Earlier text: Value of Cheerful Service"About Right."
By H. W. Blake
Few incidents of my boyhood made a deeper impression than did the brief career of two young men who came to the farm on a winter's day seeking work. They brought their axes with them, and my father put them to chopping "four-foot" wood on the edge of the swamp, a long distance from the house. It was understood that they should fell the trees, cut them up into sticks four feet long, and make piles of those sticks, eight feet in length and four in height. And they were to be paid according to the number of cords which they could cut. Two or three days passed before father found time to look after them, and when he did, the inspection was not encouraging. They had piled the wood in a "scraggly," slip-shod fashion, and the sticks varied in length from three to five feet. Expostulation brought out the remark from one of the youthful workmen, "Oh! well, it will average about right." "I cannot sell wood by average," was the conclusive reply of their employer, and it ended the job. These amateurs in life's battle evidently had some crude ideas about "the law of averages," and they fell into the common error of trying to apply it to human conduct. The school-boy thinks that if he gets a lesson "about right," even though a fortunate guess covers his ignorance, it is all that can be expected. The man of business who flatters himself that he is "about square," never for a moment imagines that he doesn't stand on the very summit of commercial rectitude. The supreme morality of the world consists in being "as good as they'll average." But as regards material affairs, we are quick to admit that this theory is false. Suppose the freight conductor who has "just about" time to run his train on the schedule of the delayed passenger express causes the accident which his recklessness has courted, the world at once points the finger of disgrace at him between the bars of a prison. Suppose a drug-clerk "averages" a prescription, or a helmsman adopts a happy-go-lucky method of steering, the results are practically the same. Who shall number, however, the spiritual wrecks caused by substituting an "average" line of conduct for a course in life which conscience dictates as the only true one? "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." No; the law of averages, while it is useful in certain calculations, does not belong to the code of ethics, and lies outside of the Golden Rule. The law of love on this particular point, as cited by its most eminent living interpreter, Dr. Mark Hopkins, is as follows:— "Does an artisan fail, as in making a steam-boiler, to provide in the best way for the safety and comfort of the community? is a physician ignorant of the right remedy, or a lawyer of the precedent on which his case turns? does a clergyman lack quickening and persuasive power?—each is condemned by the law of love, and responsible for the consequences if the failure could have been avoided. There may be faithfulness at the moment—at the bed-side, in the court-room, in immediate preparation for the pulpit—but the failure and guilt may lie far back in the indolent self-indulgence and dissipation of the years of preparatory study?" This citation sweeps away the "about right" theory, leaving no room for moral averages. But perhaps you say, "It is simply perfection, and condemns every mortal." Granted; but unless we have a perfect standard, how can we become workmen who do not need "to be ashamed"? And having this standard, it is our privilege, when we fail to come up to it, to consider that the Father is full of compassion, "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust."—H. W. Blake, in S. S. Times. "We're Holding on Yet."
