Earlier text: Universality of Moral ObligationWhat Drunkenness Is Doing.
THE Pittsburgh Commercial, in a recent article upon what drunkenness is doing in the land, says:— “Yesterday afternoon, while looking over a batch of exchanges, a suggestion was made that, among other things, we should observe the more striking cases of infraction of law, violence, and disorder, reported in the various exchanges then under notice as arising directly from drunkenness. We did not complete the task; it was too sad. When we had glanced through about a score of exchanges, our courage failed us. The instances reported were of themselves so numerous and ghastly as to make us shudder. It seemed as if the whole country was being rapidly turned into a vast grog-shop—a hell of drunkenness—a howling, staggering pandemonium of brutalized men. Drunkenness in every city and town; drunkenness in the country; drunkenness by land and sea; drunkenness in the kennel and in the parlor; drunkenness coiled upon the door-steps, and drunkenness frothing in the Legislature; drunkenness among the poor and among the rich; drunkenness in the dark lanes and alleys; drunkenness in the wide, lamp-lit streets; drunkenness in the home, by the cradle, at the altar, in the school and in the church; drunkenness everywhere—vast, opaque, omnipresent, encompassing the land like a baleful atmosphere. It was horrible!” The Commercial, to show that the above is no verbose, declamatory rhetoric, gives a partial resume of the results of its investigation, in which it mentions between twenty and thirty murders and suicides, all occurring within a few days; besides these, there were many shames and crimes of such a character that they should not be named in the columns of respectable journals, the direct and frightful fruits of the dram shops, which are being gathered day in and day out through all the blessed year. It then refers in eloquent terms to the many unknown miseries and crimes caused by the seeds sown by the traffickers in rum throughout our land. We further quote:— “And let it be remembered that these instances are but faint illustrations of the ravages which drunkenness is making. It is only the exceptional cases of violence and disorder which are reported in the press. When the volcano overflows, a note is made of the occurrence; but no mention is ever made of the fluid core of fire which evermore burns within. The evils of intemperance are not adequately indicated by such instances as we have cited. Back of its visible ravages, and deeper than all these, lies a field of devastation which can never be reported, because it can never be explored. The sober people of the country suffer from it, in having to raise annually a vast amount of taxes which go to build poor houses and prisons, and to support paupers and criminals created by drink. There are also in our country two millions of children who, in an infinite variety of ways, are the innocent and helpless victims of drunken parents. There are three millions of mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, of confirmed drunkards in the United States; and women suffer more from this vice than from all other evils combined. The keenest pangs and the sharpest agonies are endured by women who make no sign. In the wasted realms of the social affections, in the higher or inner life of wife and mother and friend, what tortures are silently endured, what suppressed wretchedness is borne, what slow torments of desolated hopes and broken hearts go on, no word of which ever reaches the outward ear! The cases we have reported are but the inadvertent evidences which escape through gaps and chasms. What, then, must be the character of the fiery sea of anguish which burns and smoulders beyond? The breaking hearts of mothers over ruined sons; of wives from whose lives all love and tenderness have been blotted out; of the want and woe of little children, grown old and haggard before their time? And now let the mind go back for years, and then multiply the years by centuries, and try to comprehend this fathomless and shoreless sea of unutterable ruin and overthrow; and you will begin to have some conception of the illimitable downward dragging horror over which we have preached this poor sermon; but not till then.”—Sel. The political question which the Catholic church is deliberately raising in this country will soon excite more serious alarm than it has yet done. Although in Europe the reaction against it has compelled it to relax its hold upon the civil governments, in this country it is trying to gain possession of the temporal power. It demands subsidies for its institutions; asks that its holy days shall be made national festivals; declares itself the enemy of popular secular education; and by tortuous and indirect ways is gradually insinuating itself into the possession of civil authority. Should Tammany be enthroned in Washington, the nation would see, together with the corruption and fraud which have been systematized in New York and at Albany, the installation of those