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Signs of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 35.

Proposed Compromise with Luther

Signs of the Times

Sep 20, 1883

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 20, 1883

Proposed Compromise with Luther.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
No SOONER had the consent of the emperor been obtained, than an attempt was made to effect a compromise with Luther. The archbishop of Treves, a staunch Romanist and an intimate friend of the Elector Frederic, undertook the office of mediator. The Reformer was summoned to the residence of this prelate, where were assembled several dignitaries of the church, with secular nobles and deputies, among the rest one Cochlæus, who was there simply as a spy for the pope’s legate.
The spokesman of the company was himself desirous of a reformation in the church, and was therefore favorably disposed toward Luther. With great kindness he addressed the Reformer, assuring him that all the princes present were in earnest to save him, but if he persisted in setting up his own judgment against that of the church and the councils, he would be banished from the empire, and would then have no shelter.
To this appeal Luther made answer: "It is impossible to preach the gospel of Christ without offense. Why, then, should any such fear separate me from the Lord and that divine word which alone is truth? No; rather will I give up body, blood, and life itself."
Again he was urged to submit to the judgment of the emperor, and then he would have nothing to fear. "I consent," said he in reply, "with all my heart, to the emperor, the princes, and even the humblest Christian's examining and judging of my writings; but on one single condition; namely, that they take God's word for their guide. Men have nothing to do but render obedience to that word. My conscience is in dependence upon that word, and I am the bounden subject of its authority."
The company soon broke up and withdrew. Two or three remained, however, greatly desiring to accomplish their object. But Luther was firm as a rock. "The pope," said he, "is no judge in things pertaining to the word of the Lord. It is the duty of every Christian to see and understand how to live and die."
The failure of this effort was communicated to the diet by the archbishop of Treves. The surprise of the young emperor was equaled only by his indignation. "It is high time," he said, "to put an end to this business." The archbishop pleaded for two days more, and all the diet uniting in the request, the emperor consented, much against the will of the legate.
Another effort was made to effect a compromise. Cochlæus was ambitious to accomplish what kings and prelates had failed to do. Dining with Luther at his hotel, he in a friendly manner urged him to retract. Luther shook his head. Several persons at the table expressed their indignation that the papists, instead of convincing Luther by arguments, should seek to control him by force. Cochlæus then offered to dispute with him publicly, provided he would forego his safe-conduct. A public discussion was what Luther most desired; but he well knew that to forego his safe-conduct would be to imperil his life. The guests suspected that the proposition of Cochlæus was a stratagem of popery for delivering Luther into the hands of those who sought his destruction, and in their indignation they seized the terrified priest, and hurled him out of doors.
The archbishop of Treves desired another interview, and invited to supper the persons who attended the previous conference, hoping that in the midst of familiar intercourse the parties would be more disposed to a reconciliation. These repeated efforts to move Luther from his steadfastness remind one of Balak conducting Balaam from one point to another, in the vain hope that he might be induced to change the blessing of Israel into a curse. The bishop succeeded no better than did the king of Moab. Human applause and the fear of man were alike powerless to shake the Reformer's decision. He was sustained by a divine power.
Still another trial was made. Two officials of high rank, one of whom had manifested much affection for Luther, called upon him at his hotel. The elector sent two of his counselors to be present at this interview. The two first mentioned were desirous, at any sacrifice, to prevent the great division that seemed about to rend the church. Earnestly they entreated Luther to commit the matter to their hands, assuring him that it should be settled in a Christian spirit.
"I answer at once," said Luther, "I consent to forego my safe-conduct, and resign my person and my life to the emperor's disposal; but as to the word of God . . . . Never!" One of Frederic's counselors then stood up and said to the envoys, "Is not that enough? Is not such a sacrifice sufficient?" and after protesting that he would hear no more, he withdrew.
