Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 20, 1882
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
The Primal Cause of Intemperance.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
Only one lease of life is granted us here; and the inquiry with every one should be, How can I invest my life that it may yield the greatest profit? Life is valuable only as we improve it for the benefit of our fellow-creatures and the glory of God. Careful cultivation of the abilities with which the Creator has endowed us, will qualify us for elevated usefulness here, and a higher life in the world to come.
That time is spent to good account which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health. We cannot afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of the mind or body, by overwork or abuse of any part of the living machinery. As surely as we do this, we must suffer the consequences. Our first duty to God and our fellow-beings, is that of self-development. Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. In order to purify and refine our characters, we need the grace given us of Christ that will enable us to see and correct our deficiencies, and improve that which is excellent. This work, wrought for ourselves in the strength and name of Jesus, will be of more benefit to our fellow-creatures than any sermon we might preach them. The example of a well-balanced, well-ordered life, is of inestimable value.
Intemperance is at the foundation of the larger share of the ills of life. It annually destroys tens of thousands. We do not speak of intemperance as limited only to the use of intoxicating liquors; it has a broader meaning, including the hurtful indulgence of any appetite or passion. There are to-day thousands suffering the torture of physical pain, or writhing under a sense of mental and moral degradation, and wishing again and again that they had never been born. God did not design this condition of things; but it was brought about through the gross violation of Nature's laws. If the appetites and passions were under the control of sanctified reason, society would present a widely different aspect. Many things that are usually made articles of diet, are unfit for food; the taste for them is not natural, but has been cultivated. Stimulating food creates a desire for still stronger stimulants.
Indigestible food throws the entire system out of order, and unnatural cravings and inordinate appetites, are the results. "Touch not, taste not, handle not," is a motto that should be carried farther than the mere use of spirituous liquors. True temperance teaches us to abstain entirely from that which is injurious, and to use judiciously only such articles of food as are healthful and nutritious.
The first steps in intemperance are usually taken in early youth. Stimulating food is given to the child, which excites unnatural cravings of the stomach. These false appetites are pandered to as they develop. The taste continually becomes more perverted; stronger stimulants are craved and are indulged in, till soon the slave of appetite throws aside all restraint. The evil commenced early in life, and could have been prevented by the parents. We witness strenuous efforts in our country to put down intemperance; but it is found a hard matter to overpower and chain the strong, full-grown lion.
If half the efforts that are put forth to stay this giant evil were directed toward enlightening parents as to their responsibility in forming the habits and characters of their children, a thousand-fold more good might result, than from the present course of combatting only the full-grown evil. The unnatural appetite for spirituous liquors is created at home, in many cases at the very tables of those who are most zealous to lead out in the temperance campaigns. We bid all workers in the good cause, God speed; but we invite them to look deeper into the causes of the evil they war against, and labor more thoroughly and consistently in the work of reform.
Parents should so conduct themselves that their lives will be a daily lesson of self-control and forbearance to their household. The father and mother should unite in disciplining their children. They should feel themselves under solemn obligation to God to train up their offspring in such a way as to secure to them, as far as possible, good physical health and well-developed characters. Upon the mother, however, will come the heavier burden, especially in the first few years of her children's lives. It is her duty to control and direct the developing minds of her tender charge, as well as to watch over their health. The father should aid her with his sympathy and counsel, and share her burdens so far as possible.
Parents should not lightly regard the work of training their children. They should employ much time in careful study of the laws which regulate our being. They should make it their first object to learn the proper manner of dealing with their children, that they may secure to them sound minds in sound bodies. Too many parents are controlled by custom, instead of sound reason and the claims of God. Many who profess to be followers of Christ are sadly neglectful of home duties. They do not perceive the sacred importance of the trust which God has placed in their hands, so to mold the characters of their children, that they will have moral stamina to resist the many temptations that ensnare the feet of youth.
