Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 22, 1881
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
TEMPERANCE IN THE FAMILY.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
Our accountability extends beyond our own well-being. Our influence is constantly affecting others, either for good or for evil. In a pre-eminent degree is this true of all parents. Fathers and mothers who gratify inclination and perverted appetite, at the expense of health, are not only working against their own physical life and moral advancement, but they leave their perverted appetite and their enfeebled moral power, to their children.
Liquor drinkers and tobacco devotees transmit their insatiable craving, their irritable nerves, and their inflamed, corrupted blood to their offspring. The licentious hand down their own weakness and wickedness, with a host of vile and loathsome diseases, as an inheritance to their children. Fashionable vices are debilitating and debasing the race. In physical strength, and in moral and intellectual power, every generation falls lower than the preceding. In consequence of the sinful habits of men, the world has become a vast lazar-house. Satan exults at the success of his devices. Society is demoralized, the church is cursed, and God is dishonored.
The violation of God's law lies at the foundation of all the misery that flesh is heir to. It is intemperance, transgression of the laws of life and health, that has shortened the years of men, and made these few years full of sorrow and pain. Parents are not only responsible in most cases for the violent passions and perverted appetites of their children, but for the infirmities of the thousands born deaf and blind and idiotic. Sins of omission and of commission have brought the sure result.
The effect of stimulants and narcotics is to lessen physical strength; and whatever affects the body, will affect the mind. A stimulant may for a time arouse the energies and produce mental and physical activity; but when the exhilarating influence is gone, both mind and body will be in a worse condition than before. Intoxicating liquors and tobacco have proved a terrible curse to our race, not only weakening the body and confusing the mind, but debasing the morals. As the control of reason is set aside, the animal passions will bear sway. The more freely these poisons are used, the more brutish will become the nature and disposition of men.
Parents who indulge appetite by eating to excess even of wholesome food, place a needless tax upon the system, and their children will be disposed to self-indulgence and gluttony. Such parents transmit their own perverted appetites to their offspring, who have far less moral power to resist temptation than had the parents. Then, instead of seeking to cure the evil which they have wrought, these fathers and mothers, by their own example, educate their children to indulge appetite regardless of reason, and to give loose rein to animal propensities. Many children die before reaching maturity, while many are ruined for time and for eternity, by tempers and appetites transmitted in consequence of the sinful indulgences of the parents.
Unwise, self-indulgent, weak-principled women will urge upon the mother the gratification of every wish and impulse as essential to the well-being of her offspring. But the error of such teaching is clearly seen in the light of facts presented in Bible history. The mother is by the command of God himself placed under the most solemn obligation to restrain perverted appetite. Whose voice will we heed—the teachings of infinite wisdom, or the voice of human ignorance, weakness, and superstition?
The thoughts and feelings of the mother will have a powerful influence upon the legacy she gives her child. If she allows her mind to dwell upon her own feelings, if she indulges in selfishness, if she is peevish and exacting, the disposition of her child will testify to the fact. Thus many have received as a birthright almost unconquerable tendencies to evil. The enemy of souls understands this matter much better than do many parents. He will bring his temptations to bear upon the mother, knowing that if she does not resist him, he can through her affect her child. The mother's only hope is in God. She may flee to him for strength and grace; and she will not seek in vain. Fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility, and they too should seek earnestly for divine grace, that their influence may be such as God can approve.
It is a deplorable fact that there is a widespread neglect of these precepts of the Bible which have a bearing upon life and health. Many make the subject of temperance a matter of jest. They claim that the Lord does not concern himself with such minor matters as our eating and drinking. But if the Lord had no care for these things, he would not have revealed himself to the wife of Manoah, giving her definite instructions, and twice enjoining upon her to beware lest she disregard them. Is not this sufficient evidence that he does care for these things?
The inquiry of fathers and mothers should be, "What shall we do unto the child that shall be born unto us?" We have brought before the reader what God has said concerning the course of the mother before the birth of her children. But this is not all. The angel Gabriel was sent from the heavenly courts to give directions for the care of children after their birth, that parents might fully understand their duty.
