Review and Herald, Vol. 33, No. 1. (12/29/1868)

Review and Herald

Dec 29, 1868

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 29, 1868

THE RETURN OF THE SPIRIT TO GOD.

By John Nevins Andrews

BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS.

TEXT.—“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Eccl. xii. 7.

This text is the exact counterpart of Gen. ii. 7. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

One text teaches how man was first formed. The other text makes known the process of his dissolution. What God did in creating, death undoes by dissolving. How did death get the power to step in and undo the Creator’s work? Man forfeited his right to live by sinning against God. Death entered by sin. Rom. v, 12. Death, then, has an evil parentage. In fact, it has a bad character in the book of God; it is not a friend, but an enemy; and so serious and formidable a foe is it that its destruction is made the subject of special promise to the people of God. 1 Cor. xv, 26. The power of death Satan himself has controlled. Heb. ii, 14. Death came from the Devil, just as life came from God.

God gave to man life, and instructed him that if he would obey him he should continue to live. Gen. ii. The Devil telling Eve that she should, by sinning, be introduced to a higher life, brought death upon our race. Milton’s idea that death is the child of sin and Satan, is strictly true.

But many at the present time believe death to be the gate to endless joys! Death, as they imagine, is the door whereby the Christian enters Heaven! By what means was this door created? By man’s rebellion against God. Who was the chief agent in promoting this transaction? The Devil! What does Jesus call him because of this work? A murderer. John viii, 44. If death is the door of Heaven, Satan has filled the office of door-keeper of Heaven, for he has had the power of death.

One of the principal proofs that men reach Heaven by dying, is found in our text which is so often quoted. “The spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Does this prove that death ushers men into Heaven? Please consider before you answer. If so, please observe that this text is not descriptive of the case of the righteous only; it is spoken of death as the common lot of man. Then we get all men into Heaven by dying, whatever may become of them afterward. Can it be true that every wicked man is to enter the gates of the holy city when he dies? See Rev. xxi, 27; xxii, 14, 15.

But does not this text really teach the entrance of the righteous into Heaven at death? Not unless it does that of the wicked also; for the text is descriptive of the common portion of mankind. The infirmities of old age are first described, and then the dissolution of man in death. The fact is, Solomon is admonishing the young men to attend to the service of God before these infirmities come on which lead to final dissolution. If it were only one class spoken of, it would be rather the wicked than the righteous, for Solomon would not have a young man grow up to these infirmities and consequent dissolution unprepared.

It is the unbuilding of the man after the infirmities of old age have worn out all his strength, that Solomon describes; it is not his translation to Heaven. The Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground. Death causes that dust to return to the earth as it was before it formed the man. If God does the first work, it is not God that destroys it. No; indeed. An enemy is the doer of all this.

“The spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” There is a record of the giving of the spirit by God. When he had formed the man from the dust, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Now when death dissolves the man, this very thing which God gave to man, returns. What comes from God returns to God, just as what comes from earth returns to earth. Then what better proof can we have that men are happy with God when they die? Who can deny a blissful existence to the spirits of men in the presence of God? And what will you do now with all the texts you adduce to show that in death there is no remembrance of God; that the thoughts of men perish in death; that they sleep in silence till the heavens pass away; that they are to be satisfied when they wake in Christ’s likeness; and that if there were no resurrection there would be no advantage obtained even by faithful Paul? Do not set these ideas aside too hastily; they are all ideas of men inspired of God. See Ps. vi, 5; Isa. xxxviii, 18, 19; Ps. cxlvi, 4; Job xiv, 12, 13; Ps. xvii, 15; 1 Cor. xv, 32.

But if the spirit goes back to God, must it not be happy in his presence? And must it not know infinitely more than while the man lived? Those who ask such questions overlook one point in the text, and that point is the key to the whole subject. That which goes to God once came from him. You infer that in returning to God the spirit enters upon a blissful existence in his presence. Have you well considered the point? It exists in God’s presence, after it has returned, with just as conscious an existence as it had before it came from him. No more goes back than came. It is no more exalted when it leaves man to go back to God, than when it left God to come to man.

Did the spirits of the dead once live with God, then leave him and come and live with men and then return to live again with God? It would be very absurd to affirm it. Somebody ought to remember something about living once in the presence of God before living in this world of sorrows. Why not some one recollect about this?

