Our Saviour represents his requirements as a yoke, and the Christian life as one of burden-bearing. Yet, contrasting these with the cruel power of Satan and the burdens imposed by sin, he declares, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
When we try to live the life of a Christian, to bear its responsibilities and perform its duties, without Christ as a helper, the yoke is galling, the burden intolerably heavy. But Jesus does not desire us to do this. He bids the weary and heavy-laden, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Here is revealed the secret of that rest which Christ promises to bestow. We must possess his meekness of spirit, and we shall find peace in him.
Many profess to come to Christ, while yet they cling to their own ways, which are as a painful yoke. Selfishness, love of the world, or other cherished sin, destroys their peace and joy. My fellow-Christian, whatever may be your lot in life, remember that you are in the service of Christ. Whatever your burden and cross, lift it in the name of Jesus; bear it in his strength. He pronounces the yoke easy and the burden light, and I believe him. I have proved the truth of his words.
Those who are restless, impatient, dissatisfied, under the weight of care and responsibility, are seeking to carry their burden without the aid of Jesus. If he were by their side, the sunshine of his presence would scatter every cloud, the help of his strong arm would lighten every burden. The church is becoming weak for the want of consecrated members, who feel that they are not their own; that their time, their talents, their energies belong to Christ; that he has bought them with his blood, and is pleading for them in the sanctuary above.
We cumber ourselves with needless cares and anxieties, and weigh ourselves down with heavy burdens, because we do not learn of Jesus. Many are so fearful of provoking unfriendly criticism or malicious gossip that they dare not act from principle. They dare not identify themselves with those who follow Christ fully. The desire to conform to worldly customs, and secure the approbation of worldlings. Christ gave himself for us "that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Christ's true followers are unlike the world, in words, in works, and in deportment. Oh, why will not all his professed children follow him fully? Why will any bear burdens which he has not imposed?
We would be much happier and more useful, if our home life and social intercourse were governed by the meekness and simplicity of Christ. Instead of toiling for display, to excite the admiration or the envy of visitors, we should endeavor to make all around us happy by our cheerfulness, sympathy, and love. Let visitors see that we are striving to conform to the will of Christ. Let them see in us even though our lot is humble, a spirit of content and gratitude. The very atmosphere of a truly Christian home is that of peace and restfulness. Such an example will not be without effect. Right thoughts and new desires will be awakened in the heart of the most careless.
In our efforts for the comfort and happiness of guests, let us not overlook our obligations to God. The hour of prayer should not be neglected for any consideration. Do not talk and amuse yourselves till all are too weary to enjoy the season of devotion. To do this, is to present to God a lame offering. At an early hour of the evening, when we can pray unhurriedly and understandingly, we should present our supplications, and raise our voices in happy, grateful praise.
Let all who visit Christians see that the hour of prayer is the most precious, the most sacred, and the happiest hour of the day. These seasons of devotion exert a refining, elevating influence upon all who participate in them. They bring a peace and rest grateful to the spirit.
In every act of life Christians should seek to represent Christ,—seek to make his service appear attractive. Let none make religion repulsive by groans and sighs and a relation of their trials, their self-denials, and sacrifices. Do not give the lie to your profession of faith by impatience, fretfulness, and repining. Let the graces of the Spirit be manifested in kindness, meekness, forbearance, cheerfulness, and love. Let it be seen that the love of Christ is an abiding motive; that your religion is not a dress to be put off and on to suit circumstances, but a principle, calm, steady, unvarying. Alas that pride, unbelief, and selfishness, like a foul cancer, are eating out vital godliness from the heart of many a professed Christian! When judged according to their works, how many will learn, too late, that their religion was but a glittering cheat, unacknowledged by Jesus Christ.
Love to Jesus will be seen, will be felt. It cannot be hidden. It exerts a wondrous power. It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise. It makes the stammering tongue eloquent, and rouses the dormant intellect into new life and vigor. It makes the desponding hopeful, the gloomy joyous. Love to Christ will lead its possessor to accept responsibilities for his sake, and to bear them in his strength. Love to Christ will not be dismayed by tribulation, nor turned aside from duty by reproaches. The soul that is not imbued with this love for Jesus is none of his.