We urge that the principles of temperance be carried into all the details of home-life; that the example of parents should be a lesson of temperance; that self-denial and self-control should be taught to the children, and enforced upon them, so far as consistent, from babyhood. And first it is important that the little ones be taught that they eat to live, not live to eat; that appetite must be held in abeyance to the will; and that the will must be governed by calm, intelligent reason. Much parental anxiety and grief might be saved if children were taught from the cradle that their wills are not to be made law, nor their whims to be continually indulged. It is not so difficult as is generally supposed to teach the little child to stifle its outbursts of temper, and subdue its fits of passion.
Few parents begin early enough to teach their children obedience. The child is usually allowed to get two or three years the start of its parents, who forbear to discipline it, thinking it is too young to learn to obey. But all this time self is growing strong in the little being, and every day makes it a harder task for the parent to gain control of the child. At a very early age children can comprehend what is plainly and simply told them; and, by kind and judicious management, can be taught to obey.
The mother should not allow her child to gain an advantage over her in a single instance; and, in order to maintain this authority, it is not necessary to resort to harsh measures; a firm, steady hand, and a kindness which convinces the child of your love, will accomplish the purpose. But let selfishness, anger, and self-will, have their course for the first three years of a child's life, and it will be hard to bring it to submit to wholesome discipline. Its disposition becomes soured; it delights in having its own way; parental control is distasteful. These evil tendencies grow with the child's growth, until, in manhood, supreme selfishness and a lack of self-control place him at the mercy of the evils that run riot in our land.
THE NIGHT COMETH.
By Horatius Bonar
TIME'S sun is fast setting,
Its twilight is nigh;
Its evening is falling
In cloud o'er the sky;
Its shadows are stretching
In ominous gloom;
Its midnight approaches,
The midnight of doom.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee,
And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee!
Rides forth the fierce tempest
On the wing of the cloud;
The moan of the night blast
Is fitful and loud;
The mountains are heaving,
The forests are bowed,
The ocean is surging,
Earth gathers its shroud.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee,
And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee!
The vision is nearing—
The Judge and the throne—
The voice of the angel
Proclaims, "It is done."
On the whirl of the tempest
Its Ruler shall come,
And the blaze of its glory,
Flash out from its gloom.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee,
And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee!
With clouds he is coming!
His people shall sing;
With gladness they hail him
Redeemer and King.
The iron rod wielding—
The rod of his ire—
He cometh to kindle
Earth's last, fatal fire.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee,
And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee!
—Bonar.
Pleasing the Master.
Major Whittle, the evangelist, says that late one night, when it was exceedingly cold, he went to the railway station to take a train out from the city. The gate-keeper, in accordance with his instructions, required every passenger to show his ticket before going through into the cars. This compelled many to put down their satchels, to unbutton their overcoats, and otherwise be greatly incommoded. It was not in human nature to refrain from protesting and complaining under such circumstances, and the gate-keeper had to stand some pretty severe abuse. "You are a very unpopular man to-night," pleasantly said the major. "I only care to be popular with one man," was the reply, "and that is the superintendent." That is the one desire that should actuate all the servants of Christ in regard to their master. Paul said: "If I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
The Secret of Safety
By Jay
HE that knows how to pray has the secret of safety in prosperity, and of support in trouble. He has the art of overruling every enemy, and of turning every loss into a gain. He has the power of soothing every care, of subduing every passion, and of adding a relish to every enjoyment. Many things are good for me, but none are so good as to draw nigh to God.—Jay.
Want of Care
WANT of care does us more damage than want of knowledge.
The After Condition of Discipleship.
