Signs of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 15. (4/14/1887)

Signs of the Times

Apr 14, 1887

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 14, 1887

WALKING IN THE LIGHT.

By Mrs. E. G. White

“Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.”

We are under obligations, as Christians, to let our light so shine before the world, that others, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father in Heaven. But we cannot exert a right influence upon others unless we walk in the light ourselves. If we have experienced the pardoning grace of God, and have his love in our hearts, we can, as opportunity presents, speak in counsel and affectionate entreaty to those who are in danger of losing eternal life; and our consistent deportment will give force to our words.

A life spent in active work for God is a blessed one. Multitudes who are wasting their time in trifles, in idle regrets, and in unprofitable murmurings, might have altogether a different experience if they appreciated the blessings God has given them, and, while they share these blessings with others who are less fortunate, sought to win them to Christ. And many thus make life miserable by their own selfishness and love of ease. By diligent activity, their lives might become as bright rays of sunshine. If they would spend their energies in seeking to guide those who are in the dark road to death into the pathway to Heaven, their own hearts would be filled with the peace and joy that passes understanding.

It is for our profit in this life, and for our eternal interest, that we manifest earnestness and zeal in the work of God. In the wise providence of God, we are incapable of looking into the future. This often causes us disquietude and unhappiness; but one of the greatest evidences we have of the lovingkindness of God is his concealment of the events of the morrow. Our ignorance of to-morrow makes us more vigilant and earnest to-day. We cannot see what is before us. Our best laid plans sometimes seem to be unwise and faulty. We think, “If we only knew the future!” but God would have his children trust in him, and be willing to follow the leadings of his providence. We know not the precise time when our Lord shall be revealed in the clouds of heaven; but he has told us that our only safety is in a constant readiness,—a position of watching and waiting. Whether we have one year before us, or five, or ten, we are to be faithful to our trust to-day. We are to perform each day’s duties as faithfully as though that day were to be our last.

We are not doing the will of God, if we wait in idleness for the coming of our Lord. Every man has been assigned his work, and the Master expects each one to do his part with fidelity. We are to sow beside all waters, to work continuously for Jesus, hoping for the salvation to be given us, and quietly waiting for our reward. Sinners are to be warned; sinners are to be won to Christ.

There are men of excellent ability,—men ambitious in worldly pursuits,—for whose salvation no efforts are made through fear of a repulse. But the skill and energy that make them successful in worldly pursuits, would, if consecrated, make them useful in the service of Christ. We cannot tell the ambitious man that he must cease to be ambitious if he would become a Christian. God places before him the highest objects of ambition,—a spotless white robe, a crown studded with jewels, a scepter, a throne of glory, and honor that shall endure through the ceaseless ages of eternity.

All the elements of character which help to make a man successful and honored in the world,—the irrepressible desire for some greater good, the indomitable will, the strenuous exertion, the untiring perseverance,—are not to be crushed out. These are to remain, and, through the grace of God received into the heart, to be turned into another channel.

These valuable traits of character may be exercised on objects as much higher and nobler than worldly pursuits, as the heavens are higher than the earth. Jesus presents a crown of glory richer than any that ever decked the brow of a monarch, and titles above those of honored princes. The recompense for a life devoted to the service of Christ, exceeds anything that the human imagination can grasp. Christ does not call upon men to lay aside their zeal, their desire for excellence and elevation; but he would have them seek, not for perishable treasure or fleeting honor, but for that which is enduring.

There is no place in the vineyard of God for listless souls. Ministers sometimes tell the people that they have nothing to do but believe; that Jesus has done it all, and their works are nothing. But the word of God plainly states that in the Judgment the scales will be balanced accurately, and the decisions will be based on the evidence adduced. One man becomes ruler of ten cities, another of five, another of two; each man receiving just according to the improvement he has made on the talents intrusted to his keeping. Our efforts in works of righteousness, in our own behalf and for the salvation of souls, will have a decided influence on our recompense.

God is well pleased when those who are striving for eternal life aim high. There are strong temptations to indulge the natural traits of character by becoming worldly wise, scheming, and selfishly ambitious, gathering wealth to the neglect of the salvation which is of so much higher value. But every temptation resisted is a victory gained in subduing self; it bends the powers to the service of Jesus, and increases faith, hope, patience, and forbearance.

