Earlier text: Does the Bible Agree with Science?We give a great many hints to ministers, it may not be amiss once in a while to give some to members. Here are a score—all but the last taken from the Telescope: 1. First of all be sure that your heart is at peace with God, and that the Holy Spirit bears witness of the same. A living membership makes a living church. 2. “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live in peace with all men.” A quarrelsome Christian is a tool of Satan. 3. Show to the world by conduct and conversation that you are interested in the church and religion. 4. Keep in your place. Get neither above it nor below it; and remember, too, that the judgment of your brethren is usually better than your own as to where your place is. 5. Be a worker wherever you are. Church-organizations are neither guest-chambers nor lounging-places; they are workshops. 6. Attend the house of God upon all occasions, whether it be the class-meeting, prayer-meeting, Sabbath-schools, or preaching service. There is always good there for your soul which will not come to you at home. 7. Do not visit on Sabbath, unless it is to talk on religious subjects and to pray. If you are visited, entertain your visitors in this way, and they will not be likely to trouble you again. 8. Pray much!—in your families every day, in your closet often, in your hearts “without ceasing.” 9. Receive your new minister, and make him feel that he is welcome, even though you would have chosen another man. Pay him well; pray for him much; invite people to your church to hear him; always speak well of him if you can, never ill of him if you can avoid it; and as faithful co-laborers with him, do all you can to hold up his hands. 10. Love your minister, but do not worship him; and when he is gone, do not think that God or religion is gone. Pin your faith to no man’s sleeve, but anchor it on God’s throne, and you are safe. 11. Pay liberally, at least one-tenth of your income to benevolent purposes. There are those in the church whom the weight of God’s gold and silver will sink into hell. 12. If you are a tobacco user, quit it and put its equivalent cost into a small box, and give the contents of this box to your minister as a donation. 13. Keep your churches cleanly and in good order, outside and inside (my ruminant brother, chew this awhile). It is a shame how some church-members sometimes defile the house of God. 14. Talk little of troubles in the church to people out of it. 15. Take your church-paper if you can. Know what your church is doing in the world. 16. Know what it is. Inform yourself of its doctrines and principles, and if you like them, be ready to defend them; if you don’t, go where you are better suited. 17. Be social, friendly, brotherly, with all Christians. Forbid none that cast out devils in the name of your Master. 18. Deal honestly, conscientiously, with all men in the affairs of this world; then you can hope to do them good. Do not take undue advantage of your worldly neighbor, and then go to church and pray God to have mercy on his soul. 19. Do these and as many other good things as you can think of, in the fear of God, for the love of Jesus, and you will grow in grace, be useful in your time, and receive the reward of a faithful servant at last. 20. If you do not file your paper, cut this out and put it where you may give it an occasional reading. AN eminent divine was once trying to teach a number of children that the soul would live after they were dead. They listened, but evidently did not understand it; he was too abstract. Snatching his watch from his pocket, he said: “James, what is that I hold in my hand?” “A watch, sir,” “a clock,” says another. “Do you all see it?” “Very well. Can any of you hear it tick? All listen now.” After a pause, “Yes sir, we hear it.” He then took off the case, and held the case in one hand, and the watch in the other. “Now, children, which is the watch? You see there are two which look like watches?” “The little one, in your right hand, sir?” “Very well. But how do you know that this is the watch?” “Very well, again. Now I will lay the case aside—put it away, there—down, down in my hat. Now let us see if you can hear the watch tick.” “Yes, sir, we hear it,” exclaimed several voices. “Well, the watch can tick, and go, and keep time, you see, when the case is taken off and put away in my hat. “So it is with you, children; your body is nothing but the case, the soul is inside. The case, the body, may be taken off and buried in the ground, and the soul will live and think just as well as this watch will go, as you see, when the case is off.” This made it plain, and even the youngest went home and told his mother that “his thoughts would tick after he was dead.” The foregoing is a fair specimen of the false teaching of those who profess to be instructors of the young. The plastic mind of childhood is impressed with the mould of error, and it is well nigh impossible to change the impression in after years. Brethren who send their children to Sunday schools should be careful to learn what impressions are made there, and if error is taking root, pluck it up at once, and plant in its stead the seed of truth. There are many other minds which swallow the lesson taught in the above illustration, as truthful, never doubting for a moment but what it is in harmony with the teachings of the Bible, philosophy and experience. For the