Your ShelfYour Projects

Review and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 4.

Good Medicine
Earlier text: Good Medicine

Migraine, or Sick-Headache

By George Thomason, M. D.

GEORGE THOMASON, M. D.
MIGRAINE is an exceedingly painful affliction; which subjects victims from all classes and of all ages to extreme distress and suffering. The fact that it has apparently been handed down from parent to child, and the commonly accepted opinion of its incurable nature, lead many sufferers to the belief that they are hopelessly doomed to years of periodical agony, from which there is no release. This we are glad to say need not necessarily be so.
The pain of migraine is usually upon one side of the head only, principally in the temple and over the eye, and at times centered in the eyeball. In some cases the pain extends to the other side of the head. Its peculiar feature is its periodical recurrence, a varying period elapsing between attacks in different individuals.
There has never been found any structural or organic change in the affected nerves. The condition is believed to be due to a temporary alteration in the circulation of blood in the affected nerves, giving rise to the nerve-storms characterizing the disease. The circulation being presided over by the great sympathetic nervous system, centered in the abdomen, suggests some relation between an irritation of the sympathetic nerves and migraine. The sympathetic nerve-centers become irritated through digestive disturbances, and particularly by a prolapse, or displacement, of the various abdominal organs, as the stomach, intestines, and kidneys. Prolapses of these various organs are almost always found present in a patient suffering from migraine. This fact also probably accounts for the more frequent occurrence of migraine in women, as the practise of tight lacing, so prevalent among women, crowds the abdominal organs out of position, and the consequent general displacement of the organs lays the foundation for migraine through the irritated sympathetic and disordered function of the digestive system.
Many persons suffer from attacks of migraine, and term them “bilious headaches,” owing to the vomiting which usually accompanies the attacks; and naturally, after the stomach has been emptied, bile will be forced into the stomach, and ejected by the mouth. Great relief is often experienced after vomiting, showing that the attack is at least exaggerated by the presence in the alimentary canal of material from which poisonous substances are being absorbed. A coated tongue and fetid breath further indicate digestive disturbance.
Usually, the patient has warning of an approaching attack by a feeling of languor, and at times a feeling of unnatural irritability. Later, the face on the affected side becomes hot; the artery of the temple becomes large and hard; there is profuse secretion of water from the eye on the affected side, with agonizing pain.
Success in the treatment of these cases has followed care along dietetic lines. Patients subject to the affection should especially avoid decomposing food, such as “ripening” game, and meats of all kinds, also cheese, oysters, and shell-fish. Tea and coffee are particularly liable to precipitate an attack. Vinegar, through its interference with starch digestion, and the production of fermentation, also predisposes to an attack. Mustard, pepper, alcohol, and other condiments and stimulants should be entirely excluded from the dietary.
The more simple and wholesome the dietary, the better. Toast or zwieback, gluten, eggs, buttermilk, peas, beans, and lentils, with hulls excluded, nuts and nut preparations, and an abundance of fruit are suggested as among the best foods.
Constipation must be avoided by copious water drinking and eating an abundance of fruit. Exercises in the open air, especially such movements as tend to develop the abdominal muscles, are indicated.
The patient should keep well rested by securing an abundance of sleep, as fatigue favors the onset of an attack. An attack of migraine may sometimes be obviated through exercising care a few days before it is due, by eating very sparingly and drinking copiously, or even washing out the stomach in the evening for two or three days, the patient also securing an extra amount of sleep. The skin should be kept active by daily cold sponge-baths and vigorous friction.
Cape Town, South Africa.

