Earlier text: THE SABBATH IN THE DARK AGESHOW TO WORK.
By Ellen G. White
THERE should be more earnest effort made to enlighten the people upon the great subject of health reform. Tracts of four, eight, twelve, sixteen, and more pages, containing pointed, well-written articles on this great question should be scattered like the leaves of autumn. Small tracts on the different points of Bible truths applicable to the present time should be printed in different languages, and scattered where there is any probability that they would be read. God has placed at the command of his people advantages in the press, which, combined with other agencies, will be successful in extending the knowledge of the truth. Tracts, papers, and books, as the case demands, should be circulated in all the cities and villages in the land. Here is missionary work for all to engage in. There should be men trained for this branch of the work, who will be missionaries, and will circulate publications. They should be men of good address, who will not repulse others or be repulsed. This is a work which would warrant men to give their whole time and energies as the occasion demands. Those who distribute tracts gratuitously should take other publications to sell to all who will purchase them. Persevering efforts will result in great good. Very many souls have been converted to the truth by reading papers and tracts alone, who would not have been reached without them. God has committed to his people great light. This is not for them to selfishly enjoy alone, but to let its rays shine forth to others who are in the darkness of error. You are not as a people doing one-twentieth part of what might be done in spreading the knowledge of the truth. Very much more can be accomplished by the living preacher with the circulation of papers and tracts, than by the preacher of the word alone without the publications. The press is a powerful instrumentality which God has ordained to be combined with the energies of the living preacher, to bring the truth before all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. Many minds can be reached in no other way. Here is true missionary work in which labor and means can be invested with the best results. There has been too great fear of running risks, and moving out by faith, and sowing beside all waters. Opportunities have been presented which have not been grasped and made the most of. There has been too great fear of venturing. True faith is not presumption, but it ventures much. WHEN Hugh Miller, the great geologist, was traveling in England, among the interesting people that he saw, was a boy of nine, who was fond of making temperance speeches, in his mother's coffee-house. On the evening when Hugh Miller heard him, he commenced by saying that he was a temperance man for about nine years. He told them he knew men who were ragged and hungry before they took the pledge, and who had to wear shoes without soles; but by taking the pledge they had come to be gentlemen. After the speech was over, as the customers for coffee or confectionery came and went, they stopped for a minute to talk with the boy, Samuel, about his temperance work. To some he was very polite; answered them respectfully; others, among them two well-dressed young ladies, he did not answer at all. "You were rude to them, my son," his mother said. "Why did you not answer their question?" "They drink," said Samuel. "Drink! The young ladies! What do you mean?" "Yes'm," said Samuel; "they won't sign my pledge." In Samuel's opinion, people who would not sign the total abstinence pledge were people who drink. "I suppose," he said to himself, "if they didn't ever intend to drink liquor, they would be perfectly willing to say so, and that is all the pledge asks them to do.—The Pansy. Railway Company Enforces Prohibition
PROHIBITION work is done by the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway Company, who stipulate in their deeds conveying village property along the line of the Northern Wisconsin road that "no strong, spirituous, malt, ardent or intoxicating liquors shall ever be sold, manufactured, trafficked, given away, or otherwise disposed of as a beverage," on pain of annulling the instrument, and reverting the property thus used, contrary to the terms of conveyance, to the original owners. STANLEY writes: "No drunkard can live in Africa. The very fever discovers his weak point, attacks and kills him. I knew nothing much of this terrible recurring malady previous to my African experiences, but I had good cause before I ended my mission to know that a drunkard is least able to withstand a tropical and malarious climate." The Moderate Drinker Supports Saloons
