General Articles. ## THE LAW OF MOSES. ## BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
By Ellen G. White
The Lord did not leave his people with the precepts of the decalogue alone. Moses was commanded to write, as God should bid him, judgments and laws giving minute directions in regard to their duty, thereby guarding the commandments engraved on the tables of stone. Thus did the Lord seek to lead erring man to a strict obedience to that holy law which he is so prone to transgress. If man had kept the law of God, as given to Adam after his fall, preserved in the ark by Noah, and observed by Abraham, there would have been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision. And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which circumcision was a token or pledge, they would never have gone into idolatry, nor been suffered to go down into Egypt; and there would have been no necessity for God to proclaim his law from Sinai, engraving it upon tables of stone, or guard it by definite directions in the judgments and statutes given to Moses. Moses wrote these judgments and statutes from the mouth of God while he was with him in the mount. The definite directions in regard to the duty of his people to one another, and to the stranger, are the principles of the ten commandments simplified and given in a definite manner, that they need not err. The Lord said of the children of Israel, "Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols, wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live." Because of continual disobedience, the Lord annexed penalties to the transgression of his law, which were not good for the transgressor, or whereby he should not live in his rebellion. By transgressing the law which God had given in such majesty, and amid glory which was unapproachable, the people showed open contempt of the great Lawgiver, and death was the penalty. "Moreover also, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted. Then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them." The statutes and judgments given of God were good for the obedient. "They shall live in them." But they were not good for the transgressor; for in the civil law given to Moses, punishment was to be inflicted on the transgressor, that others should be restrained by fear. Moses charged the children of Israel to obey God. He said unto them, "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you." The Lord gave Moses definite instructions in regard to the ceremonial offerings which were to cease at the death of Christ. This system, first established with Adam after his fall, and taught by him to his descendents, was corrupted before the flood, and also by those who separated themselves from the faithful followers of God, and engaged in the building of the tower of Babel. They had no faith in the Redeemer to come, and they sacrificed to gods of their own choosing, instead of the God of Heaven. Their superstition led them to great extravagances. They taught the people that the more valuable their offerings, the greater would be the pleasure of their gods, and consequently the greater the prosperity and riches of their nation. Hence, human beings were often sacrificed to these senseless idols. Many of the laws which governed these nations were cruel in the extreme. They were made by men whose hearts were not softened by divine grace, and while the most debasing crimes were passed over lightly, a small offense would be visited by the most cruel punishment. Moses had this in view when he said to Israel, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep, therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" God was a wise and compassionate lawgiver, judging all cases righteously, and without partiality. While the Israelites were in Egyptian bondage, they were surrounded with idolatry. The Egyptians were regarded as the most learned nation then in existence, and their worship was conducted with great pomp and ceremony. Other nations held the most cruel and absurd traditions as a part of their religion, and revolting customs found a place in their idolatrous service. Prominent among these was the practice of causing their children to pass through the fire,--to leap over the altar upon which a fire was burning before their idol. If a person could do this without injury, the people received it as evidence that the god accepted their offerings, and favored especially the one who had passed through the fiery ordeal. He was loaded with benefits, and was ever afterward greatly esteemed by all the people. He was never punished however aggravated might be his crimes. Should another person be burned in passing through the fire, his fate was sealed; the people believed that their gods were angry and could be appeased only by the life of the unhappy victim, and he was accordingly offered as a sacrifice. Even some of the children of Israel had so far