About the time of Christ's first advent, the angel Gabriel came to Zacharias with a message similar to that given to Manoah. The aged priest was told that his wife should bear a son, whose name should be called John. "And," said the angel, "thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost." This child of promise was to be brought up with strictly temperate habits. An important work of reform was to be committed to him, to prepare the way for Christ. Intemperance in every form existed among the people. Indulgence in wine and luxurious food was lessening physical strength, and debasing the morals to such an extent that the most revolting crimes did not appear sinful. The voice of John was to sound forth from the wilderness in stern rebuke for the sinful indulgences of the people, and his own abstemious habits were also to be a reproof of the excesses of his time.
The efforts of our temperance workers are not sufficiently far-reaching to banish the curse of intemperance from our land. Habits once formed are hard to overcome. The reform should begin with the mother before the birth of her children, and if God's instructions were faithfully obeyed, intemperance would not exist.
It should be the constant effort of every mother to conform her habits to God's will, that she may work in harmony with him to preserve her children from the health and life destroying vices of the present day. Let mothers place themselves without delay in right relations to their Creator, that they may by his assisting grace build around their children a bulwark against dissipation and intemperance. If mothers would but follow such a course, they might see their children, like the youthful Daniel, reach a high standard in moral and intellectual attainments, becoming a blessing to society and an honor to their Creator.
Had parents for years past studied the Scriptures more and the magazines of fashion less, had they realized that their course might determine the destiny of hundreds, and perhaps of thousands, what a different state of society might now exist. We are responsible for the good we might have done, but failed to perform, because by sinful indulgence we placed ourselves in a condition of physical and mental inefficiency. The cause of reform to-day is suffering for want of men and women of integrity and moral worth. They are needed to advocate by precept and example the principles of self-denial which will be a safeguard to our youth.
Can we look upon the unbelief, intemperance, and crime that seems to be deluging the earth, without feeling our souls stirred to the very depths? Infidelity is rearing its proud head. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The cry of fathers and mothers and of nations that have forsaken God, and have been forsaken by him, will ere long rend the heavens. What can hinder the crime, what stay the woe that is upon all nations? This evil might have been prevented, had previous generations been trained to fear and love and reverence God. Let us now do what we can individually to bring about these changes. Explicit instructions have been given in the word of God. Let these principles be carried out by the mother, with the co-operation and support of the father, and let children be trained from infancy to habits of self-control. Let them be taught that it is not the object of life to indulge sensual appetites, but to honor God and to bless their fellow-men.
Fathers and mothers, labor earnestly and faithfully, relying on God for grace and wisdom.
422Be firm and yet mild. In all your commands aim to secure the highest good of your children, and then see that these commands are obeyed. Your energy and decision must be unwavering, yet ever in subjection to the Spirit of Christ. Then indeed may we hope to see "our sons as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace."
"I WILL bless the Lord at all times!"
'Tis difficult to say,
When heavy clouds are overhead,
And not one cheering ray.
It is easier to bless him
In bright and happy hours,
When the sunshine is all golden,
And paths are strewed with flowers.
"I will bless the Lord at all times!"
Bless him for everything;
Some choicest gifts are wrapped in clouds,
With a message from the King;
There must be shadows here below,
All sunshine would not do;
For it could not make the landscape
So beautiful and true.
"I will bless the Lord at all times!"
Oh, this indeed is rest;
Here we find faith's deepest secret,
Its surest, constant test,
To prove that it is really strong,
If it will bear the strain
Of some constant, weary pressure,
Or sorrow, grief, and pain.
"I will bless the Lord at all times!"
This sounds so very clear,
For the ring of the true metal
Is heard through ages here;
The exercise of faith is good,
More precious far than gold;
It is not counted much on earth,
In Heaven it can be told.
"I will bless the Lord at all times!"
Through every cloudy day,
When earthly schemes are blown upon,
And lonely seems the way.