influences by which this session secured appropriations of over half a million of dollars from the New York Legislature for the benefit of Catholic institutions. Perhaps one of the most meritorious claims, intrinsically, that is, which have come before Congress, was the demand of the Orphan Asylum conducted by the Sisters of Mercy in Charleston, South Carolina. These sisters were very kind to the sick and wounded soldiers of the Union army. Their Asylum was destroyed by the bombardment of Charleston, and in behalf of their services twelve thousand dollars were given to them at the close of the recent session of Congress. This appropriation was opposed by many who would have been glad to show liberality, not to say gratitude, for the kindness of the sisters. But the Orphan Asylum is a sectarian institution. It was not legally entitled to a cent from the Treasury. Whatever was given was an unauthorized donation for building up a sectarian institution. It was objected, moreover, that if the money was given there was great danger of its being diverted from its charitable to a purely sectarian purpose. Those opposing the appropriation were denounced as heartless bigots, and bitter haters of the South, anxious to gratify their revenge by an exhibition of petty spite and malicious stinginess. In reply to these objections the Roman Catholic Bishop of Charleston wrote that the Asylum was a corporate body, and the priests could not touch the money. So the bill was passed. Last week the Lady Superior and a companion came to Washington to procure the money. They were quickly followed by a priest who ordered them home. He himself went to the Treasury Department, and by representing himself as agent of the Sisters of Mercy he obtained the warrant, payable to the Lady Superior. Prominent Catholics of Washington, who helped to get the appropriation on condition of its being strictly expended for the object for which it was obtained, believe that the same clerical authority which ordered the Lady Superior home, will have her signature affixed to the warrant and get the money. This incident and its result very plainly exhibit the absolutely delicate and dangerous ground on which we tread, when our civil authorities overstep, in the slightest degree, the rigid line which has been so clearly drawn between church and State, in our national polity. It is fraught with such dangers that we are mad to put even the smallest weapon into the hands of those who will use it against us, with a force increased tenfold by the wonderfully organized and efficient power of those who employ it.—Detroit Post. “I dare no more fret,” said John Wesley, “than to curse and to swear.” One who knew him well said that he never saw him low-spirited or fretful in his life. He could not endure the society of people who were of this habit. He says of them: “To have persons at my ears murmuring and fretting at everything, is like tearing the flesh from my bones. By the grace of God, I am discontent at nothing. I see God sitting on his throne and ruling all things.” If every one were of John Wesley’s spirit, it would revolutionize the world. Christians lose all their wayside comforts, and dishonor the Master, by their fretfulness over little troubles. Some, who can bear the great sorrows of life with a martyr’s faith and patience, are utterly overthrown by the breaking of a vase. The temper is an unruly steed which must be kept in hand every moment.—Sel. M. A. CLARKE
By M. A. Clarke
The word work is a small one; but, like many small things, is very important. Mark 13:34, says, “For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work.” Matt. 25:15, speaking on the same subject, says, “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability.” From this we see there are no exceptions; but every one has a work to do. And the wise and kind Master has proportioned that work according to our ability. If we receive but one talent, we shall have to give account for but one, but we must certainly give account for just what we do receive. If we fail to improve our one talent, we shall just as surely be cast out as unprofitable servants, as if we failed with five. We need only to be willing to work, in order to find plenty to do. When we look into our own hearts, we find there the uprisings of the carnal heart to strive against. When we consider our physical habits, we see much there that needs reforming. We all need to read, study, and practice, the teachings of God's word, “with all diligence.” When faith and works correspond, then will our influence tell for the right. Oh! that all of us, whether we have but one talent or more, would diligently and prayerfully improve what the Lord has given us; then would we be a living, growing church; and thus the ministers of God would be saved many heavy burdens, and have more time and strength to labor for the world. Dr. Gridley describes how spirits treated an old man of sixty years, in Southampton, Mass:— “They forbade his eating to the very point of starvation. He was a perfect skeleton; they