The two envoys did not even yet understand the inflexible firmness of the man with whom they had to deal. Thinking that they could more easily succeed with him alone, they seated themselves by his side, and again urged him to submit to the diet. Luther met these solicitations as Christ met his great adversary,—with the word of God. Said Luther, "It is written, 'Cursed is he that trusteth in man.'" They pressed him more and more, until Luther, weary and disgusted, arose and signified to them to retire, saying, "I will allow no man to exalt himself above God's word."
At evening they returned with a new proposition,—a general council. They asked him only to consent to the proposition, without entering into details. "I consent," said he, "but on condition that the council decide according to the Holy Scriptures."
Thinking that this would of course be accepted, they hastened joyfully to the archbishop of Treves, and informed him that Dr. Luther would submit his writings to the judgment of a council.
The archbishop was on the point of communicating the glad tidings to the emperor when a doubt crossed his mind. He had found Luther so firm and confident in his faith, that he decided it would be safest to hear the statement from his own lips. He accordingly sent for him."Dear Doctor," said the archbishop with much kindness, "my doctors assure me that you consent to submit your cause without reserve to the decision of a council."
"My lord," said Luther, "I can endure anything except to abandon the Holy Scriptures."
The archbishop saw that his messengers had not fully explained the facts. Never would Rome give her consent to a council which should take the inspired word alone for its guide. "Well then," said the venerable prelate, "let me hear your own remedy for the evil."
Luther was silent for a moment. Then he spoke with respect and great solemnity: "I know of none but what is found in the counsel of Gamaliel: 'If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God!' Let the emperor, the electors, and the States of the empire, return that answer to the pope."
The archbishop was at last convinced that further effort was useless. Luther had set his feet upon the sure foundation, and he could not be moved.
The Reformer was convinced that there was nothing to be gained by a longer stay at Worms. Before retiring from the presence of the archbishop he said, "My lord, I beg you to request his majesty to send me the safe-conduct necessary for my return whence I came."
"I will attend to it," said the archbishop, and they parted.
Luther had refused to exchange the yoke of Christ for the yoke of popery. This was his only offense; but it was sufficient to imperil his life. The attention of the whole empire had been directed to this one man, and all their threats and entreaties had failed to shake his fidelity to God and his word. Luther had not without help maintained his steadfastness. A greater than Luther was with him, controlling his mind, sanctifying his judgment, and imparting to him wisdom in every hour of peril.
Had the Reformer yielded a single point, Satan and his hosts would have gained the victory. But Luther's unwavering firmness under the iron hand of the pope was the means of emancipating the church and beginning a new and better era. The influence of this one man, who had dared to think and act for himself in religious matters, was to affect the church and the world not only in his own time, but to all future generations. His firmness and fidelity would strengthen all who should pass through a similar experience, to the close of time. This was the work of God. Luther's defense before the diet of Worms was one of the grandest scenes recorded in history. The power and majesty of God stand forth above the counsel of men, above the mighty power of Satan.
Shortly after Luther's return to his hotel, two high officers of State, accompanied by a notary, presented themselves. The imperial chancellor addressed him, stating that the emperor, the electors and princes, having vainly exhorted him, his imperial majesty, as defender of the Catholic faith, found himself compelled to resort to other measures. He commanded Luther to return home in the space of twenty-one days, and on the way to refrain from disturbing the public peace by preaching or writing.
Luther was aware that this message would speedily be followed by his condemnation. He answered mildly, "It has happened unto me according to the will of the Eternal. Blessed be his name!" He continued: "And first I humbly, and from the bottom of my heart, thank his majesty, the electors, princes, and States of the empire, that they have given me so gracious a hearing. I neither have, nor ever have had, a wish but for one thing; to wit, a reformation of the church according to the Holy Scriptures. I am ready to do or to suffer all things for obedience to the emperor's will. Life or death, honor or dishonor, I will bear. I make but one reservation, the preaching of the gospel; for, says St. Paul, the word of God is not to be bound."