Good References

JOHN was fifteen, and very anxious to get a desirable place in the office of a well-known lawyer who had advertised for a boy, but doubted his success, because, being a stranger in the city, he had no reference to present.
“I’m afraid I’ll stand a poor chance,” he thought, despondently; “however, I’ll try to appear as well as I can, for that may help me a little.”
So he was careful to have his dress and person neat; and when he took his turn to be interviewed, went in with his hat in his hand and a smile on his face.
The keen-eyed lawyer glanced him over from head to foot.
“Good face,” he thought, “and pleasant ways.”
Then he noted the neat suit,—but other boys had appeared in new clothes,—and saw the well-brushed hair and clean-looking skin. Very well; but there had been others there quite as cleanly; another glance, however, showed the finger-nails free from soil.
“Ah! that looks like thoroughness,” thought the lawyer.
Then he asked a few direct, rapid questions, which John answered as directly.
“Prompt,” was his mental comment; “can speak up when necessary.” “Let’s see your writing,” he added aloud.
John took a pen and wrote his name.
“Very well, easy to read, and no flourishes. Now what references have you?”
The dreaded question, at last!
John’s face fell. He had begun to feel some hope of success, but this dashed it again.
“I haven’t any,” he said slowly; “I’m almost a stranger in the city.”
“Can’t take a boy without references,” was the brusque rejoinder.
As he spoke, a sudden thought sent a flush to John’s cheek.
“I haven’t any references,” he said, with hesitation, “but here’s a letter from mother I just received. I wish you would read it.”
The lawyer took it. It was a short letter:—
“MY DEAR JOHN: I want to remind you that wherever you find work, you must consider that work your own. Don’t go into it, as some boys do, with the feeling that you will do as little as you can, and get something better soon, but make up your mind you will do as much as possible, and make yourself so necessary to your employer that he will never let you go. You have been a good son to me, and I can truly say I have never known you to shirk. Be as good in business, and I am sure God will bless your efforts.”
“H’m!” said the lawyer, reading it over the second time. “That’s pretty good advice, John—excellent advice. I rather think I’ll try you, even without the references.”
John has been with the lawyer six years, and last spring he was admitted to the bar.
“Do you intend taking that young man into partnership?” asked a friend lately.
“Yes, I do. I couldn’t get along without John; he is my right-hand man!” exclaimed the employer, heartily.
And John always says the best reference he ever had was a mother’s good advice and honest praise.—Sacred Heart Review.