The Christian must be upright. With a heart true to God, and imbued with his Spirit, he will see much to grieve over while surrounded by those who have thrown off their allegiance to the God of Heaven, and are on the side of the great rebel. The fact that iniquity abounds is a strong reason why he should be watchful, and diligent, and faithful in his Master’s service, that he may rightly represent the religion of Jesus Christ. On all sides the Christian soldier will hear treasonable plottings and rebellious utterances from those who make void the law of God. This should increase his zeal to act as a faithful sentinel for God, and to use every effort to bring souls to enlist beneath the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel.

The more dense the moral darkness, the more earnest should be the endeavor to walk with God, that light and power from him may be reflected to those in darkness. The love of genuine Christians will not grow cold because iniquity abounds. As society grows more and more corrupt, as in the days of Noah and of Lot, there will be yearning of soul over deceived, deluded, perishing sinners, who are preparing themselves for a fate similar to that of the transgressors who perished in the waters of the flood and in the fires of Sodom. The true follower of Christ will not follow a multitude to do evil, because it is fashionable to do so. His soul will be vexed at the bold insults offered to the world's Redeemer; and he will be anxious to exert every power to help press back the tide of wretchedness and guilt that is flooding the world.

We have only a little while to urge the warfare; then Christ will come, and this scene of rebellion will close. Then our last efforts will have been made to advance the kingdom of Christ. As never before, resistance must be made against sin,—against the powers of darkness. But if, bowed by affliction and worn with toil, we feel impatient to receive an honorable release from the warfare, let us remember—and let the remembrance check every murmur—that God leaves us on earth to encounter storms and conflicts, to perfect Christian character, to become better acquainted with God our Father and Christ our elder Brother, and to do work for the Master in winning many souls to Christ, that with glad hearts we may hear the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

A gift from the hand of God awaits the overcomer, who walks in the light even to the end of the race. Not one of us deserves it; it will be a free gift. Wonderful and glorious will be this gift; but let us remember that “one star differeth from another star in glory.” As we are urged to strive for the mastery, let us aim, in the strength of Jesus, for the crown heavy with stars. “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.”

OUR REFUGE.

Thou art, indeed, our refuge, Lord, And our exceeding great reward. A covert from the tempest wild, To many a weary, storm-tossed child.

We trust in thee; thou art our God; Our comfort is thy staff and rod. Thy rod corrects us when we stray; Thy staff supports us day by day.

Thou art our everlasting Rock; We build on thee, and fear no shock Of beating flood or stream can tear Us from our sure foundation there.

Thou art our strength; 'tis through thy might Our enemies are put to flight. In vain they strive against thy power; Their arms are broken in an hour.

Thou, Lord, our hope and trust shalt be, Till time shall meet eternity. And when shall end these fleeting years, And thou hast wiped away our tears, Glad praises we will sweetly sing To thee, our Saviour, God, and King.

MY REDEEMER.

THERE is one word full of meaning from which we collect the truth of sympathy. It is that little word of appropriation, "my" Redeemer. Power is shown of God's attention to the vast sympathy, by his condescension to the small. It is not the thought of Heaven's sympathy which impresses us when we gaze through the telescope on the mighty world of space, and gain an idea of what is meant by infinite. Majesty and power are there, but the very vastness excludes the thought of sympathy. It is when we look into the world of insignificance which the microscope reveals, and find that God has gorgeously painted the atoms of creation and exquisitely furnished all that belongs to minutest life, that we feel that God sympathizes and individualizes.

When we are told that God is the Redeemer of the world, we know that love dwells in the bosom of the Most High; but if we want to know that God feels for us individually and separately, we must learn by heart this syllable of endearment, "my Redeemer." Child of God, if you would have your thought of God something beyond a cold feeling of his presence, let faith appropriate Christ. You are as much the object of God's solicitude as if none lived but yourself. He has counted the hairs of your head. In Old Testament language, he has put your tears into his bottle. He has numbered your sighs and your smiles. He has interpreted the desires for which you have not found a name nor an utterance yourself. If you have not learned to say, "my Redeemer," then just so far as there is anything tender or affectionate in your disposition, you will tread the path of your pilgrimage with a darkened and lonely heart; and when the day of trouble comes there will be none of that triumphant elasticity which enabled Job to look down, as from a rock, upon the surges which were curling their crests of fury at his feet, but could only reach his bosom with their spent spray.