But if that be so, how much better off to have allowed us to stay in Heaven when we were there, than to send us into this world of sorrow, pollution, and crime. To be sure if this text be rightly expounded by the popular exposition, everybody gets back when they die; but even then how much better is dissolution than creation. How much more beneficent the work of Satan in introducing death which returns us all to Heaven, than the work of the Creator which took our happy spirits all out of Heaven to live in sorrow, sin, and pain!

The reader will see that there is just as much of blissful existence for the spirit after this life as before it. What came from God to enable the man to live, returns to God when he ceases to live.

There has been one grand act of the Creator in which he bestowed that upon man which at death he takes from him. God gave to Adam, when he formed him, the breath of life, and man, thus formed, became a living soul. It even says God breathed this into man’s nostrils. This was what gave Adam life. Elihu tells us that “the breath of the Almighty” gave to him “LIFE;” i. e., by giving it to the common father of mankind. Job xxxiii, 4.

What God gave to Adam was not an angel of glory to dwell in his body formed of dust. If it had been, what a misfortune to that heavenly being! No; it was simply “LIFE.” Having made the man, God gave him life. When man had forfeited his right to live, God told him he must return to the ground out of which he was taken. Gen. iii. And so when Adam closed his eyes in death, the great Creator took again in his own keeping that life which Adam gave up. God designs that men shall live again. He holds all in his hand till the hour shall arrive to give them life his second time. Jesus said that he laid down his life that he might take it up again. John x. And so when dying

commended his spirit, or life, to his Father’s hands.

Adam had his life from God. We have ours from Adam. Adam forfeited his right to live or God would never have taken from him that breath of life by which he was made alive. That being taken from him he had just as much life as he had before it was given him, which was none at all. That which God breathed into his nostrils being taken from him by the Author of his existence, has just as much thought and knowledge as before being given to Adam, which was no knowledge at all.

He did not put within Adam a living, conscious, organized being from glory, but the man being organized out of dust, God put the principle of life in him, i. e., he made him alive.

Our life is from Adam. It is not immortal life. The facts are too palpable to believe thus of ourselves. Life is transmitted from parents to children. What vast multitudes of living beings perish without ever seeing the light, i. e., without ever being born. Yet they had life. And so life exists in that which precedes embryotic existence. But in all this there is no immortality. We cannot take from the first Adam what he had not to give. Nor can we find in death, which is the fruit of sin, the door back into that Paradise from which sin caused us to be expelled. But, thank God, the second Adam can give us a life that shall never end. “For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” John v, 26. Death cannot convey us to the presence of God; but the resurrection shall show us the path of life, and “so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

CHRISTIAN CALMNESS DISTURBED.

By Caroline Fry

We walked beside a tranquil stream The sun had tinged with its parting beam; The water was still, and so crystal clear That every spray had its image there.

And every reed that o'er it bowed, And the crimson streak, and the silvery cloud, And all that was bright, and all that was fair, And all that was gay, was reflected there,

And they said it was like the chastened breast That religion soothes to a holy rest, When sorrow has tamed the impassioned eye, And the bosom reflects its expected sky.

But I took a stone that lay beside, And cast it far on the glassy tide, And gone was the charm of the pictured scene, And the sky so bright, and the landscape green.

And I bade them mark how an idle word, Too lightly said, and too deeply heard, Or a harsh reproof, or a look unkind, May spoil the peace of the heavenly mind.

Though sweet be the peace, and holy the calm, And the heavenly beam be bright and warm, The heart that it gilds is all as weak As the wave that reflects the crimson streak.

You cannot impede the celestial ray, That lights the dawn of eternal day; But so may you trouble the bosom it cheers, 'Twill cease to be true to the image it bears. —Caroline Fry.

PRACTICAL THOUGHTS ON BIBLE SUBJECTS.

By John Nevins Andrews

PROGRESS.

