EVER since Moody and Sankey first commenced revival services in San Francisco about the middle of November, they have continued to draw the crowd. The exercises are ever varied, and the subjects handled in a thoroughly practical manner, so that one never loses his interest to attend. Occasionally, an entire meeting is devoted to answering questions, previously written and sent in. The following, taken from a report of such a meeting in a city paper, contains many sound practical hints, to which all would do well to give attention:—7
Q. How shall we keep our children from desecrating the Sabbath?
A. First keep it holy ourselves, and then make it interesting to them. We have at our house what we call a Sunday scrap-book. We put all the pictures in it that we can get, and then set the children to finding texts to suit the pictures. Don't go out riding Sundays, and expect your children to stay at home or to go to Sunday-school. Spend the day with your children, and try to interest them in Bible stories and in good books.
Q. How shall a minister get his church to work?
A. Go to work himself, and then set one member to work with another. In this way both of them will be helped. Find out what every one can do best, and set him to doing it. In the parable Christ said, "To every man his work." We all have something to do for God—some special service. We are none of us converted to sleep, but all of us to work. The church is not a hospital. Some people complain that no one comes to see them. No one nurses and coddles them. Let such people go to see somebody else. Let them learn the luxury of working for the Lord, and they will stop thinking of themselves and complaining of others.
Q. Do you write your sermons?
A. If I did, I couldn't read them.
Q. How can I get my people to sing?
A. Sing yourself. I sing the best I can, though Sankey don't like my singing. If all will do that the church will be waked up. Methodism used Charles Wesley's hymns and sang its way half round the world. A cold church don't want to sing. It prefers to have a choir to sing for it. But the first impulse of a young convert is to sing. There can't be a revival in a church that don't sing. No one can praise God for me. I can't do it by proxy. At least half of the hymns at each service should be sung by the whole congregation. As a compromise, let the choir sing one or two hymns artistically. In Brooklyn a man testified last week that he was brought to the Saviour by the heart-felt singing of a lady who happened to sit near him.
Q. How shall we get people to the house of God?
A. Visit them, invite them, and then go yourself and bring them. Keep doing this, and they will come to get rid of you. Then, when they come, make it pleasant for them. Have pews for strangers, and let them be the best pews in the church. That is the way they do in Spurgeon's great church in London. Strangers there are made to feel that they are welcome. So it should be in all our churches.
Q. Should unbelievers lead in the praise of God?
A. No! how can they?
Q. What do you think of church fairs and suppers?
A. In the long run they injure the church. They grieve the spiritual portion of it. They lead to jealousies and heart-burnings. They bring in a worldly element. Ungodly men give fifty cents for a dinner that has cost forty cents, and then boast of their liberality to the church. We should set our faces against this whole business. Better trust in the Lord to provide for carrying on his work than to resort to such expedients.
Q. Should a minister attend funerals on the Sabbath?
A. Certainly; and preach the gospel as plainly as he knows how. He will reach people at funerals that never come to church, and so he has a grand opportunity. But don't pronounce eulogies at funerals. Preach the gospel.
Q. Is it right for a Christian to go to the theater?
A. A lady asked me this question once, and I told her that if she became a true Christian she could go to the theater whenever she wanted to. But when she was converted, she did not want to go. She had something better. If a man or woman is consecrated to God, there will be work for God all the while, and no time for going to the theater. I do not go because I have no desire to go, and no time to go. Let us give our hearts wholly to Christ, and this matter of amusements will regulate itself.
A question in regard to dancing was answered in the same way. A man in Scotland, who was a distiller, asked me to prove from the Bible that his business was wrong. I quoted to him the requirement to do all to the glory of God. I told him that if he could kneel down by each barrel of whisky, and ask God to make it a blessing to the world, then his business was right; but if he couldn't do that, then his business was wrong.
Q. How would you treat backsliders?
A. As the Master did. He looked on Peter. Don't go about reporting bad conduct, but go to the individual in a right spirit of love.