By George F. Pentecost
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” was the concise answer of Paul to the jailer’s vehement and anxious question, “What shall I do to be saved?” This is simple and is to be taken at its face value. It means just what it says—no more, no less. It was a frank and honest answer to an honest and blunt question. I fancy there was no hair-splitting by the apostle with the jailer concerning the difference between historical and evangelical faith, between traditional and justifying faith. “Believe” was a common every-day word, with a common and every-day meaning. When it was applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, it did not change its meaning in the least, only it mounted from earth to Heaven, and grappled with an object which it had hitherto had no dealing with—so vast and grand, so laden with life and love, and joy and peace, not for time, but for eternity, that it became transfigured in its new relation. That only is the difference between “secular” and “scriptural” faith. In the one case, faith deals with man with reference to temporal things, and in the other case, it deals with God in Christ, laden with grace and glory, concerning spiritual and eternal things. But this simple transaction is not the end of the believer’s relation to Christ. It is but the beginning. It puts him on, perhaps across the threshold of the kingdom of Heaven, but certainly not beyond the vestibule of God’s salvation.
Here the believer is met with another condition; not, indeed, a justifying condition, but a testing and qualifying one: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Now this may fairly be called the after condition of salvation. There are many who stumble and turn back when they come to the cross on which the Son of God died; but I am persuaded that many more turn back (if not openly, at least in heart) when they come to the cross upon which “they who are Christ’s” must “crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts.”
The contemplation of this cross presented by Jesus to every one who will be his disciple leads inevitably to the conclusion that, if there is anything in this life that should be entered upon with careful consideration, it is the open confession of Christ and Christianity; or, for that matter, a secret confession of it to one’s own hope, for this cross lies in the way of the secret, as well as the open confessor, if, indeed, there can be any such thing as secretly confessing Christ, or such a person as a secret disciple. The Christian life should be begun with consideration, if not for others, at least for these two reasons: First, Mistaken views of Christ and his salvation are seldom corrected. That is to say, most people continue in the direction in which they start. Second, If mistaken views are embraced and entertained until they become more or less fixed, they are corrected, if at all, through great pain and sorrow.
Far better not enter upon a profession of Christianity than to do so to your own deceiving and to the dishonor of him whose name you have professed. In this connection there is nothing more painful than to see a multitude running after Christ, apparently following on well for a season, and then turning back to the world, deceiving themselves, it may be, and misrepresenting Christ to the world, as they certainly do who are not showing forth his praises and beauties, whose ostensible witnesses they are. And yet this is no uncommon spectacle in our day and generation. The yoke of service and cross of discipleship is taken gayly and lightly, the one to be quickly thrown away as soon as it “crosses” the flesh, and the other, if not slipped entirely, is worn unwillingly and rather as the badge of a service that is galling than as an honored, easy, and joyous instrument of practical allegiance to the Lord of life and glory.
Against such mistakes the Saviour repeatedly guarded his hearers, and even those most devoted disciples of the inner circle, as, for instance, when in answer to Peter’s unconsidered remonstrance against his avowed purpose to go up to Jerusalem, there to be betrayed and put to death (Matt. 16: 21–25), he clearly lays down this law. As it was needful for him to purchase salvation by his self-abnegation and death upon the cross, so it was needful for all those who were to come after him to win it by their self-abnegation and death on the cross. And again, in this same connection, he cautions them against hasty discipleship by the parable of the man who began to build a house without counting the cost, or the king who went out to fight his adversary without first ascertaining whether he was able with ten thousand to meet him who came with twenty thousand—“So likewise whosoever he be of you who forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 25–33). And so, again, not to call to mind more, his most emphatic assertion that no man could serve two masters—i. e., God and mammon (4: 24)—spoken of and to those who were attempting to compass and harmonize two entirely opposite things, viz., the worship of God and the gratification of their own natural desires and inclinations. These and many similar scriptures are worthy of a fresh and profound study by the church of God to-day. We draw from them, at least, these three practical thoughts:—
1. That discipleship must always be a matter of absolutely free and voluntary choice. There may be, and indeed, is, in the case of every truly converted man, divine influence and power brought to bear upon his all-inclusive mind, will, affections, hopes, and fears; but there is no violence, no compulsion by the Spirit of God by which man is forced against his will into a confession of faith in Christ, and so into the ranks of his disciples. His followers are recruited, not drafted. If any man will be my disciple, let him come; but with this understanding, that it involves on his part (1) self-denial, (2) cross-bearing, (3) continuance or endurance to the end. Indeed, the voluntary principle is so far developed in Christianity that it keeps the door open for withdrawal at will. There is no violent compulsion used to make good the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance. It is true that the saints will be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation; not, however, against, but with the full and eager consent and energy of their wills.
