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Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 32.

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW
Earlier text: The Industrial Conflict in the Light of Revelation

Question Corner

1548.—Phil. 1:21-24, and Moses.
Please explain, through your Question Corner, Philippians 1:21-24. C. B. T.
Note the following great facts of Scripture, repeated over and over: (1) The dead are in unconscious sleep. Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 146:4; Job 14:20, 21. (2) Man’s only hope of waking is the resurrection from the dead. Job 19:25; 1 Cor. 15:12-19. (3) The resurrection will occur, and reward of the righteous will be bestowed, at the second coming of Christ. 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Luke 14:14; Matt. 16:27; 2 Tim. 4:8; Rev. 22:12. Phil. 1:21-24 is in harmony with these, and must be so understood.
Now as to what it means, note the following: (1) In verses 12-19 the apostle speaks of his sufferings for Christ and declares that instead of injuring the Gospel they had fallen out for its furtherance, had really advanced its message. And therefore he concludes that whatever may happen to him,—whether life or death,—Christ shall be magnified in him; and he declares to his brethren: “For me to live is Christ [it is for His glory in the souls I shall win], and to die is gain [to Christ’s cause also].” Yet after all it were better for them that he should live. (2) Between these two the apostle can not choose, but he desires a third thing: “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ; which is far better.” (3) The being with Christ will be when He comes. 1 Thess. 4:16-18. The original word, analusei, rendered “depart,” is the same as that rendered “return” in Luke 12:36. What Paul could not choose between was life and death; what he desired was his Lord’s return, and to be with Him. 2 Tim. 4:8.
1549.—Four Living Creatures. Eze. 1:10; 10:14.
Please explain Eze. 1:10; 10:14. What do the four faces represent in the prophecy? D. A. B.
They represent God’s angels; people, and other agencies which the great Master is using to His glory. The four creatures are the same as were used on the four great standards of Israel, we are told. See Numbers 2. The four standards under which Israel moved were those of Judah, Dan, Ephraim, and Reuben, of which the symbols were a lion, an eagle, an ox, and a man. There are some good suggestions for the study in “Testimony for the Church,” No. 33, the last chapter, “God’s care for His Work.”
1550.—Our Rights. Rom. 14:5.
Please explain Rom. 14:5. In talking with a Sunday advocate I find that he claims that he has a right, according to the Word of God, to keep the day that he esteems above others and then he quotes the above text. He says he is fully persuaded in his own mind. W. H. S.
It is true, solemnly, awfully true, that God gives to every man the right to choose. He may obey or disobey. The American Standard Revised Version reads: “One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord.” The clause which follows in our Common Version is not in the good Greek copies. We do not believe that the days here referred to have aught to do with the Sabbath enjoined by the eternal law of God; but to days of the Levitical law, which some of the early Jewish Christians still observed. But, even tho the Sabbath were included, the point of the chapter is not as to what a man’s moral duty is, but what is not his neighbor’s duty. We are not to judge him. We may preach God’s Word, we may show him the way; but the choice rests with him, and the judgment with God. Verses 10-12. Again, God asks man’s service, but he wants man to serve, not because some one else says so, but because man is himself convinced, assured. All other service is failure. A man may be wrong in his conviction. Leave that with God. It is every man’s duty to obey God. Tell them that, but do not judge them.
1551.—Salt of Covenant and Covenant of Salt.
What is the difference between the salt of the covenant (Leviticus 2), and the covenant of salt (Numbers 18)?
The salt of the covenant was the salt used to make the covenant effective, a sign of its preserving, uncorrupting nature. The covenant of salt was the covenant properly ratified by the use of salt according to God’s direction.

THE ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH.

A Last-Day Sign.