—Rev. F. W. Robertson.

WEARING GOLD.

THE Bible as positively says for Christian women not to wear gold as it says for them to pray. Both commands are given in the same paragraph. Sisters who wear gold say, "That means we must not worship it." But, my dear sisters, it does not say that we must not worship it, it says we must not wear it. You then say, "God made gold and put it here for our use." Certainly he did, but there are other and important uses for gold, and much more gold is needed for other uses, and you might as well argue that God made corn and put it here for our use and we will manufacture it into whisky and use it in that way. Besides this, it is hardly true to say you do not worship it. For your heart is set on it, at least; for you spend your money for it rather than to put it in the Lord's treasury, and where your heart is there is your treasure, and that shows that there is an idol in your heart before God. If it is not gold it is vanity or fashion, or something you prize before God.

If it was a present and cost you nothing, it is all the same if you wear it. If your mother gave it to you when she was dying and requested you to wear it, you should not; for Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." If your mother had given you an iron ring, would you wear it for her sake? No; you would lay it away in a keepsake box. An engagement ring is a shameful excuse for wearing gold. It is as shameful to attach importance to an engagement ring as it is to a horse-shoe tacked about the doorstep. It is all the same—a superstition and forbidden in Scripture.

Ear-drops are no less barbarous than the nose ring of the savage. The gold necklace is "so much worn" now that you cannot feel "comfortable at all," you say, without it. God says do not wear it, but fashion says wear it. Whom will you serve? God who made you and wants to save you, or fashion who is destroying you daily?

Well, what about the pin, buttons, watch, and chain? If gold was the only material of which these things could possibly be made, there might possibly be some shadow of an excuse for their use. If a gold watch is any better than any other and a lady really needed its use, it certainly is allowable, as it is carried for use and not worn for ornament. But for a lady to wind and set and "put on" her watch, only when she is dressed up, as a finishing touch to her toilet, it is as wicked in the sight of God as any other gold ornament. A gold chain to a watch is vanity also, and abhorred by God.

No matter how a thing looks so it is modest. Modest apparel is all we are allowed to wear. And every article worn for show or to attract attention to the wearer or things worn is beyond modesty or "modest apparel." If a girl was trained from childhood that it is positively sinful to wear gold, pearls, precious stones, and costly array, and never saw a woman thus attired, it would almost make her shudder to see a fashionably dressed lady. It is fashion that makes it seem all right. My dear sister, if you could go to your closet and on bended knees and with a believing heart ask God to give you a set of diamonds worth a hundred thousand dollars, to decorate your dying body with, knowing your prayer would be answered, would you do it? No. Well, would not the price of that collar pin buy a poor little ragged outcast a garb in which she could attend the Sabbath-school and learn the story of the cross and carry it home to her poor little brothers and sisters? Perhaps the price of all your jewels would furnish means for spreading the gospel for miles.

Oh, you say that would be too great a sacrifice. Well you will one day be invited to a great feast where you cannot enter because you have not the wedding garment on. When Christ will say, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me;" depart from me, I never knew you. Then perhaps you will feel as odd as you would now without wearing gold.—Selected.

PAY WHAT YOU OWE.

By Raymond F. Cottrell

An honest man will try to pay all his debts. But greatly as I ever desired to pay my debts, I never could make one dollar pay two debts of one dollar each.

Those who call the first day of the week the Sabbath of the New Testament, and teach men so, are indebted to the people to give from that record their authority for so doing. This a goodly number have attempted to do. They tell us that in the Greek of the New Testament the first day of the week is called the Sabbath; and quote as proof those Greek phrases which our translators have rendered "the first day of the week." Now if they are right in rendering these phrases "the Sabbath," of course our translators were wrong in rendering them "the first day of the week;" and consequently the first day of the week is not mentioned as such in all the New Testament. Where, then, is the proof that these expressions apply to the first day? since in every other place, fifty-nine in all, the term, the Sabbath, applies invariably to the seventh day.

