Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 14, 1882
Holiday Gifts.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
THE holiday season is fast approaching with its interchange of gifts, and old and young are intently studying what they can bestow upon their friends as a token of affectionate remembrance. It is pleasant to receive a gift, however small, from those we love. It is an assurance that we are not forgotten, and seems to bind us to them a little closer.
Brethren and sisters, while you are devising gifts for one another, I would remind you of our heavenly Friend, lest you should be unmindful of his claims. Will he not be pleased if we show that we have not forgotten him? Jesus, the Prince of life, gave all to bring salvation within our reach. Oh, matchless love! he left his royal home, his high command, and stooped to share our poverty and shame, that we might be exalted to share his riches and his throne. His glorious perfection called forth the admiration of the angelic host; yet he, their adored Commander, came down to this world sunken in sin, that he might give us a perfect example in his life. Step by step he descended to the deepest humiliation, that he might reach fallen, guilty men, and lift them up to become sons of God. For us he submitted to insult and shameful abuse. For us he denied himself at every point. He suffered, even unto death, that he might give us eternal life.
It is through Christ that we receive every blessing. We may come to him in our poverty and need, and he will listen to our petitions, and supply our every want. We are dependent upon him every moment for grace and strength to maintain our integrity and to continue in his love. How often we need to have the bread of life broken to our souls! How often we need to be refreshed at the fountain of living waters! Every temporal as well as every spiritual blessing is a continual witness of his beneficence. The recurring seasons, with the rich and varied blessings which they bring, the refreshing rain and the glad sunshine, every good thing we receive, attests the continuance of our Creator's gifts to man.
Shall not all these precious tokens of his love call forth a response from us in free-will offerings for his cause? Shall not our heavenly Benefactor share in the tokens of our gratitude and love? Come, brethren and sisters, come with your children, even the babes in your arms, and bring your offerings to God according to your ability. Make melody to him in your hearts, and let his praise be upon your lips. Let us rejoice that our Saviour liveth to make intercession for us in the presence of Jehovah. As a people we have backslidden from God; let us return unto him, and he will return unto us, and will heal all our backslidings. Let us, upon the coming Christmas and New Year's festivals, not only make an offering to God of our means, but give ourselves unreservedly to him, a living sacrifice.
From this time till the opening of the new year, let the theme of our thoughts be, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people." You have taxed your inventive powers to prepare something that will surprise and gratify your friends. Let us, in these last days of 1882, be as anxious, as earnest, as persevering, to render to God that which is due him.
While our heavenly Father has crowned our lives with abundance to supply our temporal wants, his mercies have been abused because they were so full and free. Many forget that their obligations to God increase with the continuous manifestations of his love and care, and that all these call for acknowledgment from us in gifts and offerings to sustain the various branches of his work. Such have now a precious opportunity to redeem the past, and to show that God has the first place in their affections. Let not our best thoughts, our most earnest efforts, our most precious offerings, be given to earthly friends, while our Creator is neglected and forgotten. I speak to those who profess to be his dear children: What will you bring to God as a token of your love and gratitude? However small the offering, he will accept it, if it is the best you have to bring, and is given in love and sincerity of heart.
I feel sad as I think how many are so engrossed with thoughts of their friends and the gifts they are preparing for them that they will lose sight of their obligations to God. They will not seek to purify the soul temple from defilement that they may present to the Lord an offering in righteousness. During the past year, Satan has been making most earnest effort to sow discord and dissension among brethren. Now, as the old year is passing away and the new year coming in, is a good time for those who have cherished alienation and bitterness to make confession to one another. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." This is the Lord's direction; will we obey him, or choose to remain in pride, and justify our course of wrong? Oh that many may seek to have the sins of the past year blotted out, and pardon written against their names in the heavenly record!