The poor drunkard does not chiefly support the saloons ; he is too poor. The total abstainer does not support them. The “moderate drinker” is the man that keeps them in prosperity. If it were not for the moderate drinker, the traffic would soon cease. The old drunkards would die, and it is only out of a moderate drinker that you can make a drunkard.—Mirror. Georgia’s Resources and Whisky
A GEORGIA editor says : “Gold in thirty-three counties in this State, copper in thirteen, iron in forty-three, diamonds in twenty-six, whisky in all of them, and the last gets away with all the rest.” “MISS PERKINS,” said her handmaiden, meeting her at the hall door, “how soon will you be ready to make your cake? and what things shall I get ready? Do you want pound for pound, or some other kind?” “Pound for pound, of course,” said Miss Perkins absently; she was renowned in the neighborhood for her elegant pound cake—and now that the girls and boys were to meet at her house to prepare for a coming entertainment, and she, in the goodness of her heart, had determined to keep them all to take tea, of course she must give them pound cake. “A pound of butter and a pound of sugar and a pound of flour,” counted Keziah, as she trotted away to make ready, and Miss Perkins, hearing her, had a sudden vision of Peter’s family “uncommon short that morning, and trusting that they would be all right if the oldest boy brought home a little meal.” Multiply him by a hundred, or let him stand for the poor families who were doubtless “short” that morning, and from that outlook was it probable that her pound of butter and sugar and flour, to say nothing of eggs, and time, and care, were to be bestowed to the glory of God? “And yet,” she said, “the girls and boys will enjoy it, and enjoyment is right and proper, and they are doing work for Christ, in their gathering to-day; but then after all, is pound cake necessary to their enjoyment? and if it is, ought it to be, and if it isn’t, what is, and where is the beginning or end of this muddle?” Trimly dressed, a little afterward, the mistress of the fair and prosperous home stepped into her comfortable carriage. She would go herself to market; she was particular as to the meats which graced her tea table; besides she had schemes. That carriage of hers—what reason was there that it should not be made to honor her Master? She did not yet see just how, but what if he should show her ways? At least, she would put herself in the way to be helped. Intent on this thought, directly her marketing was dispatched, she ordered the horses down one of the narrow, less frequented streets, looking to the right and left of her in search of ways. “Jet!” she said suddenly, leaning forward, to her sable driver, “stop at No. 61; there sits poor Miss Keller by the window, and I suppose she hasn’t stepped out into the fresh air for six months. More shame to me, and she a member of my own church, and I knowing she was sick all the time! Anybody would think I had forgotten how He was always looking out for the comfort of people.” Jet showed his rows of ivory over her remarks; none of which he understood, and obeyed orders. Down clambered Miss Perkins, click clack went the old-fashioned brass knocker, which still did duty on this little old-fashioned house, and in a few minutes more pale Mary Keller, weak from long sickness, flushed just now with surprise and pleasure, tottered weakly out and was settled among the pillows by a fond and grateful mother, and was soon out on Central avenue, taking in the life and energy of which she had sat and dreamed, wondering if she should ever get strength to see it again. “I have just longed to get out,” she confided to Miss Perkins’ sympathetic ear; “it seemed to me if I could only get away from that corner, and see people look strong and well again, and hurry about, it would kind of give me strength; but I didn’t see any way to do it. Doctors’ bills are so heavy, you know, and poor mother has got more than she can manage.” “Humph!” said Miss Perkins, “what a shame!” The ejaculation fitted in with her own thoughts. She was reviewing the number of times she had passed that corner, sitting luxuriously back in her carriage, and forgetting that there was a Mary Keller and an anxious mother in the world. How came she to think of it that morning? Hadn’t He given her the thought? I wish I could make you feel how reverently Miss Perkins used those pronouns; I think you know that she did not again forget poor Mary Keller; and that you realize that this was the dawning of a new era in her rides. She had promptly discovered one way in which her carriage and horses could contribute even to His glory, for He said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.” The rested and comforted invalid having been set down again at her little corner, Miss Perkins proceeded in haste to execute some errands pertaining to the afternoon tea. Her misfortune was to have to alight at one of the main street corners, where a knot of gentlemen were congregated, discussing the recent