We have a journey to make to the heavenly city. It is not a trifling task to fulfill this journey. The steps to be taken are numerous, and some of them cause us pain; rather they require much painful effort and unceasing care and labor. I meet with many persons who feel certain they are making progress heavenward when I fail to discover wherein they have gained any ground in months, or perhaps years. The explanation seems to be this: The world is making a fearful rush toward perdition. The man who makes no advancement in the way to life, and who may be even slowly but steadily tending toward perdition, as he observes the world pass him with such speed in that direction, may even suppose that he is really making considerable progress toward the city of God. I may illustrate this by the fact that often when looking out of the car windows, on one side, I believe my car to be advancing when it is really standing still, and I am deceived by seeing a train that is going the other way. Looking out of the other side of the car shows me my mistake. I then see that we are not advancing at all. Sometimes that we are even losing ground. We need not be deceived. We are not to compare ourselves with others, but with Christ. Are we any more like him in any Christian grace to-day than we were one year since?

THY WILL BE DONE.

This is an element that forms a part of every acceptable petition. Perfect submission to the will of God must mingle with every prayer if we would have the prayers we offer ascend as incense before God. Prayer is not an effort to have God yield his preference to ours. Far from it. It is the language that the Spirit of God enables us to utter that we may spread our wants before God. Prayer is not addressed to God to prepare him to give, but it is to prepare us to receive. Prayer offered by the Son of God under the most agonizing circumstances contained this most striking clause: “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Matt. xxvi, 39. What an example to us!

Hezekiah is an example of the opposite. He asked to have the Lord’s will yielded to his. He urged his petition till it was granted. The result is placed on record as an admonition for all coming time. 2 Kings xx; 2 Chron. xxxii, 24–31; Isa. xxxviii; xxxix.

Fervent, effectual prayer is perfectly consistent with entire and unreserved submission to the will of God.

THE WISDOM OF GOD IN THE BIBLE.

One book has been given to mankind which has God for its author. This book contains such stores of wisdom and knowledge as can never be exhausted. In it God has laid up sound wisdom for the righteous. Our love for God is indicated as correctly by the love which we have for the perusal and the study of this book as by our delight in secret prayer. In the one case God is addressing us, and we in our hearts as we read are responding to him; in the other we are addressing God, and he by his Holy Spirit is communing with us.

The Bible is like Christ. Why should it not be when Christ is its Alpha and Omega? When men saw Christ as he appeared upon earth, so plain in dress, so unassuming in manner, so unselfish in conduct, so meek and lowly in heart, there was no beauty in him that they should desire him. For the same reason men in these days take no delight in the book of God. Perhaps they read a small portion now and then from a sense of duty, or from shame to be wholly ignorant of its contents, but they are glad when the task is accomplished so that they may turn to books which are more to their taste, or from which they expect greater profit. Oh! sad perversion of the mind. Oh! cruel slight of that book which contains the words of eternal wisdom. Oh! strange blindness and infatuation.

One of the old Fathers of the church made in substance this striking remark concerning the Scriptures: “In the Old Testament the New Testament lies concealed: In the New Testament the Old Testament lies open.”

This remark is truthful and just. And shall such a book remain in our hands to be read in the most sparing manner, and perhaps not studied at all by us? Shall other books be loved while this one is only tolerated and endured? Other books should be read, but let the Bible have the first place. In fact the best rule that I know to determine the character of our general reading and study is that what we thus gather shall be that which in some measure better prepares our minds for the understanding of divine truth.

Our lives at the least are very short. They are even a vapor, appearing for a little time, and then vanishing away. A life so short must be wisely employed or it will indeed be an utter failure. The book of God has been sent us to make us wise unto salvation. This book teaches the way of eternal life. It shows how a life that is only a hand breadth in extent may be exchanged for one of infinite duration. It teaches us by its example of good and evil conduct not less than by its commands, prohibitions, or its warnings.

It is not given for the purpose of gratifying idle curiosity. It is not to be studied for the purpose of disputing well, or of making display. Far from this. We can never appreciate the Scriptures unless we come to their study in the same spirit that those were under who wrote them. Here are the words of eternal wisdom. Shall we not make them the theme of meditation by day and by night? Shall they not be the subject of our conversation wherever we may be? Shall we not redeem time from our business, our other reading, and even from our sleep, for the purpose of learning the things of God? And when we read shall not the truths which we learn be received by faith into our hearts? Shall not the terrors of the day of Judgment, the awful voice of God’s law addressing itself to our conscience from Sinai, the tender accents of mercy and pardon from Calvary, the love of Christ, the history of our fallen world, the prophecies of its glorious future, the example of good and evil, the doctrine of divine truth, shall not these things make this the book of books to us?

INORDINATE AFFECTION.