Q. Had children best go to church or Sabbath-school?
A. Go to both. I used to think it hard work; didn't understand the sermon, and hard seats in the gallery. My mother was poor; thought when I got away from home I wouldn't go; but I had the habit, and there was the drawing that way.
Q. Should we scold people for not coming to church and prayer-meetings?
A. Never make anything by scolding, and then the people that we think to scold are not there.
Q. Would you allow unconverted persons to teach in the Sabbath-school?
A. They wouldn't want to where I was. Blind can't lead the blind. If few teachers, double up the classes. God works through sanctified persons. But people may be seeking light who come to teach.
Q. Do collections prevent people from coming to church?
A. I don't think so. Let every one give as the Lord prospers him. Hundreds spend more for tobacco than they do for the church, also for whisky, and billiards, etc.
Q. Is it the duty of church members to attend the prayer-meeting?
A. Not the duty; don't like that word, but privilege, and should be the desire and joy.
Q. How would you get all to take part in the prayer-meeting?
A. I like an open meeting. Some, by taking part will kill the meeting; go to such privately, and get them to clear up their record. Some will talk and talk stale matter, old experience. I like to give out the subject in advance.
Q. Should the pastor always lead the prayer-meeting?
A. That depends upon how he leads it.
Q. Are teachers' meetings practicable in small towns?
A. Yes.
Q. How shall we get the Sunday-school children to study the lesson?
A. Study it yourself.
Q. How shall we get the children to attend regularly the Sunday-school?
A. Be regular yourself. Also, go and visit them often.
A GOOD SUGGESTION.
By James White
UNDER this head the Christian Union publishes the following letter and note on a very important subject. We have many times wondered that ministers care so little for their influence, and have so little regard for the power of their example as to smoke in the sight of their people, and especially before the children of their congregations. We commend the following to the candid consideration of all smoking ministers:—
"Editor of the Christian Union:
"DEAR SIR: I superintend a Sunday-school. Many of the young men who attend come down to the school with cigars in their mouths. Some of the good ladies in the church have requested me to forbid this conduct on the part of our scholars. I desire to respect their wishes, but am not sure that the young men are doing anything out of the way. I do not smoke myself, but many better men do, and seem to think it a good thing. Last year I went on an excursion with a ministerial party. They were representative men in their various denominations, and it is within the truth to say that one-half of them smoked. They did this openly, and in sight of all the men and boys who congregated to see them pass. This occurrence led me to reconsider my former opinions, and to question, after all, which are right, the good women of the church or the smoking boys of the Sunday-school. Now, this question ought to be settled one way or the other by our moral teachers. If smoking is a good thing, they ought, by word as well as example, to encourage the boys in their congregation to learn the habit. If it is a bad thing, and the Christian reformers of our time are right in trying to dissuade men from the habit, then, I say, it is a burning shame that they have not only the evil itself to contend with, but the example of so many of our leading clergymen working continually against them."
"This is a good suggestion. The Christian Union advises all smoking clergymen to prepare a sermon on the beauty and wisdom of the cigar or pipe, and preach it to their congregations; and until this sermon is prepared and preached to stop smoking themselves."
WHY KEEP THE SABBATH?
By Dudley Marvin Canright
BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.
WHAT is the object of the Sabbath? Who made it? When was it made, and for whom? Which day is the true Sabbath? Many keep the first day of the week, or Sunday. What Bible authority have they for this? Some keep the seventh day, or Saturday. What Scripture have they for that? Here are the facts about both days, as plainly stated in the word of God:—
1. After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great God rested on the seventh day. Gen. 2:1-3.
2. This stamped that day as God's rest-day, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest-day. To illustrate: When a person is born on a certain day, that day thus becomes his birthday. So when God rested upon the seventh day that day became his rest, or Sabbath, day.
3. Therefore the seventh day must always be God's Sabbath day. Can you change your birthday from the day on which you were born, to one on which you were not born? No. Neither can you change God's rest-day to a day on which he did not rest. Hence the seventh day is still God's Sabbath day.