We must forgive those who trespass against us, if we would obtain pardon and grace when we approach the mercy-seat. Mercy and love must be cherished by all who would be followers of Jesus. When Peter asked, "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" Jesus replied, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven." He then enforced the duty of forgiveness, by the parable of the two debtors. One was forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents, and then refused to show mercy to his fellow-servant who owed him a hundred pence. The pardon granted to that hard-hearted servant was revoked, and he was delivered to the tormentors. Our Lord makes the application of the parable in these impressive words: "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."554
Here is work for every family and every church. Make haste, brethren and sisters, to improve the few remaining days of 1882 in setting your own hearts in order, and making every wrong right. Remember that we shall be forgiven only as we forgive. Let all enmity, dissension, and bitterness die with the old year. Let kindness and brotherly and sisterly affection revive in our hearts. We may open the new year with a clean record. How happy the thought! Let us draw near to God "with a true heart in full assurance of faith," that the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, may keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
I entreat the followers of Jesus not to let the precious opportunities of these coming days pass unimproved. Let not time and means be spent in preparing gifts which will benefit neither giver nor receiver. Remember that both your time and your means are intrusted you of God, and that he will call you to account for the manner in which you employ his gifts. As Christians we cannot honor a custom which is not approved of Heaven. Let us, rather, seek to bring our hearts into a right condition, to free ourselves from pride, vanity, selfishness, and every other evil, and let mercy, truth, goodness, and love dwell therein. Let us remember the Lord our Creator, and bring to him the offering of gratitude, and he will accept not only the gift but the giver. We may have such a spirit of love and joy in our hearts and homes as will make angels glad.
If all the means that will at this holiday season be expended to gratify unsanctified desires, or that will be needlessly invested, were brought as an offering of gratitude to God, to be used in advancing his cause, what an amount would flow into the treasury! Who are willing this year to deviate from their usual custom? How many will turn their thoughts and plans into a more elevated, heavenly channel? In this time of peril and backsliding from God because of selfish indulgence, we will not look from the human to the divine? Will we not show our remembrance of God and our gratitude for his continual mercies, and, above all, for the gift of his dear Son? Shall we not seek to conform to the Divine Model? to imitate Him who went about doing good?
I address my brethren upon whom God has bestowed of this world's goods: What will you do at the beginning of this new year to show your gratitude to the Giver of all your mercies? Will you return to him in willing offerings a portion of the gifts he has freely bestowed upon you? Will you, by your Christmas and New-year gifts, acknowledge that all things belong to God, and that all the blessings which we receive are the result of divine beneficence?
When Jesus ascended to Heaven, he committed his work on earth to his disciples, and bade them carry it forward in his name. As followers of Christ we are to be his representatives among men. The salvation of perishing souls calls for our personal effort and for our means. This should be the great object continually before us. It is to accomplish this that God has intrusted us with means. Let us then render to him that which is his own. Let the men of means make a free-will offering to God by liberal gifts for our publishing houses and other institutions. These important instrumentalities in the cause of God are heavily burdened and seriously crippled in their work for want of means. There are still debts upon some of our houses of worship. If we would this year deny ourselves, and by our offerings clear these from debt, would it not be pleasing to our heavenly Father?
And it is not the wealthy alone who can aid in advancing the work of God. If our young men would but deny self for the truth's sake, if they were willing to work hard and to economize, they might have a capital with which to pay their expenses at college, and thus qualify themselves for greater usefulness, and they might also have a reserve fund to answer the calls for means for the different branches of our work. If our young sisters felt the claims which God has upon them, they would dispense with ornaments and needless trimming, and would earnestly seek for the inward adorning; and instead of expending all their earnings for clothing or in selfish indulgence, they would have something to spare for the cause of Christ.
In every church, however small, special efforts should be made to show our gratitude to God by bringing our offerings for his cause. Let those who desire a Christmas tree make its boughs fruitful with gifts for the needy, and offerings for the treasury of God. And let the children learn the blessedness of giving, by bringing their little gifts to add to the offerings of their parents.
The claims of God should take the precedence of any and every other, and should be met at any cost or sacrifice to ourselves. However small our income, we should faithfully reserve for him that which he claims as his. Saith the Lord, "Them that honor me I will honor." To withhold our tithes and offerings from the treasury of the Lord, is accounted of him as robbery. Yet are there not many, even among us, who meet all other claims before the claims of God? Some bring no offerings for his cause, and even withhold the tithe, which he has distinctly reserved to himself. Some of these persons are yet in apparent prosperity. In his great mercy, God is still sparing them that they may see and put away their sin. Others are already feeling his curse upon them. They are brought into straitened circumstances, and feel less and less ability to give, when if they had made God's claims first, and had with a willing heart brought their offerings to him, they would have been blessed with more means to bestow.
