Signs of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 35. (9/9/1889)

Signs of the Times

Sep 9, 1889

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 9, 1889

Mr. Moody’s School for Preachers

By Editor

MR. D. L. MOODY is about establishing a school for the training of preachers in Chicago. The churches do not reach the masses, and the root of the difficulty, Mr. Moody thinks, is in the training of the preachers. To this even the conservative Churchman assents, although it would present somewhat different remedies than Mr. Moody. The above journal says that many of the churches "are not intended to reach the people." They are built in centers of wealth so as to get support. To entertain, to draw, to please, is, in substance, the object of many churches, and that if the churches ever reach the masses they "must begin by being God's house," where poor can meet as well as rich, and not be treated to a dissertation, but to a message from God. But will the churches do this? We fear not; in fact we know they will not. The Churchman thinks that little good will be accomplished as long as the churches are in a divided condition. But how will they unite? God's plan of union is the truth of his holy word, but no two churches are agreed as to what that teaches. But, praise God, whatever churches may hold, as individuals we can believe and obey the truth of God. May it be thus with our readers.

IT is easier many times for the Christian to turn defeat into victory than it is to go from victory to victory. When defeated, the true child of God will humble his heart and seek God as he has never before sought him, and thereby get so much nearer to the Master that he will gain greater triumph in the future. He has learned his own weakness and God's mercy and love, and by the latter he wins. But victory is often but the prelude to defeat; not that it need be so, but because the soul has become over-confident, neglects to realize that all victory is of God, and thus leaves open the heart for the enemy. If there is need of humility and prayer, it is after some great success has crowned one's efforts.

EXTREME sensitiveness is overweening selfishness coupled with great weakness. Sensitiveness, we mean, which is always imagining personal slights, neglects, or insults. Surmise is ever fruitful with such. "Why, Brother A did not speak to me this morning;" "Brother B just nodded when I spoke to him last night;" "Sister C has been talking about me; for I saw her talking with Sister D and they looked over toward me and laughed; they must have been laughing at me;" "I am not appreciated and trusted." So it goes, and the poor soul is constantly more or less miserable brooding over a supposed something that some one thought or some one said, that some one never thought or never said or never had a thought of saying or thinking.

IF the sensitive individual did not think so much of self, he would not care what folks said, without imagining that they did say what they didn't say. If they were strong in character, had strong faith in God, or were absorbed in their legitimate work, they would have no time for surmises. If they did their own legitimate work first and sought some greater thing later, they would find it a blessing of strength. Legitimate work close at hand, even though made up of common, menial tasks, is work for God if done aright. Let the sensitive get a view of his own sinful heart and his own mental incapacity; let him get a love for others, a disposition to do the work which God would be pleased with, faith that God will do just what is right whatever man may do or say, and the sensitiveness will depart and strength will come. After all what does it matter what men may say if we are doing what is right. "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

THE SIMPLICITY OF FAITH.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matt. 7:7, 8.

THERE are many who do not understand the simplicity of faith. They make great efforts to understand how to exercise faith, and think they must have a transporting emotion, a joyful flight of feeling, or they have not faith. But if they had what they desire, it would not prove that they had faith. What is faith? It is simply taking God at his word; it is believing that God will do just as he has promised. We should be a far greater power for good than we now are, if we would comply with the conditions that God has laid down in his word, and trust him implicitly. It is our unbelief that brings us under the description the Spirit of God has given of the Laodicean church in its condition of lukewarmness. There is nothing more disgusting to our taste than tepid water, and from the use of this figure in describing our condition, we can understand how our want of faith and love, and our indifference, is regarded by the Lord.

All Heaven is looking upon us; we are a spectacle to the world,—to angels and to men. The angels expect a great deal more of us than we give, in view of what God has done for us. They have seen with amazement the infinite sacrifice that has been made by Christ

to rescue us from the bondage of sin, and make it possible to elevate us through his own righteousness to a seat upon his throne. He has brought divine power within our reach through the merits of his blood. We may become partakers of the divine nature, and why should not Heaven look upon us with sorrow and disappointment to see that we are lukewarm in the service of God? We give our attention to the trivial affairs of earth, while the salvation of our souls is treated as a thing of secondary importance. God has given us power and ability to improve to the best account in his service. He has made it possible for us to lay hold of the arm of infinite power that we may be strong in his might. But with all these great gifts and superior privileges within our reach, why are we content to be inefficient in his service. We cannot work out our salvation unless we increase in faith and love.