degraded themselves as to practice these abominations. The Lord manifested his displeasure by causing the fire to consume their children in the act of passing through it. Because the people of God had confused ideas of the sacrificial offerings, and mingled heathen customs with their ceremonial worship, the Lord condescended to give them definite directions, that they might understand the true import of those sacrifices which were to last only till the Lamb of God should be slain, who was the great Antitype of all their sacrificial offerings. Moses understood the plan of salvation through Christ, by these sacrificial offerings, and by the manifestation of his glory which he had been permitted to behold. The perfection of God's goodness, his image, his excellency and glory had been revealed to him. He saw the suffering, self-denial and self-sacrifice of Him who was one with the Father, to save fallen man. It had been revealed to Moses that the glory enshrouded in the pillar of cloud was the Son of the infinite God, whom the sacrificial offerings typified. In answer to his most earnest pleadings, "Show me thy way," the future had been opened before him when the type would meet antitype in the death of Christ. He saw mercy and justice blended in harmony and love expressed without a parallel. Israel was just as fully and amply saved through Christ as we are to-day. Moses had the assurance that the Mediator of Israel had the guardianship of his people, and that he was just the protection which their necessities required. If disaster came upon them, if their enemies prevailed against them in battle, it was the rebuke of God upon them because they had sinned and in sinning had broken the law of God. "Go wash in Jordan's limpid stream,"
Of old the holy prophet said;
"Its waves with healing virtue teem,
And health and purity they spread. The Syrian captain vainly thought
The streams his native land supplied
Might yield the benefit he sought,
And rival Israel's fairest tide. Too little for his courtly gait
The simple rule Elisha gave;
Nothing to suit his sumptuous state
He saw in Jordan's flowing wave. Incensed he turned his steps aside,
"And is this all?" disdainful said—
"Some greater thing he might have tried,
And on the place his hand have laid. Abana's, Pharpar's waters flow
With health and healing influence filled;
In them I'll bathe my limbs, and show
The powerful virtue which they yield." His humble menials wiselier deem,
Urge him to prove the small command;
And now emerging from the stream,
In fairest health they see him stand. The Syrian captain's case is ours—
We scorn to wash in Jordan's wave.
And fancy our own boasted powers
From woe and from disease will save. Let us inquire, in humble faith,
What waters may effectual be
To save us from the power of death,
From sickness and from sorrow free. Let all who hail the gospel light
Our greater Prophet hear, and live;
No substituted splendid rite
Can holy absolution give. Rivers of oil, or wine, poured forth
Shall fail to wash the soul from sin;
Rich sacrifice is nothing worth
To heal the wounded heart within. The Captain of our hope and faith
Obeyed the Father's will, and died;
He died an ignominious death,
Was persecuted, crucified! His followers now his cross must bear,
Must tread the suffering path he trod;
If rough the road, and full of care,
The end is safe—it leads to God. Growing in Grace Through Solitude
By Horatius Bonar
In order to grow in grace, we must be much alone. It is not in society—even Christian society—that the soul grows most vigorously. In one single quiet hour of prayer it will often make more progress than in days of company with others. It is in the desert that the dew falls freshest and the air purest.—H. Bonar. Philosophy and the One Thing Needful
I TAKE it to be true of the intellectual creation that it profits not a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul. Let not, therefore, philosophy take up our life, so as not to leave us leisure to prepare for death. We may visit Athens, but we must dwell at Jerusalem; we may take some turns on Parnassus, but should more frequent Mount Calvary; and we must never so busy ourselves about the many things as to forget the "one thing needful," that good part which shall not be taken away from us. THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
By Uriah Smith