election, and spitting. What this last action had to do with mental effort I don’t pretend to explain, but at regular intervals the nauseous, tobacco-stained fluid was ejected, landing upon whatever portion of the walk happened to be most convenient to the spitters, without regard to any who might have to pass that way. “Fauh!” said Miss Perkins gathering her neat skirts about her, “it is a mercy that I don’t wear trains, though nothing but a bloomer costume could possibly escape all this filth. The idea that men must make such beasts of themselves! But that is a slander on beasts, isn’t it, Jet? Who ever saw a beast who would chew tobacco and spit the juice out for people to trail through?” With closely gathered drapery she picked her way through the crowd, paying little attention to the amused glances leveled at her, or to the suppressed laughter of some of the ruder ones, until her wrathful eye caught a glimpse of the central figure in the group of talkers—and for that matter, of spitters. Then the expression of her face changed to one of almost dismay. There he was! Deacon Wilson, a pillar in Miss Perkins’ church, a good man enough. His political views accorded with Miss Perkins’ precisely, and therefore in her opinion were of the honest and reliable kind. She believed in Deacon Wilson, but how, if he really guided his life by the narrow rule that had shone so plainly at her out of her little book that morning, did he reconcile it with turning whatever he did to God’s glory, to stand at that street corner, among that crowd of listeners and watchers, and not content with defiling his own body, which was the temple of the Holy Ghost, eject that defilement for the distress of others? “Upon my word!” said Miss Perkins as she landed safely at last on the doorsill of the grocery whither she was bound, springing over a small river of tobacco juice in her transit, “upon my word! I don’t know what Deacon Wilson is thinking about!” “Deacon Wilson!” said the grocer, coming forward to meet her, “he is thinking that the last news is bad, and that the tax on tobacco will be higher than ever, which will bring him in less profits than usual.” “Does he sell tobacco, too?” in a startled tone. “Sell tobacco! why of course he does; large profits are to be made on that article; trust Deacon Wilson to look out for the profits every time.” “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, chew tobacco and make money,” said Miss Perkins. “Suppose the verse actually read like that! I wonder if Deacon Wilson thinks it does.” But fortunately for Deacon Wilson, she made these remarks to herself, and did her errand and went her way, out through the cloud of smoke and the river of filth. Surely it was a strange world. Suppose that respectable people paid no more attention to the laws of the State, for instance, than they did to the laws of the King! “Drive down Pine Alley,” she said to Jet, as she settled back among her cushions. “Pine Alley!” repeated Jet in a startled tone, and he turned half way on his seat to give her the benefit of the startled roll of his eyes. “Whatever be mistis goin’ there fur?” “Mistis” didn’t know. The name at the corner, the sudden realization of the fact that human beings huddled together on Pine Alley, and that she knew nothing about them, and the—well, what shall I call it—drawing, leading, inspiration? What is the name for those intuitions which people sometimes have? We are afraid, in these days, to name them, lest people will think us too literal, or too superstitious, or too visionary, or too something, notwithstanding the fact that we havn’t yet parted faith with the old Book, which says, “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.” Who listens for the voice in these days of haste and tumult? Down Pine Alley went the sleek horses and the easy carriage, and children in the dirty streets stopped their play and looked after it, and hooted after it, some of them, and threw mud after it, one of them, and dirty faced women came to the windows and doors and stared after it. What was “mistis” doing in Pine Alley? She gave suddenly a startled, pitiful exclamation: “Jet, stop here—quick!” It was a smaller and somewhat neater house than the others. There had been an attempt at cleanliness, there were men and women standing about the door and on the shattered walk in front; there was a rough looking man coming out of the door, and the gazers were making way for him. Under his arm he carried a small, rude coffin, and following that coffin, as though it contained all of earth that there was left, tottered a haggard-faced, wan mother, whose eyes had wept until there were no tears left, only the settled look of despair which sometimes gathers on such faces. Two frightened children stole behind her, and this dreary group were evidently about to make their way to some spot where the coffined child