benefit of such, we will examine it in the light of reason and Scripture for a short time. The lesson teaches that we are not unit in our natures, but dual—that is, that the body we see, feel, handle, talk and walk with, is not the real man, or child, but merely a case which covers the real, living, thinking, acting man inside. The watch which ticked and had life and motion was inside the case, and could manifest the same life and motion without the case as with it. But we object to the illustration as unfair. Unless our teacher can show us a soul which exhibits life, thought, and motion apart from the body, as the watch does apart from the case, we cannot receive his comparison as good. The truth is, we know the watch can tick without the case, because we can see and hear it. But how does he know the soul can tick apart from the body? He cannot give a single instance from the experience of 6,000 years past, nor from his own personal experience. It is a pure assumption on his part, without a particle of proof. Give us the proof. Perhaps he will claim that although he is unable to give us a visible instance which we can accept as satisfactory, yet he can prove it from the word of God. If he can we will accept it. But not a single proof can be found in the Bible. It is as silent as the grave concerning such a doctrine. It nowhere teaches that men's “thoughts tick after they are dead.” On the contrary it teaches that they perish. With David we say, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish.” Psa. 146 : 3, 4. Not so, says our teacher. In that very day his thoughts expand and grow amazingly, being released from the case, or body, which is returned to the earth. Thought is an attribute of the soul, and not of the body. Consequently, though we may lay away the body, or case in the grave, yet the soul, which is the thinking part of man, lives on, or as the child said, “his thoughts would tick after he was dead.” Here, we see, is a plain issue between David and our teacher. The teacher says that our thoughts do not perish when we are laid in the earth, but they tick on as before. David says, “in that very day they perish,” come to naught, or cease. Shall we believe the inspired writer, or shall we put our trust in “the son of man in whom there is no help?” The former, of course. Solomon, in contrasting the difference between the living and the dead, said, “the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything.” Eccl. 9 : 5. Our teacher would have us believe that dead men know as much as when living, because their thoughts do not cease. Again, Solomon says of those who are dead, that “their love and their hatred, and their envy is now perished.” Verse 6. If a man is incapable of loving after he is dead, how does this agree with the teaching that our dead friends are hovering over us, LOVING us, and caring for us? Either this teaching is false, or Solomon was wrong. Isaiah, 1160 years after Abraham died, wrote as follows: “Doubtless thou [God] art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us.” Chap. 63 : 16. If Abraham was in Heaven and his thoughts could tick with as much freedom then as before he died, how is it that he could be ignorant concerning his offspring? It must be as David says, when Abraham was laid in the cave of Machpelah, “in that very day his thoughts perished,” or as Solomon declared that being dead, “he knew not anything.” We might multiply testimony on this subject, but we forbear. We have quoted sufficient to show that a man's “thoughts do not tick after he is dead,” although a watch may tick without its case.—Restitution. I long to see the Saviour come
In yonder clouds of glory bright,
And take to their eternal home
His ransomed people clothed in white. I long to see those loved ones dear,
Triumphant from the grave arise,
No more in pain to suffer here,
Forever safe in Paradise. I long to see the ransomed host
Of every age, and tongue, and tribe,
O’er death and graveyards make their boast,
And glory to their Lord ascribe. I long to see the curse removed,
And sin and death forever die,
And all those who have faithful proved,
Immortal bloom, no more to sigh. I long to hear the welcome sound—
“Well done, thou servant of my choice,
Thou didst in works of love abound,
And faithfully obeyed my voice.” I long to wear the crown of life,
When victory through Christ I’ve won,
When freed from earthly toil and strife,
And Jesus’ will on earth I’ve done. I long to pluck from life’s fair tree
The monthly fruit of various kind;
I long to drink life’s water free,
And pleasures new forever find. THE Bible is, indeed, amongst books what the diamond is amongst stones, the preciousest, and the sparklingest, the most proper to make impressions. DR. EDDY lately attended the “Preacher’s” Meeting of the Western Methodist Book Concern, at Cincinnati, Ohio. From his report to the Methodist, we extract the following statements:— “The pastors are much interested on the Sabbath question. German influence audaciously demands the abrogation of Sunday laws, and cowardly political leaders attempt to silence the religious public, lest German infidels shall leave the party. Just now we see how God works when we know it not. The little handful of German Methodists has grown to be a power in behalf of our Sabbath, and is able to rally a German force so strong as to make the beer-drinking skeptics tremble.” The Boston Herald—The Sabbath.
