Review and Herald, Vol. 26, No. 2. (6/13/1865)

Review and Herald

Jun 13, 1865

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 13, 1865

Sanctification: or Living Holiness.

By D. T. Bourdeau

THE AFFECTIONS.

MAN by creation, is endowed with affections with which to love. Without affections, man would be unhappy indeed. He could have no feeling, no heart, in his devotions, and in the performance of his several duties, and could know none of the sweets and satisfaction produced by a proper attachment for those things which are held out as objects of his love.

The affections were designed to serve as a link to sweetly unite us to the Creator, to Christ, and heavenly things, to our fellow-creatures, and various other objects that we are related to, and with which we have to do, and to give true grace and unction to all we say and do.

But the affections should be exercised according to knowledge and judgment. Says Paul, "And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment (or sense, margin); that ye may approve things that are excellent (or try things that differ, margin); that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ." Phil. i, 9, 10.

The affections should be proportioned to the just value of things, and God should be the first object of our love. His value cannot be too highly estimated. He is supreme in all his perfections. In him centers all goodness—all that is lovely. The more we become acquainted with God's glorious and exalted character, the more we see in him that is to be loved. To him all creatures and created objects owe their existence. In him we live and move and have our being, and from him we receive all our blessings; and it is self-evident that our affections should be supremely set on him. In other words, we should love him with all the heart, soul, mind and strength. Luke x, 27; Matt. xxii, 37.

Christ should be loved as the blessed and exalted, and only begotten Son of God, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, Jno. iii, 16; 1 Jno. iv, 9; Phil. ii, 6; as one who is possessed of all the fullness of the Godhead, through whom, and for whom, all things were made, and by whom we have redemption. Col. ii, 9; i, 16; Eph. i, 7; Rev. v, 9; as the being who is one with the Father, and is entitled to equal honor with the Father, Jno. x, 30; v, 23; as the chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely, whom angels adorate, and who should be revered and worshiped by every son and daughter of Adam. Cant. v, 10, 16; Heb. i, 6; &c., &c. In short, Christ should be loved with the same affection with which we should love the Father. All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. "He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him." Jno. v, 23.

Our love for heavenly things should be as much stronger than that for earthly things, as the heavens are above the earth, and as eternal things are infinitely more valuable than temporal things.

But our fellow-creatures also claim our affections. As they are worth less than the Creator, we should love them less than God. But we can judge of their worth by the exalted position that they occupy in God's creation, and by the sacrifice that was made to redeem them. As beings who are God's intelligent and responsible creatures as well as ourselves, and are the objects of his general care, love, and mercy equally with ourselves, sustaining the same relation to God that we do, and to us, that we do to them, and having the same rights by creation that we have, we should love them as ourselves.

But while we are to love our fellow-beings in harmony with these principles, our affections for them must also be regulated by their moral condition. Not that we are to hate any one, or refrain from loving the wicked. For if we love only the good; if we love only those who love us, as the Saviour says, what reward have we! We should love all men, our enemies not excepted. But we cannot always love the wicked with a love of approbation and complacency, yet our affections for them should be blended with pity and commiseration, and with a desire to promote their happiness.

Special ties unite us to the good. We love them with a special love because there is more in them to be loved than in others. We should esteem them highly because of their moral worth; for the sake of the work that God has wrought in them, and for their works' sake.

Those things that man was made to have dominion over, and which might be termed man's property, having been made to serve man, and being less valuable than man, should be loved less than man, and less than the Creator.

It may be here objected that John says, "Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 Jno. ii, 15. To this we reply, that the world as perverted in its use by sin and sinners, should not be loved. To love it thus, would be loving it to excess, and with the love that we owe to God and to our brother. If we love the world and the things that are in the world with our best affections, of course the love of the Father is not in us.

But the world as made by the Creator should be esteemed and loved for his sake, and for the uses for which it was designed. True, the Bible furnishes no special command to love the world. We see no need of such a command; for man in his fallen condition is naturally inclined to love the world more than he ought. Yet the general tenor of the Scriptures shows that we should place a proper estimate upon these things which God has given us for our use and for his glory.

