Selected Fragments

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 7, 1884

Selected Fragments.

"A FAULT confess'd is half redress'd;" A simple saying, brief and wise; The ready truth is ever best, If truth without disguise. If in a weak and angry hour, We utter bitter words and strong, Oh! let us strive with all our power To rectify the wrong.

Godliness consists not in a heart to intend to do the will of God, but in a heart to do it.

If a Christian would help himself he must make an effort to help others. "Giving is getting," but it takes time to learn the lesson.

Infidelity removes nothing that is bad. It only ridicules and denounces all that is good. It tears down, it never constructs; it destroys, it never imparts life; it attacks religion, but it offers no adequate substitute.

None will have their residence in Heaven hereafter who have not their conversation in Heaven here. None will be with the Lord forever, but those that find it their happiness for the Lord to be with them now.

Be firm in the right, but be very careful not to mistake selfish stubbornness for firmness. Be absolutely certain you are right before planting yourself. Compare your views with the word of God, at the same time praying for light.

When one has made an agreement with so august a being as God, either in public as a member of a Christian church, or in private as one who surrenders his life for devout service, the least he can do is to observe his obligations with care.

If the Christian of to-day thinks he is having a hard time, let him look back to fifty or seventy-five years ago to what the pioneers had to endure; or to the apostles' times, and think what they endured; or better than all, look to Jesus.

The wedding ring given by Martin Luther to Catharine Von Bora is still in existence, and has been placed on exhibition in Frankfort-on-the-Main. It bears a representation of Christ upon the cross, and in it is set a small ruby. The inscription is, "Dr. Martin Luther, Catharine Bora, June 13, 1525."

Sometimes covenant-breaking is brought about by bad associations and injurious companionships (1 Cor. 15:33). "Oh, we have seen so many promising converts in our day, commencing their Christian career most hopefully. Just a mean word of taunting, or a wild laugh of ridicule, or a vile temptation into wrong; possibly a wicked book or a filthy story; and the soul has been turned away into coldness."

The only record we have of Paul's singing was when he was in jail at Philippi, lying on the cold floor, his back bruised and bloody from the "many stripes" it had received. At midnight they "prayed and sang praises unto God." With what propriety he could afterwards exhort the Philippians to be "careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God;" and what weight his testimony must have had. He had set them an example of rejoicing in tribulation.

None but those who are conscious of guilt will seek to be forgiven. It is needful, therefore, to preach the law as well as the gospel to show the need of repentance in connection with the doctrine of pardon. "When we preach forgiveness of sin," said an old Reformer, "without repentance, it will come to pass that the people will believe that they have already obtained forgiveness of sins, and thereby become secure and careless. There is truth in this observation, since it is a very easy thing for men with slumbering consciences to fancy that Heaven forgives them as easily as they forgive themselves."

Little by little Chinese conservatism is yielding, hastened no doubt, by the exigencies of her foreign relations. The Middle Kingdom will not be slow to appreciate her disadvantages in the contest with France, just now, because of her lack of railroads and telegraphs. It is a matter of interest to know that there is now one short railroad in China, and the rails for one from Tientsin to the sea are arriving; and also, that permission to build a steam launch and run it between Tientsin and Tungeho has been granted, and telegraphs are being constructed—all by imperial authority. There can be no going back upon these things, as formerly, Chinese superstition will have to make room for telegraphs, railroads, and the main forces of our Western civilization. But let it be noted that Protestant Christianity has antedated it all.

—Christian Union.