By Uriah Smith
The Boston Herald has a department entitled, “Letters from the People,” in which the conductors of that journal, without any reference to their own views, propose to let the people express their opinions on any subject of general interest, the only conditions imposed being that all opinions shall be expressed with courtesy, and with as much brevity as is consistent with the subject in hand. While in Boston, last August, my attention was called to a paragraph by J. Loring, published in this department of that paper, entitled “Sunday Weeding.” To this I wrote a brief reply, which called out a response from D. V. O’Leary, to which I have also replied. The Herald is an influential paper, circulating daily about 80,000 copies; and all who are interested in the Sabbath question will be pleased to learn what statements on this subject have been laid before its readers. The following are the articles in question, the first appearing in the daily Herald of Aug. 4, 1871: “Editor of the Herald: I have recently come to New England to reside. I have been in the habit of hoeing up the weeds in my garden on Sunday. Last Sunday one of my neighbors spoke to me, as I was passing his house, and inquired if I did not know it was illegal and wicked to do so. As I said I did not, he went on to inform me that it not only subjected me to arrest, fine, and imprisonment, under the statute laws of Massachusetts, but by the divine law I deserved to be stoned to death and roasted in hell forever. He said he saw me, and seriously thought of coming over and stoning me, but concluded not to, on the consideration that it might be a sin of ignorance rather than wilfulness. I thanked him for the forbearance, and promised to inform myself on the subject, and, if I found he was right, to abstain from such risky business in the future. Please inform me and others who may be in equal need of the information, if my neighbor is right. I wish to be a good citizen, and have no desire to be stoned to death or suffer everlasting torture on account of a few weeds.
“J. LORING.” The following in response to the foregoing was published in the Herald of Aug. 17, 1871: “Editor of the Herald: I was much interested in the paragraph with this heading, from J. Loring, in your issue of Aug. 4th. Having made this subject a matter of considerable study, allow me to state, for his benefit, but more especially for that of his friend who was inclined to stone him to death for hoeing his garden on that day, that Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath, because (1.) Christ never spoke of the day in any manner; (2.) no divine being ever rested upon that day; (3.) no blessing was ever placed upon it; (4.) it was never sanctified, or set apart, for man; (5.) no divine law was ever given for its observance, and hence no law is violated by working upon it; and (6.) as sin is the transgression of the law, no sin is committed by doing any lawful business, either weeding garden, or anything else, upon that day; (7.) the apostles did not keep the day; according to Acts 20: 7–14, 1 Cor. 16: 1, 2, they used it as a secular day; (9.) the first law for its observance was the edict of Constantine, A. D. 321, which was put forth in its behalf as a heathen holiday; (10.) Constantine being converted two years after, this law was used to enforce it as a Christian festival; (11.) Pope Sylvester was chiefly instrumental in transforming it into a Christian Sabbath, authoritatively giving it the title of Lord’s day; (12.) the Sabbath which is now binding upon mankind is the original Sabbath, that of the fourth commandment, the seventh day of the week, which has come down, with the rest of the moral law, unrepealed and unchanged; all of which propositions are sustained by the Bible and history. If J. Loring is a conscientious observer of the seventh day, I understand the statutes of Massachusetts allow him to pursue his ordinary business on the first day.