We see that a knowledge of the nature, worth, and condition of things is requisite in order that we may know how to bestow our affections; and it is evident that we should, as far as our knowledge extends, love all that God loves.

But how may we know and evince to others that our affections are sanctified, and that we love as we should? This is the grand, the all-important question on this subject.

We get a clue to an answer on this point, in Phil. i, 9-11, a portion of which has already been introduced. Paul having shown that love should abound in knowledge and judgment, says, "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God," verse 11, thus connecting genuine love with the fruits of righteousness, and intimating that those who love aright are filled with the fruits of righteousness, or right doing. With this view accords the following injunction from the apostle whom Jesus loved: "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." 1 Jno. iii, 18.

We are not to understand by these words that we should not show our love with our tongues, and with our words; for if our affections are sanctified we shall speak accordingly. But there is such a thing as feigned love. For instance, the prophet Ezekiel speaks of those who show much love with their mouth, but their heart is after their covetousness. Eze. xxxiii, 31. Again, the scriptures speak of, and encourage unfeigned love, which proves that the opposite exists. 2 Cor. vi, 6; 1 Pet. i, 22. There is danger of boasting of sanctified affections and perfect love, while the affections are not sanctified, and perfect love is not enjoyed and practiced. But there is no danger of deception on this point if we love in deed and in truth. Hence the fitness and force of John's injunction.

To say that our affections are sanctified and that we enjoy perfect love is a very easy task. The wickedest person under the sun can say this as strongly as the best Christians. But to show that our affections are sanctified by corresponding good deeds, is not so easy a task. If love consisted merely in saying that we love, all that would be necessary on the part of God to show us how to love would simply be, Say, I love. But to meet the faith and practice of thousands of religionists of the present age, the Lord would have to

add, Because I feel it in my heart. But there are those who will not accept man's feeling, and say so in this matter, though many, alas! have been driven away from the path of holiness by false pretensions to sanctified affections and perfect love.

We show our love to God by obeying him, and we should obey him not only with our tongues, but with all the powers of our beings. Hence, we are commanded to love God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength.

Again, we evince our love to God by keeping his commandments. "This is the love of God," says John, "that we keep his commandments." 1 Jno. v, 3. And in like manner we show our love to Christ by keeping his commandments or sayings. Says Christ, "If ye love me keep my commandments."

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. . . . If a man love me, he will keep my words. . . . He that loveth not, keepeth not my sayings." Jno. xiv, 15-24. Now if we keep God's commandments and Christ's teachings, we shall manifest it by our deeds.

If we profess love for God, and Christ, while we refuse to obey them, we say not the truth, and are corrupt at heart. To illustrate, let us suppose a case: A just parent has two sons from whom he requires obedience. One of these sons comes to his parent and says, Father I love you, but wish I felt like obeying you, and refuses to do the will of his parent. The other son answers, Father, I love you, and will try to obey you. Which of these children do you think really loves his father? The first, or the second? All reasonable persons will answer, The second: the one who said he loved his parent, and would try to obey him. And no enlightened and judicious parent would accept mere feeling for obedience, and the mere assertion, I love you, for genuine love. Neither can we expect that God will accept our feeling, for obedience; or the simple declaration that we love him, for the love that we owe to him.

We show that we love our fellow-beings by keeping those obligations that grow out of the relations that we sustain to them, and by doing unto them in all things as we, with our minds enlightened on the truth, and our hearts and feelings in harmony therewith, would like to have them do unto us.

But an objection is urged on this point, as follows: If we are to love the Lord with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, how can we have any love left for our fellow-beings? But this seeming objection vanishes away when we bear in mind that one very prominent way of showing our love to God, is to love what God loves, and that we cannot love God as we should, without loving our fellow-creatures. 1 Jno. iv, 20, 21, is to the point: "If a man say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God when he hath not seen? And this commandment we have from him, That he who loveth God, love his brother also."

Again we have seen that we manifest our love to God by keeping his commandments. Now some of God's commandments relate to our duty to our fellow-creatures, and by keeping these commandments we show our love for our fellow-beings. Thus it is evident that we can love God with all the powers of our beings, and yet love those who are made in his image. To love our brethren is so important a duty that John says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." 1 Jno. iii, 14.