"God loveth a cheerful giver;" and if we with a grateful heart bring our gifts and offerings to him, "not grudgingly or of necessity," his blessing will attend us, as he has promised, -- "I will open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing." And though it may have cost self-denial and sacrifice on our part, the approval of our own conscience and the blessing of Heaven will make this holiday season one of the happiest we have ever experienced.
While urging upon all the duty of first bringing their offerings to God, I would not wholly condemn the practice of making Christmas and New-year gifts to our friends. It is right to bestow upon one another tokens of love and remembrance if we do not in this forget God, our best friend. We should make our gifts such as will prove a real benefit to the receiver. I would recommend such books as will be an aid in understanding the word of God, or that will increase our love for its precepts. Provide something to be read during these long winter evenings. For those who can procure it, "D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation" will be both interesting and profitable. From this work we may gain some knowledge of what has been accomplished in the past in the great work of reform. We can see how God poured light into the minds of those who searched his word, how much the men ordained and sent forth by him were willing to suffer for the truth's sake, and how hard it is for the great mass of mankind to renounce their errors and to receive and obey the teachings of the Scriptures. During the winter evenings, when our children were young, we read from this history with the deepest interest. We made it a practice to read instructive and interesting books, with the Bible, in the family circle, and our children were always happy as we thus entertained them. Thus we prevented a restless desire to be out in the street with young companions, and at the same time cultivated in them a taste for solid reading.
Those in charge of our publishing houses at Battle Creek, Mich., and at Oakland, Cal., have been led by a sense of duty to make a careful selection of the best books, which they offer for sale at reasonable rates. Those who wish books will do well to purchase these in preference to the great mass of current literature that will strengthen neither mind nor morals. Many of our people already have the "Life of Christ." The "Life of Paul," now offered for sale at this Office, is another useful and deeply interesting work which should be widely circulated. The volumes of "Spirit of Prophecy," should be in every family, and should be read aloud in the family circle. More than one-half of our people know little or nothing of the contents of these books, and they are losing much by their neglect. The Testimonies contain instruction which meets the case of all, both parents and children. Should these be read aloud to the entire family, the children as well as the parents would be benefited by their counsels, warnings, and reproofs. While these are placed out of sight and neglected for the reading of fictitious, sensational literature, both yourselves and your children will be retrograding mentally and spiritually.
Many Sabbath-keepers neglect to take the Review, and some have neither the Review nor the Signs. They plead as an excuse that they can not afford to take these papers which it is so important for them to have. But in many cases several secular papers will be found upon their tables for their children to peruse. The influence of most of the periodicals of the day is such as to render the word of God distasteful, and to destroy a relish for all useful and instructive reading. The mind assimilates to that which it feeds upon. The secular papers are filled with accounts of murders, robberies, and other revolting crimes, and the mind of the reader dwells on the scenes of vice therein depicted. By indulgence, the reading of sensational or demoralizing literature becomes a habit, like the use of opium or other baleful drugs, and as a result, the minds of thousands are enfeebled, debased, and even crazed. Satan is doing more through the productions of the press to weaken the minds and corrupt the morals of the youth than by any other means.
Let all reading of this character be banished from your houses, let books that are useful, instructive, and elevating, be placed in your libraries and upon your tables, with the Review and Herald, our church paper, and the Signs of the Times, our missionary paper, and the effect upon both parents and children will be good. During these long winter evenings, let parents see that all their children are at home, and then let the time be devoted to the reading of the Scriptures and other interesting books that will impart knowledge and inculcate right principles. Let the best reader be selected to read aloud, while other members of the family are engaged in useful occupations. Thus these evenings at home may be made both pleasant and profitable. Pure, healthful reading will be to the mind what healthful food is to the body. You will thus become stronger to resist temptation, to form right habits, and to act upon right principles.
There is in many families professing to believe the truth, a shameful neglect of searching the Scriptures. They are ignorant, when it is their privilege to be wise. All should take time for the daily study of the word of God, with earnest prayer that they may learn the way of life and salvation. That holy word is a sure guide, and will enable all who search its pages to distinguish between its sacred truths and the false doctrines so widely taught in these times of peril. I urge upon you, my brethren and sisters, the necessity of searching the Scriptures. Your eternal destiny depends upon your understanding and obeying them for yourselves. There the plan of salvation is clearly set forth, God's claims are plainly stated; and if we are his obedient children we shall search carefully and prayerfully to learn his will that we may do it.