By G. D. Ballou
WELL, my brother, it is a source of some pleasure to us to know that you are "holding on." The truth of God, as brought to light by the three angels' messages, is sure to triumph gloriously, and those who have a firm hold upon this truth, and upon whom it has a firm hold, will just as surely triumph with it. Since hearing your remark, I have been reflecting considerably, not questioning the fact of your "holding on," nor whether you had a firm hold or not, but as to where you have hold. There is no doubt whatever but it is easier to hold on behind, especially if everything is moving forward briskly. It is plain to be seen that less effort is required to just "hold on" than is needed when we take hold to push or pull. By holding on behind one may be dragged along until he becomes tired and drops off. There is no exercise to increase the strength, and after awhile hanging on becomes monotonous, and then we just let go to see how it will seem, and are left by the way. Those who only hold on behind have no interest to make the burden move, and being only interested to have an easy time, when some object by the way attracts their attention, and bids fair to give greater pleasure, it is but natural to loosen their hold on a work which only gives permanent pleasure in proportion to the amount of faith and effort put forth in its behalf. Just holding on does not make the load move. Somebody must be pulling in the harness, and others pushing at the wheel, otherwise holding on behind would become dull business. We sometimes hear people say, "Well, we've got the truth and the truth is going to save us." But the truth cannot save you unless you honor the truth, and take hold to help advance the cause of truth in the earth. It is like a man being in a boat and wanting to cross the river; the boat will not carry him across by its own efforts. He must take hold of the oars and propel the boat, and then it will carry him over. Our knowing and believing the truth will not save us unless we make use of our knowledge and faith by trying to assist others to gain the kingdom. And we may have ever so firm a hold of the truth, unless we are trying to advance, and honor, and exalt the cause of truth by the use of all our God-given abilities, it will avail nothing in the end. Get a firm hold of the truth, my brother, and hold on faithfully, and then exercise the little strength you may have by laboring to make the car of truth move forward. Then your strength will increase, and you will see the work advance, and you may at last reap the reward of your labors. But if you are content to merely hold on, without putting forth positive, earnest efforts, you must surely fail to receive the welcome, "Well done," for it is spoken only to the well-doer. Get hold firmly from above, and then reach out to help your fellow-men. Thus doing, you will honor and exalt the truth of God, and in the great day of accounts God will in turn exalt you to a place in his kingdom, and honor you with the gift of eternal life, and the privilege of enjoying the society of Jesus, and angels, and the good and blest of every age, throughout the endless years of eternity. G. D. BALLOU.
St. Clair, Nev., May 28, 1884. Are Commandment-Keepers Legalists?
By Charles P. Bollman
Rev. Charles Buck, author of "Buck's Theological Dictionary," says, in substance, that a legalist is, strictly speaking, one who acts according to or consistent with the law; but in general the term is used to denote one who expects salvation by his own works. In the strict sense, the question which heads this article must be answered in the affirmative; but according to the general use of the term, we answer most emphatically, No. And it seems a little incongruous to us that, while the whole Christian world profess to observe nine of the ten commandments, we should be reproached because we teach the observance of the entire decalogue. Indeed, we might say that until their attention is called to the fact that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord," nine-tenths of those who observe Sunday imagine that in so doing they are obeying the fourth commandment. So that the real difference, on this point, between Seventh-day Adventists and those who are wont to call us "legalists" and "Judaizers," is not as to the perpetual obligation of the moral law, but as to what is required by the fourth precept of that law. Theoretically all Christians are agreed on the necessity of keeping the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth commandments; and all evangelical denominations teach that no one can be saved in willful and persistent violation of any one of the first three, or of the last six precepts of the decalogue. How then can they find fault with us when we say that it is equally important to keep all the commandments? Are not those who teach otherwise partial in the law? Mal. 2:9. That any one can be saved by keeping the law, Seventh-day Adventists neither believe nor teach. The province of law is not to save, but to condemn. Pardon comes alone through the Saviour, and is of grace, "not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:9. Paul expressly declares that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified." Rom. 3:20. The reason for this is obvious; for when we obey God we do only our duty; and present obedience can never atone for past transgression. No matter how holy our lives may be now—even if it were possible for us to keep perfectly every one of the commandments—our past sins stand against us till pardoned and blotted out through the blood of the atonement. Truly "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," but the name of Jesus. Acts 4:12. It is indeed strange that people with the Bible in their hands, who have always regarded the decalogue as of perpetual obligation, will, when confronted with the Sabbath truth, suddenly discover that keeping the law dishonors Christ, and, losing sight of the distinction which inspiration has so clearly made between the moral and the ceremonial laws, insist that both the moral and typical systems expired, by limitation, at the cross. The Saviour, in speaking of that law which says, "Thou shalt not kill," said: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven." Matt. 5:19. (Campbell's translation, "Shall be of no esteem in the sight of Heaven.") Is it not then a serious matter to reject the law of God? Christ died to vindicate the justice of his Father's government; and think you that that law which he came to "magnify" and make "honorable" (Isa. 42:21), is a thing to be set at naught and despised by fallen man? The testimony of inspiration is, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Ps. 18:7); and shall we be found guiltless of presumptuous sin if we say that it was imperfect, and had to be abolished or annulled? This is what some teach, forgetful of the words of Christ, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfill." "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Matt. 5:17; Luke 16:17. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom. 8:7-9. If we have the Spirit of the Son, we will love the Father; and if we love God we will keep his commandments; "For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3. In Rev. 22:14 we read the words of the Saviour himself, as given to John: "Blessed are they that do his [the Father's] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." But of those who reject the law it is said, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." Wrestling in Prayer.