Take Acts 20:7, the stronghold for the first day, since it records the only religious meeting held on that day, and translate the Greek as these persons do, and there is nothing in the text to prove that that meeting occurred on the first day; it would be simply the Sabbath, a term which in every other instance in the Acts undoubtedly means the seventh day. Why not here? They cannot make a single use of mian Sabbaton mean both the Sabbath and the first day of the week. It is like attempting to pay two debts of a dollar each with a single dollar. They are still in debt.

R. F. COTTRELL.

HUMILITY.

By John Ruskin

I BELIEVE the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility doubt of his own power, or hesitation in speaking his opinion; but a right understanding of the relation between what he can do and say, and the rest of the world's sayings and doings. All the great men not only know their business, but usually know that they know it; and are not only right in their main opinions, but usually know that they are right in them, only they do not think much of themselves on that account. Arnolfo knows that he can build a good dome at Florence; Albert Durer writes to one who has found fault with his work, "It cannot be better done;" Sir Isaac Newton knows that he has worked out a problem or two that would have puzzled anybody else; only they do not expect their fellow-men, therefore, to fall down and worship them. They have a curious undersense of powerlessness, feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them; that they could not do or be anything else than God made them, and they see something divine and God-made in any other man they meet, and are endlessly, foolishly, and incredibly merciful.—John Ruskin.

SENTIMENTAL CRIMINALS.

By Editor

DURING the last few weeks an incident has occurred that should teach a lesson to every father and mother of daughters, as well as to every woman. We have had a young girl, spoken of as educated, refined, and attractive, determined to marry a man imprisoned and under penalty of death for crime, proved to have been guilty of murder, and of holding and teaching doctrines that would uproot and destroy all government. This young girl visited the man in prison, and talked with him. Finally, to the horror and amazement of all her friends, her engagement to this criminal was announced. Her mother, an invalid, was, of course, the greatest sufferer because of the foolish actions of her daughter. Every inducement was offered to the girl to sever her relations, but she would listen to no one. Never having been controlled in the lesser affairs of her life, why should she listen, or allow herself to be controlled, in this most important affair? So we have had columns of detail furnished us by the daily papers of this foolish, unreasonable, and disgusting entanglement. The girl was finally forbidden by the authorities to visit the prisoner—a step that should have been taken when the prisoner was first incarcerated.

The sentimentality, the morbidness, that induces women to seek in jails, objects for the display of their generosity or moral teachings and support, is an evidence of mental weakness and want of balance. The world has claims enough on the truly benevolent and philanthropic impulses of every woman who desires to lift fallen humanity up, without her waiting until humanity has been imprisoned. If it is necessary for her to look at humanity through prison bars before she feels called upon to stretch out her hand to uplift, she may decide that her impulses are at root unhealthy, and sunk in that lowest stratum of the human heart, a love of notoriety. If she has not the strength of mind to resist her impulses, and leave the criminal to the care of those who have made crime a study, who are best fitted to help the criminal, she would better petition to be cared for as an irresponsible person. The women who have time to devote to notorious criminals, providing them with luxuries and flowers, developing in them a feeling of martyrdom instead of repentance, are the women who bring a blush of shame to the cheek of every woman who has the best good of her sex at heart.

We can forgive the sinner, but we are not given the authority to canonize him. We should be well assured of the sinner's sorrow and repentance before we take his hand as a brother. To weep, lament, pet, and coddle a man that law and his fellow-citizens declare guilty of crime punishable by law, does not show a kind heart, but a weak head. Probably the young woman who has brought this unpleasant notoriety on herself and family never knew any law but her own will. Her reading, no doubt, has been of the most sensational character, for no girl or woman truly of refined instincts, gentle nature, would be placed in such a predicament. If she had been in head and heart strong enough to give a helping hand to a criminal, she would never have allowed relations of sentiment to enter into the intercourse. Certain it is that there are persons enough on whom a young girl may exercise her philanthropic impulses without their finding vent on those on the wrong side of prison bars. A bad man is always dangerous, but when he poses as a martyr he is doubly dangerous, and should be left entirely to those who understand his ilk. Sentimental women and flowers are decidedly out of place among convicted criminals. The higher the crime committed, the less public sympathy need be displayed.

DESIGN AND NECESSITY OF THE BONDAGE IN EGYPT.