U. SMITH.” This called out the following response published in the Herald of Aug. 23. “SUNDAY THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.”
“Editor of the Herald: In answer to your correspondent, U. Smith, I would suggest that he ought to make himself better acquainted with ecclesiastical history before he maintains that Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. We find that the apostles always held their assemblies for divine service on that day, as we read in Acts 20: 7, and 1 Cor. 16: 2, and St. John expressly calls it the Lord’s day, Rev. 1: 10; and we find in every age and in every country where the gospel was preached, that Sunday was the Christian Sabbath, because it was so taught by the practice of the apostles, as before stated.
“Now as to the power of the apostles to change the Sabbath, Christ said to them, ‘All power is given to me in Heaven and on earth.’ Matt. 28: 18. ‘As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.’ John 20: 21. ‘Whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven.’ Matt. 16: 19.” “I will now give an example of how the early Christians regarded the Sunday long before the reign of Constantine or Pope Sylvester, in the year 304, in the persecution of Diocletian, in the city of Abitina, in the proconsular province of Africa, Saturninus, a priest of the city, celebrated the Divine Mysteries on Sunday, he and the principal persons of his congregation were seized and carried to Carthage before the proconsul Anulinus. When the proconsul asked them how dare they hold their assemblies on Sunday against the imperial edict, they answered: ‘The obligation of the Sunday is indispensable; it is not lawful for us to omit the duties of that day; we never pass a Sunday without meeting at our assembly.’ Baluzius t. 2; also Bollandus and Ruinart.” “I have shown that the apostles had full power to change the day of the Sabbath, or to raise the dead even to life. I have also shown that by their practice they did change it, and that all Christian nations followed their example. I will now show the reasons which induced them to change it to Sunday. 1. Christ our Lord was born on that day. 2. Christ our Lord rose from the dead on that day. 3. The Holy Ghost descended on the apostles on that day to give them miraculous powers to enable them to preach the gospel to all nations. Those wonders which God performed on the first day of the week for the salvation of all mankind, are more stupendous than the creation, and are more than sufficient to justify the change of the Sabbath to that day.” “Whoever, therefore, does any servile work on that day, violates a prime law of God’s church, and he is no more than the heathen and the publican, for Christ says, ‘He that will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.’ Luke 10: 16; Matt. 18: 17.
“DENIS V. O’LEARY.” To this the following reply was prepared and sent to the Herald, Sept. 4, 1871. “SUNDAY NOT THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.”