The Schoolboy and the Cigarette

By Wm. H. Hamby

EVERY mother,—at least every normal mother,—as she stands in the door and watches her boy away on his first morning to school, has a vision of what she would like him to be, and makes a prayer in her heart that in the coming years he may have health and character and success.
And the teacher,—if she be an earnest teacher,—as she looks that first morning into the searching, wondering eyes of that boy, must utter a prayer in her heart that he may grow up wise and good and useful.
These wishes are one. The business man, the lawmaker, the doctor, the teacher, the preacher, the father, and above all the mother, are wishing for the boy the selfsame thing,—that he be strong and clean and successful.
It is this wish in the hearts of all who care for the boyhood of to-day and the manhood of to-morrow, that is making them bitter enemies of the cigarette.
The war on the cigarette habit is not the mere clamor of professional agitators, a sentimental outbreak of reform impulse, but a cool, dispassionate, vital struggle for the very body and brain and soul of the boy.
In 1903 the State of Missouri enacted a law making it a hundred-dollar fine to sell or give cigarettes or cigarette material to any boy under eighteen. In 1909 that law was strengthened by another, making it a ten-dollar fine for any boy to smoke cigarettes in any public place, on any road or street, in any business house or place of amusement.
Kansas has a law prohibiting the sale of cigarettes in any form to anybody. Almost every State in the Union has some form of anticigarette law, designed to protect the boy from the evil.
What means all this legislation?—It means that the cigarette is recognized as a deadly enemy to that supreme wish for the boy,—that he be strong and clean and successful.
He can not be strong and use it. No habitual cigarette smoker ever won any athletic contest.
It is absolutely impossible for a cigarette-smoking schoolboy to grow into healthy manhood.
Dr. Morgan Clint, in discussing the physiological effects of tobacco in general, says: “In the anemic, pasty-complexioned, undersized weakling called a ‘cigarette fiend’ we see the effect of tobacco at its worst. Here is a youth who should be just growing into manhood, the possessor of vigorous health and strength. Instead, we have an old man in his teens, prematurely aged and decrepit, who is injured both physically and mentally beyond all hope of repair. In school he is a dullard, incapable of concentration. Socially he can make no progress; for his person is offensive. In athletics he is a nonentity; for his lungs are weakened.”
A fever that kills ten per cent of its victims is a dreaded disease; one that kills twenty per cent is a scourge; and a disease that kills half of those it attacks is a terrible plague.
But cigarette smoking, begun early in boyhood and continued, wrecks the health of every one of its victims. I do not know of a single exception. I have never known a boy who began to smoke cigarettes under the age of fourteen, and continued the habit, who was not a physical wreck before twenty-seven.
And physical strength is not all that is sacrificed. No boy can be strong mentally and smoke.
Teachers everywhere confess that it is practically impossible to educate a boy who uses tobacco, especially cigarettes. It so diseases the brain and nervous system that application, concentration, and clearness and buoyancy of mind are impossible.
With scarcely a single exception, from the commissioner of education down, all superintendents, school boards, and teachers who have to do with the education of boys, are implacable foes to the cigarette habit. President David Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford University, even forbids college men from using cigarettes anywhere on the university grounds.
H. H. Seerley, principal of the Iowa State Normal, says: “After making a study of several hundred boys, running through a period of ten years, I have not met a pupil who is addicted to the habit that will go through a single day’s work and have good lessons.
“So far as my observations have extended, not a single boy has passed the examination required for admission to the high school after he has acquired the habit; and not one has graduated from the high school who began the habit after beginning his course in the high school.
“Pupils under the influence of the weed are constant subjects of discipline, are not truthful, practise deception, and can not be depended upon.”
Even more appalling, if possible, than the wreck of health and mind, is the effect of the habit on a boy’s morals.
Judge Lindsey, of Denver,—and the boy never had a better friend than Ben B. Lindsey,—speaks emphatically: “I have been in the juvenile court nearly ten years; and in that time I have had to deal with thousands and thousands of boys who have disgraced themselves and their parents, and who have brought sorrow and misery into their lives; and I do not know of any one habit that is more responsible for the trouble of these boys than the vile cigarette habit.”
With a pretty wide experience as a student of boys, a worker among them and for them, the writer is convinced that a clean moral life and the cigarette habit are practically impossible in the same boy.
I have never seen or heard of a single boy who began the use of cigarettes under fifteen, and continued the habit, who had not before the age of twenty-five become immoral, a drunkard, a gambler, or a drug-fiend; and most of them become the victims of two, three, or all of these deadly sins.
And of course success is impossible. Neither wealth nor fame, neither success nor usefulness, is in store for the cigarette-smoking schoolboy. Cigarettes have been well named “coffin nails.” They are more: before the coffin is reached, they nail up every door to success. Across every call for responsible helpers is branded, “No cigarette smokers wanted.”
The ease and frequency and apparent cheapness by which this habit may be practised doubles its evils. And how to keep the boy from the cigarette and the cigarette from the boy has become a vital question to every lover of the human race.—Wm. H. Hamby, in American Motherhood.

WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN

By Worthie Harris Holden

Interpreted

WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN

’Twas deemed a worthless gift when cast adrift at sea; More precious ’twas than gold on its return to me.
The bounteous table spread, and sparkling fountain pure, Afar I prize when thirst and hunger I endure.
The mingled color scenes of mountain, sky, and sea,— As vision fails, are graciously endeared to memory.
Each day’s a jewel rare when life is ebbing fast; The ticking of Time’s clock is read aright at last.
Enriched are we through loss and joy o’er precious gifts restored; ’Tis gain to treasure wealth we ne’er before would hoard.
And since the Christ could die for mortals such as we, To solve life’s meaning bear his cross to Calvary,
Witness his agony,—our griefs, our sins, our loss,— Learn there redemption’s song translated by his cross,
Portland, Ore.