THERE are certain bonds of union, and sources of sympathy, by which the minds of a whole people may be united into one common mind; so much so, that all hearts in the nation will be affected by the same subjects, and all minds moved by the same motives. Any cause which creates a common interest and a common feeling, common biases and common hopes, in the individual minds which compose a nation, has a tendency to unite them in this manner.

Some of the causes which have more power than any others to bind men, as it were into a common being, are the following: The natural tie of consanguinity, or a common parentage, is a strong bond of affiliation among men. And there are others, which, in some cases, seem to be even stronger than this; among these may be named a common interest, a common religion, and a common fellowship in suffering and deliverance. Any circumstance which educes the susceptibilities of the mind and twines them together, or around a common object—any event in which the interest, the feelings, the safety, or the reputation of any people is involved—causes them to be more closely allied to each other in social and civil compact.

The more firmly a people are bound together by these ties of union, the more strength they will possess to resist opposing interests and opinions from without; while, at the same time, everything national, or peculiar to them as a people, will be cherished with warmer and more tenacious attachment.

From the operation of this principle originates the maxim "Union is strength;" and whether the conflict be mental or physical, the people who are united together by the most numerous and powerful sympathies, will oppose the strongest and the longest resistance to the innovations of external forces. On the contrary, if the bonds of moral union are few and easily sundered, the strength of the nation is soon broken, and the fragments easily repelled from each other.

According to this principle, in all cases in which a whole nation are to be instructed, or prepared for offense and defense, or in any wise fitted to be acted upon, or to act as a nation, it would be necessary that the bonds of national union should be numerous and strong; and that as far as possible a perfect oneness of interest and feeling should pervade the nation.

So long as the human mind and human circumstances

continue what they are, no power in Heaven or on earth could unite a people together, except by the same or similar means as have been stated. If, therefore, God designed to form a nation, either to be acted upon or to act as a nation, he would put in operation those agencies which would bind them firmly and permanently into one mass.

Now, mark the application of these deductions to the case of the Israelites. About the period when the corruptions of idolatry were becoming generally prevalent, Abraham, the Bible record states, was extricated by divine interposition. He was assured that his descendants should suffer a long bondage, and afterwards become a numerous nation. Abraham was their common ancestor, one whom they remembered with reverence and pride; and each individual felt himself honored by the fact that the blood of the "Father of the faithful" circled in his veins. The tie of consanguinity in their case was bound in the strongest manner, and encircled the whole nation. In Egypt their circumstances and employments were the same; and in the endurance of a protracted and most galling bondage they had a common lot. Their liberation was likewise a national deliverance, which affected alike the whole people, the anniversary of which was celebrated by distant posterity with strong and peculiar national enthusiasm.

Now it has been said that the events of our colonial servitude, and the achievement of American independence, are points in our history which will ever operate upon our national character, impressing clear views of the great principles of Republicanism, and uniting all hearts in support of those principles; how much more affecting and indelible, then, was the impress made upon the national heart of the Israelites by their bondage and deliverance! They were bound by blood, by interest, feeling, hopes, fears, by bondage and by faith.

And how firmly did these providences weave into one web the sympathies and views of the Jewish people. It is a fact which is the miracle of history, and the wonder of the world, that the ties which unite this people seem to be indissoluble. While other nations have risen and reigned and fallen; while the ties which united them have been sundered, and their fragments lost amid earth's seeming population, the stock of Abraham endures, like an incorruptible monument of gold, undestroyed by the attrition of the waves of time, which have dashed in pieces and washed away other nations, whose origin was but yesterday, compared with this ancient and wonderful people.

In this manner was this nation prepared for peculiar duties, and to discharge those duties under peculiar circumstances. Many of the nations by which they were surrounded were more powerful than themselves; all were warlike, and each had its peculiar system of idolatry, which corrupted all hearts that came within its influence. Hence the necessity that this people should be so united together as to resist the power and contagious example of surrounding nations, while they were fitted to receive and preserve a peculiar national character, civil polity, and religious doctrines; of all which they were to be the conservators amid surrounding and opposing heathenism, for many ages.

Other items might be added to the induction which would make the design, if possible, more apparent. If the Jews were to be the recipients of new instruction—to obey new laws, and to sustain new institutions, it would be desirable that their minds, so far as possible, should be in the condition of new material, occupied by little previous knowledge, and by no national prejudices against or in favor of governmental forms and systems. Now, in the case of the Jews, the habit of obedience had been acquired. They had no national predilections or prejudices arising from past experience. In relation to knowledge of any kind, their minds were almost a tabula rasa. They were as new material prepared to receive the moulding of a master hand, and the impress of a governing mind.