“ALL THINGS NEW.”

THE world is old with centuries, But not for these she bows her head; Close to her heart the sorrow lies— She holds so many dead! Sad discords mingle in her song, Tears fall upon her with the dew, The whole creation groans—How long Ere all shall be made new?
Yet brightly on her smiles the sun, A bounteous heaven delights to bless; Oh, what shall be that fairer one Wherein dwells righteousness? Oh, happy world! oh, holy time! When wrong shall die, and strife shall cease, And all the bells of heaven chime With melodies of peace.
No place shall be in that new earth For all that blights this universe; No evil taint the second birth— “There shall be no more curse.” Ye broken-hearted, cease your moan; The day of promise dawns for you; For He who sits upon the throne Says, “I make all things new.”
We mourn the dead, but they shall wake! The lost, but they shall be restored! Oh, well our human hearts might break Without that sacred word! Dim eyes look up, sad hearts rejoice, Seeing God’s bow of promise through, At sound of that prophetic voice— “I will make all things new.” —Sel.

Unbelief.

“O FOOLS, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Luke 24:25.
There have been periods in the history of the church and of the world in which (on account of some great event affecting the condition of man) there is such an important bearing upon the vital interests of mankind as to call the attention of God himself to the subject, to such a degree as to reveal the main facts to his people hundreds of years previously.
Such periods are called eras, and time is reckoned from some era, as we reckon time from the birth of Christ, or from the deluge, or as the Jews reckon from the departure from Egypt, or from the return from the Babylonish captivity. The creation of the world was the beginning of all eras, the deluge was a remarkable era, and the first advent of Jesus Christ, his humiliation, his crucifixion and ascension, was a most remarkable and important event, or era, because of its bearing upon man’s future destiny.
But there is an era just before us, viz., the second advent of Jesus Christ, which promises to eclipse all previous eras, so that they will seem as small events compared with this; and though mankind mock at the idea, as they did at Noah who foretold the deluge for 120 years; though impious scoffers rail as they did at Jeremiah, who foretold the captivity of the Jews in Babylon; though the visible church reject the idea as the Jewish church did his first advent; yet come it will, for the word of the Lord is sure.
Ever since the fall of our first parents, there has been a disposition on the part of man to reject the word of the Lord. His warnings have been slighted, his invitations despised, and his offers disdainfully rejected by the vast majority of our race, even until now; and it would seem necessary that a full stop should soon be made to the wickedness of man, for the cup is nearly full.
The deluge was foretold by Noah amid contempt and scorn, yet it came as pre-determined. The deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt was effected by a series of miracles, extending through forty years, according to the word of God, in spite of the opposition and heartlessness of the rescued captives, and they were established in the pleasant land, freed from the oppressor’s lash. Thus God fulfilled his promise to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; but the word and promise of God was rejected, and one generation perished in the wilderness. Even so was the word of the Lord rejected by them in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the Babylonians came and carried them into captivity; and at the end of this seventy years of exile, when warned to flee from Babylon very many of them rejected the call, and were engulfed in the destruction which afterwards befell that wicked city and nation.
But the first advent of the Messiah, the most remarkable event recorded in history since the creation to the present; this event so often spoken of, and so clearly described by the prophets; this event so well attested by his miracles, his teaching, his example of purity and patience, was ignored by the then only visible church. It is true a few acknowledged his divinity, but only a few. O wonderful, willful ignorance! O blind envy! adamantine obduracy! The first advent of Jesus was too humble, too lowly, for the soaring Pharisees; the prophecies were too mysterious for the wise lawyer and the ambitious scribe, and so the meek and lowly Jesus was rejected, despised, spit upon, and crucified.
On this occasion, having arisen from the dead, Christ addresses his mourning followers as above quoted: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe,” etc. But why fools? Because they did not implicitly believe what the prophets had spoken of him. Oh, then, if Jesus laid such stress upon what the prophets had spoken, what must be the guilt of those who wholly omit to read or understand the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments? Why were these revelations of the plans of Jehovah made to the prophets of the old and new dispensations, if they were forever to remain sealed? No; they are to be unsealed, before the events transpire, to the wise who shall understand. Dan. 12:4.