At the time of the great apostasy among the early followers of Christ, developed by some preaching of his, which to-day is called “high doctrine,” (John 4: 66–69), Jesus turned to those remaining and said, “Will ye also go away?” as if to say, “I will not keep you against your wills, but will suffer you to go too.” How precious the answer of Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” and they clave to him as Ruth did to Naomi, while Orpah kissed her and departed back to her own country from whence she came out, as many do now. What a vast difference between “kisses,” and “cleaving to” one.
2. Let this truth on both sides of it be so fully established that all make-believe disciples may hesitate before enrolling themselves among Christ’s disciples. There are too many of them in the church now and every added one increases her weakness. In proportion as the house is large and high, and the material poor, the fall is imminent and the calamity will be great; so it is and will be with the nominal church of Christ. Let the after condition be carefully considered both by the church and the professor.
3. And let it be fully realized by those who have already numbered themselves with the disciples, who have brought their bodies into the church, but left their hearts in the world, that the door is open for them to depart, with Demas and others who loved the present world. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, and is not willing to take the cross and follow him in self-denial,
“Through duties and through trials too,”
let him go out from among the disciples, and let it be known that the after condition was too hard for the flesh.
For be assured that the Master wants no unwilling disciples, no drafted soldiers in his army. If unwilling, he asks you not to enter; if, having entered, you find the cross too repulsive to “the flesh,” or too heavy, or the way too long or diverging too far from the world, and the crown, and palm, and robe, at the end too far off, or not to your mind, then the door is open behind you, and you can depart out as you came in, for he would have all know the truth of this saying: “He that taketh not up his cross and followeth me cannot be my disciple.”—Rev. George F. Pentecost.
Silence in Temptation
By Upham
LET the time of temptation be time of silence. Words react upon feelings. If Satan, in the time of trial, can induce us to utter a hasty or unadvised word, he will add, by so doing, to the power of his previous assaults, and increase the probability of his getting the victory.—Upham.
God’s Unchanging Love in Affliction
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Our heavenly Father loves his child as much when he chastises it as when he caresses it. The Lord's own people are as dear to him in the furnace of affliction, as on the mount of communion; they are just as precious in his sight when he slays them, and seems in his fierce anger to destroy their joys and wither their hopes, as when he lifts them to his own right hand. The Lord does not rise and fall in his love like the waves of the sea, but his firm affections stand fast like the great mountains, and are as stable as the everlasting hills.—Spurgeon.
Christ's Protection of Childhood.
Jesus said, Forbid them not to come unto me. Put nothing in their way. Do not so overtax them, or so fill their minds or their time that they cannot come. The life of a child is little else than the reproduction of the examples it sees. Then father's example must not forbid him, nor mother's. Vice to a child is contagious; then the little learner is not to be sent where evil is learned, nor to be taken where stronger characters stand between him and Christ.
If the streets and sidewalks are full of lying and swearing, then the child's business and pleasure must be found elsewhere. If the Sabbath-day is as full of Sabbath-breaking as it is of sunlight, then cheerful and attractive occupation must be found that accord with the day. To expose a child to examples and habits of sin is a crime against the child's Christ.
There are companions and places to which we cannot innocently expose children. It is folly to be careless about these things, and then be surprised at bad results. If we leave our geraniums out all winter, we cannot expect flowers in the spring. Christ's admonition is that we do not endanger a child. Behind this admonition is the divine authority. This obligation is violated whenever a child is taken into a godless family. Better place him in his innocency where every member of the family is smitten with the plague, better lay him in the arms of a leper, than to place him where precept and example will prevent his coming to Christ.