This is what a prophet says:— “Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!” Isa. 5:8.
Thus speaks an apostle:— “Go to now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out; and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous One; He doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” James 5:1-7.
And all this we see. Witness the piling up of vast fortunes in a few years, months, and days, such as the world never witnessed before, and this at the expense and toil of the many. The world is heaping up its riches. In a little over a half century “Great Britain has more than trebled her wealth; France has quadrupled hers, while our own country, since 1850, has multiplied in riches sixfold.” The wealth is also being gathered into the hands of a few. Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, of Brooklyn, N. Y., a prominent business man and writer on economic questions, estimated (Forum, for November, 1889, and January, 1891) that $43,367,000,000, or seventy per cent. of the wealth of the country, is owned by 182,000 families, or by one and four-tenths per cent. of the population. Nine and two-tenths per cent. of the families own twelve per cent. of the wealth; while the rest of the families, eighty-nine and four-tenths per cent., own but eighteen per cent. of the total wealth. Mr. Shearman says: “The United States of America are practically owned by less than 250,000 persons, constituting less than one in sixty of its adult male population. Within thirty years, the present methods of taxation being continued, the United States of America will be substantially owned by less than one in 500 of the male population.” In a second article he contends that this is an under-estimate.
Banquets are spread in palaces which cost from $100 to $300 per plate or guest, while in the very shadow of these palaces men and women in the image of God famish. Ten thousand dollars apiece are paid for pet dogs, for whose benefit a footman and maid are employed, while sweet babies die by the hundreds for want of proper food. One hundred thousand dollars are lavished upon a single dress while many go daily to death clothed in rags.
Children of God are slaughtered through hunger, famine, and cold, while those who profess His name live delicately. They multiply their costly and unused garments till they are moth-eaten, while many die of exposure. They heap up gold and silver and treasure till it rusts, corrodes, cankers, while thousands suffer in extremest poverty. They become wanton in pleasure and feasting, while myriads die from starvation. This is a sign of the last days—the two extremes—and that most marked in a republic! And yet God would not have His people join with the revolutionists. “Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.”

WAR AND CHRISTIANITY.

In one of his stories Sir Arthur Conan Doyle puts the following truthful words in the mouth of an old soldier, who, after a battle, looked upon a fresh scene of horror, a sorely-wounded man praying:—
We could do little to help him, and, indeed, might by our halt attract his pursuers to his hiding-place; so, throwing him down my flask half-filled with water, we hastened on upon our way.
O war, my children, what a terrible thing it is! How are men cozened and cheated by the rare trappings and prancing steeds, by the empty terms of honor and of glory, until they forget, in the outward tinsel and show, the real, ghastly horror of the accursed thing! Think not of dazzling squadrons, nor of the spirit-stirring blare of the trumpets, but think of that lonely man under the shadow of the alders, and of what he was doing in a Christian age and a Christian land.
Surely I, who have grown gray in harness, and who have seen as many fields as I have years of my life, should be the last to preach upon this subject, and yet I can clearly see that, in honesty, men must either give up war, or else they must confess that the words of the Redeemer are too lofty for them, and that there is no longer any use in pretending that his teaching can be reduced to practise. I have seen a Christian minister blessing a cannon which had just been founded, and another blessing a warship as it glided from the slips. They, the so-called representatives of Christ, blessed these engines of destruction which cruel man has devised to destroy and tear his fellow-worms. What would we say if we read in Holy Writ of our Lord's having blessed the battering-rams and the catapults of the legions? Would we think that it was in agreement with His teaching?

Who Shall Be Greatest?