The N. Y. Independent, Feb., 1870, spoke of the movement as having the same chance of success that a union of Church and State would have. The Champlain Journal, speaking of incorporating the religious principle into the Constitution, and its effect upon the Jews, said:— "However slight, it is the entering wedge between Church and State. If we may cut off ever so few persons from the right of citizenship on account of difference of religious belief, then with equal justice and propriety may a majority at any time dictate the adoption of still further articles of belief, until our Constitution is but the text book of a sect beneath whose tyrannical sway all liberty of religious opinion will be crushed." For a union of Church and State, strictly so-called, we do not look. In place of this, we apprehend that what is called "the image," a creation as strange as it is unique, comes in—not a State controlled by the church, and the church in turn supported by the State, but an ecclesiastical establishment empowered to enforce its own decrees by civil penalties; which, in all its practical bearings, amounts to exactly the same thing. The direct aim of the movement is undoubtedly a union of Church and State; a result which it will so nearly accomplish as to secure, by way of compromise, the erection of the image. Some one may now say, As you expect this movement to carry, you must look for a period of religious persecution in this country; nay, more, you must take the position that all the saints of God are to be put to death; for the image is to cause that all who will not worship it shall be killed. There would, perhaps, be some ground for such a conclusion, were we not elsewhere informed that in this dire conflict God does not abandon his people to defeat, but grants them a complete victory over the beast, his image, his mark, and the number of his name. Rev. 15:2. We further read respecting this earthly power, that he causeth all to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads; yet chapter 20:4, speaks of the people of God as those who do not receive the mark or worship the image. If, then, he could "cause" all to receive the mark, and yet all not actually receive it, in like manner his causing all to be put to death who will not worship the image does not necessarily signify that their lives are actually to be taken. But how can this be? Answer: It evidently comes under that rule of interpretation in accordance with which verbs of action sometimes signify merely the will and endeavor to do the action in question, and not the actual performance of the thing specified. George Bush, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in New York City University, makes this matter plain. In his notes on Ex. 7:11, he says:— "It is a canon of interpretation of frequent use in the exposition of the sacred writings that verbs of action sometimes signify merely the will and endeavor to do the action in question. Thus in Eze. 24:13: 'I have purified thee, and thou wast not purged;' i. e., I have endeavored, used means, been at pains, to purify thee. John 5:44: 'How can ye believe which receive honor one of another,' i. e., endeavor to receive. Rom. 2:4: 'The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance;' i. e., endeavors, or tends, to lead thee. Amos 9:3: 'Though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea;' i. e., though they aim to be hid. 1 Cor. 10:33: 'I please all men;' i. e., endeavor to please. Gal. 5:4: 'Whosoever of you are justified by the law;' i. e., seek and endeavor to be justified. Ps. 69:4: 'They that destroy me are mighty;' i. e., that endeavor to destroy me. Eng., 'That would destroy me.' Acts 7:26: 'And set them at one again' i. e., wished and endeavored. Eng., 'Would have set them.'" So in the passage before us: He causes all to receive a mark, and all who will not worship the image to be killed; that is, he wills, purposes, and endeavors, to do this; he makes such an enactment, passes such a law, but is not able to execute it; for God interposes in behalf of his people; and then those who have kept the word of Christ's patience are kept from falling in this hour of temptation, according to Rev. 3:10; then those who have made God their refuge are kept from all evil, and no plague comes nigh their dwelling, according to Ps. 91:9, 10, then all who are found written in the book are delivered, according to Dan. 12:1; and, being victors over the beast and his image, they are redeemed from among men, and raise a song of triumph before the throne of God, according to Rev. 14:4; 15:2. The objector may further say, You are altogether too credulous in supposing that all the skeptics of our land, the spiritualists, the German infidels, and the irreligious masses generally, can be so far brought to favor the religious observance of Sunday that a general law can be promulgated in its behalf. We answer: The prophecy must be fulfilled; and if the prophecy requires such a revolution, it will be accomplished. But we do not know that it is necessary. Permit us to suggest an idea, which, though it is only conjecture, may show how enough can be accomplished to fulfill the prophecy without involving the classes mentioned. This movement, as has been shown, must originate with the churches of our land, and be carried forward by them. They wish to enforce certain practices among all the people; and it would be very natural that, in reference to those points respecting which they wish to