By Wm. W. Patton, D. D.
JACOB had deceived his aged and blind father, Isaac, and obtained the blessing which was intended for his elder brother, Esau, having also, on a previous occasion, taken advantage of the reckless Esau's hunger, to sell him some pottage at the price of his birthright. He fled from the country, for his life, hearing of Esau's deadly threats. After an absence of many years, during which he had grown rich in flocks and herds, he ventured to return, and, on coming to the confines of the land, heard that Esau was advancing to meet him, at the head of four hundred warriors. Consciousness of guilt, and a remembrance of his injured brother's wrath filled him with fear, lest this should be the hour of bloody revenge. Resistance would be unavailing, and his imagination pictured a scene of plunder and slaughter, in which he, his two wives, his children, and his servants would be the victims. In this terrible emergency the night fell about him. Esau would be there in the morning; his only hope was in God; his only salvation must be prayer! And upon the true principle that prayer is not a substitute for appropriate human efforts, but a means of rendering it successful, he took measures to propitiate Esau, and then, sending his family over the river Jabbok, remained alone in the darkness, to plead with God. We can understand the earnestness, and even agony, of the prayer, when everything was at stake, as also the arguments he would use. Indeed a prayer of the previous day furnishes an outline of the petition. See Gen. 32:9-12. We thus learn that he fell back upon two arguments—that God was pledged to him by the general covenant made with Abraham and Isaac, and by the special promises given to himself, in the famous vision at Bethel, at the time of his flight to Mesopotamia, and on the occasion of his setting out to return. This was firm ground, upon which a rational faith could plant itself. He also confessed his own unworthiness, and with gratitude acknowledged what had already been done for him. As he was thus praying and humbling himself, in the midnight darkness, he was conscious of a presence with him, as of a human form, which he recognized as a divine manifestation; and he laid hold of the person, to insist upon a blessing. The seeming man struggled to depart, and wrestled with Jacob, to break away. But the patriarch clung to him desperately, even till the day began to dawn, and after his thigh had been dislocated, saying, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me!" He was rewarded with victory! God graciously allowed himself to be overcome by the importunate petitioner; while, as an encouragement to others to imitate his example, he changed the patriarch's name from one which commemorated his sin, to one which immortalized his victory. "And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob [supplanter]. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel [prince of God]; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." And so the name Israel, which passed first to the chosen nation, and then to the whole Christian church, is a perpetual reminder of the power of importunate prayer. Scarcely had the assurance of safety been given, than Esau was seen in the distance, at the head of his armed men, mounted on camels, probably, and sweeping down like a modern band of the Bedouin. But lo! when they reached the helpless group of Jacob, instead of drawing their swords and beginning the slaughter, they quietly stopped, while Esau ran to meet his brother, "and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept!" And so, in answer to prayer, fratricidal hatred was turned into fraternal love! It is not surprising that, in every succeeding age of the church, this scene at Penial (or God's face) has given tone to the prayers of believers, and has introduced into religious phraseology the words "wrestling in prayer."—Wm. W. Patton, D. D. A New York pastor has this advice to give on the subject. It is certainly an original plan: Adopt this rule: Let all who come to you with stories about mutual acquaintances know that you intend, as soon as your duties allow, to wait upon the parties spoken of disparagingly and repeat just what was said, and who said it. Still better, take out your memorandum-book, and ask the party to allow you to copy the words, so that you can make no mistake. You will have to do this probably not more than three times. It will fly among your acquaintances on the wings of the gossips, and persons who come to talk against other persons in your presence will begin to feel as if they were testifying under oath. But you ask: "Will it not be mean to go off and detail conversations?" Not at all, when your interlocutor understands that he must not talk against an absent person in your presence, without expecting you to convey the words to the absent person and the name of the speaker. Moreover, what right has any man or woman to approach you and bind you to secrecy, and then poison your mind against another? If there be any difference in your obligations, are you not bound more to the man who is absent than the man who is present? If you can thus help to kill gossip, it will not matter if you lose a friend or two; such friends as these, who talk against others to you, are the very persons to talk against you to them. Try our rule. We know it to be good. We use it. It is known in the church of which we are pastor that if any one speaks to us disparagingly of an absent member, we hold it our duty to go to that absent member immediately, and report the conversation and the names, or still better, to make the party disparaging face the party disparaged. We have almost none of this to do. Amid the many annoyances which necessarily come to the pastor of a large church, and still larger congregation, we think that we are as free from the annoyance of gossips as it is possible for a man to be who lives among his fellow-men. Try our rule; try it faithfully, with meekness and charity, and if it does not work well, let us know.—N. Y. Examiner. About all real comfort lies between crosses. The Sabbath-School.