6. He made it the Sabbath day in the garden of Eden. Gen. 2:1-3.
7. It was made before the fall; hence it is not a type; for types were not introduced till after the fall.
8. Jesus says it was made for man (Mark 2:27); that is, for the race, as the word man is here unlimited; hence, for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews.
9. It is a memorial of creation. Ex. 20:11; 31:17. Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate that grand event.
10. It was given to Adam, the head of the human race. Mark 2:27; Gen. 2:1-3.
11. Hence through him, as our representative, to all nations. Acts 17:26.
12. It is not a Jewish institution; for it was made 2300 years before ever there was a Jew.
13. The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath; but always, "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Men should be cautious how they stigmatize God's holy rest-day.
15. It was a part of God's law before Sinai. Ex. 16:4, 27-29.
16. Then God placed it in the heart of his moral law. Ex. 20:1-17. Why did he place it there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all admit to be immutable?
17. The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God speaking from Heaven. Deut. 4:12, 13.
18. Then he wrote the commandment with his own finger. Ex. 31:18.
19. He engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature. Deut. 5:22.
20. It was sacredly preserved in the ark in the holy of holies. Deut. 10:1-5.
21. God forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times. Ex. 34:21.
22. God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness, because they profaned the Sabbath. Eze. 20:12, 13.
23. It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know him from false gods. Eze. 20:20.
24. God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath. Jer. 17:24, 25.
25. He sent them into the Babylonish captivity for breaking it. Neh. 13:18.
26. He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation. Jer. 17:27.
27. God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it. Isa. 56:6, 7.
28. This is in that prophecy which refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. See Isa. 56.
29. God has promised to bless any man who will keep the Sabbath. Isa. 56:2.
30. The Lord requires us to call it "honorable." Isa. 58:13. Beware, ye who take delight in calling it the "old Jewish Sabbath," "a yoke of bondage," etc.
31. After the holy Sabbath has been trodden down "many generations," it is to be restored in the last days. Isa. 58:12, 13.
32. All the holy prophets kept the seventh day.
33. When the Son of God came, he kept the seventh day all his life. Luke 4:16; John 15:10. Thus he followed his Father's example at creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son?
35. Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28); that is, to love and protect it, as the husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her. 1 Pet. 3:6.
36. He vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good. Mark 2:23-28.
37. Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, he carefully taught how it should be observed. Matt. 12:1-13.
38. He taught his disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was "lawful." Matt. 12:12.
39. He instructed his apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded forty years after his resurrection. Matt. 24:20.
40. The holy women who had been with Jesus all his life carefully kept the seventh day after his death. Luke 23:56.
41. Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly calls it "the Sabbath day." Acts 13:14.
42. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it "the Sabbath day" in A. D. 45. Acts 13:27. Did not Paul know? or shall we believe modern teachers, who affirm that it ceased to be the Sabbath at the resurrection of Christ?
43. Luke, the inspired Christian historian, writing as late as A. D. 62, calls it "the Sabbath day." Acts 13:44.
44. The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath. Acts 13:42.
45. In the great Christian council, A. D. 52, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the "Sabbath day." Acts 15:21.
46. Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on that day. Acts 17:2, 3.
48. But Paul himself expressly declared that he had kept the law. "Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Cæsar, have I offended anything at all." Acts 25:8. How could this be true if he had not kept the Sabbath?
49. The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, "the Sabbath day."
50. Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind.
51. God has never given permission to any man to work upon it. Reader, by what authority do you use the seventh day for common labor?
52. As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in the new earth after the restitution. Isa. 66:22, 23.
53. The seventh-day Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from his own mouth, and was written by his own finger upon stone at Sinai. See Ex. 20. When Jesus began his work, he expressly declared that he had not come to destroy the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." Matt. 5:17.
We have now presented fifty-three plain Bible facts concerning the seventh day. What will you do with them? Next week we will present the Bible facts concerning the first day of the week.
TWO FRUITFUL TREES.