“Editor of the Herald: In view of the proportions which the Sabbath question is beginning to assume as one of the great questions of the day, I trust you will feel justified in granting a little more space to its consideration. The answer of your correspondent, Denis V. O’Leary, to my note on “Sunday Weeding,” in your issue of Aug. 17, has just come to my notice. He, in common with all Papists, rests the Sunday Sabbath on the authority of the church. I, in common with all Protestants, deny the authority of the church to change a law of God. An examination of the Sabbath question from his standpoint would involve the prior examination of this question of church authority, into which it is not my purpose at present to enter. I take issue with Protestants, and claim, that in their defense of Sunday observance, they stand upon Roman Catholic ground. In the “Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion,” it is claimed that the church has made the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to first day of the week. In another Catholic work, entitled, “Abridgment of Christian Doctrine,” pp. 57–59, is found an exposition of the third commandment, in which occur the following question and answer: ‘Ques. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? Ans. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.’ To the same end see “Catholic Christian Instructed,” pp. 207–211, “Treatise of Thirty Controversies,” “Doctrinal [Cath] Catechism,” pp. 101, 174, 351, 355, &c. Protestants should acquaint themselves with what Romanists claim in this matter, and know that the great Reformation will not be complete till this festival, like all others of that church, is set aside.” According to the fundamental principles of Protestantism, that the Bible and the Bible only is the rule of faith and practice, I feel very confident in affirming that Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. Suppose Christ was born upon a Sunday, which may be questioned, and rose from the dead on Sunday, and the Spirit was poured out upon a Sunday, how can this prove, without a syllable of inspired instruction upon the point, that Sunday thereby acquired authority to array itself in the habiliments of the fourth commandment, and spurn from the divine temple the original Sabbath, which was as old as creation, and had been up to that time enjoined with all the authority of God’s immutable law? There is no record in the New Testament of any meeting held by the disciples in the day-time of the first day of the week. The meeting of Acts 20: 7 was held in the evening of that day, corresponding, as days were then reckoned, to our Saturday night. See Conybeare and Howson’s Life and Epistles of St. Paul, in loc. And when Sunday morning dawned, Paul, so far from keeping that day as a Sabbath, resumed his journey toward Jerusalem. See verses 8, 11, 13, 14. The direction given by Paul in 1 Cor. 16: 2, did not enjoin the putting of gifts into the contribution box in the public congregation, but the setting of them aside privately at home. See the original Greek, and the Vulgate, Douay, French, German, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and other translations of this passage. This looking over one’s business, and setting apart for religious purposes such an amount as would correspond to the financial prosperity of the preceding week, would be very appropriate work for a secular day, but not for a holy one. The Lord’s day of Rev. 1: 10, must be that day of which he expressly claims to be Lord; and that day is the Sabbath. Mark 2: 28. The term Lord’s day was not applied to the first day of the week till so used by Tertullian, A. D. 200; with whom also we find the first traces of resting from labor on that day. See Kitto, Cyc. Bib. Lit., art., Lord’s Day. The change was accomplished by a long and gradual process, the Sabbath being very generally observed several hundred years after our Saviour’s crucifixion. But Sunday enlarged its claims and increased its influence, just in proportion as the power of superstition strengthened in the church, and the darkness of the dark ages came down upon the world. See History of the Sabbath by J. N. Andrews, in the Public Library of this City.
U. SMITH.” Whether or not this last reply has appeared in the Herald, I have not learned. If it has not, many will be disposed to raise the question, why it has not. It certainly complies with the most rigid construction that can be put upon the conditions upon which contributions are admitted to that paper. Its statements are courteous; and to every Sabbath-keeper who knows how much wanted to be said, it will appear a marvel of brevity; and good authorities are referred to for all the statements made. We shall be happy to learn that it has been inserted according to request.
U. S. Don't Read Novels.
By Uriah Smith