When sin gained entrance to the earth, by the instrumentality of Satan, there came with it his instinctive disposition to rule. The selfish desire to control other people and other people's affairs is at the bottom of all the political troubles, business troubles, labor troubles, religious troubles, and race troubles in all the world. As long as this disposition is dominant and active there will be controversy and rivalry and jealousy and bitterness between classes and factions. This cause of trouble is augmented by the fact that the ruling class in whatever line is ever inclined to profit by the situation at the expense of the rival class. Of course this provokes resentment, and in case the tables are turned, retaliation is sure to follow. This principle is especially active in labor and race controversies. Especially has it increased the difficulties attending the solution of the race problem in the South. But it is encouraging to know that there is a disposition on the part of influential thinking men, both white and black, to view the matter from a more conservative standpoint. A correspondent of the New York World at Montgomery, Ala., says:—
At no time since the solution of the negro question became a serious matter in the South has there been so much common sense applied to the effort to bring it about as now. As a consequence, more progress is being made toward a betterment of the race than at any period in the history of the country. White men and black are working in entire harmony, and practical results are becoming more and more evident as the days go by.
In addition to laudable efforts by associations of private individuals to improve the young negroes through industrial enterprises, the state convict board has established a reformatory for young negro convicts at a place called Speigner's. Of this institution the correspondent says:—
The man at the head will be required to teach the young negroes to work, to study books, and to reverence their Creator. In the language of Governor Cunningham, “we want for the place not only a good overseer and competent teacher, but a man who can inspire those under his care with high ideals of life.” Work will be the key-note of the managerial schedule at Speigner's. Experience has demonstrated that this is the only safe foundation upon which to base reformatory efforts. Judge Carmichael says there are not any negro boys from the country in the prisons of the state, but that there are scores from the towns, where idleness is prevalent all the year around. This doctrine of service is to be emphasized from now on in all work for the negro. The busy man is usually a good citizen, and the state proposes to do its part in keeping everybody, white and black, on the move in some way.
This, it would seem, is the real key to the situation, and Alabama is fortunate in having representative men of both races who appreciate it. The Tuskegee Institute, which has grown to a position of recognized usefulness under the leadership of Booker Washington, has always put to the front the idea of race improvement by the labor route—before honor is usefulness. A wealthy colored man has given a farm near Tuscaloosa for a reformatory institution, which is meeting the encouragement of white officials and other influential citizens of both races.
In this connection we are glad to mention the fact that for several years the Seventh-day Adventists have maintained an industrial school at Huntsville, in that state, which, although laboring under many difficulties, has borne good fruit. It has a large field and a good prospect, but needs assistance, as all such enterprises do; for the way of reformation, the way from adversity to prosperity, is always uphill and against unexpected obstacles. It is encouraging, however, to know that in the state there are other united influences working to the purpose of upbuilding a race that may be made much more useful by proper cultivation.
With the disposition to become absolute rulers, regardless of all other considerations, modified to a large degree in all classes everywhere, there would be much more of peace and prosperity throughout the world. The true calling of men is to service. If all were to seek the best opportunities to serve their fellow-men, rather than to rule them, the question of rulership would take care of itself. The greatest leaders the world has ever known were first faithful servants. The great Exemplar of men, in whom is all power in heaven and earth, and in whom is all wisdom, gave us an example of the calling of true manhood. In setting us this example, He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And His counsel is, “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” The road to recognition and happiness runs through the fields of usefulness. The man whose services are indispensable is the real ruler in human affairs.

THE RIGHT TO WORK.

[We print the following from the New York World under the above heading, not for its politics, but for its principles, which should be held above all politics].
AFTER recounting that the rights of labor are no less “vested,” no less “sacred,” and no less “unalienable,” than the rights of capital, the Democratic national platform makes this statement of principle:—
Constitutional guarantees are violated whenever any citizen is denied the right to labor, acquire, and enjoy property, or reside where interests or inclination may determine. Any denial thereof by individuals, organizations, or governments should be summarily rebuked and punished.
This is a statement of indisputable fact which is said to have been inserted into the platform as a protest against the outrageous methods of the Colorado militia, and the Citizens’ Alliance, in deporting members of the Miners’ Union.
It applies with no less force, however, to the non-union employees of the packing houses than to the striking miners of Colorado.
The right to work is vested, sacred, and unalienable. Constitutional guarantees are violated whenever this right is denied or restricted.
Both Chicago and New York are governed by Democratic administrations, to whose consideration this plank in the national platform is respectfully commended.
Already the strikers and their sympathizers in Chicago have begun to attack non-union men who are peaceably exercising their constitutional right to labor. Already the cry has been raised, “Lynch the scabs!” Already blood has been shed, and the strikers are preparing to use further force in resisting the employment of non-union men.
Neither Mayor Harrison of Chicago nor Mayor McClellan of New York can render a greater service to his party or to law and order than by protecting the constitutional right to labor. If it is necessary to call out every policeman in two great capitals and every guardsman in two great states, not an instant’s hesitation should be shown in exerting all legal powers to uphold those constitutional guarantees which, in the words of a great political party, are “violated whenever any citizen is denied the right to labor,” whether it be union labor in Colorado or non-union labor elsewhere.

