Men and Things by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 2, 1871

Men and Things.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

CHURCH UNION.

The work moves on. Both the church and the world are preparing for the final conflict of the great day. “Confederacy” (Isa. 8) is now the order of the day among the different churches. They well understand that they must all unite upon some basis before they can bring their forces to bear upon politics and the laws of the land. Hence the following from the Cincinnati Times explains itself:

“Proposed Union of Evangelical Societies.—Washington, March 21.—More than one hundred clergymen and prominent laymen of several Evangelical Christian denominations of this city and District, met together at breakfast, this morning, at the Arlington, by invitation of Dr. Cather of England, to discuss the question of Christian moral science as proposed by the English Society of which the doctor is the secretary. The Hon. H. D. Cooke presided, and Senators Buckingham and Logan, the Hon. Montgomery Blair, Major Emory, the Rev. Drs. Samson, Newman, Mitchell, and other clergymen and public men, were present. After a bountiful repast, the reading of appropriate Scripture, and the singing of hymns, the doctor explained the object of his Society to be the union of all the Evangelical churches in catholic work, with careful preservation of all the distinctive features of the various sects. Drs. Cameron, Cuthbert, McKine, and other speakers, warmly advocated the project. It is proposed to form a Council of 500 members, to meet at New Haven or New York at an early day, before Dr. Cather’s return to England.”

A NOBLE WOMAN.

How sad to see so many young women who might be of use in society, throwing themselves away in folly, in dress, in pleasure, and in idleness! The mass of them simply live to see and be seen, to appear the doll and act the belle or the coquette. They die, and in a moment are forgotten. Their life has been all a vanity. How cheering then to find here and there a noble exception, a young woman who gives her life to God and to suffering humanity. Such will have their reward in the world to come. Read the following:—

“Dr. Chalmers’ daughter.—In one of the alleys running off from Fountain Bridge, Edinburgh, a street crowded with drunkenness and pollution, is the low-roofed building in which this good woman is spending her life to help unfortunates out of their miseries. Her chief work is with drunkards, their wives and daughters. Some of the poor women of the neighborhood who have sober husbands complain against her, saying: Why do you pass us? Because our husbands are good, you do not care for us. If we had married some worthless sot, you would then have taken care of us in our poverty!”

“In the winter, when the nights are long and cold, you may see Helen Chalmers, with her lantern, going through the lanes of the city, hunting up the depraved, and bringing them out to her reform meetings. Insult her, do they? Never! They would as soon think of pelting an angel of God. Fearless and strong in the righteousness of her work, she goes up to a group of intoxicated men, shakes hands with them, and takes them along to hear the Thursday night speech on Temperance.

“One night as she was standing in a low tenement, talking with the intemperate father, and persuading him to a better life, a man kept walking up and down the room, as though interested in what was said; but finally in his intoxication, he staggered up to her, and remarked: ‘I shall get to Heaven as easy as you will; do you not think so?’ Helen answered not a word, but opened her Bible and pointed to the passage: ‘No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God.’ The arrow struck between the joints of the harness, and that little piece of Christian strategy ended in that man’s reformation.”—Rev. T. De Witt Talmage.

A GOOD WORD FOR THE BIBLE.

The following excellent words in favor of the good old family Bible are to be credited to the Christian Union:—

“Neither Ritualism nor Ecclesiasticism finds any support in the New Testament. These vagaries, in all their forms, did not begin till after the New Testament books had all been written by their divinely-inspired authors. In fact Ritualists and Ecclesiastics never trust their cause to the Bible. They always appeal to church traditions as an authority of equal value with the Scriptures themselves, and claim that the Bible must be interpreted by church tradition. The very best safeguard against the modern tendencies to Ritualism and Romanism is a good understanding of the Bible itself.

“The Bible, in its simplicity and plainness, brings the soul in direct contact with God. In this respect, there is no literature of any age or nation to be compared with it. No repetition of study can exhaust its treasures of this kind. The old Christian, who has been in the habit of reading the Bible every day for seventy years, finds it just as fresh and new to-day as when he first opened its pages. It never grows stale, but he relishes it more and more with every new perusal. This is a universal fact, well known and quite surprising to the unbeliever. The believer can never get tired of the Bible just because he can never get tired of God.

“The world is full of calamity and suffering; it always has been, and seems likely to be for many generations to come. In all the sufferings of men in all public calamities, in all private sorrows, the Bible is the great consoler. It brings a balm for every wound, and turns even anguish into joy.” D. M. CANRIGHT.