A SISTER writes to us with a heart full of sorrow. Some years since, when the present truth was first brought to them, her husband received it joyfully. He took the REVIEW, and read it eagerly. He feasted on its words of sobriety and truth. And so highly did he prize it, that he declared he would do extra work nights to earn money to pay for it, rather than do without it. Then a change came. He began to read exciting stories and works of fiction. He began to open the door to a habit more insidious in its working; and as fatal in its effects upon the moral nature, as a love for strong drink. The result could be easily foreseen. Just in proportion as he yielded to the fatal charm of the serpent, just to that degree that he fell under the fascinating power of fiction, just to that degree he lost his taste for that reading which deals with the unvarnished and sober realities of life, and points the mind forward to the still sterner realities of a Judgment to come. As a consequence, his interest in the REVIEW began to wane. He became less and less a reader of its contents, till he ceased its perusal altogether. If this were all, it would not be so serious a matter. But the work did not stop here. It is impossible for a person to entirely lose his interest in a journal devoted wholly to the defense and advocacy of a special truth, and yet maintain in his heart any fervency of love for the truth itself. And so in this case. The waning love of this individual for the REVIEW, was an index of his waning love for the truths which the REVIEW advocates. And hence, not long after he ceased to be a reader of the paper, he ceased also to be an observer of the Sabbath. Thus, the love of fiction has drawn this man away from the worship of God, and will, unless he shall recover himself from this snare of the devil, drown him in perdition at last. Don't read novels. They poison the mind. They destroy a taste for all that is useful, wholesome, and true. They root out from the heart all love and regard for sacred things. Under their influence, the mind reels and staggers no less really than the body under the influence of rum. They who, taking advantage of persons bound in the chains of an uncontrollable habit, distil poison for the body, and seek to rivet still firmer their chains that they may fatten on their ruin, are deserving of unmeasured execration. But what shall be said of those who run the more damnable distillery of poison for the mind? The true history of the novelist may be written in four sentences: 1. A life spent in the preparation of deadly narcotics for the mind, which will work moral devastation and ruin wherever they are spread among the people. 2. A few shouts of short-lived and senseless adulation from those who are drunken with their potions. 3. Curses from their victims when the Judgment shall awaken them to true views of life, time and eternity, Heaven and hell. 4. An everlasting consumption in the lake of fire. Don't read novels. You will not be able to account in the Judgment for time thus spent. The world is full of this trash, but we are not obliged to meddle with it. Flee from it as you would from a fatal pestilence. Don't take it into your house any more than you would expose your bosom to the fangs of a venomous serpent. We have too much at stake to deal with aught but that which will be for our good, both in this world and the world to come. You Are Losing Time.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
Convinced of truth and duty, and postponing obedience, you are losing time; and as time, or the use we make of it, is the price of eternity, you are, in the course you are pursuing, losing eternity. You are waiting for more certain evidence on some points. You can see many parts of the present truth; and you can also see a beautiful harmony in the whole; but because you do not see more convincing evidence on every point, you neglect to obey what you do see. The truth is clear and right. The evidences are sufficient. The difficulty is in the deceitful heart. You love the world, its riches, its honors. “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor which cometh from God only?” This is what feeds and strengthens the “evil heart of unbelief,” and prevents one from exercising the faith that is able to save the soul. While you occupy this doubting and delaying ground you are losing time; and if this course is persisted in, you lose eternal life. The prospect of the final, dreadful loss is right before you in the way that you are going. Nothing is more certain than this dreadful result. Unbelief and sin surely lead to ruin. You are losing time. You should be letting the light shine. You should be laboring to save others as well as yourself. You might be doing good, and making it possible for the Master finally to say to you, Well done. But you are squandering the precious time which God is giving you in which to labor; thus constantly making it more probable that you will lose yourself. You cannot afford, did you know it, to lose the world to come, because your faith is not strong enough to let go of this. Be entreated to change your course. Cherish faith. Give your doubts to the winds. The Lord will take care of his own cause and perfect his own work. It is because God has set his hand to restore the truth to his people, and thus prepare them for translation, that you have the truth which you have, and which you are delaying to obey. Acknowledge what he has done for you, and he will do more. Walk in the light, and light will increase. Exercise the little faith you have, making it perfect by corresponding works, and your faith will increase. Give up the present world, and your hold on the future world will strengthen, and your prospect of obtaining it brighten. Do not, I beseech you, longer waste your precious time. It will soon, very soon, all be gone. Take your position without delay while it is called To-day. It is high time to awake out of sleep. Let unbelief bind you no longer. Break the bonds before they are made stronger. Arise to duty, and work while the day lasts. God is calling you to let your light shine. Satan is urging you still to cover it up with the unbelief which you have so long fostered. Break away. Redeem the time while a little is left in which you may secure eternal life. Do not waste more of this precious opportunity, and so mourn at the last that the harvest is past and the summer ended, and the priceless gift of eternal life lost. Yes, lost! forever lost!! R. F. COTTRELL. Christ’s Rule of Greatness.