Peace in Christ is of more value than all the treasures of earth. Let us seek the Lord with all our heart, let us learn of Christ to be meek and lowly, that we may find rest of soul. Let us arouse our dormant energies, and become active, earnest, fervent. The very example and deportment as well as the words of the Christian should be such as to awaken in the sinner a desire to come to the Fountain of life.
Let us open our hearts to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Let us work cheerfully, joyfully in the service of our Master. A slothful, languid professor will never secure an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. From the cross to the crown there is earnest work to be done. There is wrestling with inbred sin; there is warfare against outward wrong.
The Christian life is a battle and a march. Let us go forward, for we are striving for an immortal crown. Let us give diligence to make our calling and election sure. We shall triumph at last, if we do not become weary in well-doing.
WE WAIT FOR THEE.
WE wait for thee, all-glorious One!
We look for thine appearing;
We bear thy name, and on the throne
We see thy presence cheering.
Faith even now
Uplifts its brow,
And sees the Lord descending,
And with him bliss unending.
We wait for thee through days forlorn,
In patient self-denial;
We know that thou our guilt hast borne
Upon thy cross of trial.
And well may we
Submit with thee
To bear the cross and love it,
Until thy hand remove it.
We wait for thee; already thou
Hast all our hearts' submission;
And though the Spirit sees thee now,
We long for open vision;
When ours shall be
Sweet rest with thee,
And pure, unfading pleasure,
And life in endless measure.
-Selected.
Meek Christians.
By A. Lowrey
The late and widely-lamented Dr. Punshon was accustomed to say, in his celebrated lecture on Daniel in prison, "Religion is not a salad, that it should be dressed in vinegar." His object was to show that a true Christian is joyous and amiable at all times, and under all circumstances, and for the reason that it is the nature of saving grace, in defiance of every adversity, to inspire joy and sweetness. This feature in our salvation is not sufficiently incorporated into our daily experiences. How much sad, sour religion there is in the world! At best, in many cases, it is but sweetened vinegar. The native bitterness of the heart is not taken away, but simply counteracted. It is like the preserved crab-apple, whose nature is not changed, but overcome by sugar; take away the sugar, and the acid is still there.
Some Christians seem not to expect grace to do more for them than to hold their asperities in check. Some Christian people appear to have no compunction for getting mad, provided they do not make fools of themselves. They are willing to carry a volcano in their bosom, if only they can govern the eruptions. Indeed, there are many recognized Christians, not excepting some preachers, who evidently "make provision for the flesh" in respect to the indulgence of angry tempers. When provoked, or impugned, or even spoken to with impatience and exasperation, they expect to retaliate in kind. They are harsh and angular—the opposite of meekness. There is a gruffness and rigidity in their manner; an acrimony in their spirit; a pungent, biting sarcasm in their words. Like hunters in the woods, they trip and ogle around for something to shoot at. Their very souls are pugnacious.
Now, is this the spirit of Christ? Is this the doctrine of his sermon on the mount? Is not meekness as really a fruit of the Spirit as faith or love? Is it not an essential element in our spiritual and divine attainments? Can we dispense with it, and have a true Christian experience at all? Does not the want of meekness blur the whole character, blast our usefulness, and project doubts into the minds of sinners as to the power of grace and reality of religion? Many amiable sinners, by dint of resolution, and for the sake of good manners, keep their passions under. In the face of such examples, shall the subjects of grace spit, and fizz, and fume, and boil over, and explode with fits of anger? Let it not be said, by way of apology, that such persons have an impulsive nature, a sanguine temperament—a positive side to their character. No, no. It is sin. It is the fruit of remaining carnality. It is the proof of an unsanctified nature. It is a disgrace to the Christian name.—A. Lowrey, in Divine Life.
Courage for Self-Examination
HAVE courage enough to review your own conduct, to condemn it where you detect faults, to amend it to the best of your ability, to make good resolves for your future guidance, and to keep them.
Constitutional Amendment.
By W. H. Littlejohn
BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.
In view of these facts, take a common man, without bias or predilection, one, if you please, who has never heard of the controversy in question, place in his hands the Bible without note or comment, let him read the following texts which confessedly refer to the seventh day of the week, and we think the verdict which he would render would be decidedly in favor of the venerable Sabbath of the Lord; of which it is true, as it is of no other day, that he has again and again claimed it as his own. The italics are our own. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Isa. 58:13, 14.