My Lord will never make mistakes,
At all times he is right;
It is my blessed privilege
To "walk by faith" not sight.
—British Evangelist.
WORKING FOR GOD.
I MEAN by that, doing God’s work for God’s own sake, and from no other motive-power—receiving all your inspiration directly from him; not working to gratify, perhaps, a natural restlessness of nature, or simply because you were born with a good deal of quicksilver in your constitution, and must be doing something—not working simply to win applause or to be accounted successful; but working for God because you love him for his own sake, apart from any fee or reward. Personally I can only express the prayer which comes from the depth of my heart, “The Lord grant that I may learn what it means.” If I am engaged in God’s work from any other motive than the constraining power of love to him, I am serving him from an unworthy and base motive.
Let me set forth what I mean in a simple illustration. Doubtless many of you have seen water flowing along an aqueduct. It is being pumped up, and, as the water flows, you can count the strokes of the engine. Now it is full, and there is a rush. The water seems to say, “I flow because I am forced to flow—I flow because I am pumped—I would not flow if I could help flowing.” It flows because an external power is brought to bear upon it. But have you not often stood by the side of a mountain stream? There it comes, jumping over that bowlder, running round that stone, flowing over that shingle. There is no stroke of the engine in it. As it runs past it seems to sing, “I flow, I flow, because I have got my home on high. I was born amongst the clouds; my fountain-head is up there. I must flow because I have come from on high.” And the service which you and I want to render is that service which comes—not from external pressure, not because you have been pushed into the work, but because you are born from above.
And if this is the only right motive, I am certain that it is the only lasting power. What will keep a man really in earnest from the first day of January to the last day of December, and that year after year, but this? You often hear of laborers who have gone back. Why did they go back? Because, although they were engaged in the work of God, they did not know much of working for God. Nobody is ever likely to leave that which he loves, that in which he finds his highest happiness. Now, no one can work for God without being filled with delight. There is no temptation to give up God’s work when it is done for his sake. Therefore, nothing will keep a man at white heat year after year but working for God. Again, it is this emphasis on the “for” that leads to
THOROUGHNESS IN THE WORK.
The man who works from any other motive will, in all probability, only be anxious to get decently through his work. If he satisfies others, or, what is perhaps far easier, if he satisfies himself, he is quite content. But the very moment that a man works for God, his idea of service becomes higher. There will be conscience put into every stroke. When a Grecian sculptor was carving a statue that was to stand in a niche in a heathen temple, many of his friends were surprised to see that he took as much pains with the back part of the statue as with that part which was to be in front. They said to him, “Why are you so careful about that part? It has to stand in a niche, and it will not be seen.” “Because the gods will see it,” said he. Ay, and if we preach, and teach, and give tracts, and speak for God, there will be in it the most solid, and the best work that we can put into every detail, because God will see it; it is done for him. I might give a second-rate article to any one else, but the choicest and best must be his. It will not only be the piece of work that the public sees, which will be carefully done—there will be thought, and care, and prayer, and holy jealousy exercised about every part, if we are working for God. . .
HOW TO DO IT.
The Hebrews have this saying, that God is more delighted with adverbs than with nouns. That is, it is more to God how a thing is done than simply what is done. What style of working for God, then, is to be ours? I think we must put at the very head of the list, working for God cheerfully. We read that the Israelites sighed and cried as they worked. I do not marvel at it; they were working for a Pharaoh, and under the lash of the task-master; they were working for those who gave them no straw with which to make their bricks. But when we are working for God—for our Father—for One who guarantees our strength, and supplies us with all materials, and who talks with us all the time we are doing our little work, and who forgives us all our blunders, and is so quick in love to accept it, there is something wrong with us if we do not do it cheerfully. I am persuaded that if we perform even the best work for God in any other spirit than that of holy cheerfulness, we libel God. We ought to make the world see that his service is perfect freedom; that if he had no Heaven for us, if there were no crown hereafter, and no “Well done! good and faithful servant,” we would serve him just for the sheer joy of doing it.