W. A. WESTWORTH

By W. A. Westworth

The annual council of the China Union Mission Committee was held August 25 to September 4, on the occasion of Elder I. H. Evans's arrival in China.
Many matters of importance were considered, among which was the locating of several workers in various stations. The sickness of Sister J. J. Westrup made it imperative that Brother and Sister Westrup be granted a furlough on sick-leave. Thus the North Central China field was left without a director, and Brother F. A. Allum, who had expected to leave the council for Szechuen, was detailed to the North Central field. The leaving of Brother and Sister P. J. Laird just prior to the council, left the work in Hunan without help; hence Brother R. F. Cottrell was removed from the East China Mission to Chang-sha, Hunan and Kiangsi being set off as the South Central China Mission, with Brother Cottrell as director.
Brother Cush Sparks was removed from Hankow to connect with Brother Cottrell at Chang-sha.
Steps were taken to open a training-school for evangelists at Cheo Chia K'o, with Dr. H. W. Miller in charge. This move was an absolute necessity, and for it we have been waiting a long time. Help from the $300,000 Fund has been expected, with which to begin operations; but as this is not forthcoming, we felt that we must start without equipment, and do something for the many who are so anxious to carry the gospel to their fellow men, dying in heathen darkness. As we read of the new schools being opened for various nationalities and purposes in the home land, we sometimes feel that it might do some of our brethren good to see with what meager equipment we started our advanced school here in China. In small rented quarters, damp and dismal, fitted up with a few rough benches, a blackboard, a
consecrated teacher, and willing minds, we begin this work. But we ask in all candor, with four hundred thirty million people to warn, and with hearts pleading for a preparation to carry forward the message, is this fair and right?
Immediately following the council, accompanied by Elder Evans, we started for the south. This was the first opportunity we have had to visit this portion of our field; and as we went from place to place, the greatness of the work here in China was again impressed upon us, till it seemed at times as if the weight would crush us.
A general meeting was appointed for the South China Mission field at Canton, and we were pleased to see many gathered for this occasion. On account of the absence of Brother J. N. Anderson, who had just left for the States, Brother George Harlow was selected as director of this great field. Brethren Harlow and J. P. Anderson were set apart to the gospel ministry at this time. One thing impressed us very forcibly as we examined the quarters used by the workers in the Canton station, the Bethel school, and the Wai Chow station; and that was that unless there is speedy arrangement made for more suitable quarters
for the workers here, we shall be obliged to grant still more furloughs for the saving of life. It may now be too late to do that. We feel this is a terrible waste of money, energy, and health, which should be conserved to the advancement of the cause.
It does not pay to send people out here to get sick and die. A wiser course would be to prepare suitable housing for the workers.
Following the Canton meeting, as Elder Evans returned to Shanghai, accompanied by Dr. Law Keem, we left for Pakhoi, which is the most southerly station in China, situated on the north shore of the Tung-king Gulf. Here Brother A. H. Bach has been carrying forward the work as best he could, short-handed. My experience here was somewhat strange. Immediately on landing, I was informed that in thirty minutes there was to be a funeral from our chapel, as the son of our Bible woman, who lived in a small room in the rear of the chapel, had died of plague the night before. (Our readers will remember an article dealing with the plague at Pakhoi, which appeared August last in these columns.) This made three who had died in the same building, and of course I knew it was infected with the dread disease. A service was appointed for that night, and I was expected to speak. Fumigation was impossible, as only those acquainted with Chinese houses can appreciate. Here we were, the only foreigners in the city who had not been inoculated against the plague (and even that is not an absolute preventive); and should we refuse to go into the place, it would be doomed as a meeting-house. Other places could not be obtained; so, after committing our cases to the Refuge of his people, I went to work. But the activities of my mind under such circumstances were of a different sort than I had ever before experienced.