A person will manifest all the faith he has. If he believes that we are really living in the last days, he will devote his time and talents to the service of God. He will not be satisfied to bury his capabilities in the earth, employing them to further the perishing interests of time. He will be seeking the power that God alone can give; and the matter of most importance to him will be to see that he has a living connection with Heaven, that he may do his duty to his fellow-men, and to his God. Day by day, and hour by hour, he will realize that he is to be a laborer together with God, a co-laborer with Jesus Christ.

All our powers are the gift of God. He has endowed us with reason, and he intends that we shall use this power that we may understand our situation and glorify him. If we use our abilities simply for the glorification of self, we are not fulfilling the will of God. God gave Nebuchadnezzar his reason, but the king used his ability to exalt himself. He walked about in the great city, and said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" He forgot the honor of God, and God removed his reason, and he was sent out to dwell with the beasts of the field, to eat grass as an ox. The relation of this experience of Nebuchadnezzar is to show us what a man will become if God removes his precious endowment of reason. God can take away the powers of the mind, and leave nothing in the breast of a man but the instinct of a beast of the field.

The Lord desires that we should do our best. He desires us to so exert the powers of mind that he has given us that we may reach the high standard of the law of God. He wants us to keep his law as the apple of our eye. Heaven is interested in every individual soul, because each one of us has been purchased by the precious blood of Christ. We are Christ's property. Says the apostle: "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

Heaven is doing all that is possible to do, that we may obtain the victory, and work out our salvation while God is working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is our privilege so to live that we may be elevated to the throne of God, that Christ may look upon the redeemed, and see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

Will the talents that God has given you here, glorify him in the world to come? It rests with you to decide. God has stated the conditions upon which you may be saved in his kingdom. Says the Saviour: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." If you fulfill these conditions through the grace of Christ, you will behold the matchless charms of the King in his beauty, you will see the attractions of heaven, you will realize at last what is "the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" that will be given to the overcomer. Will you have the eternal riches that are reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God through faith? This is the question that each one will have to decide for himself.

If we come to God, feeling our nothingness, feeling that we are helpless without Christ, feeling that we must have the power that God alone can give, we shall not be disappointed. Will God give us a stone if we ask for bread? No; he will satisfy our wants from his abundant fullness. Jesus has brought within our reach the power of earth and heaven. He has clothed his divinity with humanity. He came to our earth as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, that we might know the blessing of endless joy in his everlasting kingdom. Ought we not to give to God all that he requires of us? If you have tasted the blessedness of peace and joy in believing, do your best to bring others to the fountain of living waters from which you have drunk. Lift up Jesus. His blood has bought us. He pleads in our behalf. It is Christ who will clothe us with his righteousness.

The Signs of the Times.

By Editor

PUBLISHED WEEKLY, FOR THE International Tract and Missionary Society.

(For terms, etc., see last page.)

Entered at the Post-Office in Oakland.

Pity Him Who Did the Wrong

If some one wrongs you, pity not yourself, but him who did the wrong. Christ did. "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."

Religious Liberty in Brazil

The Western American says:—

"Brazil is having trouble over a bill before the Legislature, which permits other religions beside the Roman to have freedom in that nation. The whole power of Roman corporation is fighting the bill in the interest of their Italian general manager, or 'boss,' Mr. Pecci, who is styled Leo XIII."

In this country Romanists pose as the only original and genuine advocates of religious liberty. But the American truthfully says: "They want liberty for their creed here, but where they rule there is no liberty for other creeds."

