At the end of the first half year of our school term, cards of standing—both in studies and in deportment and diligence—were issued to the boys in all the grades, as the parents are quite anxious to know the progress and behavior of their sons. One young man felt quite dissatisfied with his markings, compared with those of others, and came to me with his grievances. Being of rather frank make-up, he said, “Plenty boys not satisfied with their grades, but they jist keep still; but I must come speak to you. Other boys, suppose not satisfied, just ask God to help them, and say nothing; but I can’t do that way, I must come speak you.”
Yesterday one of the home boys had the toothache, and came for permission to go home to ask his father what was best to do. I asked if he had a cavity in the troublesome tooth, to which he replied, “Yes, one hole in it. I think before, I eat too much sweet things, because I don’t know; suppose I know, I don’t do that.” Just the day before, in his beginning physiology lesson, he had read that too many sweets caused injury to the teeth, and he felt quite capable of diagnosing his own case. This boy just started in the first reader last July. He is now studying first physiology, the second book in Bell’s language series, and the life of Christ in the Gospels.
We have occasional evidence of the quiet working of the Holy Spirit on some boys’ hearts in a manner of which the following case is an illustration: A boy of seventeen, who entered school the latter part of September, able to speak scarcely a word of English, of a very diffident and reserved turn of mind, is now in the third reader. Although it has been quite difficult for him to acquire correct enunciation and ability to converse in English, he surprised his teacher the other day by repeating from memory the first five beatitudes. His class is just getting started in a study of the life of Christ. This incident alone would not count for so much, were it not for the fact that about the same time he was observed to go alone into the chapel some time before morning worship, and sing in a quiet way from his book, “Christ in Song.” The next day after this, while the boys were holding a meeting in the assembly room, he brought his Sabbath-school lesson book along, and studied it during the preliminaries of the meeting and at times during its progress.
Allusion has been made, in these notes, to a young man in our school and home who has accepted Christ, and is keeping all His commandments. Some time ago this young man’s Bible class had a written review on the fall of man and the plan of salvation, the study on which had been based on “Early Writings.” Here are the questions asked, with the answers in his own words:—
Question.— What was the feeling in heaven when man fell?
Answer.— Sorrow filled heaven when it was realized that man was forever lost.
Q.— How did Jesus show his sympathy and sorrow?
A.— Jesus had an expression of sympathy, sorrow, and belovedness on His face as He realized that man was lost. He went to intercede with the Father, and offered His life as a ransom for man.
Q.— What way was found for man to obtain pardon?
A.— There was a way to be saved for lost man. He told the angels that He would give His life for man and come down to the world to die an ignominious death, that through the merits of His blood and obedience to the law of God they may obtain pardon.
Q.— Tell what Jesus should suffer.
A.— Jesus said He would come down to the earth and humble himself as a man, and suffer almost every cruelty that Satan could inspire wicked men to inflict. He said He would suffer not only bodily agony, but mental also.
Q.— What would make His mental agony so great?
A.— His mental agony was so great because the weight of the sin of the whole world was on Him.
Q.— What did the angels offer?
A.— The angels prostrated themselves before Jesus, and they offered their lives.
Q.— Why could not an angel’s life pay the debt?
A.— An angel’s life was not valuable enough to pay the debt, but the Son’s life would be accepted by the Father as a ransom for men.
Q.— What part should angels have in the plan of salvation?
A.— Jesus told the angels that they would have a part in the plan of salvation, and at different times strengthen Him and the “subjects of grace” when they were in need.
Q.— What was a struggle with the Father?
A.— It was even a struggle with God whether to let guilty men perish or to let His beloved Son to die for them.
Q.— What caused Satan and his angels to rejoice?
A.— Satan rejoiced because he could pull down the Son of God by man’s fall. He has fallen from heaven, and cause others to fall with him.
Q.— What should cause us to rejoice?
A.— We rejoice because God has decided to let His Son to die for man, and not let us perish. We also rejoice, because we can have salvation through our Saviour’s death, and that the plan has succeeded.
Q.— Describe Satan as he is now.
A.— Satan still bears a kingly form. His face was filled with anxiety, care, unhappiness, deceit, and every evil. His forehead begins from his brow to recede. His eyes are cunning, sly, and full of penetration. He wears a smile in his face, as he makes sure of his victim; as he gets hold of it, the smile grows horrible.
This young man’s name is Young Charm. He is of medium stature, with large eyes, frank, open face, erect figure, brimful of vivacity and restless energy. He is a general favorite among the boys, and a leader in all their games. He is foremost in all his studies, and loves his Bible most of all. Aside from his class work in the latter, he studies much for the love of it, and may be found early every morning before worship, and often after evening study, in his schoolroom, alone with his Bible and his God. He is eager for more truth, and is constantly inquiring on passages he finds in private study. He sometimes comes with a statement something like this: “I want to study some prophecy.” When asked, “What prophecy would you like to study?” he replies, “Some prophecy not fulfilled yet.” He has started on a systematic study of Revelation, with the assistance of a teacher.
He has a teachable spirit and a tender conscience. One day at Chinese New-year, coming in from a walk, he asked; “What does the Bible say about foods offered to idols?” Being asked why he wished to know that, he said he saw the Chinese offering food to their idols, and then eating it themselves. We went over passages in the New and Old Testaments on the subject, and he seemed satisfied. About the same time Dr. Kellogg’s two articles in Good Health on flesh-eating from a Biblical standpoint, reached us, and Ah Charm read them both. From that time on, he could not force himself to eat flesh of any kind; “for,” said he, “even fish are strangled.” He ate nothing but rice and vegetables for several days, till finally he and a schoolmate whom he had been carrying along with him in his study as fast as he himself understood, asked permission to board themselves on a healthful diet. So we fitted up a room for them in our own house, and for more than a month they have been subsisting on a hygienic diet, doing all their own work, with such assistance and instruction as we can give them. They are enjoying14it much, and say they do not wish to return to the old diet.
When the idea was first conceived, however, Ah Charm was so characteristically enthusiastic over it that he wanted to carry all the boys in the home along with him. So he talked it up among them of his own accord, and reported that most of the boys wanted to change to a more healthful diet. It being suggested that if that was the case, it might be well to circulate a petition to that effect, and give the boys an opportunity to express themselves in writing, he went to work, and before night had the signature of every boy in the home, except two, to a petition headed, “Want to live on health foods. No meats.” Our teachers considered the petition carefully, but, much to their embarrassment, found it impracticable to meet the demand with the help we have. But the boy did his part thoroughly and well, and won one boy completely to health principles, and they both discarded flesh food before they started in to board themselves. Their pictures, taken on the date of writing, are on the preceding page. The one to the left is Young Charm. W. E. HOWELL.