By W. N. Glenn
LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—JUNE 21.
The Perilous Journey Continued.
THE deplorable condition of the storm-tossed vessel in which the missionary of the Lord was being conveyed toward his destination, and the hopeless attitude of the passengers and crew, well illustrates the weak judgment and puny arm of the natural man. As against the purposes of God, his might is as a feather before the gale, and when "neither sun nor stars" appear (verse 20) his hope fails. How differently appears the man "whose God is the Lord." Though physically an intense sufferer, and degraded as a prisoner, the apostle is of good courage, "hopeth all things, endureth all things," and becomes in the great emergency the actual commander of the ship and the consolation of the distracted people. IT is evident that Paul had been engaged in earnest prayer for the company. He need not be afraid concerning his own life, for God had told him that he must bear witness at Rome (chap. 23:11); but his sympathetic heart was moved for his impenitent companions. The assurance which he received in the vision, "Lo God hath given thee all them that sail with thee," was no doubt an answer to earnest petition. Here is an example showing that under any and all circumstances, the true missionary heart is concerned for the welfare of others, leaving self to the care of God. Note also the example of Jesus. When being led out to die upon the cross, he turned to those who followed bewailing his sad fate, and said, "Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." Luke 23:28. VERSE 30 presents a scene of base treachery on the part of the sailors, characteristic of unregenerate humanity. While God had specially guaranteed the preservation of their lives, they betrayed a selfish disregard for the welfare of others in marked contrast with the devoted apostle's course. They would have taken the only apparent means of escape and left the passengers to what they supposed to be certain death—having no confidence in the assurances of the Spirit through the servant of God; and the probability is that they themselves would have been dashed upon the rocks and lost. Thus it has been and will be with every effort man may make to save himself in any other than God's appointed way. All such efforts are conceived in unbelief and selfish ambition, and unless restrained by the outreaching mercy of God, must result in disaster to all concerned. ALTHOUGH the Spirit detected, and through Paul exposed, the treachery of the sailors before their wicked design was accomplished, yet it resulted in the loss of the boat—a very serious loss to the company. To thwart the deceptive purpose of the seamen, the soldiers cut the ropes as the boat was being lowered, and let it fall. Verse 32. But for this occurrence, the boat, when the proper time came, might have been used for the landing of the entire party, without the necessity of resorting to swimming and floating in the water on boards and broken pieces of the ship. Verse 44. But such results of unfaithfulness and unbelief, on the part of some who are claiming the promise of salvation, are experienced to-day. And, although they are not permitted to fully carry out the design of Satan, whose tools they are, they do succeed in greatly discouraging those who are honestly seeking the way of life—enhancing the labor of God's servants, and hindering the cause of truth. "EXCEPT these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." Verse 31. It is quite common to draw from this expression the lesson that it is necessary to "stick to the ship" in order to be saved. While such an idea may, under certain circumstances, be a good one, it depends mainly upon the character of the ship. With the shattered craft in question, we find that even Paul did not stick to it any longer than to gain a favorable opportunity for leaving it in safety. Paul did not say that those sailors could not be saved, but "ye [speaking to the centurion and of those that would be left on board] cannot be saved." God's promises of assistance are always based upon the condition that man will do all in his own power toward the desired end. If the seamen had left the vessel, there would have been none on board capable of doing anything in the way of managing her. On the point of using the means which God designs in the matter of the fulfillment of his promises, we quote from the apt remarks of Dr. Barnes:— "It will be remembered that Paul had been informed by the angel, and had assured them (verses 22-24) that no lives would be lost; but it was only in the use of the proper means that their lives would be safe. Though it had been determined, and though Paul had the assurance that their lives would be safe, yet this did not, in his view, prevent the use of the proper means to secure it. From this we may learn, (1) That the certainty of an event does not render it improper to use means to obtain it. (2) That, though the event may be determined, yet