influence the outside masses, they should see the necessity of first having absolute conformity among all the evangelical denominations. They could not expect to influence non-religionists to any great degree on questions respecting which they were divided among themselves. So, then, let union be had on those views and practices which the great majority already entertain. To this end coercion may first be attempted. But there are a few who cannot possibly attach to the observance of the first day, which the majority wish to secure, any religious obligation; and would it be anything strange for the sentence to be given, Let these few factionists be made to conform, by persuasion, if possible, by force, if necessary. Thus the blow may fall on conscientious commandment-keepers, before the outside masses are involved in the issue at all. And should events take this not improbable turn, it would be sufficient to meet the prophecy, and leave no ground for the objection proposed. To receive the mark of the beast in the forehead, is, we understand, to give the assent of the mind and judgment to his authority in the adoption of that institution which constitutes the mark. By parity of reasoning, to receive it in the hand would be to signify allegiance by some outward act. The number, over which the saints are also to get the victory, is the number of the papal beast, called also the number of his name, and the number of a man, and said to be six hundred threescore and six. The pope wears upon his pontifical crown in jeweled letters, this title: "Vicarius Filii Dei;" "Vicegerent of the Son of God;" the numerical value of which title is just six hundred and sixty-six. The most plausible supposition we have ever seen on this point is that here we find the number in question. It is the number of the beast, the papacy; it is the number of his name; for he adopts it as his distinctive title; it is the number of a man; for he who bears it is the "man of sin." We get the victory over it by refusing those institutions and practices which he sets forth as evidence of his power to sit supreme in the temple of God, and by adopting which we should acknowledge the validity of his title, by conceding his right to act for the church in behalf of the Son of God. And now, reader, we leave with you this subject. We confidently submit the argument as one which is invulnerable in all its points. We ask you to review it carefully. Take in, if thought can comprehend it, the wonderful phenomenon of our own nation. Consider its location, the time of its rise, the manner of its rise, its character, Satan's masterpiece of lying wonders which he has here sprung upon the world, and the elements which are everywhere working to fulfill in just as accurate a manner every other specification of the prophecy. Can you doubt the application? We know not how. Then the last agents to appear in this world's history are on the stage of action, the close of this dispensation is at hand, and the Lord cometh speedily to judge the world. Then an issue of appalling magnitude is before us. It is no less than this: To yield to unrighteous human enactments, soon to be made, and thus expose ourselves to the unmixed wrath of an insulted Creator, or to remain loyal to our God and brave the utmost wrath of the dragon and his infuriated hosts. In reference to this issue, the third angel now utters his solemn and vehement warning. To aid in sounding over the land this timely note of alarm, to impress upon hearts the importance of a right position in the coming issue, and the necessity of pursuing such a course as will secure the favor of God in the season of earth's direst extremity, and a share at last in his glorious salvation, is the object of this effort. And if with any it shall have this effect, the prayer of the writer will not be utterly unanswered, nor his labor be wholly lost. Trials Brighten Christian Grace
The grating file is not more necessary to the polish of metals, than our trials for the brightening of grace in the Christian's soul. The Outrage of Free Bible Distribution
ROMAN Catholic papers are making it a matter of sorrow that in Rome "in all the principal thoroughfares men are hired to walk up and down and present those passing with a Bible for a few soldi." What a distressing state of affairs this terrible outrage of distributing Bibles free indicates! A LETTER from Cincinnati to the Congregationalist, shows how the people of that city spent Sunday at the time of the General Methodist Episcopal Conference there: "Bishop Simpson preached to 7,500, Mr. Ingersoll spoke to 2,500; the Highland House beer garden administered to 10,000 persons; the Protestant Orphan Asylum 8,000, receiving at the gate and the beer-stands nearly $3,000; about 4,000 were at the base-ball grounds, and many at the theaters. The letter says, "We are a persevering, self-denying and self-indulgent people." LET US AWAKE.