The plague is carrying off from ten to twelve persons each day, and is assisted in the destruction of the town by the Asiatic cholera. Pakhoi is the original home of the bubonic plague, and this year over ten per cent of the population have been taken thereby. Fully one fifth of the shops are deserted on account of deaths, and the whole place is rocking with misery, disease, and death. A more foul, dirty, and disagreeable town I have never seen, not even in inland China. Brother Bach is pressing forward with his work, and we were pleased to see the interest taken by the believers, and to note their interest as we told them of the advancement of the cause in various parts of God's vineyard. We visited some of the out-work Brother Bach has been carrying on, and saw evidences of God's leading in this corner of the earth.
Returning to Hongkong on our way to Swatow, we had the questionable enjoyment of a typhoon, which threshed our small coasting-steamer about most unmercifully. It was with thankful hearts that we set foot on land again.
Leaving Dr. Law Keem at Hongkong, I passed on to Swatow, and was there met by Brother B. L. Anderson, who had come down from Amoy. Together we studied the situation at Swatow, with the view of making this the headquarters for our work in the Hoklo dialect. The city presents many favorable points. It is easy of access, is in close touch by launch service with many towns, and is also healthful, even though so far south.
Our brethren in this region are praying earnestly that some one will come from the States, and take charge of the work which has opened up so marvelously in this region. We made a short visit to Chou Chou Fu, and there met Brother Hung, our native evangelist at this place, who is doing a mighty work for God. Formerly a pastor of a native church, he was led to the truth in a wonderful manner through the ministry of Elder N. P. Keh, and is now caring for no fewer than five stations. But he must have the help and influence of foreigners. The basis already laid for work, after such help comes, can not but bear much fruit to the glory of God.
Our next stop was at Amoy and Kulangsu, where Brethren W. C. Hankins and B. L. Anderson are stationed. A school for girls is being conducted in Amoy, with Sister Anderson in charge, and one in Kulangsu, which is just across the river from Amoy, conducted by Brother Anderson. There is a live interest in both these schools, and the work is gradually growing. We rapidly passed on to Tsuan-chau, where a general meeting was being conducted by Brethren Hankins and Keh; and here our hearts were gladdened as we saw a number of earnest faces, and became acquainted with several who are studying to learn the full truth. Another day was spent in a trip inland to Do-Gong, where land has been purchased for a school site, but which lies vacant, awaiting the arrival of funds with which to erect necessary buildings.
From this section we returned to Shanghai, and were pleased to greet Brother and Sister W. E. Gillis, who had just arrived to take the oversight of the printing work at the press.
All through this journey of between twenty-five hundred and three thousand miles we saw many evidences of God's guiding hand. Everywhere the work that has been done has opened up great possibilities for the future, and we can not but look forward a little time in the future when, we believe, the seed thus far sown will yield an abundant harvest.
From all parts of the field, calls are constantly coming for help and light; and we are ever praying that men and means will be forthcoming, that the work may rapidly be consummated, and the King come to gather his own.
Shanghai, China.

