News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 21, 1871

News and Miscellany.

“Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

The small-pox seems to have got a terrible hold upon Philadelphia. For the week ending November 4, the number of deaths was 567; for the year ending 1870, 2,168; in other words, there were sixteen times as many deaths from this disease last week as there are on an average during the year. The pest, it is said, was brought thither by Indian buffalo robes from infected tribes. These robes had been quarantined by the Government, but they were smuggled through.

The old Roman Catholic church of St. Basil, at Seville, Spain, has been opened for Protestant evangelical worship. The church buildings comprise a good day-school, and a Sunday-school is in full operation. In Seville there are now five congregations of Spanish Protestants, with Spanish evangelical preachers, and upward of 700 Sunday scholars.

INFLUENCE OF TEMPER ON THE VOICE. The influence of temper upon tone deserves much consideration. Habits of querulousness, or ill-nature, will communicate a cat-like quality to the singing, as infallibly as they give a quality to the speaking voice. That there really exist amiable tones, is not an unfounded opinion. In the voice there is no deception; it is, to many, the index of the mind, denoting moral qualities; and it may be remarked, that the low, soft tones of gentle and amiable beings, whatever their musical endowments may be, seldom fail to please; besides which, the singing of ladies indicates the cultivation of their taste generally, and the embellishment of the mind.

TRUTH IN BRIEF.—Anybody can soil the reputation of any individual, however pure and chaste, by uttering a suspicion that his enemies will believe and his friends never hear of. A puff of the idle wind can take a million of the seeds of a thistle, and do a work of mischief which the husbandman must labor long to undo, the floating particles being too fine to be seen, and too light to be stopped. Such are the seeds of slander, so easily sown, so difficult to be gathered up, and yet so pernicious in their fruits. The slanderer knows that many a mind will catch up the plague and become poisoned by his insinuations, without ever seeking the antidote. No reputation can refute a sneer, nor any human skill prevent mischief.

BE TRUE TO YOURSELF.—If a man will only start with a fixed and honorable purpose, in life, and strictly and persistently attempt to carry it out to the best of his ability, undismayed by failure or delay, the time may be long in coming, but come it will, when that purpose will be achieved.