Am I speaking to some naturally gloomy or depressed soul? I would recommend you to do what a child once did. As she was feeding herself with a spoon, the sun poured through the window and fell on the metal spoon, and she said, “Why, look, mother; I have swallowed a whole spoonful of sunshine!” It would be a splendid thing if we could get all God’s workers to swallow two or three spoonfuls of sunshine, so that when we meet the outside world it would be constrained to acknowledge that, at all events, our Master treats us well. Then, working for God must be done
UNINTERRUPTEDLY.
It is comparatively easy to do work for God by fits and by starts. I can imagine that some, through the influence of a splendid gathering like this, may feel wonderfully enthusiastic for a few days. But, oh, to keep on and on, and on, and on! “How do you account for your success?” was once asked of Dr. Carey. “I account for it all, under God’s blessing, by the fact that I have learned how to plod.”—From a sermon by Rev. Archibald G. Brown.
BIBLE UNIVERSALISM.
By R. F. Cottrell
UNIVERSAL GLORY.
The time will come when "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Hab. 2:14; Isa. 11:9: Num. 14:21. This will be after the curse which devours the earth is removed—when there will be no more curse. Isa. 24:5, 6; Rev. 22:3. It will be after the harvest, which is the end of the present age, after sinners have come to perdition in the burning earth, or the furnace or lake of fire, and the new heavens and earth have appeared. Matt. 13:30, 38-43; 2 Pet. 3:7-13; Rev. 20:9, 15: 21:1. Christ and his angels must come first, the separation must be made, the saints must reign with the Christ above for a thousand years, then, "the rest of the dead" must live, the fire from heaven descend and devour them, the elements of earth be melted with fervent heat, and then the new earth will appear, "wherein dwelleth righteousness," and wherein the righteous will dwell. "There shall be no more curse." "There shall be no night there."
"The Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and ever." The glory of God shall then fill the earth, and there shall be
UNIVERSAL WORSHIP.
And a universal song of praise, a song in which all then living shall join. "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5:13. The time foretold will then have come, when "the wicked shall not be;" the prophetic prayer, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more," will have been answered; in view of which happy state the Spirit of inspiration in the sweet singer of Israel exclaims: "Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord!" See Ps. 37:9-11, 20; 104:35.
There shall be universal light, glory, and knowledge, universal righteousness, and universal worship, and a
UNIVERSAL SABBATH.
"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:22, 23.
None then living will claim that the Sabbath was made only for a small portion of the human race. They will believe that "the Sabbath was made for man." None will call it a local institution only designed for the land of Judea. None will claim that it cannot be kept on a round and rolling earth, nor that they cannot tell when it comes. None will hold that the Sabbath is no particular day, but only one day in seven; and thus be absent from the general convocation, and come on another day and find no meeting. And, consequently, there will be no disagreement in regard to the day—they will all observe the same day.
Which of the two days that are now rivals to each other will it be? Will it be the one which God made his Sabbath, or rest-day, by resting upon it, and which he blessed because he had rested on it, and sanctified or commanded it to be kept holy? or will it be another day, a day which all know and admit that "there is no express command for its observance"? The Sabbath was made for man in Eden, before his fall. In Eden restored, it will be universally observed. None will then say that the day has been lost. The whole blood-washed throng will unite in the worship of God on that sacred day.
We exhort all to come to Christ for pardon while it may be found; keep the commandments, that you may enter into life and escape the second death; so that you may be accounted worthy of a part in the glorious world to come, and share in that universalism that shall then be realized.
"Oh! give me a place in Thy kingdom, When life with its turmoil is o'er, Let me dwell with the King in his beauty, And I ask, oh! I ask for no more!"
R. F. COTTRELL.
The Foundation of Every Work
The best foundation for any work is humility.
Rising Above the World
No MAN can lift himself above the world unless he takes hold of something higher than the world; he cannot lift himself out of himself unless he grasps something higher than himself.
INFLUENCE.