The carnal mind is represented in the Scriptures as “the old man.” This old man is described as having “members,” just as the “outward,” or physical, man has members by which it is enabled to act. But what a catalogue of evil propensities and sins constitute the members of the old man, the ruling spirit, or carnal mind, of natural men. Here are the “members” enumerated by the Spirit of God: “Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, INORDINATE AFFECTION, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Col. iii, 5.

Inordinate affection is one of the members which pertain to the body of the old man. It is one of the elements that make up the carnal mind, or one of the evil things produced by it. It is found in bad company most certainly. Paul has classed it with the basest of human actions and principles.

Inordinate affection is an affection for any person or thing beyond that which may be properly placed on them. It is an affection for any object or person which makes them idols to us. We may know that we have this inordinate, or idolatrous, affection whenever we find ourselves unwilling to give up our friends or our possessions for Christ’s sake. We may also know that to be the case when our friends are taken from us by death, and we cannot accept of the Saviour as sufficient to make up the loss. The afflicting hand of God is often stretched forth to reveal to us our idols. If we would regulate our affections by the principles of the Christian religion, we would be saved from many and great troubles. If when we see that we have failed to do this we would at once correct our faults, and yield in unreserved surrender everything to God, we might still escape his chastening hand. And if this be neglected by us till the providence of God take from us the objects of our idolatrous affection, we may even then speedily bring the controversy to a close by acknowledging the right of our sovereign Lord to the full possession of our hearts’ best affections, and humbly asking him to forgive our past idolatry, and henceforth to take that place in our hearts which the idols once filled.

We may love our friends tenderly, and yet not with inordinate affection. In fact, the sanctified love which fills the breast where the Spirit of God has the control, is not only purer and sweeter, but it is even stronger, than that love which is inordinate and idolatrous. It is a love that will enable us to lay down our lives for our friends, and yet one whereby we can give them up for Christ’s sake with a submissive heart. It is a love that will not resent it when our dearest friends are reproved. It is a love that did enable Abraham to offer Isaac upon the altar. It is one that holds all earthly good as something lent of God, which he has a right to recall to himself at any time. It is an unselfish love. It is kindled by the Spirit of God, and while it exists in our breasts, all is heavenly serenity and peace. Inordinate affection is selfish, idolatrous, and rebellious. We can never enter Heaven till our hearts be cleansed from this.

STEADFAST.

Some Christians are just what all that profess godliness should be. They are “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” This quality of steadfastness is something admirable. In every church of Christ there are some who possess this noble quality. They are the burden bearers. They stand to their post, especially when everything is sad, trying, and dark. Then there is a much larger number who can hardly stand at all, only as they are held up by these faithful, self-sacrificing disciples. There is the utmost reason to fear that sooner or later such will fall by the way. God gives men fair warning of their dangers, and teaches them how to fortify themselves against the power of Satan. Having done this, he suffers Satan to tempt and to put them to the test just where they are weakest. So the sieve is shaken, and the heedless are sifted out.

There is always opportunity for those mindful of the country from which they came out to return thither. Caleb and Joshua had the steadfast spirit. But nearly all the host of Israel in their heart turned back to Egypt. It is right to entreat the people of God not to love the world; not to turn back from Christ; not to harden their hearts; not to make shipwreck of the faith. All this entreaty has to be made, and sometimes with no success. But I love to meet that kind of Christians who do not need such entreaty; the kind that will not turn back, even when as a test of their fidelity they

are invited so to do. “Tarry here,” says Elijah. “As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee,” answered Elisha. At the next place Elisha is tested in the same manner. And again the third time is the same entreaty used by Elijah, and the same answer given by Elisha. Elijah did not say this because it was best for Elisha to tarry, but that he might be proved. When the trial had thus been made Elijah says, “Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee.” And he receives the blessing of such infinite value to himself, a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

Naomi, when returning from her sojourn in the land of Moab, bade her two widowed daughters-in-law return to their own kindred in Moab, as being every way to their earthly advantage. Orpah, after withstanding sometime with tears, kissed her mother-in-law and went back. Then Naomi said to the other, “Behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods; return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more, also, if aught but death part thee and me.”