compelled him to walk day and night, with intermissions, to be sure, as their avowed object was to torment him as much and as long as possible. They swore by everything sacred and profane, that they would knock his d—d brains out, always accompanying their threat with blows on the forehead or temples, like that of a mallet in the hands of a powerful man; with this difference, however, the latter would have made him unconscious, while in full consciousness he now endured the indescribable agony of those heavy and oft-repeated blows; they declared they would skin him alive; that he must go to New York and be dissected by inches, all of which he fully believed. They declared they would bore holes into his brain, when he instantly felt the action suited to the word, as though a dozen augers were being turned at once into his very skull; this done, they would fill his brain with bugs and worms to eat it out, when their gnawing would instantly commence. . . . These spirits would pinch and pound him, twitch him up and throw him down, yell and blaspheme, and use the most obscene language that mortal can conceive; they would declare that they were Christ in one breath and devils in the next; they would tie him head to foot for a long time together, in a most excruciating posture; declare they would wring his d—d neck off, because he doubted them or refused obedience.”—Astounding Facts from the Spirit World, pp. 253–4. The curious and “troublesome” style of Carlyle is said to be quite in contrast with his simple, straightforward way of talking. Hatred of shame is one of his notable characteristics. One evening, at a small literary gathering, a lady, famous for her “muslin theology,” was bewailing the wickedness of the Jews in not receiving our Saviour, and ended her diatribe by expressing regret that he had not appeared in our own time. “How delighted,” said she, “we should all be to throw our doors open to him, and listen to his divine precepts! Don’t you think so, Mr. Carlyle?” The sturdy philosopher, thus appealed to, said, in his broad Scotch: “No, madam, I don’t. I think that, had he come very fashionably dressed, with plenty of money, and preaching doctrines palatable to the higher orders, I might have had the honor of receiving from you a card of invitation, on the back of which would be written ‘TO MEET OUR SAVIOUR;’ but if he had come uttering his sublime precepts, and denouncing the Pharisees, and associating with the publicans and lower orders, as he did, you would have treated him much as the Jews did, and have cried out: ‘Take him to Newgate and hang him!’” On another occasion, when Ernest Jones, a well-known Chartist leader, was haranguing, in his violent manner, against the established authorities, Carlyle shook his head, and told him that, “had the Chartist leaders been living in the days of Christ, he would have sent the unclean spirits into them, instead of into the swine of the Gergesenes, and so we should have happily got rid of them.” This delicate allusion to the suicide of the pigs so astonished the respectable representative of the numerous family of the Joneses that he said nothing more about Chartism that night.—Harper’s Magazine. Little Sins and the Green Log
JOHN NEWTON says: Satan seldom comes to a Christian with great temptations, or with a temptation to commit a great sin. You bring a green log and a candle together, and they are very safe neighbors; but bring a few shavings and set them alight, and then bring a few small sticks and let them take fire, and the log be in the midst of them, and you will soon get rid of your log. And so it is with little sins. You will be startled with the idea of committing a great sin, and so the devil brings you a little temptation, and leaves you to indulge yourself. “There is no great harm in this;” “no great peril in that;” and so by these little chips we are first easily lighted up, and at last the green log is burned. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. JONATHAN EDWARDS describes a Christian as being like “such a little flower as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun’s glory; rejoicing, as it were, in a calm repose; diffusing around a sweet fragrance; standing peacefully and lowly in the midst of other flowers.” Humility is indeed one of the loveliest graces which adorn the Christian character; and between it and holiness there is an intimate connection. The nearer a Christian gets to God, the more profoundly is he impressed with his infinite purity, majesty, and glory, and the more impure, insignificant, and worthless, does he himself appear in his own eyes by reason of the marked contrast. We observe this in the case of the pious patriarch in the land of Uz, who, when the voice of the Lord came to him out of the whirlwind, exclaimed, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” So when the “still, small voice” of Jehovah reached the prophet Elijah in the cave on Horeb, he “wrapped his blushing face in his mantle.”—Sel. Evidence: Prophecy Fulfilling Before Our Eyes
By F. M. B.