“What a talented minister the Rev. Mr. B. is,” I said to a friend one day. “His sermons are so good that I never like to miss one. I always feel that I have had a rich feast of true gospel meat whenever I listen to him, and I always go away with a stronger determination to live a better life.”
“I know he preaches excellent sermons,” my friend replied, “but I regret to say that they do not affect me as they do you. I am afraid I have a wrong feeling, but I cannot help it, and the secret is just this: A friend of mine, whose word I know is to be depended upon, once heard Mr. B. make a very uncharitable remark, a remark very unbecoming in any Christian, and much more so in a minister. It was made years ago, but I always think of it whenever I hear him preach.”
This remark of my friend set me to thinking more seriously on the subject of influence than I ever had thought before. What an utterly incomprehensible thing is unconscious influence! It is so vague, it eludes so effectually all of our efforts to touch or control it. Conscious influence you can know something about. When you try to influence a person you know what you are doing, and you usually know, too, whether you succeed or not.
And there is as much difference in their relative importance as there is in the size of a giant and a dwarf. I can count on my fingers all of the people whom I am aware of exerting an influence over, and I fear that the number of people whom I have tried very earnestly to influence would not be so large as to be unmanageable; but when I think of the hundreds with whom I have come in contact, either directly or indirectly, and that either for good or for evil they have been influenced by word or act of mine, I tremble for the result for which I am responsible.
How fruitless is the endeavor to make clean only the outside of the vessel, when the inside is full of filth which, sooner or later, will certainly be discovered. How necessary to keep our hearts clean and our thoughts pure, so that we are in no danger of being surprised into actions that would expose the wickedness we have tried to keep concealed, and eradicate the good we thought to accomplish.—Examiner and Chronicle.
“MOTHER!”
IN one of the most honored and influential families of Virginia, a wife and mother died in the bloom of her womanly beauty.
For several years she had been a gentle, unobtrusive, yet faithful Christian woman. When she felt that the last moments of life were approaching, she called her little children to her bedside, and kissed them, and talked of leaving them, and of the happy world where she expected finally to be.
The eldest was but six years of age, but he could understand her when she laid her hand upon his head and charged him to love and serve his mother’s God and Saviour.
The boy grew to manhood. No effect of that death-bed scene and lesson appeared in his life. Forty years passed without a sign that he ever thought of his mother’s last words and benediction.
He was a generous-hearted, popular gentleman, with a fine home, where he welcomed friends with a lavish hospitality. No beggar went away hungry from his door.
But his most admired virtues showed no divine principle, or trace of religious feeling. Beyond a certain pride of position and superiority, he seemed to acknowledge no restraint. He was self-indulgent and impetuous, profane on the slightest provocation, and like most men of his class, devoted to horse-racing and the pleasures of the chase.
Suddenly a change came. He was the same courteous, hospitable gentleman, but he broke away abruptly from his convivial habits. His manner was more thoughtful and quiet, and he was seen regularly at divine worship on Sabbath.
In no long time he openly declared himself one of the lowly number who call Jesus Master and Lord.
The change itself was no more surprising than his account of it. It was no sermon or spoken or written word that had turned him from his worldly course, but it was the touch of his mother’s hand. More than forty years before she had laid it on his head in blessing—and he declared that he had felt it ever since.
Amid all the cares of his great estate, in his noisiest gaiety, in the excitements of the race-course, in the fury of political strife, the pressure of that soft hand, he said, perpetually recalled his mother and her dying charge. And the time came when he could resist its appeals no longer.
Such a parting token has a voice that will not be silent, and a power that will not die.
A THOROUGH JOB.
JUDGE M—, a well-known jurist living near Cincinnati, was fond of relating this anecdote. He once had occasion to send to the village for a carpenter, and a sturdy young fellow appeared with his tools.
"I want this fence mended to keep out the cattle. There are some unplaned boards—use them. It is out of sight from the house, so you need not take time to make it a neat job. I will only pay you a dollar and a half."