In 1 Cor. xii, 4-7, charity, or love, is personified. This passage, though brief, is very comprehensive. Let the reader pause as he reads it:

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

Charity or love never faileth, and is greater than hope or faith—even the faith that would remove mountains. Without it everything else is as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal and profiteth nothing. It is pure and elevating, and as strong as death, and is the bond of perfectness. Through it we are to arrive at the pinnacle of holiness.

Love should not be confounded with false sympathy, which is very different from, and opposed to love, and which sometimes prevents parents from correcting, and crossing the wills of their children, and leads them to humor them in wrong practices. False sympathy sometimes leads individuals to bestow upon others that which proves injurious to them, and frequently prevents well-meaning Christians from frankly opening their minds to, and meekly reproving their brethren, when duty and wisdom demand that they be admonished and corrected. How many souls have been ruined by false sympathy. We should therefore see to it that we mistake it not for love.

We can also derive instruction on how to know and prove the genuineness of our love, and thereby give evidence that our affections are sanctified, by considering how God and Christ love. God is love, and in this respect Christ is one with God; "He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." The same may be said of Christ. We understand that God and Christ carry out in the strictest sense these principles of love that are made obligatory upon us. If this is not true, why do the Scriptures furnish us with declarations like these, "Every one that loveth is born of God;" and "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us?" 1 Jno. iv, 7, 12. And why are we exhorted to love one another as Christ has loved us? to walk in love as Christ also has loved us? &c. Is it not in manifesting love that we can be followers of God as dear children, walk in love as Christ has loved us, and walk in the light as God is in the light? Eph. v, 1, 2; 1 Jno. i, 5-7; ii, 8-11.

God and Christ love in deed and in truth, and not in word only; and so it should be with us. The love of God shines gloriously in all his dealings with his creatures; in like manner should we manifest love in our dealings with our fellow-creatures. God shows his love in laboring to promote the happiness of his creatures; so should we evince our love by laboring for the happiness of our fellow-beings, and for the happiness of the creatures that are under them. God's love leads him to bestow general blessings upon all men, and to extend the plan of salvation to all, yet it prompts him to confer special favors on the righteous. So love leads us to do good to all men, but especially to those of the household of faith. God loved us when we were his enemies; and on the same principle we should love our enemies. God in love extends mercy and pardon unto us, suffers long with us, and helps us to overcome sin, and develop a holy character; and so should we extend mercy, pardon, and long-suffering to others, and help them in overcoming their sins and developing a holy character.

God's love for his children induces him to correct and chasten them; so earthly parents should be prompted by love, to chasten their children betimes; and so we should all be moved by love to meekly reprove others when their good, and the glory of God demands it. The love of God is unselfish; it prompts him to elevate his creatures, and to make them partakers of his rich blessings. So it is with the love of Christ; and so it is with charity, the love that we should exercise. God's amazing love moved him to sacrifice for us, to give his beloved Son to die for our fallen race; and Christ so loved the world that he sacrificed his life to save them, and "we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

If these points of similarity are not sufficient, the reader can carry the analogy still further.

We show our love for heavenly things by laboring to obtain them; and if our affections are set on heavenly things, our conversation will be in Heaven, and the whole course of our life will be in a heavenly direction, and will indicate that we are pilgrims and strangers here, and that this world is not our home.

We prove that we place a proper estimate on property, by honestly and temperately laboring to obtain it, and by using it in meeting our wants, and the wants of others, and in promoting the cause of truth. We should love our property with reference to our well-being, the well-being of others and the glory of God. By the use that we make of our property, we show how much we love ourselves, our fellow-beings, the Creator, and heavenly things. By using our property as the traveler uses his staff, we evince that we love it less than we love ourselves; by using it in promoting the temporal and spiritual welfare of others, we show our love for our fellow-beings, for God and heavenly things, and that we love God, our fellow-creatures, and heavenly things more than we do property.

But if we get property in laboring to excess, and at the sacrifice of health and happiness, and use it not for the purposes for which it was intended, but apply it where it will not meet our real wants, and the wants of others, refusing to render unto God the things that are his, and that he justly claims to advance the interests of his cause, we thereby prove that we love it to excess—that we love it more than we love ourselves, our fellow-creatures, the Creator and heavenly things. We show that this is our home, and that our portion will be in this life.