could rest. It was doubtful if her young life had ever known rest. “Here!” said Miss Perkins, leaning forward hastily, “bring it here; set it on this seat,” and she tossed the cushions about, and made room for the small coffin. “Help the woman in, and the children,” was her next order, and the startled lookers on followed her bidding, the haggard mother regarding her with a half-questioning, half-dazed look, as one to whom it mattered little what came next. “Now, where is the minister?” said Miss Perkins, “there is room for him.” The bystanders stared—some of them laughed. “They ain’t got no minister,” ventured one. “Didn’t you have a funeral service?” said shocked Miss Perkins, and the haggard mother answered, “I don’t know no minister and no minister don’t know me, and there was nobody515 to send, or to come; I’m a stranger, and I don’t know nothing about people, and don’t care, now Molle is dead!” Could a burst of tears have compared with the desolation embodied in these words? “Oh dear!” said Miss Perkins, “and it is His earth and we are His children!” It was by no means a large town, though there was poverty enough to have fitted a metropolis, and Miss Perkins, to whom a funeral without a minister was a final and terrible drop of desolation, gave Jet prompt orders to drive at once to No. 36 Howard street. Such a little distance it was, too, from Pine Alley. “I’m going after my minister, to pray with us when we get to the place,” she explained to the haggard mother, dropping into the “we” as naturally as though she had been accustomed to recognizing the relationship of humanity. “He won’t come,” the mother said, the apathy of a soul that had given up, in voice and manner. How earnestly Miss Perkins hoped that Dr. Marston would be at home and able to answer her call. It was morning, and her pastor was a student, and his morning hours were precious, and Miss Perkins was one of the few who understood and appreciated this; she never remembered intruding upon them before. What if he should consider the intrusion unwarrantable? “He won’t come,” said the mother again, as the carriage stopped, “and it don’t matter—nothing matters.” How much it mattered then and there to let that soul get a glimpse of the spirit of Christ! “There ain’t no account to disturb Dr. Marston,” volunteered the man who had borne the coffin under his arm, “she allowed that there wa’n’t no one likely to come to her house, and she couldn’t pay no one anyhow, and so we didn’t ask no one—we just managed it.” “Pay!” said Miss Perkins, “Jet ring the bell.” A sharp ring penetrating to the doctor’s study, and although he was unusually busy that morning preparing a sermon on “The Forces of the Universe Proving the Divine Hand,” something impelled him to rise and walk to the window, saying as he went, “I hope that is no one to interrupt me, I can’t be interrupted this morning. Albert,” to the boy who was moving toward the door-bell, say that I am unusually busy this morning, and can not be seen.” Then he looked out. Miss Hannah Perkins’ carriage, in which he had often ridden, and on the front seat a little coffin! “Dr. Marston is unusually busy this morning,” began Albert, and Dr. Marston’s voice took it up, “What is it, Jet? Miss Perkins, what is the trouble?” And the busy minister went bareheaded to the carriage. A few rapidly spoken words of explanation, and strange though the situation was, Dr. Marston took it in. The “Forces of the Universe” no more surely proved the Divine Hand than the instant throb of Christian sympathy in the minister proved that the Divine Hand of Christ had touched his heart. “Certainly I will go. Albert, bring my coat and hat. They have had no funeral services, you say? That is very sad. I would have come in a moment, of course; so would any of the ministers. Alice,” to the soft-eyed woman who had come to the door to see Miss Perkins, and was stayed from approaching by the coffin and the strange, sad story, “I am called away in haste; a sad case—” “Yes I know,” interrupted his wife, “I heard—I am so sorry for that poor mother.” Then she advanced and laid upon the small coffin a cluster of snow-drops that she had broken from the cluster by the door. Then that mother cried. Charlie, the nephew, sauntering down Olin street, still with a cigar in his mouth, saw the family carriage slowly turn the corner, and waited with a quizzical air, curious to know whether Aunt Hannah had found anything that “fitted.” He saw a strange woman, with her face buried in her hands, and two frightened children beside her, and Dr. Marston on the front seat beside a tiny coffin, on which rested a spray of snow-drops. No room for quizzing there. If we'd thought, at our last meeting
With the friend we loved so dear,
By his grave we'd soon be standing,
Dropping down the silent tear,
Would that word we spoke so lightly,
Have been uttered by us then?