The Judge went to dinner, and coming out, found the man carefully planing each board. Supposing that he was trying to make a costly job of it, he ordered him to nail them on at once just as they were, and continued his walk. When he returned the boards were planed and numbered ready for nailing.
"I told you this fence was to be covered with vines," he said angrily. "I do not care how it looks."
"I do," said the carpenter, gruffly, carefully measuring his work. When it was finished, there was no part of the fence as thorough in finish.
"How much do you charge?" asked the Judge.
"A dollar and a half," said the man, shouldering his tools.
The Judge stared. "Why did you spend all that labor on the job, if not for money?"
"For the job, sir."
"Nobody would have seen the poor work on it."
"But I should have known it was there. No; I'll take only the dollar and a half." And he took it and went away.
Ten years afterward, the Judge had the contract to give for the building of certain magnificent public buildings. There were many applicants among master-builders, but the face of one caught his eye.
"It was my man of the fence," he said, "I knew we should have only good, genuine work from him. I gave him the contract, and it made a rich man of him."
It is a pity that boys were not taught in their earliest years that the highest success belongs only to the man, be he a carpenter, farmer, author, or artist, whose work is most sincerely and thoroughly done.
CONVERTED FOR A PURPOSE.
By William Lamson
PAUL thought Jesus had a distinct specific purpose in his conversion, and he felt it his one duty to discover and accomplish that purpose. And we know that before his conversion, when he was a cruel persecutor, even then he was a chosen vessel to do a mighty Christian work. To Ananias the Lord said of Saul of Tarsus, “he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” The eye of God saw in that bold, fierce enemy of Christ, one who was to be the chief apostle and leader of the Christian hosts. In his conversion, therefore, the Lord had a definite purpose. He had a work for the converted Saul to do, and Saul recognized this, and aimed to find out what that work was, and then to do it. That I may apprehend, seize upon, that specific thing for which I was apprehended, arrested, seized upon, by Christ Jesus. He was not converted for the same end for which Peter was converted, or John, or James, but for a specific purpose. The Lord had one end in view when he converted him.
Now if this was true of Saul of Tarsus, is it not just as true of every Christian, of the believer of to-day? Each genuine Christian has been apprehended of Christ Jesus, and it should be the aim of his life to discover and accomplish that for which he has been converted, to apprehend that for which he has been apprehended of Christ Jesus. A successful Christian life is just one that meets the design of the Master. But how shall one know what that design is? By no voice from heaven, by no dream or vision, or mysterious impression, but by an honest study of himself and his capacities, and by prayer for divine guidance. It is not the duty of every converted one to enter the ministry, and one reason of the many failures in the work is that persons whom the Master never converted for that work, rush into it. They have mistaken their calling.
In the divine plans there are no mistakes. The proper agent and the work are brought together when that divine plan is not interrupted. But if I fail to apprehend for what I was converted, or apprehending it refuse to, accomplish it, then my Christian life is a failure. Young convert, with Paul resolve to follow after that you may apprehend that for which you have been apprehended of Christ Jesus.—Rev. William Lamson, in the Watchman.
MEANNESS.
By Mary Kyle Dallas
ECONOMY is an excellent thing. That is, it is very comfortable to be able to say to one's self, "I will do without this, that, or the other luxury, rather than run the risk of being a beggar in my old age," or even to find it possible to live without what is usually deemed a necessity, rather than to run into debt. But exaggerated economy, in other words, meanness, is something which must render its possessor wretched, and something, too, which is often found in people who are too selfish to forbid themselves anything they desire. They covet rich food and fine dress, ease and idleness, but they begrudge to those who minister to their wants their well-earned price, and always forget that the "laborer is worthy of his hire."
From the lips of such people you hear nothing but complaints. Every one is over-reaching them. The dressmaker has sent in a frightful bill; the cook has no right to such wages; the abominable landlord thinks no rent too much for his house. It is impossible to get anything done without being cheated. In fine, they want all that people have to sell, and have within their souls a miserly desire to get it for nothing. Always accusing other people of their own vice, they salve their consciences, and when they do get something for nothing, fancy themselves happy. But it is only fancy. They can never know the pleasant warmth that fills the heart when a generous action has been done at its prompting. Never can they feel the pleasant independence that follows liberal and ungrudging payment of those to whose toil or trouble one is indebted.