ROME'S PROGRESS.

“Rome never changes” is an inherent principle of the Papacy, incident to her claim to infallibility. All her “infallible” decrees, her authoritative utterances, were true and are true still from her viewpoint. Yet there are many half-hearted, weak-kneed Protestants who can not see this. Their grasp has relaxed on anything real or substantial; having no definite moral standard, they are prepared to fellowship everything, save the infallible Word of God; and therefore they can not see that in their delusion they are overthrowing the work wrought by the Reformation. Rome is not coming to Protestants; Protestants are going to Rome, while Rome is the same. Read the following from a recent number of the Literary Digest:—

“The Papacy and the Republic.”

Never before in the history of the national capital, we are told by a writer in Harper’s Weekly, have two members of the cabinet, a justice of the Supreme Court, and representative legislators and military and naval officials sat down at dinner with an Italian member of the College of Cardinals, at which he was the guest of honor, and a member of the cabinet the most, nor has any previous president ever formally welcomed a Roman Catholic Italian prelate as cordially as President Roosevelt recently welcomed Cardinal Satolli.
This new attitude on the part of the national Executive, the writer goes on to say, will be but the reflection of an altered attitude by the Protestant majority of the electors. We read further:—
“Not that the time has come yet when most of our voters will vote as readily for Roman Catholic candidates for office as they will for Protestant candidates; not that the A. P. A. spirit has passed away entirely. But there is a lessened spirit of antagonism to Roman Catholicism among Protestant thinkers and leaders, more harmony of effort between Protestant and Roman Catholic clergymen in civil reform movements, and less and less criticism of recognition of Roman Catholics’ worth by executives who dare to appoint them to administrative or judicial positions.
Not every Protestant is prepared to say, with Senator Hoar, that he believes that “if every Protestant were to be stricken down by a lightning stroke, our brethren of the Catholic faith would still carry on the Republic in a spirit of true and liberal freedom.” But it is significant that in such a book as Mr. Selleck’s recent one on “The Spiritual Outlook” for this country, this Universalist clergyman should praise the Roman Catholic Church as he does and predict a greater career than ever for it in the future, and that Rev. S. D. McConnell, one of the ablest and most thoughtful of Protestant Episcopalian clergymen, in some of his recent writings on the future of Christianity in this country, should have recognized so clearly the potency of a closely-articulated church with a uniform message at a time of transition like the present, and the attraction it will have for society at a time when in affairs of state the organizing principle is coming to be dominion, the cardinal claim authority, and the cardinal virtue obedience.
If on the side of the state and of society in general there is a more tolerant spirit toward Roman Catholicism, due to various forces obvious, and some not so apparent, it is because here, by the admission of Roman Catholic prelates, like the late Archbishop Corrigan, competition with Protestantism has produced a very much more liberal type of Catholicism than Europe or South America knows, and because the American hierarchy, from Cardinal Gibbons down to the priesthood, have once and for all given up the claims of the church on the state which are still made in Europe.
But Rome has relinquished not one jot or tittle of a claim. Her policy is liberal; her purpose is still the same—to control both church and state. Prophecy has foretold all this.