Right Versus Expediency

IN making decisions, no Christian should ever ask, What is expedient? but, What is right? Which is more like the divine Model? How would Christ have done? Expediency is one of the respectable doors by which the devil enters the plans of many good men. It is the foundation of policy; but right is the foundation of principle. To him who hopes to win by expediency, his gain will prove a curse; but to him who with faith in God sacrifices for principle, God will more than make up his loss; his loss will prove a gain. Expediency led Peter to deny his Lord, but principle led him to death by the cross. But who says that the latter was not to be infinitely preferred for Christ's sake?

CHRIST LOVES HIS OWN.

By Fannie Bolton

BY FANNIE BOLTON.

["Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end." John 13:1.]

Not with a changing love the Saviour loves, Not fickle, loving us at times alone; But always his great heart-compassion moves, And to the end he loveth all his own.

"With everlasting love," he saith, "I've loved." While we were sinners for his own he died, With infinite agony his heart was proved, And in the furnace his love's gold was tried.

No grief can touch us, but it touches him; With closest pang, it wounds the heart divine. The pruner's knife that cuts the branching limb, Touches with living pain the living vine.

Closer than mother's love for her babe sweet, Closer than lover's love for one held dear, Closer than friend's or brother's, more complete Is Christ's love for his lonely followers here.

MATTHEW TWENTY-FOUR.

By J. H. Waggoner

BY THE LATE ELDER J. H. WAGGONER.

THERE is no chapter in the entire Bible which has been the subject of greater controversy than Matthew 24. But the nature of the controversy has almost entirely changed within the last forty years. Forty years ago the controversy was between the Universalists and orthodox Christians. The Universalists denied that there is to be any future judgment and punishment. Of course they referred the 24th chapter of Matthew altogether to the destruction of Jerusalem—to the past. Evangelical Christians then denied that it referred solely to the destruction of Jerusalem; they affirmed that it taught a personal coming of Christ, to reward his saints and to justly punish his foes. Those commentators who referred it in general to the destruction of Jerusalem in their expositions, yet admitted that it had a further reference to the second advent and the end of the world. They uniformly applied part of the Saviour's discourse in chapters twenty-four and twenty-five to the latter event.

The Universalists now take a different position; they have mostly become restorationists, admitting that there will be some punishment, even in the future. But they contend that it will be disciplinary or reformatory. They still maintain their former position that Matthew 24 has no relation to that future punishment, but refers to the destruction of Jerusalem.

The opponents of Universalism, in the churches, have also changed their base, in part. While they yet contend that there will be a future judgment and eternal punishment, they now deny that Matthew 24 proves anything in regard to that day, or event, and affirm that it was all fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem. They are also extensively changing their position in regard to the nature of the second advent, many of them agreeing with the Universalists, saying that the advent is figurative or spiritual, and has already taken place. From present indications we think that this will very soon be the prevailing opinion in all the popular churches. Many of their ablest and most influential men now advocate this view. A little more change in the same direction will unite them fully with the Universalists in a denial of the future coming of Christ, of a personal, literal advent, and of any real, tangible punishment of the wicked. They find it no more difficult to spiritualize the judgment and punishment, than the coming of the Lord. Very many of them now assert that the Bible expressions concerning the perdition of the wicked, such as those in 2 Thessalonians 1, and 2 Peter 3, and Revelation 20, are to be taken figuratively—not at all literally.

We think that we do not over-estimate the extent and importance of the changes which are taking place in the churches. They are fast wheeling into line under the banner of old-fashioned Universalism on the points here indicated, which, indeed, cover nearly all the former ground of difference between them.

We are very confident that Matthew 24 reaches to matters beyond the destruction of Jerusalem, and into time yet future; and that it refers to a literal, personal, visible coming again of our glorified Saviour. But the instruction which it contains was not given to prove this truth—that his coming will be personal or literal. This, now, has become the chief point of controversy on the chapter, whereas it is not made a point at all in the chapter. To this we shall call further attention hereafter.

Two questions were asked by the disciples: 1. "When shall these things be?" On this no controversy has ever been raised. It is universally conceded that it refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, or the overthrow of the temple, of which he had but recently spoken.