Would that in our silent sorrow
We could call it back again!
If we'd thought that soon a parting
Would us sever far and wide,
That some of the gladsome faces
Would be soon across the tide,
Would the hasty word and action,
Would the satire sharp and keen,
From our lips have ever fallen,
Or the action e'er been seen?
If we'd thought the friendly counsel
Was the last we e'er should hear,
Would we then have scoffed so lightly—
Let our heedlessness appear?
If we'd thought the kind inquiry
Soon would cease forevermore,
Would it then have been a trouble?
Would we then have wished it o'er?
If we'd thought that act of kindness
Was the last our friend should seek,
Would we have by cruel harshness
Brought the blushes to his cheek?
If we'd thought our heartless folly
Would have left so deep a sore,
Would we then have spoken rudely?
Would we not have hushed it o'er?
If we'd thought—alas! the sorrows
That the words awaken now;
If we'd thought, ah! then the wrinkles
Would be fewer on the brow,
'If we'd thought that death was coming,'
Will that be our latest cry?
God forbid! we know He's coming,
Let us think—He draweth nigh!
—London Christian. —There were 9,238 immigrants landed in New York last week. —The State of Nebraska has planted 53,000,000 forest trees. —The price of seats in the New York Cotton Exchange is $10,000 each. —The Massachusetts Paper Company at Springfield has failed; liabilities $300,000. —The Michigan coal company, at Jackson, Mich., are taking out 250 tons of coal a day. —By the burning of a tenement house in New York, Nov. 7, several of the inmates lost their lives. —By a rise in the Vermilion river at Streator, Ill., Nov. 11, a coal mine was flooded. Loss $100,000. —A society for the promotion of experimenting in the navigation of the air has been formed in Berlin. —A Methodist lay college has been opened at Boston, to suitably prepare young persons for religious work. —Charles Crocker has recently given $20,000, in Pacific Railroad bonds, to the California Academy of Sciences. —By the capsizing of a small ferry-boat on the Hudson, at Troy, on the night of Nov. 11, ten persons were drowned. —At Paw Paw, Mich., arsenic was mistaken for baking powder, whereby a man and two children were fatally poisoned. —The City Council of Oakland, recently passed an ordinance granting the right to light the streets with the electric light. —Two tenement houses in New York recently fell in, burying the occupants in the ruins. Ten dead bodies were found in the debris. —A statue of Lord Byron has recently been unveiled at Missolonghi, Greece, where he died. Great enthusiasm was manifested at the ceremony. —John Maguire, Mail Agent on the Central Pacific Railroad has been sentenced to two years' hard labor in the California State Prison, for opening letters. —A dispatch from Jackson, Miss., reports a cyclone which demolished all the buildings on a plantation near Madison Station, Nov. 11, severely injuring six persons. —Mint Director Burchard estimates the production of the precious metals in the United States, during the fiscal year, to have been $36,000,000 gold, and $39,200,000 silver. —A conductor on the Pennsylvania railroad says that there is a considerable falling off in travel on Fridays, which he refers to existing superstitions connected with that day. —Heavy snow-storms and high winds have prevailed in western Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Trains on the Santa Fé railroad were delayed thirty-six hours, up to Nov. 12. —The American Baptist Publication Society has appointed Dr. G. S. Abbott, the editor of the Herald of Truth, Superintendent of Sunday-school Missionary work in California. —The police of San Francisco made a raid on the gambling houses of that city, a short time ago, making numerous arrests, and the city treasury is better off by $4,000 in fines and forfeited bail. —A violent gale, the most severe ever experienced in southern California, burst upon the country surrounding Los Angeles, November 9, destroying houses, prostrating telegraph wires, and doing great injury to fruit trees. —General Sherman urges that the regular army be increased 20 per cent., believing that the additional expense will be less than that now incurred by