We need to think more of God, and less of ourselves. If we would but think of him as often as we have evidence of his care for us, we would keep him ever in our thoughts, and would delight to talk of him and praise him. We talk of temporal things because we have an interest in them. We talk of our friends because we love them; our joys and our sorrows are bound up with them. Yet we have infinitely greater reason to love God than to love our earthly friends; we receive more from him than from any other friend; and it should be the most natural thing in the world to make God first in all our thoughts, to talk of his goodness and tell of his power, and to respond to his love by our free-will gifts and offerings for his cause. All things belong to God; and the rich gifts he has bestowed upon us, the glories of the heavens, the beauties of nature, the bounties of his providence, are not for us to worship; they were not given to absorb our thoughts and love so that we should have naught to give to him, and to constantly remind us of him, and to bind us in bonds of love and gratitude to our gracious Benefactor. Oh, I entreat you who profess to love God to be less self-caring. Center your affections upon Jesus, your Redeemer. Give up all for him, be willing to make any and every sacrifice to save souls for whom he died. Give him your loving homage, your willing service, and he will bestow upon you the priceless gift of everlasting life.
HELP IN CHRIST.
By Thomas Cogswell Upham
'Tis true the road we do not know,
And sometimes feel afraid to go;
But Christ, our Master, goes before,
And where 'tis rough will help us o'er.
'Tis sometimes rocky, sometimes steep,
Or leads o'er foaming waters deep,
With cliffs that frown above our head,
And snares beneath, and pitfalls spread.
But though it seems a dangerous way,
Let not our ready steps delay,
So long as Christ, our Leader, knows
The snares and dangers which oppose.
We do not know what's known to him;
His eye is bright though ours be dim;
To him the way is straight and clear,
Then let us follow without fear.
—T. C. Upham, in World's Crisis.
Faith.
By B. R. Nordyke
BY B. R. NORDYKE.
THE apostle Paul in his letter to the Hebrews, chap. 11, says, "Now faith is the substance (ground or confidence, margin) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." In the sixth verse he says, "But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." Verses 24-26.
We are justified by faith without the deeds of the law. In speaking about circumcision and the Jews, Paul says in Rom. 3:28, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith." He is speaking to the Jews concerning their boasting in the deeds of the law, and tells them that they are so desirous of the praise of men that they transgress the law of God, and desire only to make an outward show in the flesh. See Rom. 2:28, 29. "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." In Rom. 2:21-23, Paul upbraids them for transgressing the ten commandments. And in the first twenty verses of this same chapter he shows them that circumcision will not justify them, but faithful obedience to the law of God. (Ex. 20.) "For not the hearers of the law are justified before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Rom. 13:13.
The reader must keep clear in his mind the fact that the ceremonial laws "were shadows of things to come." Heb. 10:1; Col. 2:16, 17. And that they were "abolished, or blotted out, being nailed to the cross." Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14. But the law of God, the ten commandments, is not abolished. Christ says in Matt. 5:17, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law," etc. "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Verse 18. Paul says, in 1 Tim. 1:8, 9, "We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane," etc.555That we are sanctified by faith, see Acts 26:18. "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." In Mark 11:22; John 6:29; 14:1; 20:31; Acts 20:21; and 2 Cor. 13:14, we are taught to have faith in and believe on the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Faith is given us by the Spirit. "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 1 Cor. 2:5. Also read verses 13, 14 and chapter 12:8, 9, "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit."
That we should have faith in Christ is taught in Acts 8:12. "When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women." Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 2 Tim. 3:15. We should all come into the unity of the faith. Read the third verse of Jude, and the whole of the fourth chapter of Ephesians.
Faith leads to salvation. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not be damned." Mark 16:16. "As many as received him, to them gave he power (the right or privilege, marginal note) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." John 1:12. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Verse 36. Read John 6:40-47. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts 16:31. Paul and Silas spake unto him "the word of the Lord, and he and all his were baptized, straightway, believing in God." Read Gal. 3:11; Eph. 2:8; Heb. 11:6; 1 Pet. 1:9; 1 John 5:10.