Now please to read the book of Ruth. Orpah returned to her mother and to the gods of Moab. Her name is mentioned no more. Doubtless her connection with the people of God ceased here forever. But Ruth is honored with a place in the chief family in Israel; she becomes one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ; her history is preserved in the Bible as a precious legacy to the people of God; and her name, in all probability, is now in the Lamb’s book of life. We have a very few in whom exists the spirit of Ruth, a much larger number, I fear, have that of Orpah. The great day will reveal the fact that only those whose hearts are steadfast, are accepted in the sight of the Lord.

J. N. ANDREWS.

THE JUDGMENT HASTENS.

By Dr. Bartine

“But,” says one of my careless friends to-day, “do not all things remain as they were? The sun shines as beautifully to-day upon my head as it did upon my childhood brow. Do not all things remain as they were?” Not exactly. The infidels of the olden time dreamed that horrid dream, and were tempted, amidst their delusions, to think so. They do, in some respects, remain as they were. The judgments of God, now and then, drop here and there—the wrath of God, now and then, touches and withers a sinner’s hardened heart; and so time rolls along, and the mercy of Heaven lingers and scatters its blessed influences abroad; but just now and then the Lord God strikes down a guilty wretch, that the world may be warned and impressed with the fact that God is not asleep, nor his justice dead, but that Imperial Power still sits upon the eternal throne to advocate the rights of virtue, the purity of God, and the welfare of the universe.

God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that day is coming. It already, I sometimes think, flings its shadow upon the pathway of earth. I sometimes imagine I can hear the mutterings of its gathering thunders, and that the old earth trembles as it approaches the great day of the Lord. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, when the heavens shall be dissolved, and the Almighty, in the tread of might and majesty, shall come forth from behind the clouds of his glory; when the universe shall veil its face from the sight of grandeur, and stand in awe while the world is judged—the righteous saved, and the wicked damned forever.

“But,” says my unconverted friend, “why is this judgment delayed?” It is that God may have mercy upon you, and that all the fruits of your wickedness on the one hand, or the goodness of the good man on the other, may accumulate, enlarge, diffuse, and grow up; for bad dead men and good dead men are working hard, and, until time shall be no more, God only can tell what good a good man will do when he is in his grave, or what evil a bad man will do when he is buried, but he will meet it at the judgment-seat of Christ. Oh! what a reckoning that will be, when the sinner will be done doing harm on earth! He will remember how he blasted the hopes of his neighbor’s daughter, and how he took advantage of the weakness of the weak. It will be enough to know that he never taught his child to pray, but lived in sin, and died without hope and without God; but oh! to think that after being dead he exerted an influence for vice, and against the eternal God! The Judgment, although delayed, is coming. The harvest will be ready, and God will come forth, in the majesty of his power, to judge the world in righteousness.—Dr. Bartine.

TIRED OF GIVING.

By J. A. E.

On a cold morning, Mr. Brown, one of the “merchant princes” of S., was reading in his library. Every thing about him spoke of comfort, amounting even to luxury. Book-cases filled with the goodly treasures of thought and learning; the thick carpet, deadening every footfall; rich and massive furniture; the bright fire in the grate, shedding warmth and light throughout the room,—all spoke of wealth and the good that follows in its train.

Mr. Brown himself was not unfit to be the occupant of such a room. The greater part of his life he had passed in close attention to business, and now he was beginning to reap the fruits of his toil. There was a look of contentment on his handsome face as he sat before the fire, a book in his hand. Outside, the wind was whistling, and the snow and hail were beating against the windows; but no chilling blast touched him as he sat in his comfortably cushioned chair. No care, no anxiety for the future, saddened his eye, nor wrinkled his broad forehead. “I have enough for me and mine,” he said to himself, “I have nothing to worry about.” He let his book fall from his hand, and sat gazing into the fire, musing on his past life, and on the blessings which were so thickly strewing his path. A knock at the door interrupted his meditations. A servant entered, announcing Rev. Mr. Heaton. Mr. Brown rose, and courteously greeted his visitor, an entire stranger to him. He was a tall, spare man, with a form slightly bent by age, or perhaps by the grinding hand of poverty; for he had been for years a hard worker in his Master’s vineyard; and if the good he had done was to be counted by the dollars he had received, then, indeed, had his life been spent in vain. But, God be thanked, his ministers, poor though many of them be, are paid in a higher mode than by mere dollars and cents!

Mr. Heaton’s calm yet energetic face told of many a combat with life’s troubles; but after the troubles had come victory and peace.