Now, as this discipline of the descendants of Abraham, was the result of a long concatenation of events, and could not have been designed by themselves to accomplish the necessary end; and as the whole chain of events was connected together and perfectly adapted, in accordance with the nature of things, to produce the specific purpose which was accomplished by them, it follows as the only rational conclusion, First, that the overruling intelligence of God was employed in thus preparing material for a purer religious worship than the world then enjoyed; and, Second, that a nation could have been so prepared by no other agent and in no other way.—Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation.

ROMAN CATHOLIC STATISTICS.

IN the Catholic Church of the United States, there are now one cardinal, 12 archbishops, 61 bishops, 7,658 priests, 1,530 ecclesiastical students, 6,910 churches, 3,281 chapels, 36 theological seminaries, 88 colleges, 593 academies, 485 charitable institutions, 2,697 parochial schools, and 531,725 pupils in attendance at these schools. In the diocese of Boston there are 400,000 Catholics. And it is claimed that out of every eleven children born in Boston seven are Catholics. The archdiocese of New York has 600,000 Catholics, while the Catholic population of Brooklyn is about 250,000. Most of the other dioceses show a similar relative strength; and yet Sadlier's Catholic Directory, from which the figures are taken, says that the Catholic Church in this country is only in her infancy.

The "English Catholic Directory" states that there are now 5,820,000 Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland. The Catholic population of Scotland alone is 350,000, there being now 220,000 Catholics in the archdiocese of Glasgow. The Catholic population of England is over 1,500,000. The Catholic population of the British Empire is more than 10,000,000.—Converted Catholic.

WE SHALL KNOW EACH OTHER THERE.

THE minister of a fashionable church once preached a powerful sermon on this subject. He drew the picture of a very beautiful Heaven. We would walk in the glorious, sun-lit groves, by the music of water-falls, and gaze out upon the amaranthine fields. And then, too, “we shall know each other there,” said the minister; and then added, “there’ll be no strangers in the New Jerusalem, we’ll all be friends.”

“Beautiful!” said Deacon Sham, as he trotted down the aisle.

“A lovely sermon!” said Miss Sompkins, as she put her bony hand into the minister’s. She was stopped by a poor mechanic who came up and addressed the preacher.

“Mr. ——, I am glad we shall recognize each other there.”

“Yes,” said the minister, “it is one of the greatest consolations of our religion.”

“Well, I’m right glad we shall know each other. It will be a great change, though; for I have attended your church for over four years, and none of the members of this society have recognized me yet. But—‘we shall know each other there.’”—Selected.

Living to Work or Working to Live

By S. S. Times

THERE is a great difference between living to work and working to live. We all live and most of us work; but there the general resemblance ends. Some work only that they may live, and stop work just as soon as necessity permits them to do so. This is the principle on which the professional tramp goes, and on which a good many people go who are not professional tramps. But they who do the best work in the world do not work to live, but live to work; they fully indorse the maxim of Goethe, that "a useless life is premature death," and they value their lives only as an opportunity for doing service in some righteous or beneficial cause. Would you like to know to which of the two classes you belong? Think whether your joy in each new acquirement in your life is joy over a new opportunity for selfish ease, or gladness for a new capability of doing further and more effective service.—S. S. Times.

WHEN YOU STUDY, STUDY.

LORD MACAULAY, the celebrated historian, was a great student, and when he studied, he studied. He used to get up at five o'clock, and study till nine or ten. He got so he could read Latin and Greek right off-hand the same as you can this. He had the power of putting his whole mind on his book. Many people put part of their mind on their work, and the rest on something else. But all this is wrong. Play when you play, and when you study, study. In study all the faculties are needed; reason to judge of what you read; memory to recollect it, and so with all the rest. Macaulay became one of the most distinguished writers of his time, and it was mainly by dint of this early habit of putting his entire mind at the disposal of the work before him. All cannot study alike, but we can all be deeply in earnest in whatever it is that we do, and only downright earnestness will cause us to succeed in life.—Young Churchman.

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