transporting re-enforcements long distances whenever an outbreak occurs. —The first case under the Sunday law was tried at Greenville, Cal., November 10. The jury were unable to agree, and were discharged. Several other cases have been continued until December, to await the decision of other courts. —Albert Madden, a mail agent of the Keokuk and Des Moines branch of the Rock Island railroad, has been arrested for robbing the mail, a crime to which he plead guilty. It is said that some 800 missing letters have been traced to him. —The Christian Union says: "Over 300 girls have recently been removed from the public schools of Lewiston, Me., and placed in a Catholic parochial school, and their withdrawal will involve the closing of at least six of the public schools. —November 9, the State Capitol at Austin, Texas, was destroyed by fire. The archives of the Republic of Texas, battle flags, State library, and revised Statutes were destroyed. Incendiarism is supposed to be the cause of the fire. Loss about $300,000. The Sonora and Milton stage was stopped by four masked highwaymen, near Sonora, Tuolumne county, Cal., Nov. 7. The express box, which contained considerable money, was robbed of its contents, and $500 in gold-dust was taken from a passenger. —The New York Board of Emigration has authorized the prosecution of D. J. Tyson, Coroner of Tompkinsville, Staten Island, who is accused of causing the serious sickness of forty recently arrived Germans, by improper treatment and lack of nourishing food. —Dr. John M. Leonard, a practicing physician of Burlington, Calhoun Co., Mich., aged 74 years, has plead guilty to having made and circulated bogus silver coins, and has been committed to jail to await trial. A trunk full of dies and counterfeiting apparatus was found in his possession. —The schooner Carlingford, loaded with wheat, from Duluth, and bound for Buffalo, and the steam barge Brunswick, bound up the lakes with 16,000 bushels of coal from Buffalo, came into collision when off Port Colborne, November 12, and both vessels sank. Four men were drowned. —A report comes from Cape Coast, Africa, that the King of Ashantee has killed 200 young girls for the purpose of using their blood for mixing mortar for the repair of one of his State buildings. It will certainly be a costly palace; but such proceedings are in keeping with the character of the king. —Proceedings in the Star-route cases have been quashed through a technicality. Information had been filed against the accused, and the Judge decided that they should have been proceeded against by indictment. This will probably be done, although no very great interest seems to be taken in the prosecution. —The brewers' and grocers' protective unions, the retail and wholesale liquor dealers, the wine growers, and the wholesale cigar manufacturers, have joined the "League of Freedom," whose object is to "fight the Sunday law to the bitter end." A member said: "The League is supposed to do for its members just what the Good Templars are doing for their side of the question." The League will defray the legal expenses and pay the fine, if a conviction be obtained. At the next State election they will not support any candidate who will not pledge himself to vote for a repeal of the Sunday law. HOPE.—Died in Reno, Nevada, November 6, 1881, of paralysis of long standing, Bro. James H. Hope, aged 63 years, 3 months, and 2 days. Deceased embraced the views of S. D. Adventists under the preaching of Eld. Loughborough at this place about three years ago. He had made no profession of religion previous to that time. We trust he sleeps in Jesus, and will have part in the first resurrection. W. E. FRICKE. THE HOME HAND-BOOK.
By Editor
WE ARE ANXIOUS TO SECURE GOOD MEN, WHO either are, or are likely to become, competent Agents. To such we can yet offer Some Very Important Counties on the Coast.
The work being simple and practical in its directions, and an obvious necessity in every country household, it is an easy work for an Agent to handle. We have just shipped ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY COPIES to one Agent in a thinly populated southern county, the orders for which were taken in A LITTLE OVER TWO MONTHS.