"But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work:" "for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.
"And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2:27, 28.
If such a decision be a just one, however, where are we in the matter under examination? What has become of the modern Sabbath reform for which we have been seeking justification in the word of God? First, we sought to place it upon the commandment; this, we found to be out of the question. Second, we investigated the claim of an amended law; that, we discovered to be entirely without authority, and against even the conviction and practice of the very men who urged it. Third, we turn, as a least resort, to the precedence of Bible history; these, we found, so far as they affect the question at all, to be overwhelmingly against a movement, which, while it claims to be in the interest of the God of Heaven, is confronted by the following astounding facts: First, the day whose observance it seeks to enforce by statute law is one, the keeping of which, God never has commanded. Second, Christ has never commanded it. Third, no inspired man has ever commanded it. Fourth, God himself never rested upon it. Fifth, Christ never rested upon it. Sixth, there is no record that either prophets or apostles ever rested upon it. Seventh, it is one upon which God himself worked. Eighth, it is one which, during his lifetime, Christ always treated as a day of labor. Ninth, it is one upon which, after his resurrection, he countenanced, by his own personal example, travel upon the highway. Tenth, it is one upon which the two disciples, in going to and returning from Emmaus, traveled a distance of fifteen miles. Eleventh, it was on that day that Paul walked from Troas to Assos, a distance of nineteen and one-half miles. Twelfth, it was on that day that Luke and his associates passed from one to another of these places by a longer route, working their vessel round the promontory.
That all these things could be true, and yet our friends be right in the supposition that they are engaged in a work which commands the approval of Heaven, is too absurd to require further discussion. A movement pushed forward in the face of these facts may succeed, so far as political success and legal enactment are concerned, but when the logic for its scriptural character is scrutinized as closely as it will be before it shall plant its banners upon the capitol of the nation, all conscientious convictions in regard to its heavenly birth will give place to an inspiration, the source of whose strength will be found in the superiority of party drill, and the overwhelming power of mere numbers. Who shall say that the God of Heaven has not permitted it to come to the surface for the very purpose of calling the attention of honest men and women, as it only could be done by the debate which will arise in controversy, to the scantiness of that Sunday wardrobe by which, as with it our friends attempt to clothe a favorite institution, we are so forcibly reminded of the bed and covering spoken of by the prophet Isaiah: The first of which was "too short to stretch one's self upon," and the last, "too narrow to wrap one's self within?" So sure as investigation is provoked upon this subject, so certain is it that, sooner or later, thinking men and women will dis-cover—as we have already done in this article—that there is indeed a crying demand for a Sabbath reform. Not one, however, which rests merely upon the power of Congressional enactment, and Presidential sanction, but one which shall find its authority in the highest of all laws, and which shall have the approval of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The conflict is finally open. The spirit of inquiry has lifted itself in the nation; and all eyes will be turned towards the Bible as really the only source from which can be derived authority for a Sabbath reform which shall be worthy of the name.
Commencing with its opening pages, they will trace the Sabbatic narrative until they have been able to verify the following summary of history and doctrine:—
1. The Sabbath, as the last day of the week, originated in Eden, and was given to Adam as the federal head of the race, while he yet retained his primal innocence. Proof: "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2:2, 3.
2. That, though the history of the period, stretching from the creation to the exodus, is extremely brief, it is manifest, even from that period, that the good of those ages had not lost sight of it; since the children of Israel were acquainted with its existence thirty days before reaching Mount Sinai. "And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." Ex. 16:23. "Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." Ex. 16:26.
3. That God, unwilling to commit the interest of so important an institution to the keeping of tradition, framed a command for its perpetuity, which he spoke with his own voice and wrote with his own finger, placing it in the bosom of the great moral law of the ten precepts: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8–11.
4. That this law has been brought over into our dispensation, and every jot and tittle of it is binding now, and will continue to be, so long as the world stands. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For, verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven."—Jesus, Matt. 5:17–19. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law."—Paul, Romans 3:31. "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:12. "If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well; but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law."—James, Jas. 2:8–11. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him."—John, 1 John 3:4–6.