Christ's words constitute the charter of rights for childhood. The right to come to Christ includes a right to justice, food, clothing, comfort, kindness, and religious care. If any one of these is denied him, what can a little child do? Not much himself, but the Father of the fatherless will not forget. A time will come when one who has injured a child, rather than endure the penalty for it, would prefer that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Before childhood's Judge he would say, Give me the mill-stone, and the cable, and the sea.
Even in this Christian land there is a great deal of abuse of children, and trampling on their right to religious care. The law itself, the civil law that knows nothing of God, takes it for granted that every child is in danger and not a man is to be left to himself in his relation to a child. The law forbids the neglect of parents, provides in their absence for guardians, and then appoints over both parent and guardian, the probate court, the grand jury, and the court of chancery. The impression is too common that our duty is done when we provide food, and clothing, and shelter, and entirely neglect what is equally necessary, kindness, and love, and religious care.
There are houses where kind words are seldom heard, where cheerfulness, and hopefulness, and prayer are strangers. Our duty is not done till we let sunshine into such homes. If a horse were to be unmercifully abused or starved, any one who is half a man would interfere and protect the voiceless brute. Humanity should lead us, as well, to help the child whose better nature pines and dies. Our work for our generation is not done when we say complimentary things of Christianity, or pay a little money for its support, or occasionally attend church, or lazily teach thirty minutes a week in Sabbath-school; but we are to make every one who is not well provided for, an especial care.
It may cost us some time, and some money for books and papers, and we may meet with some rebuffs, and some disappointments; but it is a noble work to open the way for childhood to come to Christ. None but a noble nature is capable of working out of sight, without hope of reward or applause, to bring to Christ his little ones who are endangered.—Golden Censer.
Death of John the Baptist.
In the story of the death of John the Baptist three characters stand before us in marked and dramatic contrast. First is John the Baptist, the brave prophet who feared God but not man; whom the king could not silence; a model for the modern preacher; a man who dared to do right, cost what it would, and was as quick to rebuke iniquity in high places as among the lowly. Secondly, Herod, the weak and wicked king; chiefly wicked because weak; a man with a conscience, but without courage; a man who feared God, but feared man still more, and his wife most of all; a man who desired to do right but dared not be laughed at; a man who, inveigled into making a foolish promise, preferred to be called murderer rather than promise-breaker. Thirdly, Herodias, the ambitious, designing, unprincipled woman; a picture of what any woman may become who allows ambition to dethrone love; a frightful illustration of worldliness in womanhood. The story of the illicit marriage, and what led to it, and of John the Baptist's rebuke, and of his arrest, I have already told. Without dwelling on either chapter of history let us turn to look at some of the lessons which the dramatic episode illustrates.
1. The reward of fidelity. Never was there a more faithful preacher than John the Baptist; and his wages were imprisonment and death. There is worldly wisdom in the aphorism of the wise man: "Be not righteous over much, for why shouldst thou destroy thyself?" There is a great deal of Sunday-school literature which teaches our children that the way to worldly prosperity is the path of virtue, and which gives the impression that God settles up his accounts every night, and pays in the current coin of the world's realm for all good deeds. This is not true; and child or man who builds his virtue on any such foundation, will find his fabric falling about his head before life is finished. The noblest and best characters in history have been great sufferers, and the noblest and best of all was the greatest sufferer of all. There is no virtue worth the having except that which counts virtue its own reward; which, with the Apostles, is able to count it all joy to be persecuted for Christ's sake.
2. The trial of faith. We are accustomed too much to idealize the Bible characters, and to forget that they are men of like passions with ourselves. It is a comfort—it is even a positive inspiration—to find a brave and royal heart like that of Elijah cast down and in despair when driven off into enforced retirement; and an unflinching courage and an invincible faith like that of John the Baptist yielding to doubt, and wondering whether the Christ that affords him no succor, and the land they both love no instant deliverance, can be the true Messiah after all.