The same Agent has taken ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY subscriptions for "GOOD HEALTH." Correspondence Invited—Write for Circular. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. "It is a wonderful book."-JOHN B. GOUGH. "In constant service since it came."-PROF. T. C. ABBOTT, A. M., D. D., President of the Michigan State Agricultural Society. "Of far more value in the home than any luxury in food or furniture."-F. F. JEWELL, D. D., San Jose. "I have no hesitancy in saying this work is worth its weight in coin to any one who will study its teachings and practice its precepts."-B. COGSHALL, M. D., President Flint Academy of Medicine, Mich. REVISED EDITION—JUST ISSUED
By Joseph Harvey Waggoner
Thoughts on Christian Baptism.
Being an examination of its
ACTIONS, SUBJECTS AND RELATIONS. Also, a brief consideration of the
Historical Evidences of Trine Immersion. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Price, postpaid, Paper Covers, 25c.; Flexible Cloth, 35c.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. The Sunshine Series. Stories for little ones, in ten small books, adapted to children from the ages of four to ten years. In glazed paper covers, 320 pp. 50 cts. Golden Grain Series. A choice collection of instructive stories suited to the wants of children from eight to sixteen years and older, illustrated and beautifully bound in three volumes. THE HARD WAY, 160 pp. 40 cts. THE SCHOOL-BOY'S DINNER, 160 pp. 40 cts. GRUMBLING TOMMY, 160 pp. 40 cts. Golden Grains in Ten Pamphlets. The same reading as in the first two volumes, without pictures, in ten pamphlets of 32 pages each, 320 pp. 50 cts. Sabbath Readings for the Home Circle. In four volumes, containing moral and religious reading for the household; carefully selected, and compiled for the use of Sabbath school and family libraries. Each, 75 cts. The Child's Poems. Containing Little Will and other stories, teaching beautiful lessons of temperance and virtue. Bound in cloth and richly embossed in gold and black. 128 pp. 30 cts. Address, Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal. TRACTS.—4 cents each. Redemption—The Second Advent—The Sufferings of Christ—The Present Truth—Origin and Progress of S. D. Adventists—Ten Commandments not Abolished—The Two Covenants—Address to the Baptists—The Two Thrones—Spiritualism a Satanic Delusion—Samuel and the Witch of Endor—The Third Message of Rev. 14—Who Changed the Sabbath?—The Spirit of Prophecy—The Millennium—Signs of the Times—Scripture References—Constitution of the T. and M. Society—Tithes and Offerings—Sabbaton. FACTS CONCERNING YOUNG'S ANALYTICAL CONCORDANCE.
By S. N. Haskell
1. It contains 118,000 more words than Cruden's Unabridged Concordance. 2. It gives with each English word the Hebrew and Greek original word from which it is translated, with its literal meaning, in a manner which makes it intelligible to any English reader. 3. It is well known that the same English word is frequently translated from different original words which either have different shades of meaning or even totally different meanings; the references are grouped under the different original words. 4. The original words are given in their Hebrew or Greek characters, then the pronunciation of them in English with their various meanings. 5. All the proper names of persons and places are inserted with their proper pronunciation and the literal meaning of each as far as at present can be ascertained. 6. The geographical, historical, and biographical remarks are generally limited to Biblical details, and the modern names of ascertained Bible sites have been given in accordance with the researches of the most reliable authors. The veracity of the Scriptures is thus incidentally confirmed by existing facts that cannot be denied or ignored, and are of priceless value. 7. In the edition we offer as a premium, there has been added a complete index to the Hebrew and Greek words found in Dr. Young's Concordance, referring them to the English words under which they are found. This index places within the reach of any English scholar what has heretofore been accessible only to those learned in the Hebrew and Greek languages, or by the aid of such expensive and often inaccessible reference works as Greek and Latin Lexicons, and the Englishman's Hebrew and Englishman's Greek Concordances. We quote two paragraphs entire from the "Prefatory Note" on the object and plan:— "Its great object, as Tyndale says of his New Testament, is to enable every 'PLOUGH-BOY' to know more of the Scripture than the 'ancients,' by enabling him at a glance to find out THREE DISTINCT POINTS—First, What is the original Hebrew or Greek of any ordinary word in his English Bible; Second, What is the literal and primitive meaning of every such original word: and Third, What are thoroughly true and reliable parallel passages. "In carrying out these