It was said by our Saviour, “They have Moses and the prophets.” “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Luke 16:29, 31. We have not only the examples and teachings of Moses and the prophets to instruct us; but the prophecies are fulfilling before us in every particular, bringing us down to the very end of this world’s history. If this array of evidence fails to interest us in the present fulfillment of prophecy and the events just before us, nothing can lead us to cut loose from all that binds to this life, and to make the necessary preparation for an immortal inheritance, which is to be given to the finally faithful. As we behold the great counterfeit of God’s true work increasing and progressing with all signs and lying wonders, deceiving, if it were possible, the very elect, in these last days, the true coin is more valuable. More beautiful and precious are the light and teachings from Heaven, in restoring the gifts of God’s Spirit to the church at the close of probation. When we view the dark trail and deformity of spiritualism, the contrast of the true and false gives luster to the true coin. And the existence of the counterfeit proves the genuine, and points to the truth. “Time is closing.” Shall we be ready? F. M. B. Direct Telegraph Communication Between England and India
A VERY interesting telegraphic feat has been performed on the East India telegraph line, by which instantaneous communication was kept up over 6,000 miles of wire. The experiments were made on the Indo-European line, via Teheran, to work direct, without any transmission, between England and India. This hitherto unprecedented result was actually attained. Communication was first established between London and Kurrachee. The director at Kurrachee sent the following message to London: “Kurrachee, 8th, 5:36 P. M. This message is the first really sent from India to England instantaneously. By Indo-European line we work now easily and quickly direct with London.” A commercial message was forwarded from London direct to Kurrachee, for Calcutta, immediately afterward. Kurrachee then put the line through direct to Bombay. Bombay and London then interchanged signals perfectly, and a commercial message was sent to Bombay direct, by London, at 1:58 P. M., and was instantaneously acknowledged. This is the first occasion on which the telegraph has worked direct, without any re-transmission, between England and India. C. F.: Where is Charles and Mary Francisco’s REVIEW now sent? CARRIE A. NICHOLS: Please give P. O. and State, and we will send Testimony, No. 20. I SCHARER: Where is James Scharer’s paper sent? Annexed to each receipt in the following list, is the Volume and Number of the REVIEW & HERALD to which the money receipt pays,—which should correspond with the Numbers on the Papers. If money for the paper is not in due time acknowledged, immediate notice of the omission should then be given. $2.00 EACH. M Wilkinson 40-1, S Wilkinson 39-23, D W Bartholomew 39-19, S Collins 39-1, L E Milne 41-1, A Z Pond 38-1, S Vincent 40-1, M E Trowbridge 39-19, L R Chapel 40-1, A J Gardner 39-12, E C Hoxie 40-1, W N Brown 39-15, George Heabler 40-1, M C Butler 40-1, Mary Carpenter 39-20, S Renfraw 39-1, H Dunbar 38-1, J S Rogers 39-22, L Skinner 39-20, Mrs A Reed 39-13, J D Pierson 39-13, J Phillips 40-13, J G Smith 40-1, A McKenzie 39-13, L C Wardell 40-1, W W Hanscomb 39-21, S J Miller 39-10, H W Kellogg 39-7, C L Palmer 46-1, L Wilson 40-1, N W Emory 40-1, D Studibaker 39-14, Elias Card 38-1, O Bates 39-1, M S Gillet 39-20, S D Bresee 39-17, H T Hewitt 39-18, A W Spencer 39-1, Elias Cobb 40-1, S S Craig 40-1, R F Powers 39-18, A S Cowdrey 39-1. $1.50 EACH. M