By R. F. Cottrell
THE world is dark. Its scenes of woe and terror are sickening to the heart. As if its unavoidable evils were not sufficient for our sinful race, ambition, oppression and malevolence unite to curse our earth with desolation, and steep its fields in human blood, while corruption, fraud, and crimes of the darkest dye are common in the most favored places. We might be relieved, in some measure, from our calamities, but, alas! there is not salt enough left to save us. The people are everywhere too corrupt. And yet men flatter themselves, that there are better days for our earth ahead. That, on the whole, men are growing better, and the fabled conversion of the world will yet prove a reality. Men are so blinded by sin and the corrupting currents of this world, that they fancy themselves in a good case, that they are the favored of the Lord, and are valiant for the truth, when they are in the broad road to perdition. The religious teachings of the day flatter the people with the idea of peace and progress. They lack the "present truth" for the present times. They lack those great prophetic truths which describe the present time with its vast and solemn issues, and they fall short of enforcing the moral obligations which are due to God and his holy law. Here people flatter themselves that they may choose their own course, live in disobedience, and still secure the immortal prize. Can a stream rise higher than its fountain? And yet this generation cannot be saved, unless they rise higher than the tone of the popular teaching of the present day. Oh, that the vail of deception might be rent assunder! Oh, that men could be aroused to their own eternal interests! Oh, that the honest in heart might see the vanity of the flimsy covering with which popular religion covers itself at the present day. If the tremendous scenes, which, as its immediate harbingers, are ushering in the day of the Lord, cannot arouse men to seek for a shelter, what, oh, what can be done for them! Oh, for the Spirit and power of Elijah's God in the hearts of the people who know the solemn truth of the third and last message! Let us arouse, dear brethren, to the thrilling interests of the salvation of men, which hang upon the improvement of so brief a period. When we are fully awake, the Lord will pour out his Spirit—the times of refreshing will come—and the closing work of probation will speedily be accomplished. Let us awake. There is power with God; and we may receive power and guidance from on high, if we earnestly pray, and zealously and diligently work for it. May God reach down his arm of power and help us. "Send us help from the Sanctuary and strengthen us out of Zion."
R. F. COTTRELL. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC QUESTION.
TO UNDERSTAND the papal policy on education, one must appreciate the difference between our common schools and those of Rome. It is well to compare them intellectually and morally, in their aims and tendencies, their principles and results; in their influence upon the character and future of the pupils, and their effect upon the respectability, safety, and prosperity of the State. This necessity is forced upon the intelligent Roman Catholic fathers and mothers who know that a papal decree on mixed education has no infallibility, who value American institutions and the rights of their children as American citizens, and who look with parental care to their fitting instruction. Let the Jesuits once become to the State, as regards education, an imperium in imperio,—let them, independently of the civil power, determine the character of the studies, and the selection and approval of the teachers, taking care, as the Syllabus directs, that the schools shall not be in conformity to the will of the rulers or the prevailing opinion of the age, but shall be joined to the Roman Catholic faith and the power of the Roman Catholic Church,—and on the principle that he who controls the education of a country controls its future, they may with reason regard their hoped-for control of the schools as the capture of the outworks and bulwarks of the republic, whose guns may be turned against all that shall remain of its political and religious freedom. But the antagonism between the Christian teaching given in our public schools in regard to chastity, truth, and justice, etc., and that authorized by the Pope on these points, is, as will presently appear, very striking; and the views of the Roman court as to the intellectual education which they approve for their subjects are equally opposed to those of the American people for what they demand for their children as the future sovereigns of the republic. Cardinal Cullen, in his evidence before the Educational Committee, given in their report of 1870, frankly stated his opinion that education should be limited to “the three R’s, the reading of the Scriptures, and the history of the church. Too much education would make the poor discontented with their lot, and unsuit them for following the plow, using the spade, hammering iron, and building walls.” A view similar to that of Cardinal Cullen was expressed to Mr. Dexter A. Hawkins, of the New York