2. "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" This is but one question. The coming of Christ and the end of the world are so closely related that they may properly be embraced in one statement. See a parallel case in the first letter to the Thessalonians. The writer speaks of the coming of the Lord (the Lord himself), and adds: "But of the times and the seasons brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." The "times and seasons" of the advent and the resurrection, of which he had just spoken, are identical with those of the day of the Lord. This phrase—the day of the Lord—covers a period immediately subsequent to "the day of salvation," this latter being applied to this present dispensation.

Several points of query must be noticed:— 1. "The end of the world." It is asserted

that this is a wrong translation; that it should be, "the end of the age," and that it refers to "the Jewish age." If we grant the first part of this statement, we cannot also grant the second. The point is not of sufficient importance in the discussion of this question to warrant an extended criticism. We will only say that Greenfield gives, as one meaning of the original, "the world, universe;" and this is sustained by other authorities.

But, allowing that it should be rendered, "end of the age," it does not follow, by any means, that it refers to the Jewish age, or past dispensation. It certainly does not in Matt. 28:20. The promise that he will be with his ministers "until the end of the age," certainly refers to that age in which they are to preach the gospel, for these words are in the gospel commission. It is the end of this same age to which Matt. 24:14 refers. The question was in regard to the end of the world (or age if preferred). He said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." This is decisive on the point; for (1) they were to tarry at Jerusalem, after receiving their commission, until the day of Pentecost, and then they were to be his witnesses to the nations; (2) the Jewish age ended before the preaching to the nations commenced; therefore it is impossible that Matthew 24 and 28 should refer to that age.

An effort has been made to put forward the ending of the Jewish age to the destruction of Jerusalem. But it is exceedingly lame. To prove that, it will be necessary to show that the Christian dispensation was not fully opened until the destruction of Jerusalem! This is disproved by the whole body of the teachings of the New Testament. Paul settles the question in affirming that the peculiarities of that age were taken out of the way,—nailed to the cross. Col. 2:14. If the gospel dispensation was not opened by the preaching of the apostles on the day of Pentecost, and afterward by turning to the Gentiles to preach the gospel to them, then it has not yet been opened.

That is a settled question. The end of the age or end of the world, in Matthew 24, is the utmost limit of the gospel dispensation. And we shall offer proof most positive that the second coming of Christ is at the end of this dispensation.

In speaking of the translation "end of the world," we would not be understood to claim that the world, that is, the earth, will ever be destroyed. It comes to an end, or perishes, only as to its different states or conditions, as is shown in the third chapter of the second letter of Peter. We really lose nothing in admitting the translation, "end of the age," insisting, however, that it is proved that it refers to the gospel age or dispensation.

(To be continued.)

STUDY THE BIBLE.

WHEN Mr. Moody was here he spoke of, and prayed for, the coming of some mighty preacher who would shake our great cities, and stir the land. A speaker at the Illinois State Association expressed a fervent desire to see a great leader who would unite the denominations. And now comes an earnest desire expressed at the Scottish assemblies, that some great theologian may arise who will be able to grasp the whole truth of the gospel, giving us a theology "more rational than Catholicism, more human than Calvinism, and more divine than Arminianism." Such a theologian may be among the future possibilities, but until he does come, perhaps it would be just as well to unearth our Bibles from the piles of commentaries and Sunday-school "helps" which have gathered over them, and read what Christ himself said.—Advance.

REVELATION AND INSPIRATION.

By Samuel T. Spear, D. D.

THE entire teaching of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, on all subjects contained therein, is embraced in the general term "revelation," as ordinarily used among Christians. This revelation, considered as existing in the printed form, and found in a single volume, is usually called "The Bible."

The question whether the original record, of which this Bible is a translation or a copy, while human in its relation to those who wrote it, was also divine in the sense that God inspired and directed the writers thereof, and thus annexed his authority to what they wrote, cannot be determined by any a priori process of speculation. We are not competent to decide beforehand how God, if giving a revelation to this world other than that of the light of nature, would do so, whether it would be by a direct and special inspiration of all men, or by the inspiration of some men to act as his messengers and the teachers of others. The latter is the method which appears in the Bible itself, and if we accept this book at all as containing a revelation from God, then we must equally accept its teaching in regard to its own inspiration as the main, if not exclusive, guide of thought on the subject. What, then, does the Bible say on this point? The answer of this question will be the purpose of the present article.