But faith without works is dead. Jas. 2:17-24. "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?" "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works; shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. For as the body without the spirit (or breath, marginal note) is dead so faith without works is dead." In the first part of this chapter James refers to the ten commandments and shows conclusively that they must be obeyed in truth and in deed. He calls them "the royal law" and "the law of liberty." Dear reader are you faithful in obedience to this law? Be true in your love to God, as set forth in the first four commandments and your love toward your fellow-man, as presented in the last six commandments. Read Exodus 20:1-17; and Deut. 5:6-21. The end of the law of God is in faithful obedience to the same.
The Pope's Palace at Avignon.
By Henry M. Field
The following shows the workings of the papacy in the height of its power and glory. The same cruelty would again be practiced could the Roman Church regain the power which she has lost:—
The popes are gone from Avignon, but their ancient palace remains, the monument at once of their glory and their shame, their power and their cruelty. If one would learn the spirit of the Church of Rome in the Middle Ages, let him spend a day in the palace of the popes at Avignon. It is an enormous pile, not unworthily compared with the Vatican, extending, I should think, over several acres, and with its massive walls and lofty towers looks more like a fortress than the peaceful abode of the vicar of Christ. Indeed, it is not at all unlikely that it was built with the idea that it might some day have to stand a siege. For the same purpose Avignon was surrounded with a wall, like the fortified cities of the Middle Ages.
In the palace, the consistory—the place of meeting of the conclave, or college of cardinals—is (or was) a magnificent hall, more than a hundred feet long, spanned by great arches, supported by columns like those of a cathedral. The effect of this is lost since the palace was turned into barracks, and even this stately and sacred apartment has been cut into dormitories, and soldiers now sleep on their camp bed-steads, or burnish their arms where once cardinals deliberated on the interests of the Catholic Church. But the eye still traces the proportions of the massive columns, and the exquisite finish of their capitals, and other signs of former magnificence and splendor.
All this is very grand, but there are other parts of this ancient and sacred edifice in which the beauty of the architecture cannot hide the terrible purpose of their construction. The residence of the popes, like that of the doges in Venice—was both a palace and a prison. At one end of the great architectural pile stands a tower seven stories high, which was devoted to the inquisition. Here sat that ghostly tribunal, in silence and secrecy, bearing before it those accused of heresy, extorting confessions by torture, and hurrying its victims to execution. There was the chamber of inquisition and the chamber of torture, which was so constructed that no sound could escape through the thick walls, and no one without could hear the shrieks of the wretched victims, or imagine the work of hell that was going on within. There one may still see the chamber of the holy office, in which the accused made their last confessions before going to punishment. This, strange to say, adjoins the banquet hall, for in those "good old times" popes and cardinals feasted while the victims of their cruelty were dying so near them. There was a hall in which those condemned to suffer by fire were burnt. The stone vault is still blackened with the flames. And there it is as significant as the lion's mouth in the doges' palace at Venice; for it opens into the Oubliette, and through this the condemned were pushed to fall to a tremendous depth, to be received on the points of spears and spikes turned upward from below.—Henry M. Field, in Evangelist.
A Good Comparison.
THINGS that seem very simple and eminently reasonable to one experienced in the ways of civilized life, would seem inexplicable, if not actually silly, to an untutored savage. Take, for example, our postal arrangements. Suppose an Indian chief, who had never known anything of such a matter, should be with us while we were proposing to send a message to, and get an answer from, a friend across the continent. He would see us take a piece of paper, trace on it a number of crooked marks, fold the paper and fasten it in a paper pocket, trace a few more black marks outside, carry it to a lamp-post, and push it into a small opening in a box fastened there, and then return to our house, telling him we would wait for a stranger to come to our door, bringing a similar paper pocket covering another piece of paper, on which there would be marks giving an answer to the message we had sent our far-off friend. What a mystery this would be to him; and how difficult it would be to get into his mind the idea of the great Government above us, through the agents of which communication could be kept up between any one of fifty millions of people, and any other of the number, from gulf to lakes and from sea to sea. And how much more difficult it would be for him to comprehend the fact that through the relations of that Government to the rest of the world, any one of those fifty millions of people could be in special communication with any citizen of all the hundreds of millions of citizens of all the countries of all the earth! The simple faith in the power and the unfailing fidelity of that Government, which we would display in stepping out from our home to thrust that bit of paper into the opening of that little iron box against the lamp-post, might seem to him like blind superstition or unreasoning presumption. Yet he perhaps would be a wise and powerful chieftain in his own range of experience and conviction. His trouble would be in his total unfamiliarity with our sphere of thought and life. He would, in fact, be as completely off a fair basis of judgment as is the unbelieving scientist, who sees a citizen of the spiritual kingdom dropping on his knees and speaking a few simple words of large request in a low quiet tone, in the firm conviction that the Government he serves will see to it that his message is carried safely beyond the stars, and that a favorable answer is returned to it. Scientist and savage are alike in their inability to comprehend that which is utterly foreign to their field of sight and knowledge. And there is a spiritual realm outside of and beyond the natural realm of both savage and scientist. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."—S. S. Times.