The Chile General Meeting

By F. H. Westphal

F. H. WESTPHAL
OUR general meeting at the school was greatly blessed, and resulted in much good to the brethren and the work. We were sorry that heavy rains hindered the attendance of many who otherwise would have come. Brother L. R. Conradi enjoyed much freedom in presenting the general principles of the organization of this work. The accounts of the progress of the work in Europe and Africa aroused much interest in the missionary work, and many resolved to engage in it.
In Santiago the meetings were better attended, the weather not hindering so much. We were sorry that we could not have our conference meeting at the same time; but the notice of Elder Conradi's visit was too short to make such arrangements. We shall hold our annual conference in March, and hope to see a general rally at that time.
About seventy persons were baptized this year in Chile. We hope to see the work prosper faster than ever before, and that in a little while it may be self-supporting here in Chile. We have dedicated the First-day offerings to the union conference, to be used in extending the message among the Indians, of whom there are many in Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay.
When we see how the work is extending, and how little we do, we pray that more faith and more energy may be aroused to carry the message to all the inhabitants of earth, in order that the work may soon close up.
A few days ago a man and his wife came to our meeting, and said they had decided to go with us, and related how the Lord came to them. About five years ago this man was passing a house where one of our brethren was preaching, and he stopped and listened a little while, becoming convinced that we have the truth. I visited the place a few years later, and his wife came to borrow something from her neighbors, in order that she might have an opportunity to hear something more about the message. Now they have accepted it. Without doubt many have turned their attention toward us, and are watching with interest to see the truth develop. We hope and pray that all who accept the message may remain true and faithful, in order not to disappoint the hopes of those whose interest has been aroused.
GROUP OF BELIEVERS ATTENDING THE CHILE GENERAL MEETING
GROUP OF BELIEVERS ATTENDING THE CHILE GENERAL MEETING
Santiago, Chile.

Religion Is a Blessing to Share

“RELIGION is not a possession to keep, but a blessing to share, a light to diffuse, a life to communicate.”

A Novel Examination

THE following story shows how one missionary candidate was examined, and how searching was the test.
It was winter. The examiner sent the candidate word to be at his home at three o’clock in the morning. When the appointed man arrived at the appointed time, he was shown into the study, where he waited for five hours. At length the examiner appeared, and asked the candidate how early he had come.
“Three o’clock, sharp.”
“All right; it’s breakfast time now. Come in and have some breakfast.”
After breakfast they went back to the study.
“Well, sir,” said the examiner, “I was appointed to examine you as to your fitness for the mission field. Can you spell, sir?”
The young man thought he could.
“Spell baker, then.”
“B-a ba, k-e-r, ker—baker.”
“All right; that will do. Now, do you know anything about figures?”
“Yes, sir, something.”
“How much is twice two?”
“Four.”
“All right; that’s splendid. You’ll do first-rate. I’ll see the board.”
When the board met, the examiner reported. “Well, brethren,” he said, “I have examined the candidate, and I recommend him for the appointment. He’ll make a tip-top missionary—first-class.”
First, I examined the candidate on his self-denial. I told him to be at my place at three o’clock in the morning. He was there. That meant getting up at two o’clock, or earlier, in the dark and cold. He got up, and never asked why. Second, I examined him on promptness. I told him to be at my place at three o’clock sharp. He was there not one minute behind time. Third, I examined him on patience. I let him wait five hours for me when he might just as well have been in his bed; and he waited, and showed no signs of impatience. Fourth, I examined him on his temper. He didn’t get excited; met me perfectly pleasant; didn’t ask me why I kept him waiting on a cold morning from three to eight o’clock. Fifth, I examined him on humility. I asked him to spell words a five-year-old child could spell, and he didn’t show any indignation; didn’t ask me why I treated him like a child.
Brethren, the candidate is self-denying, prompt, patient, obedient, good tempered, humble. He’s just the man for a missionary, and I recommend him for your acceptance.”—Kansas City Journal.

The Virtues of Work

THANK God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength in will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle never know.—Charles Kingsley.