the use of means may be indispensable to secure it. The event is not more certainly ordained than the means requisite to accomplish it. (3) That the doctrine of the divine purposes or decrees, making certain future events, does not make the use of man's agency unnecessary or improper. The means are determined as well as the end, and the one will not be secured without the other. (4) The same is true in regard to the decrees respecting salvation. The end is not determined without the means; and as God has resolved that his people shall be saved, so he has also determined the means. He has ordained that they shall repent, shall believe, shall be holy, and shall thus be saved. (5) We have in this case a full answer to the objection that a belief in the decrees of God will make men neglect the means of salvation, and lead to licentiousness. It has just the contrary tendency. Here is a case in which Paul certainly believed in the purpose of God to save these men; in which he was assured that it was fully determined; and yet the effect was not to produce indolence and unconcern, but to prompt him to use strenuous efforts to accomplish the very effect which God had determined should take place. So it is always. A belief that God has purposes of mercy, that he designs, and has always designed, to save some, will prompt to the use of all proper means to secure it. If we had no such evidence that God had any such purpose, effort would be vain. Where we have such evidence, it operates, as it did in the case of Paul, to produce great and strenuous endeavors to secure the object." AFTER Paul had reassured the people, and advised them to take some much-needed nourishment after their long fasting, the ship was run as far toward the shore as possible. And as it run aground, and began breaking to pieces, a new dilemma arose. The life of a soldier in charge of a prisoner was the penalty if his charge was allowed to escape. As all would now have to take to the water on individual account, it was feared that some of the prisoners might escape; so the soldiers proposed to kill them all rather than take any chances. Verse 42. This would have been sanctioned by the law, but the centurion was not so fearful as his men, besides he was anxious to save Paul. It will be remembered that from the very outset from Cæsarea, Julius was favorable to the Christian prisoner, and "courteously entreated him," having probably been one of those who heard his address before Agrippa. He also knew that Paul had been instrumental in their salvation, and was therefore actuated by feelings of gratitude toward his benefactor. HOW aptly these hardened, ungrateful soldiers represent the sinful, unrepentant human race. Why is it that men will not flee from the wicked influences that impel them to such deeds? There is hardly a man of common intelligence in the world who would not pronounce the counsel of those soldiers an act of base ingratitude. Yet how true it is that one will judge another and do the same things himself. Rom. 2:1. There can be no species of ingratitude so flagrant as the willful rejection of God's proffered mercy—the invitation to come unto Jesus and have life. Matt. 11:28; John 5:40. "THEY escaped all safe to land." Verse 4. And thus is furnished another proof that God's word never fails, and that he careth for his own. It is also a striking demonstration of the manner in which the world is blessed through his people. Here were 276 human beings saved by having in their midst three of the Lord's servants; yet the world does not realize that when they are despising the humble followers of Jesus, they are disdaining the "salt of the earth," for whose sake the wicked are often spared—lest the wheat be rooted up also. Matt. 13:29. Sodom would have been spared could five righteous men have been found within her bounds. Furthermore this calamity worked for the good of the mission in which Paul, and Luke, and Aristarchus were engaged. It gave them great favor with their traveling companions, and especially with those who were to present Paul before Nero; and it was doubtless the influence of this two weeks' "peril by sea" that gained for him favorable consideration during his subsequent imprisonment at Rome. While nominally a prisoner, he was permitted to dwell in his own hired house, and receive all who came unto him, "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." Chap. 28:30, 31. Freshness Comes from God’s Word
By S. S. Times
If you know a minister or a teacher who seems always to have a new message for his hearers, or an old message put in a fresh way, you may be sure that the secret of that minister's, or of that teacher's, freshness, is simply his faithful study of God's word. He who fills his water-skins at the sources is sure of a sweeter supply than he who fills his from the dregs of other men's drawings; and there is no spring which flows so perennially, and with so constant a stream, as that which owes its existence to God's inspiration. If you have not that freshness of teaching which you admire in others, there is only one way of getting it, and that is by doing as they do, going continually to the source of all teaching for ever new supplies of stimulus and of suggestion.—S. S. Times. Religion Helps Children Study Better