1. The New Testament fully commits its authority to the inspiration and divine authority of the Old Testament. Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, referring to the Old Testament, expressly says: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." Heb. 1:1, 2. The same apostle, having reminded Timothy that "from a child" he had known "the holy Scriptures," immediately adds that "all Scripture"—namely, the entire body of writings then known as "the holy Scriptures"—"is given by inspiration of God." 2 Tim. 3:15, 16. Peter, referring to the same Scriptures, declares that "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;" and in the same connection, and with the same reference, he speaks of the "more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." 2 Peter 1:18, 21.

The phrases, "As the Holy Ghost saith," and "It is written," are common methods in which the writers of the New Testament often refer to the Scriptures of the Old Testament as of divine authority. Every attentive reader of the Bible must be familiar with this fact. Christ and his apostles were in the habit of quoting from the Old Testament Scriptures, as the means of confirming their own teaching, without the remotest hint that they were not, as a whole and in all their parts, absolutely authoritative. The phrase "oracles of God," which means the sayings of God, is in the New Testament applied to these Scriptures; and sometimes they are spoken of as "the word of God." Rom. 3:2, and 1 Peter 4:11. "Thus saith the Lord" is the imprimatur which is scattered all through the writings of the Old Testament; and the New Testament gives its sanction to this view.

In a word, the Old Testament, according to the teaching of Christ and his apostles, was "given by inspiration of God," and rested, as it now rests, upon his authority. If we accept the New Testament as of divine authority, we must equally accept the Old Testament as having the same authority. It is not logically possible to avoid this necessity.

2. The writings composing the New Testament, with the exception of the Gospel of Mark, that of Luke, and the book of Acts, are the products of apostolic pens; and, in the following passages, Christ, before his death, made definite promises to his apostles in respect to their inspiration.

"And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Matt. 10:18-20.

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth . . . and he will show you things to come." John 16:13.

Here, in his own language, is the inspiration which Christ, before his death, promised to "the apostles whom he had chosen," as the means of qualifying them for the work assigned to them. The promise is that the Holy Ghost would bring his teaching to their remembrance, guide them into all truth, give them

the words which they ought to speak, show them "things to come," and permanently "abide" with them. When Christ met his apostles, just prior to his ascension, he thus summarized this promise: "But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Acts 1:5. This was said only seven days before the wonderful scenes of the Pentecostal day, when the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles and they spake with "other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:4. The sermon preached by Peter on that day was not thought out beforehand, but was prepared on the spot, and for the occasion, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, alike in respect to the ideas conveyed and the language used by the apostle. What he said the Holy Ghost said through him. The record extends the inspiration to the utterance, as well as to the thoughts uttered.

This case, moreover, is a typical one in the sense that it represents the inspiration of the Holy Ghost as it was to continue to the apostles, and as in fact it did continue with them, throughout their entire career, thereby qualifying them, whether in speaking or writing, truthfully to report the life of Christ, to repeat his sayings, to state the plan and will of God in respect to human salvation, and, in short, to speak and write under a guidance of the Holy Ghost that invested their words with divine authority. They in all respects conducted their ministry, and some of them wrote epistles, as if they were speaking and writing by the authority and under the direction of God. This they assumed in their own behalf; and to the truth of the assumption, as well as to the ministry based upon it, God himself bore "witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." Heb. 2:4. Inspiration, in a sense and to an extent that protected them against error in ideas and in the use of words, while lying upon the face of their ministry as an assumption on their part, is no more than what Christ had expressly promised to them.

3. Paul, the most voluminous writer in the New Testament, was not one of the original twelve apostles, but was, by a special call after Christ had ascended into Heaven, converted and appointed unto the apostleship. He claimed to be an apostle and to have been taught "by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Gal. 1:12. What he thought in regard to his own inspiration, as well as that of the other apostles, appears in the following words from his pen:—

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." 1 Cor. 2:12, 13.