3. The fear of public opinion is a poor substitute for the fear of God, and the fear of God is an inadequate protection against temptation, unless it be stronger than the fear of public opinion. Because Herod feared the multitude who counted John the Baptist as a prophet, and because in some sense he feared God, knowing himself that John was a prophet and a holy man, he would not yield to his wife's entreaties, and put the rebuker of her evil ways to death. He even carefully guarded him from his wife's malice, and listened to him often and gladly. But a cowardly man is no match for a cunning woman, and when Herod had once made the vow that he would give to his step-daughter whatever she would ask, he feared the jeers of his companions more than the upbraidings of his own conscience or the judgments of God. Respect for the opinions of mankind is sometimes a good support for a tottering virtue, but it is a poor foundation upon which to build virtue. It may serve as the wire which holds the tree in position till it has gotten root, but it is no root itself to hold the tree in position against the storm, and give it life and strength.
4. The dangers of sensuality and self-indulgence. It was when Belshazzer was giving himself up to feasting and drunkenness that his capitol was captured. It was when Herod was giving himself up to sensual self-indulgence that his resolutions were captured, and he was made to do the bidding of another. Beware of scenes and places which stimulate the animal and the sensual, which impair the spiritual and the intellectual, and which weaken the higher powers of the intellect, the moral sense, and the will.
5. A bad promise is better broken than kept; but better yet no promises that need the breaking. The exigency must be very great which makes it safe for one man to put himself into the hands of another man, pledging himself to do whatsoever he is bidden. Such exigencies do sometimes arise, but every man should seek to be the unhampered master of himself, binding himself to no vague and general obligation, making no promises whose enforcement might lead him into the ways of sin or of temptation. Vague promises are always dangerous promises.
6. There is nothing hidden which shall not be revealed. Herodias "looked to conceal after this and to hide her crime, but the very contrary was the result; for John's cry was heard the more loudly thereafter. The more thou dost dissemble a sin the more thou dost expose it. Sin is not hidden by the addition of sin, but by repentance and confession."—Lyman Abbott, in Christian Union.*
Paul Bert and the Jesuits.
A LATE number of Harper's Monthly contains a striking article on "The New French Minister of Public Instruction," published, however, after his fall with the Gambetta ministry, the substance of which we lay before our readers. M. Bert has been active in the measures to get the Jesuits out of the public schools in France. His activity brought on him the denunciation of the whole Jesuit Order, and drove him at last to a reply, which it concerns all free people to consider.
M. Bert did not commit the common mistake of "warming up" again the substance of Pascal's assault; but determined to show what the Jesuits teach in 1879–80. To do this he selected the "Compendium Theologiæ Moralis" and the "Casus Conscientiæ" of John Peter Gury, S. J., the last edition of which was published in 1875, with the highest official approbation. Of these works M. Bert made a careful analysis, and now publishes his results in a volume entitled "La Morale des Jesuites."
In this volume he charges that for three hundred years the Society has been corrupting the youth of all nations; that it teaches as morals a set of doctrines which strike at the foundations of society; that it countenances debauchery, theft, incest, robbery, and murder, and that it has everywhere undermined the authority of the civil power, and promoted communistic morality.
For proofs, he goes to the works we have named, where, for the first thing, he finds conscience so treated as to confuse the minds of scholars and destroy the solidity of moral distinctions.
These principles are applied, in a long list of "cases" quoted from the Jesuit works named above, in which Father Gury advances "views of lying which Ananias and Sapphira would have thought liberal." Formulas are given by which persons who have an interest in concealing the truth may do so without prejudice to their Catholic standing. Recipes are furnished by which a man may preserve his secret even under the interrogation of a court of justice, and swear that he has told all.
M. Bert takes up these instructions as to theft, and shows that the right to steal is affirmed in the case of necessity, which may be extreme, as where there is danger of death, grave where the need is serious and common, as in the case of mendicants; but in all these cases the right to steal is affirmed. It may be practiced, also, innocently where the thief makes secret compensation. No wonder that, with such a conscience, communism should be rife where Jesuits have been at the head of the schools.