Heslet 39-22, Betsey Davis 39-1, Harriet Hakes 40-1, Matilda Smith 40-1, Ira Campbell 40-1, M J Hagenwood 40-1, E Hewitt 40-1, Mrs E Bradbury 40-1, M J Eaton 40-1, Phebe Vedder 39-1, Olive Ayers 40-1, T N Willis 40-1. $1.00 EACH. H Shaver 39-1, W W Wilson 35-1, Julia A Thompson 39-1, M T Haughey 38-11, C J Censon 39-1, Henry Satterlee 39-1, Wm P Butler 38-20, Mrs A Cochran 39-1, M W Howard 39-1, S Simonds 39-1, S A Kelsey 39-1, Jane Kirtley 39-1, Wm Harris 39-1, Wm White 38-12, J McMillin 39-1, H McLaine 39-1. Miscellaneous. Charles Seaward 50c 39-1, C La Bounty $2.50 40-5, W Hastings 2.50 39-14, R S Whitney 50c 39-1, N B Cooper 8.00 40-17, J Sharpe 5.00 38-1, R Torry 2.50 39-14, E Thayer 50c 38-13, F Wilson 1.75 38-1, P Conklin 50c 38-1, W M Graves 2.75 38-1, A Silver 3.75 40-8, H Miller 4.50 38-4, P Briggs 5 25 39-15, Wm Bailey 6.75 39-1, L Whitney 3.75 39-19, E Stiles 5.25 39-6, S Sargent 5.25 39-1, C P Whitford 2.82 38-1, A C Hendrick 2.50 38-2, M Hale 3.00 42-1, F Eaton 3.15 41-5, M Palmer 4.50 39-9, John Welling 2.50 39-14, O A Richmond 3.00 39-17, J W McGuire 4.56 38-1, J Day 5.00 39-1, L G Gambol 75c 38-25. R G Reynold 25c, B Haynes 20c, J L Greene 25c, H W Kellogg 25c, S J Miller 25c, M E Steward 50c, J H Collins 25c, J Phillips 25c, James Harvey 62c, M A Hake 25c, I M Statler 50c, Elias Cobb 1.50, A A Bradford $1.00, L M Baker 75c, A L Guilford 25c, Wm A Hicks 15c, F James 1.85, P Z Kinne 1.50, A H Hall 1.00, Willard Carter 25c, N Edmans 25c, H S Zoller 25c, C E Green 25c, Mrs A M Green 50c, D A Robinson 2.00, W E Chesebro 25c, S J Rogers 10c, Wm Kerr 25c, O Mears 3.25, B L Whitney 25c, S A Casdell 25c, Wm Ensminger 1.00, M M Russell 25c, M M Osgood 1.00, A Humphries 25c, T Bryant 50c, T Demmon 50c, H H Bramhall 25c, M A Eaton 23c, C M Baker 20c, G W States 25c, Wm Cottrell 2.50, Geo A Lord 20c, C C VanDoren 25c, C S Linnell 25c, Geo D Ballou 2.20, M F Dibble 1.25, Thomas Bickle 25c, O Ayers 45c, D T Fero 2.45, J G Smith 1.00, W M Case 10c, M D Clark 1.50, Mrs M Cady 25c, R J Foster 50c, S A Guisinger 50c, A C Hudson 50c, D McCallum 25c, Chas Stratton 1.25, J L Locke 1.00, Wm H Wild 50c, Z Curtiss 22c, H G Overmire 2.25, T Loomis 25c, J M Rhodes 25c, F N Reasoner 4.50, E H Morton 45c, A H Hall 2.00, A Crownhart 1.00, M Blackmer 17c, L M Bundy 85c, W F Goslin 3.00, Mrs L Frink 1.00, W Boynton 25c, A S Hutchins 25c, C A Nichols 25c, J M Kees 25c, Amos Holt 50c, S N Walsworth 25c, N Orcutt 1.50, James Pease 25c, R Baker 25c, J P Hunt 25c, H W Decker 25c, S H King 50c, J L Locke 25c, N M Jordan 25c, M Smith 1.00, M J Scott 50c, W D Sharpe 25c, G W Newman 25c, J Binehower 65c, H Evans 50c, A Burwell 50c, J N Loughborough 1.80, J M Wilkinson 25c, G G Green 50c, C L Palmer 25c, F Douglas 25c, I D Van Horn 2.62, Mrs S J Hunt 25c, M H Bates 50c, Rufus Baker 25c, A W Maynard 25c, L A Marsh 50c, J A DeMill 25c, A Hatch 1.00, C J Benson 25c, F I Bell 31c, S Vincent 25c, D B Welch 25c, E Ireland 25c, Mrs R Hampton 1.06, L E Milne 25c, G W Shortridge 60c, A G Hutchins 25c, M E Guilford 25c, Daniel Howard 25c, L H Davis 25c, A D Smith 25c, Wm K Hawkes 1.00, J Matteson 25c, A O Burrill 25c, L Day 25c. R F Cottrell, Randolph, Catt Co, N. Y., $10.85, S N Haskell, No 65 Dorchester St, S Boston, Mass, 16.00. R F Andrews, Somonauk, DeKalb Co, Ill, $145.97. Eld J N Loughborough, Santa Rosa, Cal., $166.50. Cash Received on Account.
A S Hutchins, $25.00, H F Phelps, 6.50. Michigan Conference Fund.
Church at Salem Center, $10.00, Burlington, 13.00, Oneida, 5.00, St Charles 40.00. Shares in the Publishing Association.
D W Bartholomew $10.00, D T Bourdeau 10.00, H W Gordon 40.00, A A Bradford 10.00. Donation to the Publishing Association.