bar, by his excellency, Cardinal Antonelli, who said “that he thought it better that the children should grow up in ignorance than be educated in such a system of schools as the State of Massachusetts supports. That the essential part of education was the catechism; and while arithmetic, and geography, and other similar studies might be useful, they were not essential.” Without referring to similar statistics abroad of reformatories and industrial schools, we find at home census and police returns all telling the same story,—that Roman Catholic schools, as compared with our own, are propaganda of ignorance, superstition, vagrancy, pauperism, and crime; that they endanger society by recruiting the dangerous classes; that they burden society with a load of taxation, and that they endanger the stability of our institutions by debasing our civilization. We shall presently ask how far these influences are accounted for by the character of their teachings. Mr. Hawkins has shown from the United States census of 1870 the comparative number of illiterates, paupers, and criminals, to every 10,000 inhabitants, produced respectively by the Roman Catholic parochial schools, the public schools in twenty-one States, and by the public schools in Massachusetts. When they are arranged for more easy comparison, it is easy to appreciate the objections of Alderman Reardon and his friends, of Cambridgeport, to transfer their children from the State schools of Massachusetts to that of Father Scully. TO EVERY TEN THOUSAND INHABITANTS. |
Illiterates. |
Paupers. |
Criminals. |
|---|
| Roman Catholic Schools |
1,400 |
410 |
100 |
| Public Schools, twenty-one States |
350 |
170 |
75 |
| Public Schools of Massachusetts |
71 |
43 |
11 |
He also showed that in the State of New York the Roman Catholic parochial-school system turned out 3½ times as many paupers as the public school system. To an American who has not marked the progress of the Roman Catholics in America, and their plans as recently developed, the idea of the Jesuits confronting the republic as it enters its second century with an intimation that they are about to control it will seem strange as he recalls the eventful history of that order which has won in turn the detestation of all nations, and the condemnation of the Church of Rome. To-day the revived order appears to be at the head of the church of Rome. The dogma of infallibility is pronounced the logical result of its existence. Dr. Manning represents the Jesuits as leading the mission to England to subdue the will of that imperial race. In America we are told that they have captured our great cities; that by their agents they manipulate the press and secure its silence; that they have revised for the American Encyclopaedia the history of their intrigues and persecutions; that they have driven the Bible from the public schools, arranged terms with party leaders, secured grants of lands and moneys, and annual subsidies in the shape of charities; that they have begun to assert the supremacy of the church over the State, and are preparing for greater triumphs. That there is to be a struggle, and a hard one, for the control in our republic between the people constituting the State and the ecclesiastics who represent the Roman church, no rational man who understands the situation can for a moment doubt. In the light of history and reason it seems equally clear, either that the struggle is now to be decided by maintaining against the opposition, the supremacy of the State in its right of education, intellectual and moral, in its administration of justice, in the safety of elections from priestly control, and in every other legitimate exercise of sovereignty,—or that, if these be yielded through treachery or indifference, the struggle will sooner or later be transferred to the battle-field, and decided in the most terrible of conflicts, a religious war.—John Jay, International Review for March, 1880. THE TANGLED SKEIN.
By Eben E. Rexford
Two men were talking by the sea
Of what had been and what might be,
And as the first his hopes made known
The tide upon the bar made moan. "The boon I ask of fate, is fame—
A world-known and an honored name.
I ask not love. Let that pass by,
If fame be mine that cannot die.
Those in the valley seek for love;
My feet must climb the hights above." "I ask not fame," the other said.
"What matters praise when I am dead?
Be mine the boon of love and home,
From which my feet may never roam.
The lowliest path will pleasant be
If love is there to walk with me." Ah, strange indeed the way of fate,
The tangled threads will not come straight! Love came to him who asked for fame,
The world has never heard his name.
With wife and children by his side,
His neighbors think him satisfied.
But by his hearth he often hears
The great world's praises in his ears,
And wonders vaguely which were best,
The hills wide view, or valley's rest? To him who asked for love and home,
Came fame, and ever he must roam.
Through all the world his name is known,
But he goes on unloved, alone.
Men envy him. They cannot know
The human heart that hungers so
For love and home. Below he sees,
With longing eyes, the valley's peace.