For about two years it has been the custom of the Oakland Sabbath-school to hold quarterly reunions, at which time the officers are elected, the class contribution boxes opened, and any other business transacted. This quarter it was thought best to hold the reunion on the Sunday evening following Christmas, uniting with it exercises appropriate to that occasion.
Preparations were accordingly made, and on Sunday evening the church was crowded. The house was beautifully decorated, and two trees laden with presents adorned the platform. Between the trees an arched motto, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," at once told the object of the gathering. The offerings upon the trees were not for the individuals present, but, like the gifts of the wise men of old, were for the Lord, and consisted of sums of money from five cents to five dollars, neatly arranged in ornamental receptacles. Over one tree was the motto, "Feed my Sheep." The contributions of this tree were to be appropriated to the church—to the work of painting and repairing the building. Over the other tree were the words, "Feed my Lambs." The proceeds of this were to go toward fitting up the lower room with proper furniture for the primary department of the Sabbath-school, which is rapidly increasing in numbers.
The exercises of the evening were opened by singing, and the reading of the second chapter of Matthew. Then followed the Secretary's report for the year and quarter just closed, after which the Superintendent gave a brief history of the school. After noticing the progress of the work in this city from the time a few first commenced to keep the seventh-day Sabbath about eight years ago, he stated that the first Sabbath-school was organized in July, 1874, with about fifty scholars.
At the beginning of 1879 there were one hundred members, and during the last six months, the records show a steady increase from 123 to 170. This increase may be attributable to either or all of three things: The addition of members to the church, the active labors of a few in distributing the Instructor, or to the teachers' meetings which have been held weekly during most of the time, for consultation and prayer.
At the commencement of the year there were, in what is now known as the primary and children's divisions, only 49 members and 7 classes. Now this division shows a membership of 85 with 12 classes, having nearly doubled during the time.
The school at the present time is divided into three divisions, studying three series of lessons. These meet together for the opening and closing exercises, but separate during the class and general recitations,—the first and second divisions going to the lower room. This enables all three of the divisions to engage in a general review of the lesson at the same time without confusion.
Following the remarks of the Superintendent, a roll of honor was read, on which were placed the names of fifty scholars who had attended school during the entire quarter without missing a Sabbath. A careful examination of the records also showed that there were five who had not been absent during the year. Unexpectedly to all, the Superintendent then presented each of these with a Bible "as a richly merited prize for attendance at Sabbath-school without a single absence during the year 1880."
Then followed a song by the children, "No Friend like Jesus," and an address by Prof. Aldrich. He spoke particularly to the children, referring to the fabulous tales of Santa Claus, and the desire that children often have to see this strange personage, and travel with him from place to place with presents for other children. He then congratulated them upon having turned into Santa Claus themselves, and hoped they would all realize the truth of the motto before them, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
The gathering of the fruit was one of the most interesting parts of the exercises, and considering that quite a sum had just been raised by subscription for church repairs, the yield of $182 was unexpectedly good.
All present seemed to enjoy the occasion, and it is to be hoped that the result will be seen in an increase in numbers and in regularity of attendance at the school during 1881.
THE MINISTER AND THE SCHOOL.
There is truth, if not the whole truth, in Dr. Tyng's position on this subject. The pastor of a church is the natural, perpetual, ex-officio superintendent of its Sabbath-school. Few pastors, indeed have the physical strength, even where they have every other qualification, to go through the details of actual supervision, as Dr. Tyng does. Yet every pastor, who is wise, will keep himself in constant, living contact with his school. He should be in it some portion of the time every Sabbath. He need not burden himself with the care of minute supervision. But he should know every teacher, and if possible, every scholar. He should know what is going on in the school, what they are studying, what hymns they sing, what they are doing in the way of benevolence. He should every Sabbath catch fire from the warm, young hearts there assembled, and let his own heart give back an answering glow. He should move in and out among the classes in kindly and genial sympathy, giving and catching sunshine by his presence. A half hour so spent by the pastor is better preparation for the pulpit than studying points of elocution in his chamber, or practising posture and gesticulation before his mirror.