A H Clymer $5.00, Wm Wright 5.00, Mary Bradford 5.00. Shares in the Health Institute.
D N Fay $25.00, A O Burrill & wife 25.00. Book Fund—$10,000 Wanted.
Amount received heretofore $3445.90. Ten Dollars Each.—Chas. Green, H. W. Gordon. Miscellaneous.—A. Cochran $2.00, H. Evans (thank-offering) 4.00, A friend 75c, Thank-offering from a little girl 50c, Mary Dunn 50c. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Providence permitting, the western camp-meetings will be held as follows:— La Porte City, Iowa, June 15-19. Milton Junction, Wis., “ 22-26. Medford, Steele Co., Minn., June 29-July 4. Gen. Conf. Com. La Porte City Camp-Meeting.
God willing, there will be a camp-meeting at La Porte City, Iowa, to commence June 15, and hold about one week. We hope to see a general rally from all parts of the State. Providence permitting, there will be a camp-meeting at Clear Lake, on the farm of Mr. Stone, one and one-half miles north of Milton Junction, on the Chicago and North-western and Milwaukee and Prairie Du Chien railroads. The meeting will be held June 22-26, 1871. We hope to get reduced fare for those coming on the cars to this meeting. We expect there will be a very important meeting. We hope to see a general attendance of our people. Do not let worldly considerations keep you from coming and bringing your neighbors and friends with you. Bring your tents and camp equipages. Come in time for the commencement of the meeting. Come to stay till the close. There will be teams to convey to the ground those that come on the cars. Provisions can be obtained on the ground, and hay and oats for teams. We confidently expect Bro. and sister White to be at this meeting. I. Sanborn, } Wis. M. J. Bartholf, } Conf. C. W. Olds, } Com. Wisconsin State Conference.
Notice is hereby given that the Wisconsin State Conference will hold its next annual session in connection with our camp-meeting, to be held at Milton Junction, June 22-26, 1871. Let all our churches elect delegates to represent them according to the following ratio: twenty members or under, one delegate, and one delegate for every additional fifteen members. Let all the churches send to the Conference a written report of their standing, their losses and additions during the year, and the yearly amount of their Systematic Benevolence fund. I. Sanborn, } Wis. State M. J. Bartholf, } Conference C. W. Olds, } Committee. Providence permitting, the Minnesota Camp-meeting will be held near the village of Medford, Steele Co., Minn., June 29-July 4, 1871. Harrison Grant, } Minn. Calvin Kelsey, } Conf. D. McAlpine, } Com. Notice is hereby given that the Minnesota State Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will hold its next annual session in connection with the Minnesota Camp-meeting to be held at Medford, Steele Co., Minn., June 29-July 4, 1871. And it is requested that all our churches in the State be represented by delegate or letter, giving a report of their standing, their losses, and additions during the year; also the yearly amount of their Systematic Benevolence fund. Harrison Grant, } Minn. Calvin Kelsey, } Conf. D. McAlpine, } Com. By request I appoint to meet with the church in Vergennes Sabbath and first-day, June 17, 18. This will be a two days' meeting. Also, with the church in St. Charles, June 24, 25. The dedicatory service of their meeting-house will take place the 25th, at 2 P. M. Quarterly meeting at Ulysses, Pa., June 17 and 18. We earnestly invite our brethren at Allegany, Roulette, and Farmington, to come and enjoy with us this repast, for we expect our Lord to be present to feed us. Will Bro. Cottrell and Bro. John Baker meet with us? By order of the church, Willard W. Stebbins, Clerk. The next quarterly meeting for Clyde, O., will be held on the first Sabbath and Sunday in July next. We invite all to come that can. In behalf of the church. Quarterly meeting for the church of Avon, Rock Co., Wis., June 17 and 18, 1871. It is the request that Bro. Sanborn meet with us. We invite brethren from other churches. The next quarterly meeting for Rhode Island will be held at Green Hill, June 17 and 18, commencing at my house at the beginning of the Sabbath. There will be a conveyance from Shannock Station to my house the 16th. It is hoped the brethren and sisters will keep in view the object for which the apostle tells us to meet. Heb. 10: 25. Amos P. Green, Church clerk. The next monthly meeting for the southern district of Maine will be held with the church in Woodstock, Sabbath and first-day, June 17 and 18. If nothing in providence prevents, some minister will attend and remain as long as the interest may demand. After the Commune, What?