By George Ide Butler
In Matt. 20:20–28, we have a principle set before us that seems to be properly designated as Christ’s rule of greatness. We read as follows: “There came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with; but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant (servant of all. Mark.), even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” I have given this long quotation from Scripture, believing that the principle involved is important enough to warrant it. It is evident that a position at the right hand and left hand of the Saviour, near his person, in his kingdom, is a place of special honor. With that natural selfishness innate to the human heart, the mother of James and John, as well as themselves, desired to obtain this position for her sons. The answer of the Saviour seems to imply that there will be some who will obtain this special honor, as though the reward of some would be higher than that of others, but that the Father is the Judge who will bestow the reward. The Saviour also informs us that the conditions upon which this special honor will be given, are different from those that obtain among the princes of the Gentiles; that is, earthly rulers. We well know how it is arranged in this world among the great. Those persons who are permitted to come especially near the royal persons are those who are great in command among men, such as generals and legislators. But he says it shall not be so among his followers. “Whosoever will be chief, let him be servant of all.” And now he gives us the highest illustration possible, viz., his own example. As he is our Master, he has set the example he desires us to follow. And what is it? “Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” The very burden and weight we ought to bear, he carried for us, took the lowest place, suffered the most shameful death, and this without murmuring or complaining. What a value he has attached, by this, to genuine humility, and set this grace, as it were, in the highest place! In this scripture our Saviour plainly teaches that those who are willing to suffer most for others’ good, and take the lowest, hardest position (and that, no doubt, without grumbling, or murmuring, or boasting of it as though they should receive special consideration because they do, for this would show that the true spirit was lacking), are the ones who, in the final Judgment, will stand highest in the favor of God. How important that our eyesight be clear enough, our discernment penetrating enough, and our faith and patience strong enough, to truly appropriate the principles of Heaven. What a pity it would be for us to go along deceived by the jingle of bogus coin and reject the true gold of Heaven. The principles of self-sacrifice and true humility, resting upon the broad foundation of love, must fill our hearts just as they did the heart of our Master. Nothing else will weigh in the balances of the sanctuary. No doubt the course pursued by the mother and children in the scripture above quoted has often looked bad to us, as it did to the ten; but whether in our hearts we have never been actuated by the same principle is another question, and one of some importance to us all. Every effort on our part to show ourselves at a special advantage by fine dress or gay appearance, to get applause to ourselves; every time we try to appear especially smart by words or acts to attract others’ attention to us; this principle manifests itself. It is the great principle of selfishness instead of the great principle of love. One is the leading principle of hell, the other of Heaven. Which do we possess? But few of us realize the sinfulness of selfishness. We generally think ourselves justified in being tolerably selfish. But what makes our earth to-day the abode of misery and wretchedness? The selfishness of man. Thousands act through life upon this principle, who fail of obtaining what they seek after; but their motives will be seen in the day of Judgment to be equally bad as the motives of those who have succeeded, and they will go to the same place. Here in this world we must learn the principles of Heaven if we ever go to Heaven. Love, undying love, characterized our blessed Saviour in all his life, and in his death, and in his ministration above. He is our highest example. We must follow him if we ever go to the same place. Selfishness, in its varied forms, is eating out the spiritual life of thousands of our people. Ministers are, judging by the testimonies of late, even more in danger than laymen. As a class, we do not like to be “servants of all,” but to be looked up to and honored; to have things altogether pleasant, so that our life may be easy. Ministers are very liable to be selfish in their labor. Any burden that involves labor, unpleasantness, and extra responsibility, is apt to be shouldered upon others, while we desire those that will bring us a good name and involve less labor and hardship. Selfishness is just as great a sin in these respects as in any other, and worse, because coming from those of whom better things are expected. But let us never forget that the Saviour, in this scripture, has set before us a higher, a nobler principle, and given us to understand that selfishness will not be the principle upon which the Judge of all the earth will act when he metes out the final reward, but its opposite; and that the man who will really “be chief” will here be “servant of all,” ready to do the most menial duty if by so doing God’s precious truth may be advanced, or precious souls be saved.