THE MISSING GUY.
By Ida Fairfield
How tall and straight the smoke-stack rose,
A hundred feet in air,
Upreared with anxious thought, by those
Who fashioned it with care.
More slowly now, almost in place—
The tall top bends and sways—
With bated breath the strain we trace
Along the lengthened stays.
Another inch, and firmly held,
The shaft for years will stand,
By wind and storm in vain repelled,
A landmark in the land.
But see, it topples, it will fall,
The bottom guy is where?
A little strength, a child's, quite small,
Might save, expended there.
Alas! the cord was missing there—
A moment still and slow,
Like a long pendulum hung in air,
The shaft swung to and fro,
Then, with a heavy crash, it fell,
A shattered, ruined mass,
And crushed and broken fragments tell
Of ruin where it passed.
Have you not seen a shapely life
Rise stately, tall, and fair,
With intellectual grandeur rife,
And fashioned well with care?
Almost in place it seems to be,
We scarcely mark it swing,
Till sudden, in its place we see
A wrecked and ruined thing.
In searching for the cause of all,
The missing guy we trace;
A single cord had saved the fall,
If fastened at the base—
Anchored to Christ, the cord of love
Had held through trial's strain,
Temptation sought in vain to move,
Or sin the soul to stain.
—Ida Fairfield, in Sabbath Recorder.
Too Cheap.
A PREACHER of the gospel had gone down into a coal mine, during the noon hour, to tell the miners of that grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. After telling them the simple story of God's love to lost sinners—man's state and God's remedy, a full and free salvation offered—the time came for the men to resume work, and the preacher came back to the world again. Meeting the foreman, he asked him what he thought of God's way of salvation. The man replied:—
"Oh, it is too cheap; I cannot believe in such a religion as that!"
Without an immediate answer to his remark, the preacher asked:— "How do you get out of this place?"
"Simply by getting into the cage," was the reply.
"And does it take long to get to the top?"
"Oh, no; only a few seconds!"
"Well, that certainly is very simple and easy. But do you not need to help raise yourself?" asked the preacher.
"Of course not!" replied the miner. "As I have said, you have nothing to do but get into the cage."
"But what about the people who sunk the shaft, and perfected all this arrangement? Was there much labor or expense about it?"
"Indeed, yes; that was a laborious and expensive work. The shaft is eighteen hundred feet deep, and it was sunk at a great cost to the proprietor; but it is our only way out, and without it we should never be able to get to the surface."
"Just so. And when God's word tells you that whosoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life, you at once say, 'Too cheap! too cheap!' forgetting that God's work to bring you and others out of the pit of destruction and death was accomplished at a vast cost, the price being the death of his own Son."
Men talk about the "help of Christ" in their salvation—that if they do their part, Christ will do his; forgetting, or not seeing that the Lord Jesus Christ by himself purged our sins, and that their part is but to accept what has been done.—St. Louis Presbyterian.
Comfort for Those Who Mourn
By S. S.
"Do not pity yourself. Self-compassion is a morbid luxury, a caricature of self-respect. Do not nurse your grief, and brood over it. Do not feed it with thought till it grows big. Forget yourself. Think of the world with its want and woe. Think of God and his help. Fling yourself, sorrow and all, upon the distress of man, and you shall find how God comforts those that mourn."