By Editor
THE dispatches which we publish this morning announce the entire defeat of the Paris insurgents. M. Thiers and his troops are in possession of so much of the city as still remains, and if any struggles continue they are the hopeless efforts of a few hundred Communists barricaded in a corner, to whom despair has lent a hideous sort of courage. There can be no doubt that the Commune, as a military or political force, has ceased to exist. Possibly it is too soon to sum up its record or write its epitaph, but it is difficult to believe that the remotest age will remember it without a shudder, or the most impartial historian modify the passionate condemnation which all the world has already pronounced on its acts. Mr. Frederic Harrison, in The Fortnightly Review, is, we believe, the only known writer who has found an explanation for the Commune, or discovered any method in its madness. But the dreadful work of the last week destroys the only value which might have belonged to the passionate rhapsody of the Positivist speculator. The better the idea out of which the Commune sprung, the worse for the world. An idea that has found expositors like Pyat and Rigault, and that enlisted Dombrowski and Cluseret in its defense, has little chance of being accepted hereafter by honest men. Paris had a right to municipal self-government, no doubt, but the only possible apology for the Imperial oppression against which the great city protested, has been supplied by the madmen who made her the offer of liberty. The social questions which the Commune sought to raise have been pressing for a settlement for years past. They never had so good a chance for fair consideration as within the past twelvemonth. It is probable that the Commune has postponed them for half a century. Social reorganizations have come before now through convulsions and great agonies, but they come in spite of disorders, and not by help of them. The September massacres made Republicanism impossible in France. The barbarities of the Commune have undone the work of a score of reformers, and closed the ear of Europe to every demand for social readjustments. If the overthrow of the Vendome column was meant as a protest against the military spirit, in behalf of what new doctrine of good-will do the charred ruins of Paris plead? But the death of the Commune is only the beginning of the end. M. Thiers is master of Paris to-day, and being master, his difficulties are still all before him. The Versailles Government has never been popular even with the Parisians to whom the Commune was most odious. Before it quitted Bordeaux, it had contrived to outrage the sensibilities of the vainest population in the world. Every shopkeeper on the Boulevards felt himself humiliated at being governed from a provincial city, and the vote of the assembly to adjourn to Versailles instead of Paris was resented as a wanton affront. For all this M. Thiers was held responsible. He had not been thoroughly popular in Paris even when Paris chose him as one of her deputies in the Corps législatif. It was not Thiers whom they loved, so much as Napoleon whom they hated, and in the same way it was the fierce hostility of Paris to the rulers who surrendered the city to the Prussians that led them to welcome any successors. When the Executive whom the Bordeaux Assembly had chosen had established itself in the capital, Paris at once found itself divided into two hostile camps. Paris in rags sat scowling from the Buttes Montmartre, while Paris in broadcloth implored M. Thiers either to govern or give way to somebody who would. He did neither. The insurgents might have been dispersed without difficulty during the first week or fortnight. They might have been beaten even after a month's delay, had M. Thiers known how to attach his own troops to him, or had Vinoy shown ordinary skill in planning his movement. The double failure drove the Thiers government to Versailles, followed by the hiss-es of the city he could not rule. Then came that long period of inaction and that weary show of incapacity and fear, while the insurrection grew daily stronger, while the Commune organized itself and entrenched the city, and throughout which the contempt of the Parisians for M. Thiers darkened day by day into hate. His bombardment of the city followed, and Paris saw with indignation her lawful rulers battering down what her enemies had spared. From the day when the shells began falling about the Arc de Triomphe, the anger against M. Thiers was as strong among his old partisans as among his old opponents. What must it be to-day, when the city lies in ruins solely because the chief who ought to have saved her was unequal to the work? That is the immediate difficulty of the situation. It is not possible to believe that M. Thiers can long continue at the head of this Government. It is equally difficult to name a successor under whom the Government could be carried on in its present shape. If we are to regard the existing Government as permanent in form, we shall look about in vain for an Executive whose claims to popular confidence can inspire any hope of success. To put a weak man or an unknown man in M. Thier’s place is to encourage intrigues of Orleanists, of Bourbons, and of Imperialists alike. There are no means of forming an opinion on the probable chances of either, nor is it certain that society may not find a savior who should prove neither an imbecile nor a tyrant. But he must be a sanguine man indeed who can discover in the circumstances of to-day much ground for believing that the Republic is likely to prove stronger than all its opponents together.—N. Y. Tribune. The Health Reformer.