The inspiration, here asserted, is not limited to ideas, leaving the language used to the uncertainties of human nature, but extends to the words employed, and if this was true when the apostles spoke, it must have been equally true when he wrote, unless he himself, as he did in one or two instances, makes an express disclaimer otherwise.

It was the general practice of Paul, in writing his epistles, to announce himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, thereby implying his inspiration and authority to bind the faith and conscience of those to whom he wrote. "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God," are the words with which he opens his epistle to the Romans. The ensuing parts of this epistle, containing an elaborate expansion of the gospel system, are presented, not as if he were merely giving his opinions upon his own authority, but as if he were, what he professed to be, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to whom God had revealed his Son, and who was qualified, in the words "which the Holy Ghost teacheth," to explain the doctrine of God in regard to that Son. To the Galatians he thus announced himself: "Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." To the Thessalonians he said: "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:15. He assumed that inspiration attached to the apostleship which he had received from Jesus Christ, "for obedience to the faith among all nations," and in this respect he magnified his office, and claimed the exercise of its powers. His language, whether in speaking or writing, is that of authority, not his own, but of the Lord, whose cause he represented.—Samuel T. Spear, D. D., in N. Y. Independent.

(Concluded next week.)

"IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE."

By Margaret J. Preston

Yea, in His Father's house—it must be so— Are many mansions; else there were not space For the vast hierarchs speeding to and fro On myriad ministries of gift and grace. So haply felt his followers, listening thus, In that mysterious hour of doubt and gloom, As sad they questioned, "Can there be for us, His erring, weak disciples, any room?" But when he met their thought so tenderly,— "I go for you a mansion to prepare; That where I am there ye may also be,"— How must the words have shamed their dull despair! That he should miss their presence 'mid the throng Of worshipers that crowd the highest heaven! That he should crave their fellowship among Pure spirits with no sins to be forgiven! Yet he hath said it. Dare I then believe That in his Father's house, and in the place Prepared, he waits my homage to receive,— Asks for my presence, wants to see my face? We hold aloof; we shut from our abodes The very sympathy our nature craves, He, needing no companionship but God's, Cares to have with him every soul he saves. —Margaret J. Preston.

FRENCH EXPENDITURES.

By Julius Hawley Seelye

The expenditures of the French government are greater than those of any other nation in the world, amounting to over six hundred millions of dollars a year. Its funded public debt is nearly four thousand millions of dollars, and its floating debt is over twenty-seven hundred millions more. Considerably over one-third of the enormous annual expenditures of the government is required by the national debt, and nearly one-half of the remainder by the army and navy. In comparison with monarchical and imperial times, the expenses attaching to the great offices of State are small, the president of the republic receiving a yearly salary of 600,000 francs, while Louis Philippe received 12,000,000 francs a

year, and Louis Napoleon twice that sum, besides, in each case, the great sums voted to the royal and imperial households.

The area of France is 204,092 square miles, which is nearly the same as that of the German Empire, excluding Alsace-Lorraine. Its population in 1881 was 37,672,048, of whom 692,800 were classed as Protestants, and 54,436, as Jews.—Pres. J. H. Seelye, D. D.

CHURCH AMUSEMENTS.

By St. Louis Christian Advocate

ONE of the most insidious and deadly innovations on church activity and church life is the modern idea that the church must supply amusements for the people. Few things more thoroughly sap the foundations of a vigorous piety than this. It is deemed vital to the welfare of some churches that there be a large section of its active force devoted to this department, and very often the pulpit incorporates a phase of this pernicious adjunct into its most serious functions. That it draws, that it pleases, is its plea and defense. This plea is made in direct contravention to the apostle, who says emphatically he did not seek to please, and this deferring to itching ears he most solemnly declares is the foundation of apostasy; that by it the ears are turned away from the truth and turned unto fables. It is a confession on the part of the church of failure. It is the declaration of our unfaith. It is the sign and seal of weakness. Faith draws, prayer draws, the word of God draws, the Holy Spirit draws. All these divine agencies draw with saving power, and their drawing is not that of a little wheat in an immense amount of chaff; not a little of the Spirit in whole heaps of flesh; not a page of the Spirit lost in volumes of the flesh; not a little conviction whiffed away by a stiff breeze of grins and laughter; but these draw to save. They root and ground in the profound principles of a reverent and holy piety. We abandon the divine methods because we have not faith to work them. We abandon them because they require too much self-surrender and flesh-denying to work them. We forsake the divine plan because we have not religion enough to work Christ's religion after Christ's way.—St. Louis Christian Advocate.