5. That agreeably to this view, Christ, of whom it is said, "Thy law is within my heart" was an habitual observer, during his life-time, of the Sabbath of the decalogue. "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16. "If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10.
6. That the women whose religious conception had been formed under his teachings, carefully regarded it. "And they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment." Luke 23:56.
7. The Lord instructed his disciples that it would exist at least forty years after his death, since he taught them to pray continually, that their flight, at the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred A. D. 70, might not take place on that day. "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20.
8. That the great apostle to the Gentiles was in the habit of making it a day of public teaching. "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 27:2. "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Acts 18:4.
9. That in the year of our Lord 95, John still recognized its existence. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet." Rev. 1:10.
10. That God has never removed the blessing which he placed upon it in the beginning, or annulled the sanctification by which it was at that time set apart to a holy use.
11. That, in perfect keeping with the above propositions, it is, equally in the New with the Old Testament, scores of times denominated the Sabbath; and that, while God, and Christ, and prophets, and apostles, and inspired men, unite in applying to it this sacred title, they never, in any single instance, allow themselves to speak of any other day in the week in the use of this peculiar appellation.
12. That it is not only to continue during the present order of things, but that, in the new earth, clothed in all the freshness and beauty of its Edenic glory, creation, more than ever before, will be the subject of devout gratitude, and weekly commemoration on the part of the immortal and sinless beings who shall worship God therein forever. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:22, 23.
The Apostles' Outfit.
THE wallet of the new version is a much more intelligible word than the scrip of the old, but still needs explanation, as wallet with us is a synonym for pocket-book. It was a small bag, or satchel, hung by straps from the shoulders—something like the hunters' and fishermen's bags of our day—and was made of the skins of kids, stripped off whole, and tanned by a very simple process. The Galilean shepherds and farmers still universally use them, carrying in them their food—a quantity of thin, tough bread, a few olives, and perhaps a little cheese--for the day or more.
The purse was a pocket made in the leathern girdle which was worn about the waist to bind in and hold the flowing robe or dress or tunic together. The sandal worn by their class was simply a sole of leather bound on the feet by thongs, and was for hard service. Two tunics were sometimes worn by persons of rank, wealth, or official position. The twelve were to assume nothing, as the Pharisees did, but to strictly preserve their simplicity.
The entire "outfit," as Dr. Thomson says, shows that these first missionaries were plain fishermen, shepherds, or farmers; and to such men there was no extraordinary self-denial in the matter or the mode of their mission. He expounds the instructions thus: "You are going to your brethren in the neighboring villages, and the best way to get to their hearts and their confidence, is to throw yourselves upon their hospitality; nor was there any departure from the simple manners of the country in this."—Dr. Broadus.
The Judgment Was Set.
By Eld. I. J. Hankins
BY ELD. I. J. HANKINS.
THE work of the Judgment interests every person that lives, or ever has lived upon the earth. No one can be excluded from its searching tests, or evade its final decisions. All must appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ. Rom. 14:10. There will be no distinction made because of wealth, position, worldly honor, or rank. God is no respecter of persons, but he is a respecter of character. Peter says that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. God will have a people gathered from among the different nations and generations of the earth that will be prepared to stand in the Judgment, and finally to enjoy eternal life in his presence. Rev. 5:9.
One would conclude, to observe the course pursued by the mass of mankind, that it is all of life to live; that the matter of man's responsibility and accountability, the theory of a future Judgment, and of reward and punishment beyond the grave, are simply products of imagination.
The world is rushing madly on down the current of carnal security, soon, too soon, to be dashed over the rapids into the whirlpool of despair. Could they but see the end of their course, how different would be their actions. But alas! Satan has blinded the eyes and benumbed the sensibilities, until, I fear, nothing but the terrible judgments of God will arouse men to a sense of their danger and their responsibility, and then it will be too late for them to repent. If men were rushing on thus in darkness because there was no light, and if they were cherishing sin because there was no virtue, how different would be the case. They are led to believe that as their evil works are not immediately brought into judgment they never will be, and therefore their hearts are fully set in them to do evil. Eccl. 8:11.
The wise man says, "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work." Eccl. 3:17. The time of Judgment is here spoken of in the future tense, which agrees with the testimony of Paul when he reasoned before Felix of "Judgment to come." Acts 24:25.