Life is a constant battle to them, and many a spendthrift is happier than those who forget that they have no right to economize at the expense of other people, and that whoever wittingly takes the money of another to add to his own purse is at least at heart, a thief.—Mary Kyle Dallas.
RELIGION AGAINST SKEPTICISM.
The skeptical Mr. Bradlaugh was once lecturing in a little village in the north of England, and at the close challenged discussion. Who should accept the challenge but an old, bent woman, in the most antiquated attire, who went up to the lecturer and said, "Sir, I have a question to put to you." "Well, my good woman, what is it?" "Ten years ago," she said, "I was left a widow, with eight children utterly unprovided for, and nothing to call my own but this Bible. By its direction, and looking to God for strength, I have been enabled to feed myself and my family. I am now tottering to the grave, but I am perfectly happy, because I look forward to a life of immortality with Jesus in Heaven. That's what my religion has done for me. What has your way of thinking done for you?" "Well, my good lady," replied the lecturer, "I don't want to disturb your comfort, but—" "Oh! but that's not the question," interposed the woman; keep to the point, sir. What has your way of thinking done for you?" The infidel endeavored to shirk the matter again. The feeling of the meeting gave vent in uproarious applause, and Mr. Bradlaugh had to go away discomfited by an old woman.—The Lutheran.
HEROES OF THE SHOP.
BRAVE deeds are done in shops and forges. A few days ago, in the American Iron Works at Pittsburgh, an iron-roller, named Robert Moore, had a white-hot ring of iron thrown by accident over his head and down upon his shoulders.
With wonderful nerve, he took hold with a pair of tongs of a piece of iron protruding from one side of the fiery circle, and seized the other side of the ring with his naked hand. The ring was a pretty tight fit, there not being quite an inch and a half to spare as it passed over his nose.
The man had the fortitude to lift the hot iron slowly and carefully over his head, without touching any part of it. His face was badly scorched, and his hand was burnt to the bone; but he never flinched. When the iron band was cold, he put it back on his neck, and found it just two inches larger round than his head.
Some years ago, a German laborer in the Fort Pitt cannon foundry, at Pittsburgh, had some melted iron accidentally poured into one of his shoes. He was carrying at the time one side of a vessel filled with liquid iron. If he had dropped it, he would have endangered the lives of his comrades and set fire to the building. If he had set it down, he would have spoiled the casting of a gun weighing one hundred and thirty tons.
The man walked steadily to the pit into which the molten iron was to be poured, and did not let go the handle of the vessel till his duty was done. He had that melted iron in his shoe about one minute and a half. It did not take him as long to get his shoe off, but who can imagine the torture, and the length to him of that minute and a half?
A fine young fellow in the same smoky city of Pittsburgh had his hand terribly lacerated by the machine he was in charge of. He felt that he was about to faint, and had only strength to say one thing to the foreman who caught him in his arms, "Don't let anything be said of this to my wife."
For every splendid act of heroism done on the battle-field, a hundred are done in shops and quarries, and on the storm-tossed ocean.—Youth's Companion.
Dealing Directly With Your Pastor
WHEN you have anything against your pastor, go directly to him about it. He has his faults, and it is well that he has, for otherwise he might not so well know how to sympathize with you. Remember, too, that if you get rid of your present pastor, his successor will not be infallible. “How do you like your new pastor—is he sound?” asked one of a deacon who had gotten rid of a pastor on the charge of his being heterodox. “Yes,” was the reply, “he is sound—He is nothing but sound.” —The Religious Herald.
A Charitable View of Sin
A very charitable man, and nobody's fool, was he who used to say, when he heard any one being loudly condemned for some fault: "Ah, well, yes! It seems very bad to me, because that is not my way of sinning."