He told his story as briefly as possible. He was the pastor of a church in the distant West. The society was poor, and the building too small for the increasing congregation; and he had come to the East to beg for funds to enlarge the borders of their sanctuary. The old, old story. Mr. Brown heard him through to the end without interruption. He was too gentlemanly not to listen patiently to all his visitor had to say. Then he spoke gently but firmly: “Mr. Heaton, I am sorry for you; but I have nothing to give. I have dozens of such applications every day. I believe people think I am made of money. I am tired of giving.”

Mr. Heaton looked sadly at him, and a pensive smile played around his mouth. “Tired of giving!” he murmured. “Ah! where should we be, what would become of us, if the dear Lord should answer our petitions with ‘I am tired of giving?’ O sir! forgive my boldness; but what have you that you have not received from the hands of the Lord? Your wealth, your comforts” (and he glanced around the room as he spoke), “all, all, have come from One, who, blessed be his holy name, is never ‘tired of giving.’ Are you, am I, is any one, ever tired of receiving? What have we of our own? The very breath we draw comes from the Author of all our comforts. O sir! do not say you are ‘tired of giving’ till you are equally ready to say you are ‘tired of receiving.’ If God should be ‘tired of giving’ to you, where would you then be? where would be the wealth you are so proud of having accumulated by your own exertions?”

Mr. Brown sprang up, and caught Mr. Heaton by the hands, saying warmly, “Sir, I thank you; a thousand times I thank you. Ah! how many, many times I have exclaimed, ‘I am tired of giving!’ How thoughtlessly I have said it! I have never been tired of receiving. All my life has been full of blessings. God has, indeed, never ‘tired of giving’ to me; and, oh! how could I ever have been so ungrateful to him for all his goodness, as to say, or even think, ‘I am tired of giving?’ I thank you, sir, for the lesson you have given me this night. I trust I never shall forget it.”

“We need not say after this that Mr. Heaton went away with a gladdened heart; for he had not only done good to another, but he had received besides a check for a goodly sum from Mr. Brown, who was never after heard to utter the complaint, ‘I am tired of giving.’”—J. A. E.

BE WISE IN TIME.—

A young prince whose mind had learned in some degree to value religious truth, asked his tutor to give him suitable instruction that he might be prepared for death. “Plenty of time for that when you are older,” was the reply. “No!” said the prince, “I have been to the churchyard and measured the graves, and there are many shorter than I am.”

THE CHILDREN OUT OF THE WAY.—

“I wish my children were large enough to be out of my way,” said a mother; “they are so much trouble.”

Children are a trouble sometimes; but is not their company more pleasure than all the trouble they make? Does not their innocent prattle drive away many a dark cloud from a mother’s brow? When she sees her little son or daughter come to her with its sweet, smiling face, and reach up its little arms and put them round her neck, is she not abundantly repaid? Little children grow up, and get out of the way—but too often to their mother’s sorrow.

As a young woman said not long ago, “I do not love my mother.” “Why?” “Because she never loved me.”

The same mother afterwards said, “I do not care for my daughter.”—“Why?,” “She does not care for me.”

Who ought to care first—the mother or the daughter? Mothers, sow the seed of love in the early spring of life in your children’s hearts; then love will grow with them, and they will not be “out of the way” in time of need.

VICTORY AT LAST.

By Mrs. L. J. Geroy

For many years we've waited To hail the Prince of Peace, And our hearts should be united, And pride and strife should cease. And now the time approaches, Our trials are most o'er, Probation's almost ended, Our Lord is at the door.

CHORUS.

Is victory mine at last, Lord? Victory mine at last? O'er land and sea thy truth goes free, With it my lot I'd cast; With it my lot I'd cast, Lord, With it my lot I'd cast, For there's victory, victory, victory at last.

With earnest prayers I'll lighten, The trials I must bear, With heavenly thoughts I'll brighten, The road that's sometimes drear.. For now the time approaches, The plagues will soon be poured Upon a sinful nation, Who have blasphemed the Lord,

CHORUS.

Oh! may I yet grow stronger, And from all sin depart, For victory's mine if love entwine, Her tendrils round my heart; Her tendrils round my heart, Lord, From thee I'd ne'er depart; For there's victory, victory, for each faithful heart.

Thy people that proclaim it, Will live to see that day, Their King rides forth to conquer, Triumphant on his way. And while in him they've trusted, To them he'll soon exclaim, Well done, thou good and faithful, Enter my vast domain.