The question, doubtless, has arisen in almost every mind, How is the work of Judgment to be performed? How will all the vast multitudes that have lived upon the earth, individually receive an impartial judgment? Some believe that at the last great day, when Christ comes for his people, God will assemble all nations before him, bad and good indiscriminately, and that then for the first time, their cases will be examined and a division made between them. But there are some objections to this view. In every trial three steps are necessary: (1) The investigation of each man's case; (2) The passing of sentence; (3) The execution of the judgment. Now when Christ comes, the righteous receive their reward at once. Rev. 22:12. The righteous dead are raised, and the living righteous changed in the twinkling of an eye, from mortal to immortality. 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; 1 Cor. 15:51-54. Here is the first resurrection, introducing the one thousand years of Rev. 20. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." It must be evident to every mind that there is no time here for an investigative Judgment; that the cases of the righteous must have all been decided previous to the coming of Christ; and that he comes to give the reward which they have been accounted worthy to receive, or to execute the decision in their cases. The very natural inquiry now arises, Where is this work of investigation performed, when did it begin, and with whom?
For an answer to the first of these questions I refer the reader to the work entitled, "The Sanctuary and 2300 Days," published at the Signs office. In this work the cleansing of the sanctuary is shown to be a work of investigative Judgment which began at the close of the 2300 days in 1844. With whom this Judgment begins is answered in 1 Peter 4:17: "Judgment must begin at the house of God;" with the righteous. Please read Dan. 7:9, 10, where is presented a view of the Judgment. God, the Judge, the "Ancient of Days," sits upon the throne; the angels are his ministers, or witnesses, and Christ our Advocate—man's attorney. But, says one, the dead are in their graves and therefore they cannot appear personally before God. True; but a record of their lives has been faithfully kept in the books of Heaven, which books are opened when the Judgment begins. "The Judgment was set and the books were opened." Dan. 7:10. The Revelator speaking of this same time and work says, "The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Rev. 20:12. From these books will be revealed the "hidden things of darkness" and the "counsels of the heart." 1 Cor. 4:5; all our secret sins. Eccl. 12:14; and even our idle words. Matt. 12:36.
How many men would blush with shame to have their evil deeds published even before the eyes of their fellow-men, but how much more intensified will be their grief when the scenes of their wicked lives shall be presented before the great God and the holy angels.
The righteous have their names written in the "book of life." Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3. Those who continue faithful in the service of God, confess and forsake every sin, and finally have their robes of character washed in the blood of the Lamb, will have their names retained in the book of life, their sins blotted from the books of record, and thus be entitled to eternal life. Those who have had their names written in the book of life, but have not made complete work in overcoming, will have their names blotted from the book of life, and their sins retained in the books of record as a testimony against them. But the wicked never having repented of sins, must stand condemned by their own record. Here, then, is the work which we understand, from a study of the Sanctuary and its cleansing (to which subject we again refer the reader), has been going forward for nearly forty years, or since 1844, viz., the investigation of the records of those whose names are in the book of life. Those who are found worthy will be saved when Christ closes his work and comes to reward his people. A little time yet remains for repentance and confession.
Reader, will the record of your life stand the test of this great tribunal?
GATHERED SUNSHINE.
If our sunshine would not waste,
Nor hang in harrowed shrouds,
We'd save enough, most any day
To gild to-morrow's clouds.
And even if the rain does pour
Sometimes a chilling stream;
If garnered well, we'd have in store
For every drop a beam.
I don't know how it is there're some
Can never get things right;
For yesterday it was too dull,
To-day it is too bright.
In spring they long for summer time,
In summer, sigh for fall;
And when the autumn forest glows
Think winter best of all.
"It is too cold!" the birds can't sing;
"Too hot!" it wilts the flowers,
And something, somehow, all the time,
Will cloud the sunniest hours.
If such would keep a strict account
As good or ill might come,
They'd always find, on footing up,
The good the heaviest sum.
For every day of storm and cloud,
Three sunny ones at least;
And five soft, sunny, genial winds,
Where one is really east.
Then bless the Lord, and cheerily
Accept of nature's plan,
Resolved to make the best of it,
And better if we can.