That in which preaching usually is most deficient, is want of sympathy between the speaker and his hearers. There is often an awful, impassable gulf between the pulpit and the pew. The familiar intercourse of the school-room helps to bridge over this gulf. The teachers and the children, who form no inconsiderable part of the congregation, feel that the speaker in that distant pulpit is not so far off, after all. He is the same kind friend who has just given them a cordial greeting, a pleasant smile, a warm pressure of the hand. His words come to them as a fresh coinage from the heart.
This is not all. The effect is still more marked upon the speaker. The preacher cannot help being warmed up with his solemn message, when delivering it to those among whom he has just been mingling in loving and familiar intercourse. It is only by this constant intercourse with his school, is the minister's heart warmed and set aglow for the actual delivery of his sermon, but the school furnishes him with a perennial source of subjects for discourse. There are two volumes in which the minister finds his text. One is in the leaves of his Bible, the other is in the hearts of his people. No portion of his people open their hearts with so warm and ready a sympathy as those in the Sabbath-school. There the practiced eye of the wise and thoughtful pastor sees what truths most need present illustration and support, what errors need to be refuted, what influences are to be resisted, what mining is to be countermined, when the promises, when the warnings of the gospel are to be pressed. The school is to him the unerring pulse by which the life of the great congregation may be read, and its spiritual wants predicated.
I have never known a Sabbath-school, in which the pastor thus regularly identified himself with its general life and movement, which did not yield abundant fruits in the way of conversions and additions to the church. It is hardly possible, in the nature of things, that preaching under such circumstances can be without fruit. The school furnishes the sunshine and the rain, under whose genial influences the soil is best prepared and the seed must surely germinates.
In every community, there are families, worldly people, who are not connected with any church, who attend statedly no place of worship. The pastor finds in his Sabbath-school just the agency for bringing such families within the pale of gospel influences, and finally within the church. Children are naturally social and gregarious. The children of worldly parents are easily drawn into the school. If the pastor is there to meet the children and to win their love, the way is not far to the hearts of the parents. I believe the records of every growing church will show that more families from the world are brought into the church by the agency of the Sabbath-school, than by all other causes. But in order to the school producing such results, it must enjoy the continual presence and the active co-operation of the pastor.
THE YOUTHFUL DAYS OF JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY.
By Stephen N. Haskell
BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.
SAMUEL WESLEY'S home, the Epworth rectory, was twice fired at night by the rabble. The second time it was entirely consumed, together with its furniture, and the books and manuscripts of the rector, the family barely escaping. Mrs. Wesley was in feeble health, and, unable to climb with the rest through the windows, she was thrice beaten back from the door by the flames. Committing herself to God, she at last waded through the fire to the street. It was found that one child was missing. The father attempted several times to pass up the stairs to rescue him, but the consuming steps would not bear his weight. He returned in despair, and kneeling down upon the earth, resigned to God the soul of the child. Meanwhile, the latter waking from his sleep, and finding his chamber and bed on fire, flew to the window, beneath which two peasants placed themselves, one on the shoulders of the other, and saved him at the moment the roof fell in and crushed the chamber to the ground.9
"Come, neighbors," exclaimed the father as he received his son, "let us kneel down and give thanks unto God; he has given me all of my eight children; let the house go, I am rich enough." This child was John Wesley. In after life, he had the emblem of a house in flames engraved on one of his portraits, with this motto, "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" This providential escape, in his sixth year, gave him an early impression that God had a special work for him to perform. His mother, partaking of the same, felt herself called upon to specially consecrate him to God.