REVENGE IN RUSSIA.

Not many weeks ago we chronicled the assassination of the Russian governor of Finland at the hand of a young Finn who considered that the liberties of his country were being invaded and his people oppressed. The heavy hand of Russia had been laid on the customs and privileges of the Finnish people since Russia had taken a firmer grip on Finland. The legislative powers of the people had been repressed, and their men had been compelled to join Russian regiments in distant lands. To escape this, many young Finns were migrating to America, and the Finns were imbibing fresh draughts of bitterness with each new move of the government. So when the governor was killed, many felt that it was what might have been reasonably looked for in view of the stern measures of the governor and the feelings of the people.
Now a blow has struck nearer the head of the home government. One of the officials who stands nearest to the czar, M. Von Plehve, Minister of the Interior, was instantly killed on July 28 by the explosion of a bomb thrown at his carriage while on his way to report to the czar. The minister's coachman was also killed, and some twenty others were more or less seriously injured, including the assassin himself who was captured. An accomplice was also captured with a bomb in his possession; and it is reported that a conspiracy has been unearthed for the assassination of a number of others, among whom is the czar himself.
A St. Petersburg correspondent states that the assassination of Von Plehve has created consternation in official circles. He says:—
The tragedy completely overshadows the disastrous events of the war. It is not merely the individual crime which appals, but the knowledge of what it forbodes. The police possess clews which lead to the conclusion that Von Plehve's murder was the result of a carefully-laid plot. The authorities are convinced that the assassination is a link in a long chain of similar crimes. It is fully-realized that a new nihilist reign of terror has been inaugurated.
The murdered minister was responsible for the repressive measures aimed at the Jews, and is generally held responsible for the outrages practised upon the Jews at Kishineff. That Russia has been fearing outbreaks on the part of revolutionists and nihilists is shown by the keeping of the regulars at home while the recruits are sent to the front. The dead minister belonged to the party which desired the Russification of all Russia's dependencies, and he was working in perfect accord with the procurator of the Holy Synod in the interests of the Russian state church. There was no stronger repressor of the liberty longings of the Russian people than M. Von Plehve, and a spirit of revenge for this inspired his assassination. With such outbreaks at home, and a disastrous war on its hands, the Russian Government certainly has cause for its anxiety.

A SERIOUS SITUATION.

The actions of the Russian volunteer fleet in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and of the regular Russian fleet from Vladivostok off the east coast of Japan, and the question of the right of Russian vessels of war passing through the Dardanelles, are bringing about a series of complications which may have the most serious consequences. Russia has called her volunteer war-vessels from the Red Sea, but will replace them with vessels of the regular fleet, and it is expected that these will continue the work of holding up and searching merchant vessels passing through the Red Sea. The course of the Russian commanders has been so overbearing, and so little attention has been paid by them to the rules supposed to govern belligerents in searching neutral vessels at sea, that the most forceful and decided protests have been made by Great Britain. Russia has given certain promises; but while these were being given the vessels of the Vladivostok fleet were sinking ships off the coast of Japan. Among the vessels sunk was the British ship, Knight Commander, which, it is declared, had on board a cargo of a nature wholly outside the definition of contraband of war. England protests against the sinking of merchantmen or their confiscation before their cases have been tried before a prominent prize court. The United States also is preparing to take strong grounds against Russia's action on the sea.
Speaking in the British House of Lords on the Knight Commander incident, the British Foreign Secretary said:—
The examination of the cargo of the Knight Commander appears to have been very perfunctory. Under these circumstances the government could come to no other conclusion than that a very serious breach of international law had been committed by the captors of the vessel.
The tone of the secretary's speech was most serious throughout. The government demanded the release of the Knight Commander's crew, and requested Russia to cease acts of a similar nature in the future. There has been a feeling of deepest indignation in England over this incident especially, and an unwise move might precipitate another war.