CHORUS.

Enter my vast domain, friends, Thy offerings were not lame, O'er land and sea my truth went free, While wicked spirits reigned. Receive thy just reward, friends, Receive thy just reward; Lord. For there's victory, victory, for those that love the

MRS. L. J. GEROY.

Jeff. Co., N. Y.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

A NOTICEABLE feature of the secular press of the present day is the continual testimony borne, showing the fulfillment of the predicted signs concerning this time. Why, with all this testimony, do the writers fail to understand the age of the world in which we are living, and the events that are just upon us? It is because they do not acquaint themselves with what the scriptures have uttered upon these points, and hence bear an unconscious testimony to the fulfillment of prophecy. The popular watchmen, the professed spiritual guides of the people, keep silence, or direct the minds of the people in the wrong channel, causing them to look for a good time coming of peace and prosperity; and thus the world is rushing on, asleep to the fearful realities of the great day. In the very words of scripture, almost, we daily read accounts from men who seemingly have no thought of the prophecies, showing the fulfillment of some ancient prediction; and how can the student of prophecy doubt in view of such testimony? Let those who have the light, lift up their voice like a trumpet, and show the people what these things mean. We make these remarks to introduce the following article from the Scientific American of Jan. 1, 1869, headed, “The Eventful Year of our Lord 1868.” According to its testimony, the year just passed has no parallel in history for the number and magnitude of many of its phenomena. “The heavens above and the earth beneath,” says the writer, “have been prolific of wonders.” The article reads:

From whatever point of view we consider the year just passed into history, we are struck with the number of important events that have been crowded into its annals. With its political or religious aspects, although they present much food for profitable thought and study, it is not our province to deal. The progress of science, and the remarkable physical phenomena so numerous, and in some instances so appalling, during the twelve short months that have rushed past us, give ample scope for a brief and profitable retrospect.

The year 1868 will henceforth be known as the earthquake year. History has not on its records a period of such universal terrestrial convulsion as the one just left behind us, and scarcely one of greater disaster from this cause. The eruption of Vesuvius, and the excited state of many other volcanoes throughout the world, indicate that the mighty forces to which these phenomena are due, are still at work. Whether their energies are in such measure exhausted that no further immediate danger is to be apprehended, is yet undetermined. These terrible visitations are gradually changing the physical aspect of our globe; and from them we can gather some idea of the power of the immense volcanic disturbances, which, ages ago, threw up our vast mountain ranges, and engulfed whole continents.

No less grand and impressive have been the celestial phenomena of the year. The great solar eclipse, possessing in some respects features of greater interest than any that has occurred for a long time past, or that will occur for a long time to come, has been not the least of these remarkable occurrences, both on account of its special peculiarities, and the results which have been obtained from organized observation. Add to this the splendid meteoric shower of November, and we may well say that the heaven above and the earth beneath have been prolific of wonders.

The progress in the most mighty undertaking which the world has ever witnessed is no less remarkable. The most gigantic railroad enterprise ever attempted has been pushed this year almost to completion. The Suez canal now almost joins the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, while during the year a movement has been initiated for the construction of a similar work across the Isthmus of Darien, which will unite the two great oceans. A new sub-Atlantic telegraph, of greater length than any heretofore attempted, has been made, and will soon connect the two continents, to be followed, no doubt, by others of greater magnitude. It has also been the subject of serious contemplation to lay a cable between the Pacific coast and China, and we would probably hazard little in predicting that some even now old men will live to see that work accomplished. Never has the earth seen a period of greater enterprises; never before has civilization made such triumphant advances.

The discoveries and improvements in the sciences and arts have been numerous and important. To review them and specify them as they demand would fill a volume. A glance at the index of the volume we have just closed, will show the great variety of subjects upon which scientific minds are now at work—not in mere speculation, but in actual and accurate experiment. Almost daily, nature responds to some bold inquiry of this kind, and a new truth is born to science.

As this article meets the eye of our numerous friends and readers, the congratulations and kind wishes of friends will be mutually interchanged upon the advent of the new year. That the year 1869 will be as fruitful of progress and as promotive of the welfare of the entire human race as the eventful year that is passed, is our prayer, while we beg to unite with our friends in wishing each and all a “Happy New Year.”

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