By James White
In the June number of the Health Reformer, which is the last one of the volume, we gave a list of premiums. Those premiums, however, are offered to those who shall obtain subscribers outside of the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists. We sent a copy of the March or April number, post-paid, to all of those subscribers of the REVIEW who do not take the Reformer, at an expense of about three hundred dollars, which is all we can afford to do in that direction at present. We invite free-will co-operation in this work from all true-hearted health reformers. Let our ministers at camp-meetings, and everywhere else, gather up subscribers, and send in the names, with one dollar each. Let elders, deacons, and all live health reformers, do all they can, in and out of the church, to circulate the Health Reformer. J. W. Testimony No. 20: Counsel on Meetings, Sabbath, and Daily Life
By John Nevins Andrews
Like all the previous numbers, this Testimony contains matter of the highest practical importance both for preachers and for people. It contains no flattering words. But men and women who are closing up their work for the Judgment need nothing of that kind. What they need is to have the evils of their own hearts laid open to their view as in the light of Heaven, and this they will find to a large extent in this work. Here also are found most excellent counsels concerning many practical matters in the work of the Christian minister, and in the duties of every day Christian life. The counsel concerning the manner of conducting meetings seems to me admirable. If all would read, ponder, and regard it, we should have fewer lifeless meetings. Indeed, I do not see how they could ever be other than seasons of interest. What is said concerning the proper observance of the Sabbath is worthy of particular attention. The Sabbath is a delight when it is observed as God designed that it should be. He commands us to call it a delight, and he does not ask us to speak a falsehood. Here are given instructions that will render the Sabbath a delight to our families, so that while they obey God in its observance, they shall not feel that the duty is irksome. Here also are excellent remarks upon Christian recreation. And here is a most impressive dream concerning the narrow path before us. What is said concerning the conducting of camp-meetings should be read by every one. The dream on pages 42–49 makes a very solemn impression on my mind. It is a warning to us to regard the light already given, and a reproof for having made too little use of it. By all means let us repent of this neglect, not simply being sorry for our wrong, but changing our conduct. What is said to ministers, as to their proper deportment in the house of God, and their proper conduct in their work, is worthy of the most serious attention on the part of every one. And then the personal testimonies, so solemn, so faithful, so searching in their character, come home in some things to every one. We need not ask who are the ones intended. Wherever the sin described is to be found, there belongs this reproof. Let not the reader give it all to the person originally addressed. More or less of the same sins are found upon us, and the publication of these personal testimonies is that we and all like us may be reproved. In one word they come home to every one and it becomes us to be faithful with our own souls. And I would most earnestly commend the daily perusal of the Testimonies by all our people, and especially by our ministers. They are admirably adapted to instruct the minister of Christ in his work, and the private Christian in his. You will not think less of the Bible, nor will you read it less for heeding this advice. J. N. A. Errata for Sectionalism in the Work of God
By W. H. L.
In the article printed in REVIEW, No. 22, entitled “Sectionalism in the Work of God,” read at the close of the fourth paragraph, “from Judea through Asia,” instead of “from Jordan through Asia.” And in the seventh paragraph, read “accomplishing through concert of action,” instead of “occupying through concert of action.” And in the ninth paragraph read “press” instead of “plead”; and in the next to the last line of the article “them” instead of “there.” W. H. L. Wisconsin Camp-Meeting—R. R. Fare.
By C. W. Olds
I wish to say to those wishing to come to the Wisconsin Camp-meeting, that we have procured return fare on the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien and Monroe Branch for sixty per cent of the full fare; also on the Wisconsin division of the Chicago and North-western. On this last railway you will pay full fare to the meeting, and return for one-fifth of regular fare. We will make an effort to get the same on the La Crosse railway to Watertown Junction. C. W. OLDS. There is dew on one flower and not on another, because one opens its cups and takes it in, while the other closes itself and the drop runs off. God rains his goodness and mercy as wide-spread as the dew, and if we lack them it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them.