But up the hill he climbs alone;
He asked for bread and found a stone. Oh, sorely-tangled skein of fate!
Some time, God grant, the threads come straight.
—Eben E. Rexford. The Security of Christ’s Righteousness
To admit the righteousness of man, be it ever so little, into the title-deed of heaven, is to admit a flaw into the security. Our fallen nature is like a troubled sea which cannot rest, but is continually casting up mire and dirt. The inspired record shows that our Saviour's life abounded in prayer to his Heavenly Father. He is first presented to us at prayer, at the very beginning of his ministerial work: "Being baptized, and praying, the Heaven was opened." Luke 3:21. He next appears at prayer in the course of his sermon on the mount, when he first delivered the "Lord's prayer." Matt. 6:9. Later in his history, on a different occasion, we find him repeating essentially the same form of prayer. Luke 11:1. About the beginning of his miracles, after great success, he goes out into a mountain near Capernaum, a great while before day, to pray. Mark 1:35. When his enemies were powerfully stirred up against him, he spent a whole night in prayer, and the following day called his twelve apostles. Luke 6:12. At another time his history presents him in the wilderness, praying. Luke 5:16. Again the scene is Jesus alone, praying. Luke 9:18. Again he is surrounded by a great multitude; mothers present their little ones, asking him to put his hands upon them and pray. Matt. 19:13-25. After feeding the five thousand with the five loaves, we find him withdrawing in the evening to a mountain near the Sea of Galilee, and spending a greater part of the night; (about 3 o'clock A. M.) he came to his disciples, walking on the sea. Matt. 14:23-25. At the grave of Lazarus, deeply sympathizing with the bereaved, we hear him groaning (probably mentally praying), and then making a prayer of thanksgiving. John 11:33, 38, 41, 42. The next scene of prayer is upon a mountain near the Sea of Galilee, at the time of his transfiguration. "He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening." Luke 9:28, 29. Next, a few days before his death, he prays and is answered by an audible voice from Heaven. John 12:17, 28. The fullest of all his prayers on record, is that one just after he had instituted the supper, and at the close of his sermon. John 17. Next, the scene is in the dark retired walks of Gethsemane. Alone, at a little distance from Peter and James and John, at the critical period of redemption, with the most urgent entreaty, and yet with submission to the divine will, he prays three times. Matt. 26:39-44. Last of all on the cross, he prays for his enemies, "Father, forgive them," etc., and then prayerfully commends his spirit into the hands of his Father. Luke 23:34, 46. After the resurrection, on four occasions, we find him pronouncing a blessing upon his disciples. Such was the last act of his life on earth. "He led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven." Luke 24:50, 51. We may observe that his prayers were often made alone, sometimes where two or three were met together, sometimes in a larger social circle, and sometimes in the great congregation. He prayed when temptations were before him, after great successes, in times of deep trial, and when he was about to accomplish some important work. As our High Priest, he has now entered into the most holy place, within the true tabernacle, and there "he ever liveth to make intercession" for us. When he taught that "men ought always to pray," he was himself practicing what he preached to us, and as he taught so much both by precept and example, and the Bible introduces the subject so many hundreds of times, and under so great a variety of forms, prayer must be a momentous agency in the economy of grace. "Lord, teach us to pray."— S. F. T., Am. Mess. Worldly Pleasures Are Soul Opiates
The company, the pleasures, and the profits of the world, are opiates to the soul. A Mormon Woman Denounces Her Religion
One of the daughters of Brigham Young has been expelled from the church, because she sued for her share of her father's property. When entreated to return, she said: "My father, prophet though you call him, broke many a woman's heart. If it was required of me to break as many hearts and ruin as many women as my father did, I should go to perdition before I would go back into the church. A religion which breaks women's hearts and ruins them, is of the devil. That's what Mormonism does. Don't talk to me of my father!"