three important points, the following plan has been adopted: First, One hundred and eighteen thousand references have been given, which are not found in Cruden. Second, Every passage in the New Testament which critical investigators, like Griesbach and Tischendorf, have noted as doubtful, or as having a various reading, has been marked by brackets. Third the proper name of every person and place has been given, with the literal meaning. Fourth, The date or era of every person, so as to distinguish him from every other of the same name. Fifth, The location of every place in its tribe, with the modern name (if identified), so as to form a complete Scripture Geography and Gazetteer." It also contains under "Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation," seventy-one different headings of "Illustrations of Bible Idioms," comprising more than 1,400 references to texts of Scripture. This is very valuable to Bible students, especially to preachers. The Concordance contains 1,136 pages with three columns on a page. Probably there is no theological work extant in which some denominational errors may not be thought to exist, and even in this there may be some definitions of words which cater to present usages or customs, but to any wishing a Concordance we recommend this, taking it as a whole, as being the best we have ever seen. IN the Examiner and Chronicle is found a report of a meeting of the Baptist Ministerial Union, from which is taken the following extract. It is well worth the consideration of all Christians, for its valuable suggestions:— “Brother Halteman read a paper on the ‘Qualification necessary in a candidate for an ordination.’ The paper discussed the subject lucidly and logically. It was such a production as should be placed before the denomination. The qualifications submitted were: 1. Personal piety. 2. He is to be moved into the ministry by God himself—i. e., that the Holy Spirit so sets before a man his duty to preach, that he could not conscientiously do otherwise. 3. That his brethren in the church are also convinced of his duty and adaptation to the ministry. 4. The approval of God as manifested in his ministry, by its power and success in religious labors previous to his ordination. There are natural endowments the reader declared to be necessary to the candidate for ordination. These were: 1. A mind capable of improvement and development. 2, The power and gift of a forceful utterance. 3. Common sense. 4. Prudence, in the sense of foresight in management. 5. He must be sound in the faith or in doctrines. 6. He should be educated for his work. A spirited discussion followed the essay, and the brethren seemed to agree that the qualifications mentioned were worthy to be emphasized in our State.” Meeting at Los Angeles
By Stephen Nelson Haskell
If nothing in the providence of God prevents, I will meet with the friends at Los Angeles, Sabbath and first-day, Nov. 19, 20. Hope to see the friends from all that section of the country. S. N. HASKELL. THIS important work is successfully and profitably done in San Francisco harbor, only there is more to do than one man can possibly attend to. Business is very lively on the waters. We see by the shipping news that as many as nineteen "deep-water vessels" have arrived in a single day in San Francisco, beside smaller coasting craft. The half of these could not be visited by any missionary who did his work well and faithfully. Brethren, pray for the missionary workers, and pray to the Lord of the harvest for an increase of laborers. COMES to hand minus an editor. Until one is secured, the columns will be filled by alternates. Dr. D. E. Maxson leads in the number of Nov. 3, with a thoughtful article in which occurs the following language:— "Denominationalism is at present a necessity of the religious world. Our denomination of Seventh-day Baptists is a necessity. We did not create the necessity; we have accepted it, and however much we may regret the necessity, we must not regret nor retract the acceptance. What then? Study well the particular doctrine, the distinctive truth which has demanded our separate organic structure, and apply carefully the laws of unity and proportion by which we can give greatest strength and permanency to it." THE Christian at Work has the following good item:—
“A religious contemporary, evangelicalism supposed to be unquestioned, says: ‘The character of Jesus, not his doctrine, was the corner-stone of his kingdom.’ What stuff this is to be sure—as if the character and doctrine of Jesus could be separated! Pit Christ’s character against the fifth chapter of Matthew!—you might as well array the Father against the Son, and the Son against the Holy Spirit. ‘The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.’ Is it any wonder that loose thinking on religious subjects abounds, when we meet with so much of it in even the religious press?”