Christ in speaking of the last days says, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Matt. xxiv, 12. The Saviour does not here refer to self-love, or the love of property; for the apostle Paul while speaking of the same time says, "For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous . . . without natural affection." 2 Tim. iii, 1-3. The Saviour must therefore have reference to the love that we owe to God and to our fellow-creatures. And the reader is left to judge whether these predictions of Christ, and Paul are not being fulfilled before our eyes; whether love is not waxing cold even among professors of religion generally; whether natural affection, that sacred tie that used to bind parents to their children and children to their parents, and made home so pleasant and attracting, is not departing; whether self-love and excessive and perverted love for money, which is the root of all evil, and which is seen in the unprecedented anxiety and eagerness to get rich, and lay up treasures on the earth against the prohibition of Christ, Matt. vi, 19, do not generally predominate. Who that has given this subject serious and candid attention, cannot see truth in the following paragraph from Dr. Griffon:

"The world! the world! the world! This is the object which engrosses every care; this is the supreme deity that is adored. Buy and sell and get gain—out with the thoughts of death—away with the judgment and Heaven—my farms, my merchandise; I will have them though the earth trembles under my feet, and Heaven weeps blood upon my head!"

The evil of loving things to excess, is seen in the fact that whatever we love with an inordinate attachment, takes the shape of an idol in our hearts. And idolatry is not confined to heathen lands. There are as many idols as there are objects that are loved to excess, and that steal away our affections from God, and lead us to disobey him. It would therefore be difficult to enumerate all the idols or false gods that are worshiped even in Christian lands. But among these are fashion, wealth, and fame. Thousands of professed Christians worship these deities with perhaps more than heathen idolatry; and value things in proportion as they further these objects. Think of the enormous sacrifices that are made to pay devotion to these strange gods, which lead men away from the true God, just as truly as the golden calf led the Israelites away from Jehovah. How many would receive and obey the sanctifying truths for these last days, were it not for the homage and worship that they pay to these and other deities.

It frequently happens that relatives and friends occupy the place of God in the affections. This is the case when they are obeyed in preference to God. But God is a jealous God; and Jesus says, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." Matt. x, 37, 38.

Again, the heart's best affections are sometimes lavished on the appetites. Therefore we read of a class "whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things, whose end is destruction." Phil. iii, 19.

But perhaps no object is more universally idolized than self. With many self, is the great god that is worshiped and obeyed. To it everything must bow. Everything that is loved, is loved with reference to self. Self must occupy the throne—the easiest chair. The interests of self must be attended to first. The interests of others, and the glory of God, come in as an after consideration, if they are noticed at all. And perhaps if these are attended to, it is to get the applause of men, and that self may receive more honor and glory thereby.

When self is idolized it is seen in pride, boasting, self-praise, a selfish uneasiness when self is abused, and a swelling and puffing up when self is praised and exalted. But boasting is excluded, unless we boast in the Lord, from whom we receive every perfect gift, either by creation or through grace.

But the vanity and weakness of self, and other false deities will appear, in their insufficiency to save those who fondly cling to them, in the day of trouble that is just before us. Self, friends and wealth cannot deliver us in that day. Vain fashions will have no attractions then and fame will vanish away.

"And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. . . . In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Isa. ii, 17-22.

Eze. vii, 19: "They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed; their silver and their gold shall not deliver them in the day of the Lord; they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity." See also Zeph. i, 18. "And it shall be said, Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasures together for (or in, Greek) the last days." James v, 1-3.

But if our affections are sanctified, if we love as we should, we shall reap a reward in this life, and a rich reward in the life to come. That which a man sows he will also reap, and like begets like. If we sow love, we shall reap and beget love in others. We shall reap it in our brethren, and be more apt to reap it in our enemies; and even the domestic animals will notice it, and will repay it with love as far as their natures and powers will permit. God and Christ will love us freely here, deliver us from all our troubles, and make us partakers of all those temporal and spiritual blessings that we need to supply our wants in this life and prepare us for a place in the world to come, where a pure, perpetual stream of love will freely flow from God to his creatures, and from God's creatures back to God the source of love.