In the early life of Charles Wesley, he was also, at one time, apparently lost to the cause which he afterward espoused. While in school, Garret Wesley, of Ireland, proposed to adopt him, and settle upon him his rich estate. This proposition seems to have received the approval of Charles Wesley's father, but it was finally declined by Charles himself, who, as his brother John remarked, thus made a fair escape from fortune. The refusal of such an offer as this, by a young man who had all his days suffered the inconveniences of poverty, cannot be explained from a worldly stand-point. His subsequent history, however, throws light upon the motives which actuated him, and reveals the fact that a useful life in the cause of God was considered more desirable by him than wealth and earthly greatness. By the time the Wesley's were abroad founding Methodism, the young man who was adopted by Garret Wesley, in Charles Wesley's stead, had entered Parliament. Under George II., he became Lord Mornington, and was the grandfather of the Marquis of Wellesley, the governor-general of India, and of the Duke of Wellington, the conqueror of Napoleon. Had Garret Wesley's wish been accomplished, the hymns of Charles Wesley, as well as the name of the Duke of Wellington, might never have been known to the world. From the stand-point from which people viewed matters in those days, it would seem that of the two persons, Charles Wesley and the adopted son of Garret Wesley, the latter became the most distinguished and honored, but to us it seems otherwise. The name of Wesley is now recognized and honored in every Christian community, while that of the former is almost unknown.
God preserves the reputation of those, who, seeking to do his will and to honor him, relinquish all claims to worldly distinction and fame, even though their names may be for a time covered with reproach for Christ's sake. Those whom God has called to lead out in great reforms, have never been appreciated at the time in which they lived, but afterward generations rise up and call them blessed. In the life to come, also, they will shine with the brightness of the firmament forever and ever, while the favored ones of earth who have sought only worldly honor and distinction, will be lost in darkness and death, and their names forgotten.
"For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not; yea, I sought him but he could not be found."
Prayer
PRAYER.—"Where do you find a place to pray in?" was asked of a pious sailor on board a whaling ship. "Oh," he said, "I can always find a quiet spot at the mast-head."
LOCAL OPTION AT DINNER.
Among the customary arrangements for the annual meetings of the British Medical Association, a very large and influential body of physicians, a dinner fills an important place in the program. To many of these doctors a dinner without wine would be like the omission of Hamlet from the play; others are disposed to consume a smaller quantity of wine than formerly, and some have become total abstainers.
Hitherto the price of the dinner ticket has included the wine and liquor bills. This year it was proposed that hereafter the price of the annual dinner ticket should not include the wine charges. After a prolonged discussion, it was resolved, on motion of Dr. Norman Kerr, “that, in the opinion of this meeting, the price of the dinner ticket should not include a charge for wine, and the committee and council are requested to arrange for this in the future.”
Those who choose to take wine hereafter will do it on their own responsibility and at their own cost. This is another gratifying sign of progress in the sphere of medical temperance opinion in Great Britain of which American physicians would do well to take note.
OUR V. M. SOCIETIES.
By Barbara C. Stickney
THE members of our V. M. societies are expected to be vigilant in their efforts to advance the cause of present truth, and surely much has been accomplished by them in the past. These societies occupy a very important position in the work; not only in bringing people into the truth, but in preparing the way for our ministers, by entering fields as yet inaccessible to them. The leaves containing precious truths are being scattered over the whole civilized world. In this way these societies are doing the pioneer work in the cause.
Those who first entered upon this work, little realized the importance to which it would eventually attain; but through the manifest providence of God it has become a mighty lever in extending our views. Many become interested and embrace the truth before ever having seen one of our people. These cases are by no means rare, as any of our general meetings will testify. When we see evidences like these of the efficiency of this branch of the work, our heart rejoices, and we feel like urging all to bear a part in the work, that they may share in the blessing. Correspondence, in connection with the use of the SIGNS and tracts, has been the means of enlightening many; and as these usually make good workers themselves, the extent of the influence we have made is constantly increasing.
Much home missionary work may be done, and good accomplished, if we are but watchful of our opportunities. Those among us who are falling behind, should be assisted by every means in our power. If our conduct toward them is guided by true brotherly love, and we partake of the spirit of Christ, we cannot fail of being a benefit to them. If they are not taking our periodicals, they should be urged to do so, and if unable to pay for them, our brethren should see that they are supplied. They should have the Review especially, as this is essentially our church paper, and contains just what is needed to enable them to realize the importance of the work, and to keep them awake to the advancement of the third angel's message. This work lies at our door, and we shall be held accountable for our influence in these things. "Am I my brother's keeper?" was offered as an excuse long ago, and perhaps has eased the conscience of many since that time who have shirked responsibility; but it will not pay to make it now any better than when it was first uttered.