RELIGION helps children to study better and do more faithful work. A little girl of twelve was telling, in a simple way, the evidence that she was a Christian, 'I did not like to study, but to play. I was idle at school, and often missed my lessons. Now, I try to learn every lesson well to please God. I was mischievous at school when the teachers were not looking at me, making fun for the children to laugh at. Now, I wish to please God by behaving well and keeping the school laws. I was selfish at home, didn't like to run errands, and was sulky when mother called me from play to help her in work. Now it is real joy to me to help mother in any way that I can, and show that I love her.'—Sel. Temperance.
By Rev. Herrick Johnson
Delusions of High License.
HIGH license gilds the traffic with a certain air of respectability. And behind gilded vice the most danger lurks. The more outwardly respectable you make the saloon, the worse you make it. The assault upon morals and manhood is then subtle, insidious, treacherous. It is not your open, outrageous, infamous sinners that do the most harm. A blatant, boasting Ingersoll is far less potent for mischief than a wily and ingenious skeptic, wearing the guise of Christianity only to betray it. So it is not the besotted and loathsome drunkard, swinging from his drinks to the gutter, and crawling from the gutter back again to his drinks, who tempts wayward feet to the folly and filth of intoxication. The saloons that keep up appearances, that put on a pretense of virtue, that claim to be decent in conduct and law-abiding—it is these that play the mischief with our young men. High license tends to give them the guise of respectability. Five hundred or one thousand dollars paid to the Government for the privilege of doing a certain thing, gives to the one doing it a kind of dignity, and inevitably stamps the thing done as business of some considerably increased importance and worth. High license may possibly, though only temporarily, wipe out a few low doggeries. But it gilds the saloons it authorizes. It gives them gloss and outward decency: Not one inherent evil of the traffic is smitten by it. On the contrary, it places over the whole brood of evils a broader brand of legitimacy. And painting vice, we all know, is bad business. To give respectability to an iniquitous thing is to buttress it more securely. Reform by that road is down-hill. Revenue gotten on such terms—the blood of duped and betrayed victims will cry from the ground against it. High license induces the saloon-keepers to resort to other evils to make good their loss by it. They are going to get back their license fee. That thousand dollars must come back into their till. They have not gone into this business on philanthropic principles, for the good of society. They will therefore adulterate their liquors. They will vitiate their stock. Ah! if they would only water it—literally, water it! But water is the last thing they or their patrons want in it. There is no sting in water. Nothing to bring the drinker back to his glass. So they ply the stock with cheap drugs. They swell its dimensions. They make its bulk large by their vile decoctions. And it finds its way down men's throats at ten cents a glass, smooth and pleasant to the sense, only to prove at last the very poison of death, often making of men physical and moral wrecks, shattering nerves, stealing away brains, and deadening conscience. But this is not all. Under the pressure of high license, and to make the establishment pay back that large fee, saloon-keepers are tempted to introduce other features, to marshal other forms of vice, and to link gambling and harlotry with liquor-selling, so as to swell the receipts. And this is no wild guess or foolish outburst of temperance fanatics. It is the frank statement of our enemies, and out of their own mouths shall they be condemned. Last autumn the State Protective Liquor Association of Illinois held its annual meeting at Quincy. And the report of the Executive Committee boldly charged that there were "men in the traffic with whom the sale of liquors is only a blind for the gambling-houses and houses of prostitution, and who did not hesitate to advocate high license in the hope of ruining the poor but decent saloon-keepers, and thereby attracting custom to their own establishments." If men will not hesitate to advocate high license on that ground, men will not hesitate to garnish their saloons with games and lewd women to make high license pay. Carrying up the license fee, therefore, may gild with an outside respectability, while inside the way is often made two-fold more a way of hell.—Rev. Herrick Johnson. The Danger of Moderate Drinking.