D. T. BOURDEAU.

(To be continued.)

A Crown of Glory.

By L. E. Millne

A CROWN of bright glory, by faith I now see, A mansion in Heaven preparing for me, Oh, faithful I'll strive, till my Saviour doth come To bear me away to yonder bright home.

Though thorny my pathway, and rugged and drear, Tis' the path of my Saviour, then why should I fear? His promise is faithful, to those who will heed The call of the Saviour, who for us did bleed.

O come unto me, he sweetly doth say. For I am the truth, and the light, and the way. I'll comfort thee, bless thee, and give thee sweet rest All through the lone valley, O lean on my breast.

The voice of my Saviour, falls sweet on mine ear, It bids me rejoice and be of good cheer, "A little while longer, mid scorn and distress, And then a glad welcome in Heaven to rest.

The glory, the glory, I feel it just now, And clouds of bright glory encircle my brow, A foretaste of Heaven, tis joy to my heart, Oh never, dear Saviour, from thee will I part." L. E. MILLNE. Shabbona, Ills.

Christ's Coming.

As the Scripture plainly testifies that the Lord Jesus Christ once died on the cross for sinners, and that He rose from the dead the third day, and that He now sits in Heaven on the right hand of God the Father, so clearly does it also testify THAT THE LORD JESUS IS TO COME AGAIN.

What will be the state of the World when the Lord Jesus returns? “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, also, as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” (Luke xvii, 26-30.)

Now, since God has given such a testimony in His word, we ought seriously to consider the remarkable fact, that the Lord Jesus is to come to this world, when things will be going on as in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Lot.

The coming of the Lord Jesus is sufficient to cause fear in every heart that has not yet received forgiveness of sins, and that seriously considers the circumstances and consequences to be such as they are; for though it is very easy now to forget God, and the name of the Lord Jesus, yet in the day when He shall appear, it will be impossible to do so. In that day it will be said, by unconverted men, to the rocks and mountains, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. vi, 16, 17.) In the time of Noah, men could easily despise the testimony of a coming deluge, yet it came; and what was their condition afterward? So, also, in the days of Lot; and so, also, at the present time, in connection with the testimony given to the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus is now preached; it is expressly testified, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. iii, 23); and, also, “that through His name ‘whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins’” (Acts x, 43). But it is also testified that the Lord is to come as a righteous Judge. On that day the Lord Jesus shall appear, “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints,” &c. (2 Thess. i, 8-10).

Reader, consider these facts. I know well that many shut out from their thoughts everything respecting the second coming of Christ. They say in their deeds (if not in words), “Where is the promise of His coming?” They dislike to think of wrath to come, and that the world will be found in a state of hopeless enmity against God when Christ shall return: they would rather believe that everything is improving, than consent to the testimony of God concerning these things. Consider the days of Noah and the days of Lot, and look forward to the second coming of Christ, as taking place in circumstances similar to those at that period. In the time of Noah some escaped, even those that were in the Ark; and so, to every one that believes in the Lord Jesus now, there shall be safety through His blood in that day. Reader, consider what thy state will be when Christ shall appear as a righteous Judge!

It is easy to say, that a long period will elapse before the appearing of the Lord; but who has informed us that there is to be any such long period? No man on earth can assert (unless he be extremely presumptuous) even a single word about the time of Christ’s second coming. One thing, however, is plain, “In such an hour as ye [unbelievers] think not, the Son of man cometh.”

But though the expectation of this appearing is sufficient to cause the world to fear, yet believers can joyfully look forward as waiting for the Lord in that day; for then shall they receive their full blessing. As soon as the Holy Ghost gives to a sinner faith in the Lord Jesus, he has eternal life in his soul; but when Christ comes, the same life will be in his body also: “who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. iii, 21). And though the greater part of the saints be dead, every one of them shall arise from the grave, and all believers “which are alive and remain, and the dead in Christ, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. iv, 17). Well is this hope called by the Apostle “a blessed hope.” And so it is even now to every saint who hath received the testimony of the Holy Ghost concerning it.