THE WAR IN THE ORIENT.

THE Japanese advance from the east and south is said to be menacing General Kuropatkin’s position. The Japanese columns are reported to be even threatening the Russian line of communications. Having captured Newchwang, the Japanese have thus secured another port which can be used for bringing in supplies. The loss of this city is regarded as a severe blow to Russia.
In a great battle near Ta Che Kiao, which lasted all day Sunday, July 24, the Russians were defeated with considerable loss, and were forced to retreat to Hai Cheng. The position abandoned by them was a very strong one. The battle began with an artillery duel, in which the Russians are said to have been outclassed. Flanking movements followed the work of the artillery until the defeat was accomplished. Two Japanese armies are now moving against Hai Cheng, while another force is engaged in a general flanking movement. General Kuropatkin continues to receive re-enforcements, and to postpone the day of a general engagement.
Active operations continue around Port Arthur both by land and sea; but refugees from that place state that the Russians have retaken some of the outer positions which were recently captured by the Japanese. A report, bearing date of July 28, states that a general attack on Port Arthur is now begun; but it is the general belief that the fortress will be able to hold out for a considerable time.

The Thirteenth International Peace Congress

The Thirteenth International Peace Congress is to meet in Boston during the first week in October, the opening session to be on Monday evening, October 3, followed by morning and evening sessions during the succeeding four days. The promotion of popular education as to the duty of supplanting the war system by rational and legal methods; the speedy reduction of armaments, and the application of the vast sums spent upon them to constructive ends; and the better general organization of the nations in their mutual relations—these are the objects of these congresses. These objects are certainly worthy ones, and we wish there were warrant for the belief that it is possible to bring them about.
There are numerous strikes at the present time in different parts of the country, and many more threats of strikes in case demands are not complied with. The most serious strike is that now in progress in the great meat-packing establishments of Chicago and other places. There is a prospect that the allied trades will strike in sympathy. Railroad freight handlers have already struck in sympathy with the packing employees, and have added to the gravity of the situation. In Massachusetts 26,000 cotton-mill operatives are on strike against a reduction in wages, and other mills are shutting down voluntarily.
The Venezuelan Government has seized the asphalt properties of certain American citizens in that country, on the plea that the company assisted the revolutionists. The value of the property seized is more than three million dollars. The matter has been brought to the attention of the government at Washington, and the latter will demand the return of the properties.
Cerebro spinal meningitis has been epidemic in New York this year, there having been 900 deaths from that disease thus far, or thirteen times as many as last year. The disease is due to a germ which affects the spinal cord, and is much more likely to be fatal in infants and children than in adults.
Russia’s promise that vessels of the volunteer fleet shall not hereafter carry on operations of war has induced Turkey to continue to grant them free passage through the Dardanelles; but the British Government is determined that no Russian war-vessel shall pass the strait.
A California syndicate has entered upon the work of establishing a telephone system across the continent. The syndicate has been purchasing various long-distant telephone properties along the route of the proposed line.
The inventor of the Holland submarine torpedo boat is now completing a new type of submarine craft that will greatly excel in effectiveness the ones now in use in the navies of the world.

CONTENTMENT IN THE HOME.