THE following, from a Texas paper, makes out a strong case:— “The veriest drunkard on earth, in his lucid moments, will freely confess that drunkenness is brutalizing, debasing, and ruinous to both body and mind. All sots commenced as moderate and occasional drinkers, and hooted at the forebodings of their friends that they would wind up as drunkards. They would meet the warnings of sincere friends with the remark that they had resolution sufficient to control themselves and that they could stop at any moment. All feel this degree of confidence in the strength of their own resolutions at the outset. The occasional drinker may gradually become the regular drinker, the moderate may insensibly drift into the immoderate drinker. ‘The appetite,’ as Shakespeare says, ‘grows by what it feeds upon;’ the craving for stimulants increases; habit ripens into second nature; it takes an increased quantity to keep off depression, and the end of it is that the moderate drinker often becomes the absolute and helpless slave to alcoholism and neglects his business as well as brutalizes his nature and intellect. He may go so far as to lose his self-respect and feel no shame in being drunk in public. Moderate drinkers should be careful. They may, before they are aware of it, go too far. “It is said there are in the United States 200,000 incorrigible drunkards, and that 90,000 drunkards die annually, mere wrecks, bodily and mentally. Alcoholism helps fill our poor-houses, jails, penitentiaries, and asylums, as well as our grave-yards. It also transmits to posterity various diseases, physical and mental. “There is hardly a town that is without half a dozen miserable wrecks, the victims of alcoholism, who were once worthy and promising men. It is a melancholy and deplorable state of things, yet drunkenness is upon the increase. Temperance societies are palliatives. Drunkards can only be cured by medical skill, by relieving the abnormal morbidity of the stomach, superinduced by alcohol. This the best scientific skill of the world is now agreed upon.” Prof. C. N. Andrews, since his connection with the Riverside schools, has been laboring very industriously and successfully in trying to break up the habit of smoking among the large boys of his department. Yesterday, Dr. T. L. Magee spoke to the school on the effects of tobacco on the nervous system, etc., and at the conclusion of the address he asked how many of the boys present smoked. Not a hand went up. He then asked how many did not smoke, and every hand on the boys' side of the house went up. Some had smoked, but they have now quit. This is a good record, of which the boys, as well as Prof. Andrews, may well feel proud.—Riverside Press. Who Is Humanity’s True Friend?
A CERTAIN man journeyed from the cradle to the grave; he fell among saloon-keepers, who took his money, ruined his name, destroyed his reason, and then turned him into the street. A moderate drinker passed by, looked on him and said: "Served him right; he is a fool to get drunk." A Christian voter also passing, looked on him and said: "The brute! he is not fit to live; he is a disgrace to his family." But a "fanatic," so-called, seeing him, had compassion, raised him up, assisted him to his home, ministered to the wants of himself and family, got him to sign the pledge, and, pointing him to the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," left him in comfort and happiness. Who, think you, was the great friend of humanity, the saloon-keeper, the moderate drinker, the Christian (?) voter, or the fanatic?—Catholic Temp. Adv. Prohibition and the Brewing Business
When Moses spoiled the golden calf business he did not stop to inquire how much money was invested in it. Neither will the prohibitionist stop to inquire how much capital prohibition will wipe out in the brewing business. It is always necessary for sinners to sacrifice something when they mend their ways whether they do it voluntarily or from compulsion. The brewers will have to bear it just like ordinary sinners. Judge Noah Davis, of New York, says that in every case of murder that has come before him for trial the murderer's excuse was, "I did it when I was drunk."