Editorial

By Editor

“And, lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.”
We have the evidence all about us in the workings of His grace. We read it in reports from the harvest-fields at home and abroad, and are compelled to join in and again to say, It is of the Lord. It is a live prayer-meeting or other service, and experiences pass in which we do not recognize how that the Spirit used this word or that testimony; and we know the Lord is there.
In an old Review we find a report of the early days in Michigan, showing how the abiding Spirit of the Lord was present at one meeting. It was in 1857, and Elder James White and Sister E. G. White were visiting the growing churches. The cause in Michigan had been given new impetus by the removal of the publishing headquarters from Rochester, N. Y., to Battle Creek, in 1855. The evening service reported was held at Monterey, in a schoolhouse, and preaching was expected.
Elder White wrote of the experience and of the results of the meeting as follows:—
We went to the house feeling that [the writer] had nothing for the people. We told brethren on the way that we could not decide on any subject, and asked them to select. We sang a hymn, and had great freedom in prayer; sang again, but felt perplexed as to duty. In this state of mind, knowing not what to do, we gave liberty to others to use the time, when Mrs. White arose and spoke with much freedom. The place was filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Some rejoiced, others wept. All felt that the Lord was drawing very near. How we honored the place! Those present will never forget that meeting. When seated, Mrs. White began to praise the Lord, and continued rising higher and higher in perfect triumph in the Lord, till her voice changed, and the deep, clear shouts of the “Glory!” “Hallelujah!” thrilled every heart. She was in vision. Unknown to us, there was a poor, discouraged brother present, who had thrown his armor down, in consequence, in part, at least, of neglect by his wealthy brethren, and was returning to strong habits which threatened the happiness of himself and family. A most touching and encouraging message was given for him. By the grace of God he raised his head that very evening, and he and his good wife are again happy in hope. Monterey church will never forget that evening. At least they never should.

Standing Before the Lord

By F. M. W.