By L. D. Avery-Stuttle

BY MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE.
Where there is true beauty in the home, and remember this always includes love, there is apt to be contentment; for they are twin sisters, and hardly ever far apart.
Still, there are some people who seem so constituted that it is hard for them to be contented a very long time in any place. Such people are surely to be pitied.
We have all seen people who would not commit any known sin; who pay their honest debts,—not forgetting the Lord’s tithe, and who conscientiously observe the Sabbath, yet whose faces are almost constantly disfigured with a frown of discontent; or, what is almost as bad, a kind of glum, morose expression settles like a pall over the countenance, until it becomes almost unbearable to look at them. I have seen many an otherwise sweet face utterly spoiled by it.
Well, I am talking with you about contentment in the home, particularly. Some people are perfectly content anywhere and everywhere except in their home. If they can only be traveling about somewhere, how contented and happy they are! I should not wonder if this was the very reason so many women belong to clubs and circles and orders; they love to get away from home, and these things form an excuse. And again, maybe this is the reason some men spend their evenings away from home,—because they are not contented there,—and I am most sad to say that too often there is good reason for it.
O, there is a crying need in the old world to-day—and in the church as well, of homes,—not merely houses, but real homes and real home-keepers. Some of us are excellent house-keepers, but poor home-keepers. I would rather be a good home-keeper than a good house-keeper—they are in greater demand, because rarer.
“Well, now; must we never go anywhere? must we always stay at home? Tell me what you mean by a home-keeper.”
O, I would not have you bound about by any cast-iron rules; but perhaps I can define the word best by telling you what it does not mean.
A home-keeper is not what the world calls a “society woman.” Women are needed who shine brightest, not in “society,” not in the crowded theater, or the ball-room, but in the home circle. And young men and young women are needed to-day who are content to spend a few evenings in the week at home.
Contentment in the home! O it is a blessed thing. If there were more of it, there would be fewer divorces to disgrace our courts, and less misery in the world. There would be fewer “missing girls” in our cities, and fewer young men going down to destruction; not so many sensational scandals, and fewer bitter tears shed over the wandering and the erring.
Suppose for a moment that there were perfect contentment in every home in all the world. What a state of blessedness would be ushered in! Not a single divorce case in the courts; not a distracted mother or gray-haired father in all the land mourning over a son or a daughter who “ran away from home,” and went to ruin; there would be fewer miserable souls driven to desperation and death from the demon drink. The saloons would do a small business, and the keepers of gambling dens would of necessity close their doors—doors which lead to the bars of hell and the chambers of death; houses of ill-fame would lose their entire patronage, and their closed doors would bar a mighty thoroughfare to destruction—a broad road strewn with the bones of men and women and the pitiful wrecks of thousands of once happy homes.
Nor is this all; there would be no more wars, with their crimson rivers of blood; no more whitening skeletons upon the battlefield,—all this, and more, if, in every home in every land, from the palace of the king to the humble cot of the peasant, there abode the sweet dove of contentment. Because, you see, a nation, a world, is made up of its families; and if every family is content, where is the occasion to war? and where would we look for soldiers to fill the armies?—Surely nowhere, if not in the homes of the people.
O, there are secret societies and secret orders and clubs; societies for young men and young women; societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals; societies for the betterment of the heathen; societies for the farmer and the mechanic, and unions for the workingmen,—but where under the sky is the order or club or society or association for the universal betterment of our homes? Where is the society to promote contentment in the home? Where is the club or order which has for its chief business the welding and the cementing together of the individual members of the home circle? Where lives the president or secretary of one such society? Let somebody organize such a society, and people will be surprised, and look askance at the promoters as if they were a set of fanatics. But I tell you they would be the men who see that the home is the very foundation of society, and that, when the home goes, society and the nation is gone; in fact, that the home is the most precious institution that is left as a sweet legacy from our Father as a reminder of Eden.
“But how can I be contented in a home that is so humble—a home that has few of the real conveniences? I visit my neighbor, and I see his splendid home, his elegant carpets, his fine furniture,—how can I be content without any of these?”
Ah, my friend, you do not know of the secret grief that, perhaps, at this very hour is gnawing at the vitals of your wealthy neighbor. Money can not buy happiness; gold can not be accepted as legal tender for a contented spirit.
“But what can I do that my sons and daughters may love the home circle better than the theater or the card party or the dance hall or the saloon?”
I think I can tell you of a few things that it would be well to do:—
It would be wise generalship to make the home as attractive, in every legitimate way, as possible, without extravagance.
But if our rooms must be small, they can be cosy; if the pictures must be cheap, they may be cheerful and refined; if the books must be few, they can be well chosen, and, best of all, if the pocketbook must be small, the heart may be very large. We can enter into the feelings of our boys and girls by remembering that, not so very many years ago, we were like them. How did we feel then?—Much as they do now. Do we remember how certain things used to provoke and annoy us then? Well, do not let us do those same annoying things ourselves; and let us try by precept and example to teach them that “godliness with contentment is great gain.”

