” said John, gazing on it. Its circuit is vast—beyond Babylon or Nineveh, Paris or London. That “mighty city,” says John, speaking of Babylon the great (Rev. 18:10), but this is mightier far. There has been no city like it. It is the city, the one city, the great metropolis of the mighty universe, the mighty city of the mighty God.
2. It is a well-built city. Its “Builder and Maker is God.” Its foundations are eternal; its walls are jasper; its gates, pearls; its streets paved with gold. It is “compactly built together,” lying four-square, and perfect in all its parts; without a break or flaw, or weakness, or deformity.
3. It is a well-lighted city. Something brighter than sun or moon is given to fill its heaven. The glory of God lightens it. The Lamb is its “light,” or “lamp;” so that it needs no candle, no sunlight. There is no night there.
4. It is a well-watered city. A pure river of the water of life flows through its streets, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. What must its waters be! What must be the rivers of pleasure there! Who in it can ever thirst? Its inhabitants shall thirst no more.
5. It is a well-provisioned city. The tree of life is there, with its twelve variety of fruits and its health-giving leaves. It has more than Eden had; it is Paradise restored. Paradise and Jerusalem in one; Jerusalem in Paradise and Paradise in Jerusalem.
6. It is a well-guarded city. Not only has it gates, and walls, and towers, which no enemy could scale or force; but at the gates are twelve angels, keeping perpetual watch.
7. It is a well-governed city. Its King is the Son of God; the King of kings, Immanuel; the King eternal, whose scepter is righteousness; who loveth righteousness, and hateth iniquity. No misrule is there, no disorder, no lawlessness.
8. It is a well-peopled city. It has gathered within its walls all generations of the redeemed. Its population is as the sands or the stars; the multitude that no man can number; the millions of the risen and glorified.
9. It is a holy city. Its origin is heavenly, and it is perfect as its Builder. Nothing that defileth shall enter—no spot, or speck, or shadow of evil. All is perfection there—divine perfection.
10. It is a glorious city. The glory that fills it and encircles it is the glory of God. All precious stones are there; no marble nor granite, such as we boast of now; all about it is gold, and pearls, and gems. Everything resplendent is there.
11. It is a blessed city. It is truly the joyous city. It is the throne and seat of the Blessed One, and all in it is like him. Its name is Jerusalem, the City of Peace; its King’s name is Solomon, the Prince of Peace. There is no enemy there, no danger, no darkness, no sickness, no curse, no death, no weeping, no pain, no sorrow, no change forever. They that dwell in it “shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more” (Rev. 7:16, 17); for the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to it with songs; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isa. 35:10. Blessed city! City of peace, and love, and song! Fit accompaniment of the new heavens; fit metropolis of the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness! How eagerly should we look for it! How worthy of it should we live!
Fitting Names.
“MANY a true word is spoken in jest.”
Standing, the other day, near the entrance of the saloon of a large hotel at the seaside, we saw several young men pass in. As they stood at the bar, one said to another, with a smile: “Nominate your poison!” He had said a terribly true thing in joke. Yes, name your poison—just the word! And they swallowed the poison and went their way. Soon another party went in. Said the leader to his companion, as they leaned against the slab, “What is your family trouble?” meaning “What will you drink?” “Family trouble!”—rightly named; for what has made such domestic misery as liquor? And we walked away feeling that we had learned two new and strikingly appropriate names for liquor: “poison” and “family trouble.”—Watchman and Reflector.
Men Wanted.
THE great want of this age is men. Men who are not for sale. Men who are honest, sound from center to circumference, true to the heart’s core. Men who fear the Lord and covetousness. Men who will condemn wrong in friend or foe, in themselves as well as in others. Men whose consciences are steady as the needle to the pole. Men who will stand for the right if the heavens totter and the earth reels. Men who can tell the truth and look the world and the devil right in the eye. Men who neither brag nor run. Men who neither swagger nor flinch. Men who can have courage without whistling for it. Men in whom the current of everlasting life runs still, and deep, and strong. Men careful of God’s honor and careless of men’s applause. Men too large for sectarian limits, and too strong for sectarian bands. Men who do not strive, nor cry, nor cause their voices to be heard in the streets, but who will not fail nor be discouraged till judgment be set in the earth. Men who know their message and tell it. Men who know their duty and do it. Men who know their place and fill it. Men who mind their own business. Men who will not lie. Men who are not too lazy to work, nor too proud to be poor. Men who are willing to eat what they have paid for. Men who know in whom they have believed. Men whose feet are on the everlasting Rock. Men who are not ashamed of their hope. Men who are strong in divine strength, wise with the wisdom that comes from above, and loving with the love of Christ. Men of God!