THE consecrated child of God will live and labor as in the personal presence of his Lord. This was the secret of Elijah’s power. When declaring to wicked Ahab the judgment of God which would be visited upon the land of Israel, he prefaced it with the remark, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand.” At the end of the long three years of famine, Elijah appeared to Obadiah, and requested an interview with Ahab. When Obadiah feared to become the messenger, Elijah declared, “As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him to-day.”
The prophet fulfilled his promise. Upon Mount Carmel he confronted the haughty Ahab, the wicked prophets of Baal, and the backslidden hosts of Israel. He stood on this memorable occasion as the one true witness of Jehovah, but he was not alone. He stood as in the divine presence, the mighty hosts of God surrounding him. All heaven bent with interest and sympathy to view the scene. Inspiring heroism was Elijah’s on this occasion, and yet after all he was but a humble man,—a man, as the apostle James tells us, “subject to like passions as we are.” It was the Lord of hosts, before whom he stood, who filled him with his divine Spirit. It was the great God of the universe, who used this poor instrument of clay as the means whereby all Israel was made acquainted once more, and that, too, in a most remarkable manner, with the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
This consciousness of the divine presence proved a keeping power in the life of Moses, and led him to attempt, and to accomplish, great things for God. In the humble garb of his pastoral calling, his shepherd’s staff in hand, accompanied by his younger brother, he entered the palace of proud Pharaoh. He appeared not in the role of a suppliant, but as the representative of a mightier monarch than ever earthly kingdom knew. His words to Pharaoh were a demand: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto him in the wilderness.” Again and again this uncompromising demand was made upon the Egyptian king. Driven out of Pharaoh’s presence, forbidden under pain of death to again see his face, Moses returned with the same unfaltering message. Fearing that disaster would be visited upon himself and his entire kingdom, Pharaoh at last yielded to the force of circumstances, and hastened the children of Israel upon their journey.
For forty years Moses stood as the visible head and leader of Israel. Criticized, censured, plotted against by the chief princes, and even by his own brother and sister, he endured heroically the trying experiences of the forty years’ wandering. Only once, so far as the record tells, did he fail. He endured all these trying experiences because, as did Elijah, he stood as in the presence of the great God. “He endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” He saw the end of the journey, the final results of loyalty to God, and in contradistinction, the final fruits of unrighteousness.
Elijah and Moses are set forth in the Scriptures of truth as the types of two classes,—the resurrected ones and the translated ones,—who will constitute the inhabitants of the coming kingdom. We are living in the day when that kingdom is soon to be set up. We must possess in our lives the spirit which actuated those men of old. We must stand, as did Elijah, in the presence of the Lord of hosts, realizing that his watchful eye is upon us, and that he takes account of all that we do and say. Like Moses we must endure, “as seeing him who is invisible.”
This consciousness of the divine presence should take from us the fear of man. We are the servants of one greater than king or potentate. To him we are answerable for our course of conduct. He stands as our mighty Helper here, and as our final Judge at last.
This consciousness will rob life of its selfishness and sordidness. How mean will appear our selfish purposes, how groveling our earthly hopes, how degrading every impure, fleshly desire! The pleasures of time and sense will be lost in the anticipated joy of heaven. The glitter, tinsel, and show of worldly glory will fade into insignificance before the greater glory soon to be revealed. Life will be possessed of a high and holy purpose, and before the accomplishment of that purpose, selfish propensities will bow the knee. Then shall we recognize that life does not consist of a mere personal, selfish existence, but that it is a grand possibility, fraught with mighty and far-reaching questions, involving allegiance to the great God of the universe and loyalty to the principles of his government, as against the enemy seeking its overthrow. O, we need to cultivate in our Christian living this union with God! We need to sense this consciousness of the divine presence. Only in this shall we be kept from falling. Only in this can we withstand the seductive wiles of the enemy of our souls, and keep from being switched off from the great track of truth.
To-day every soul is on trial before the universe of God. The testing, proving process is going forward. The chaff will be sifted out, and only the sound wheat remain. The conflict between God and Satan is not one of personal difference alone; great principles are involved in the controversy. By our lives we are declaring on which side of the conflict we will arraign ourselves. Satan is bidding for the allegiance of every soul. To the young men and women among us, he presents the pleasures of the world; to our sisters, the foibles and follies of fashion; to our brethren, the enticing allurements of speculation.
The spirit of these things has already too greatly invaded the church of God. Some of our church-membership have departed from the old-time simplicity of faith and practise which once possessed this people. With too many, personal devotion is neglected, the family altar broken down, the Bible laid aside for the magazine or newspaper, the church prayer-meeting forsaken for personal convenience or social pleasure. Love is lacking in homes. Alienation and criticism exist among brethren. These conditions must be changed. God can not baptize his remnant people with power while these wicked principles control the life. Every heart needs to realize the exceeding sinfulness of all unrighteousness, and cry mightily to God for deliverance.
In every church-membership godly men and women should sound the rallying cry of return to the old-time simplicity of faith and Christian living. There are needed more men and women whose hearts God has touched, and who, living in the light of his countenance, and with hearts filled with his blessed, divine Spirit, will set an example of simple faith and devout Christian living in their churches and communities. The Israel of God must return to the old-time spirit of consecration if they would have the old-time spirit of power. Turning a deaf ear to the voice which would bid us link up with the influences of evil, we must set our faces resolutely toward the kingdom, placing our all—houses, lands, positions, families, and lives—upon the altar of God’s service.
The spirit of apostolic days, the spirit of the 1844 movement, will sometime actuate this people. One hundred forty-four thousand in whose mouth is found no guile, who are without spot or blemish in the sight of a holy God, will stand upon Mount Zion, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb at last.
Dear reader, will you be among that number? It is your blessed privilege. Though unworthy of yourself, though weak in your own strength, by God’s grace and through his mighty power you may be an overcomer at last; but it must be because you will to submit yourself to God. It must be because you have a heart and a spirit to surrender all to him, and without a single reserve let him come in and fill your life. It is this surrender that will bring to you the power of his Holy Spirit. It is this daily living as in his presence, this standing before him, this seeing of him who is invisible, that will bring God into your life, a mighty controlling and sanctifying power.
All heaven is waiting to bestow upon the remnant church the Holy Spirit of power to-day. Why put off the blessed time of visitation? Why longer delay to ally ourselves with the heavenly intelligences and heavenly powers? Why longer refuse God his rightful place in our hearts and lives? Let him be supreme. Let him come in and fill us with his fulness. Then shall we be enabled to fill our heaven-appointed place in this great movement, and do the work which God designs shall be done by his Spirit-filled and Spirit-directed church.
F. M. W.
Continue reading: Always of Good Courage