HEART BEAUTY.

“It is a pity that Margaret is so—well, is so horrid homely!”
“Margaret, homely! You would never say that if you knew her better.”
Mrs. Carter looked up in surprise.
“Certainly no one would call those irregular features anything but ugly! Poor girl, she must feel it when she is with her sisters, for their beauty is such a contrast.”
“You never think of her features when you are about her. She is so ready to do a favor, and is so kind and gentle in her ways. She has always a kind word for everybody.”
I heard a slight rustle behind me and glanced around just in time to see Margaret disappear down the steps; she must have been reading in her favorite nook among the honeysuckles at the end of the
That night she came into my room, as usual, for a little chat before retiring, but she was unusually quiet as she sat on the stool at my feet and gazed at the fire in the grate, for the night was cool.
“I don’t know what you will think of me,” she said at last, and there was a tremor in her voice, “but I could not help overhearing what you said about me this afternoon, and I want to thank you for it. You see, I am so ‘horrid homely,’ as Mrs. Carter said, and I have always felt it, especially when people will compare me with Edith and Laura, and speak of their beauty. Don’t think that I am jealous; but I can’t help being sensitive about my ugliness. I used to get angry and fret because my hair wouldn’t curl and because my mouth was so large and my nose such an ugly shape; until I guess I was getting as ugly inside as I was out,” she said sadly. “One day an old woman came to the house selling laces, and when she went out of the house she fell. I ran down and helped her up and straightened the things in her basket for her. She put her hand on my shoulder and said:—
“God bless you, young lady, youse not got the beauty that’s skin deep. No youse not got the skin beauty, youse got the heart beauty; that’s inside. Youse got a kind word for an old woman. God bless you, child.”
“Well, that ‘heart beauty’ was a new idea to me, and I thought over it a great deal; and I made up my mind that I would try to have that if I could not have the ‘skin beauty,’ and if I was kind to everybody they wouldn’t think of my ugly face. What you said this afternoon—well, it made me feel that I was gaining a little at least. It was the first time I ever heard any one say that I was anything but plain and ugly.” She laughed, but there were tears in the gray eyes that looked into mine.
“Heart beauty! I shall try to have it if I can,” she said, half aloud, then gazed fixedly again at the —New York Observer.

LIFE FULL OF BLESSING.

By Susan Birdsall Roberts

BY SUSAN BIRDSALL ROBERTS.
This life is not all unrequited toil, Let us not despair, but think How many a coveted prize is won When the heart is ready to sink; We plan and propose, and wonder why Those plans do not meet with success; We can not unravel life's woof, and know They might not another bless.
Our interests oft seem very diverse, But may in the tangled maze More closely connect than we dream, or think, In mysterious, unseen ways.
There is One who knows when ’tis best for me To win, or is best to lose; He gathers the threads of my destiny, I shall know some day if He choose.
One thing I know, and have learned it well, It is better for me to trust, Not rebel at the dealings of Providence And only yield when I must.
There is many a nugget of purest gold Hid away in the coarsest dust; There is many a blessing that will unfold When we patiently work and trust.
Rare flowers are blooming in darkest night, Their beauty is shadowed ’till morn; So blessings are hidden in sorrow from sight, While we press to our bosom the thorn. God tempers the winds to the lambs that are shorn, He will not forget you and me; Let us lean on His breast, confide in His love, And hourly tokens we'll see.
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