So, with regard to petty theft and the plague of thieving domestics, the Jesuit casuistry contained in these works countenances them, or, at least, so confuses the conscience of plain people as to create a certainty that, with proper training, they would be practiced.—Independent.
Glad That God Sees Us
By Scougal
It is a good sign when a man is glad that God sees him.
WRITING ON THE FACE.
By Scougal
Inward goodness and benignity of spirit reflect a certain sweetness and serenity upon the very countenance, and make it amiable and lovely, inspire the soul with a noble resolution and courage, and make it capable of enterprising and effecting the highest things.—Scougal.
Ants or Monkeys?
Those scientists who have shut the Creator out of his creation, and endeavored to prove that men were evolved or developed out of mollusks and monkeys, have an exceedingly hard task to adjust matters to their theories. Lately Sir John Lubbock has been considering the ant family, and after protracted investigation declares that the "anthropoid apes" must yield the second place in the order beneath man, for his friends the "ants," must be placed there. "When we consider the habits of the ants," says he, "their social organization, their large communities, elaborate habitations, their roadways, their possession of domestic animals, and even in some cases of slaves, it must be admitted that they have a fair claim to rank next to man in the scale of intelligence."
So according to these theories it now appears that in intelligence, which is the crowning glory and special attribute of mankind, the monkey must give place to the ant. Many years ago one wise man suggested that some of the gentlemen of leisure who found time hanging heavily on their hands, would do well to "go to the ant" and "consider her ways and be wise." It seems now that the advice was exceedingly pertinent, and at last some one has taken heed to the teaching of the good old book in this respect, and has found a great deal of wisdom among the ants.
If the theory should now be started that men, after all, were developed from ants instead of from monkeys, we could point to one fact which would seem to give countenance to the theory, and that is the peculiar shape of the waist of a large proportion of the fashionable young ladies of the past and present generation, which have often been remarked as conforming in their outlines to the shape of the typical ant or wasp.
Can it be that this inclination to reduce the size of the waist is an instinctive return to ancestral forms and peculiarities? We cite this as a point well worthy of the attention of our friends, who, turning their eyes away from heaven, are hunting through earth and sea to find the origin of the human family.—Sel.
A Cheerful Face.
THERE is no greater every-day virtue than cheerfulness. This quality in man among men is like sunshine to the day or gentle renewing moisture to parched herbs. The light of a cheerful face diffuses itself and communicates the happy spirit that inspires it. The sourest temper must sweeten in the atmosphere of continuous good humor. As well might fog and cloud and vapor hope to cling to the sun-illumined landscape as the "blues" and moroseness to combat jovial speech. Be cheerful always. There is no path but will be easier traveled, no load but will be lighter, no shadow on heart or brain but will lift sooner in presence of a determined cheerfulness. It may at times seem difficult for the happiest tempered to keep the countenance of peace and content, but the difficulty will vanish when we truly consider that sullen gloom and passionate despair do nothing but multiply thorns and thicken sorrows. Ill comes to us providentially as good—and is as good, if we rightly apply its lessons. Why not, then, cheerfully accept the ill, and thus blunt its apparent sting?—Anon.
The Price of Power.
PRINCE BISMARCK, the dreaded German Chancellor, who may be said for years to have held the destinies of Europe in his hand, is, it seems, by no means, a happy man. He is rendered uneasy by his conscience, devoured with melancholy, laments his destiny, which he feels to be an unpropitious one, notwithstanding his splendid political successes. “In satisfying my ambition,” he is reported to have lately said at Varzin, “I have made nobody happy. What a number of people I have cast into misery! Without me three great wars would have been avoided; eighty thousand men—nay, much more, would not have been killed, and such numbers of families, of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and wives, would not have been plunged into mourning. However, that account is to be settled between God and myself so far as the hereafter goes. What happiness have I derived from all my successes? Little or none; and I have reaped endless worry, vexation, hatred, pain, grief, over-work, and care.”