Christians ought to know, undoubtedly, that the world is in a state of enmity against God, that they themselves are called out of the world, not having any hope concerning the world, through moral reformation or anything else, until the Lord Jesus personally comes, “whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things” (Acts iii, 21). The world is now condemned, but, through the Gospel, every sinner that believes is gathered out of the world; but on that day the Lord Jesus shall gather “out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them that work iniquity;” the world will still hate the Lord Jesus, without being restored, until He returns in the times of restitution (not destruction) of all things. He himself shall be the great Restorer, and to Him shall all the glory be given.

Believers ought to look onward to the second coming of Christ; they should endeavor to win souls out of the world, and to remember the words of Christ concerning themselves, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John xvii, 16); they should, in their practical walk, obey the call of God, “And ye yourselves be like unto men that wait for their Lord.”

These are but a few observations on a very important subject. Reader, thou art earnestly requested to search into the full testimony of the word of God concerning it; and may He, through His Spirit, teach thee His truth.

Keep Your Eye on the Compass.

WHILE coming down the coast of Maine a few weeks ago I went out one night, to see the pilot steer the ship. The night was dark, and no land was in sight. In the pilot-house, hung a lantern, which threw its light down upon a small open box. Within the box was a mariner’s compass, with its little trembling finger. On this spot the pilot fixed his eyes, and held them there. It was wonderful to see with what perfect faith the pilot reposed upon his mysterious guidance. It was to him, like a divine finger, pointing out the way amid the darkness and the deep. The Bible is the finger of God, pointing out the way of life, amid the dangers that surround our path. It is a divine finger, let down from Heaven, that man may not err, and that every soul might find the path that leadeth to eternal life.—Keep your eye upon this safe, unerring guide. It will lead you safely through all the dark, deep waters, and bring you in peace to the sweet green shores of Heaven. Some day, you will look up, and you will see directly before you the golden spires of that City of Light.—Gospel Herald.

Overeating.

ALL men agree that a glutton and a drunkard are opprobrious and ignominious. All men join in decrying them and inveighing against them; and we are perhaps not in danger of becoming drunkards and gluttons. But there are excesses from overeating this side of gluttony, and excesses from overdrinking this side of drunkenness. There are many men who eat beyond the necessities of nature. They obscure their minds. You must take your choice between your brain and your stomach. The two together cannot be copulous. If you fill the one, you must relieve the other. If you will work your head, you must carry temperance into your diet. Full-feeding and full-thinking never go hand in hand. There are hundreds of men, who, being of a vigorous physical frame, and of an active appetite, unconsciously eat to repletion, and then, through fevers, and indigestion, and the disturbed functions of their whole system, they labor through the day to discharge their duties, toiling, fretting and troubled, and do not know that the cause of the mischief is a slight excess in eating. There are many men who, by this simple act of taking too much food, twice or thrice a day repeated, keep all their feelings upon an edge, so that they are irritable and quick, or make themselves stupid and slow. There are many persons who, by mere overeating, take from sleep its refreshment, and from their waking hours, their peace, by the gnawing of the worm of appetite.

This is a little thing. Your physician does not say much about it. Your parents hardly ever speak of it. It is a thing for every man to consider for himself. But it is a serious fact that two-thirds of the men who live a sedentary life, impair their strength by the simple act of injudicious feeding—overeating.

Speak Well of Others.

If the disposition to speak well of others were universally prevalent, the world would become a perfect paradise. The opposite disposition is the Pandora-box, which, when opened, fills every neighborhood with pain and sorrow. How much happiness is interrupted and destroyed! Envy, jealousy, the malignant spirit of evil, when they find vent by the lips, go forth on their mission, like foul fiends, to blast the reputation and peace of others. Every one has his imperfections, and in the conduct of the best there will be occasional faults, which might seem to justify animadversion. It is a good rule, however, when there is occasion for fault finding, to do it privately to the erring one. This may prove salutary. It is a proof of interest in the individual, which will generally be taken kindly, if the manner of doing it is not offensive. The common and unchristian rule, on the contrary, is to proclaim the failings of others to all but themselves. This is unchristian and shows a despicable heart.—Sel.

Continue reading: Report from Bro. Loughborough