And like the bee, just take the sweet
Where poison might be found,
And gathering honey all the year,
Go scattering it around.
EFFECT OF GOOD COMPANY.
Nothing makes a man so in love with purity as purity. Many a man has been lifted out of debasing sins, against which he has vainly struggled, by coming to know and love a pure, sweet woman. It is a sight of embodied goodness that makes us want to be good. Many a mother by the usefulness of her life, fills her children with a desire to be like her, that makes them in their turn unselfish. There are obscure men and women who hardly in their lives utter a word of conscientious teaching, who, by their example, do more to make people around them gentle, truthful, and Christ-like than any preacher can do. It is not those who talk about goodness, but those who are good, that are the light of the world.—Sel.
Achan in the Church.
By Dr. G. C. Lorimer
If there is any truth in this narrative about Achan, it is that one or a few individuals may hinder the usefulness of many. You are aware that it is not necessary for every part of a machine to be out of order for the whole to be deranged. A single defect in the engine you drive or the watch you wear, may imperil the one and stop the other. You need not smash your watch to pieces for its utility to be destroyed; you need not blow up your engine for it to cease its movements. So an entire church may be out of spiritual harmony with God, and still much mischief be done by one or two persons living in worldliness. Suppose that there is a member who is faithless to his obligations, and who is as skillful as Achan in concealing it from the eyes of the law; suppose under the guise of piety he succeeds in transactions that are questionable according to the highest standard of morality, will he not excite suspicion among his brethren, will he not tend to divide them, and will he not so charge the atmosphere with distrust that endeavor to save others will be paralyzed? Or, suppose that he is worldly in his tastes and desires, can enjoy the exhibitions of a not over-virtuous Bernhardt, turns the meeting-house into a show-place for millinery, and considers it more in the light of a club for society than a refuge from iniquity, will not his influence corrupt others and tend to render them too trivial for the serious concerns of religion? These are solemn questions. They press home the significance of personal responsibility. You, my brother, you, my sister, may be the Achan in the camp. Let me pray you to see to it lest your folly shall stay the aggressive designs of the armies of God.—Dr. G. C. Lorimer.
Stand for the Truth.
By Spurgeon
LET me advise you to wear no armor for your backs when you have determined to follow the track of the truth. Receive upon your breast-plate of righteousness the sword-cuts of your adversaries; their stern metal shall turn the edge of your foeman's weapon. Let the right be your lord paramount, and for the rest be free and your own Master's still. Follow truth for her own sake; follow her in evil report; let not many waters quench your love for her. Bow to no customs if they be evil. Yield to no established rules if they involve a lie. Do not evil though good should come of it.
"Consequences!" this is the devil's argument. Leave consequences to God, but do the right. If friends fail thee, do the right. If foemen surround thee, do the right. Be genuine, real, sincere, true, upright, godlike. The world's maxim is, Trim your sails and yield to circumstances; but if you would do any good in your generation, you must be made of sterner stuff, and help make your times rather than be made by them.
You must not yield to customs, but like the anvil, endure all the blows until the hammers break themselves. When misrepresented, use no crooked means to clear yourself. Clouds do not last long. If in the course of duty you are tried by the mistrust of friends, gird up your loins, and say in your heart, I was not driven to virtue by the encouragement of friends, nor will I be repelled from it by their coldness. Finally, be just and fear not. "Corruption wins not more than honesty," truth lives and reigns when falsehood dies and rots.—Spurgeon.
The Opportunist’s Changing Religion
A PLACE-HUNTER in Prussia, having asked Frederick the Great for the grant of some rich Protestant bishopric, the king expressed his regret that it was already given away, but broadly hinted that there was a Catholic abbacy at his disposal. The applicant managed to be converted in a week, and to be received into the bosom of the Catholic Church, after which he hastened to his friend the king, and told him how his conscience had been enlightened. "Ah!" exclaimed Frederick, "how terribly unfortunate! I have given away the abbacy. But the chief rabbi is just dead, and the synagogue is at my disposal; suppose you were to turn Jew."
Prayer Meeting or the Show
It is one of the unexplainable things of moral ethics, how people decide so promptly as to how little rain and bad weather it takes to keep them away from prayer-meeting, and how much is required to keep them away from a good show.