There is another feature which comes within the province of our V. M. workers, and that is to interest themselves in those isolated brethren who are deprived of the society of those of like faith, and from all church privileges and advantages. Your letters and evident interest in their welfare may be a source of great encouragement to them. It is very important that these also have our periodicals and standard works, that they may understand how the work is going and keep in harmony with our people. These through your influence may be brought to see the importance of the missionary work, and help in extending the light to others. The present is a good time in which to consider these things.
Our missionary efforts seem to have centered in these societies, and through them we look for much of the prosperity of the cause. A new year has been ushered in, and shall we not engage more earnestly in this work? Let us seek the blessing of God and strive to have this year show that we have made some advancement, for this is indeed a work of progression. When we consider the extensive field that is before us and the great harvest that is so nearly ripe, we can but thank God for every means that will avail in gathering sheaves into the heavenly garner. Let all the officers and members of these societies arouse and an extensive work will soon be wrought. Shall we do it?
BARBARA C. STICKNEY.
Dr. Morrison’s Epitaph
On the tombstone of Rev. Dr. Morrison, the renowned Chinese missionary, is the following characteristic epitaph: "I have sinned; I have repented; I have trusted; I have loved; I sleep; I shall rise; and through the grace of Christ, though unworthy, I shall reign."
The Economy of Life
The way to grow old is to be economical of life. If it be carelessly squandered in any way it cannot last so long as it otherwise might. Over-work kills a few; over-worry kills more, because it is more depressing and exhausting. The indulgence of the appetites and passions is still more fatal. Men who eat more than they need, drink more than is good for them, and indulge in other kinds of riotous living, spend life as they spend money.
Deaths from Trichinae
At Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a mother and son died recently of trichinae. A piece taken from the dead boy's arm was alive with parasites. At latest reports two members of a neighboring family were dying from the same cause, and there was great consternation in the place.
Police Raids on Gambling Saloons
By Editor
It is said that the Washington police are afraid of making descents on gambling saloons lest they catch Congressmen. All the more reason why they should make the raids.
The London Temperance Hospital
Physicians who claim that the use of alcohol is so often a necessity, will please read the following: In 1873 a new hospital, called The London Temperance Hospital, was opened in Gower Street, London, for the treatment of medical and surgical cases without the ordinary use of alcohol. The rules of the institution provided that in extraordinary cases alcohol might be used, if in the opinion of the medical officers such use was necessary. During the seven years ending November 10, 1880, the number of patients treated amounted to 9,239, and in only one of these cases did the medical officers think it advisable to use alcohol, and in that the result was not found to be beneficial. It has recently been found necessary to erect new buildings to accommodate the increasing practice of the hospital.
ANGELS DO NOT CHEW.
A Methodist minister, Rev. Mr. H——, was a good man but rough in his ways, and very fond of chewing tobacco. One day he was caught in a shower in Illinois, and going to a rude cabin near by, he knocked at the door. A sharp looking old dame answered his summons. He asked for shelter. "I don't know you," she replied, suspiciously. "Remember the Scriptures," said the dominie, "'Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.'" "You needn't say that," quickly returned the other; "no angel would come down here with a big quid of tobacco in his mouth!" She shut the door in his face, leaving the good man to the mercy of the rain and his own reflections.—Youth's Companion.
The Healthfulness of Unbolted Bread
IN England, under the administration of William Pitt, for two years or more there was such a scarcity of wheat that, to make it hold out longer, Parliament passed a law that the army should have all their bread made of unbolted flour. The result was that the health of the soldiers improved so much as to be a subject of surprise to themselves, the officers, and physicians. These last came out publicly and declared that the soldiers were never before so robust and healthy, and that disease had nearly disappeared from the army. The civic physicians joined and pronounced it the healthiest bread, and for a time it was used almost exclusively.