THE CATHOLIC PRIEST.

THE Catholic priest is a foreigner. No matter where he may have been born, with us he is a foreigner. He is an alien. He knows nothing of the genius of our American institutions. He has no home life. He does not know what home means. He knows nothing of the joys or sorrows of home. He is hardly a man at all, he is a monstrosity, utterly unfit to have anything to do with giving guidance in a civilization whose heart is the home.

He is a foreigner in a more literal sense. His first allegiance is abroad. "The Vatican claims absolute and supreme authority in things temporal as well as spiritual." Every priest takes an oath of "perfect submission, and obedience to the Pope as his supreme lord and master in all things." The late Cardinal-archbishop of New York said that "Catholics in this republic are as strongly devoted to the sustenance and maintenance of the temporal power of the 'holy father' as Catholics in any other part of the world; and if it should be necessary to prove it by their acts, they are ready to do so."

The priest is a papist before he is an American. He is not free, he is fettered. He must enter politics as a Catholic and not as an American. He belongs to a system which is anti-American, as it is essentially opposed avowedly to freedom of conscience. Our Constitution calls for civil and soul liberty, the Vatican says that liberty of conscience is "a pest of all others most to be dreaded in a State." Being in bondage himself, he has been long working to enslave others. We can no longer be said to have a free secular press. Where is the paper that will criticise Catholics? Political parties are coming under this foreign power, and are being dictated to by it. The Catholic priest, in short, means in this country as everywhere else, success at any sacrifice. It is the same old motto, "The end justifies the means." He will have nothing to do with anything which does not have success in sight. He is a foreign schemer, introducing, stealthily, but surely, imported chains with which to bind American freemen. Lafayette's language may now be better understood than when he spoke it, and better understood still as the years come on. He said long years ago: "If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed it will be by the hands of the Roman clergy."—Herald of Truth.

HUNTING A MINISTER'S FAULTS.

MR. SPURGEON puts into the mouth of "John Ploughman" the following homely bit of wisdom, which we commend to any reader who may have magnified his pastor's imperfections: "I never knew a good horse that had not some odd habit or other, and I never knew a minister worth his salt who had not some crotchet or oddity. Now these are bits of cheese for cavilers to nibble at; the first is too flowery, the second is too dull. Dear me, if all God's creatures were judged in this way, we should wring the dove's neck for being too tame, shoot the robins for eating spiders, kill the crows for swinging their tails, and the hens for not giving us milk. When a man wants to beat a dog he can soon find a stick, and at this rate any fool can have something to say against the best minister in England."

OLD NEW ENGLAND WORSHIP.

Spalding, in the New York Evangelist, draws a striking picture of Old New England worship, when everybody went to church but babies and the sick, and the present elegant worship with full two-thirds of the pews vacant. He asks with point and force: "What have we gained by all this strenuous effort, and this unlimited expenditure to make religion attractive? Have kitchen and parlor, have the high niceties of worship appealing to the aesthetic tastes, accomplished that success which is held forth as the justification and the very necessity for all this thing? Under all the attractions of religion, and the infinitely ingenious methods devised for coaxing the 'unchurched masses' to the house of God, have we succeeded? Does this religion of the day, so courteous, so beguiling, so sugar-coated throughout, does it 'draw?' Does it fill the pews? Even if I have got an outsider in, have I got him by such a motive and appeal where I can long keep him in; or if I keep him in, is it possible to bring him under such influences into the great solemnities of religion! Are we not, even in this poor success, simply training men and women and children to think that they are doing the church a favor by attending it, and even God a favor in consenting to worship him?"

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