But there is a practical application of this subject to the present state of things, which is solemn and fearful, viz., the present generation are acting over again the same skeptical part as to his second coming that the Jews did to his first advent 1,800 years ago. Yes, the visible churches in their hatred to Adventism, and in their opposition to the law of God; in the contempt cast upon his holy Sabbath from week to week; in the face of the light now shining everywhere; in their efforts to put the Sabbath under foot, and to set up a pagan festival in its stead; in their efforts to darken the page of prophecy, which sheds such a flood of light upon the second advent of the Messiah, are acting a part tenfold more aggravated and fearful than that enacted by the Jewish church 1,800 years ago. Why? Because we have tenfold more evidence of his second coming, and of its time and manner, and of the accompanying circumstances, than the Jewish church had of his first advent.
In proof of this, let any candid person examine carefully the evidences of the advent of Christ and of his life, sufferings, and death, which were in possession of the Jewish church at his first coming, and compare it with the light now shining upon the page of prophecy in both Old and New Testaments; and such a person, after carefully and intelligently weighing the comparative evidence, must certainly admit that the light now beaming upon and from prophetic scriptures, is far, very far, greater than could have been realized either in the days of Noah or of Jesus Christ.
We have the same prophecies which they had, and besides we possess the awful history and final end of those who rejected them, and the general experience and history of those nations mentioned in the Bible, together with the accredited history of the fulfilment of many of the prophecies. Thus we have numerous data and stand-points from which to view the future, and a vast mine of cumulative evidence daily increasing; we possess the prophecies of Christ himself, and by his apostles, clear and well defined; we have the signs of the times, and all point with awful precision to the all-absorbing event, to that great day just looming up before us.
Now, too, the human intellect is cultivated, the mind enlarged, the means of knowledge are greatly increased, and the facilities for the investigation of truth are greatly enlarged and spread abroad; and such is man’s present power of investigation that nothing material is seemingly too high or too deep for his study. Height and depth, length and breadth, are accurately measured, and, by means of skillful and scientific combinations and arrangements, his eye penetrates the depths of space into other spheres; he brings suns and systems into his range of thought; he pries into the earth and classifies its materials; he analyzes the very air we breathe; he tames the lightnings; almost annihilates time and distance, and performs unnumbered wonders; but alas! when he turns to the page of prophecy, or the law of God, one is obscure, and the other is done away.
The word of God, and the practice and precept of the church, are seen to be at such points of opposition, and at such variance, that one or the other must be set aside; and there are so many magnets on the side of man’s precept that the silent and severe word of God is lost sight of, and forgotten or ignored, and the natural mind at once leans upon its kind. Truth is darkened and obscured; light is taken for darkness and darkness for light; and so is enacted over again the blind part of the Jews of old, who were blind and deaf, but thought they saw and heard.
These are not random thoughts; they are well-attested facts. And, startling though they may be, we should know them, and bear them in mind. They remind us of the corruption of the age; they warn us of its perils and dangers. We must stand aloof from spiritual Babylon, must come out of her or be partakers of her sins, and receive of her plagues.
Rest assured, dear brother or sister, that it is not a light thing to serve the Lord, to keep his commandments, and have the faith of Jesus. We must leave their assemblies, must protest firmly against their Sabbath desecration, their mock baptism and other errors, and must bear plain witness in regard to Christ’s second coming, and the awful plagues impending over the wicked. All are wicked who trample upon God’s law, be it done ever so solemnly.
One point here claims our attention in regard to the eras in the past. As in the days of Noah, God by Noah called loudly for a reform previous to sending the deluge upon the earth. So it was previous to the first advent of Christ that John the Baptist preached repentance; he called the leaders of the Jewish church a generation of vipers, and this gave great offense; he rebuked King Herod, and his faithful dealing cost him his life. It was against the crimes of the professed church, and those in high places, that he hurled the thunders of truth; against hypocrites, who were sitting in Moses’ seat, expounders of the law, scribes, Pharisees, priests, and Levites, white-washed with apparent sanctity; against such he pointed his sharpest arrows of reproof. The ancient prophets of the Lord began with these elevated sinners when a reform was called for, and whenever in the past the church departed from the standard of purity and became corrupt, then God has raised up faithful reprovers; and whenever such reproofs have been rejected by those to whom they were sent, the judgments of God have immediately followed. This offensive word repent has often been the stone of stumbling over which corrupt churches, and false prophets, and lying teachers, and thoughtless nations, with their reckless rulers, have stumbled, and fallen, and expired.
So now a reform is called for; reprovers are raised up who preach repentance. Repent, repent, they say; turn, turn, O house of Israel, from your idolatrous, pagan rites. O ye corrupt churches, repair the breach, restore the ancient paths, prepare, prepare for the coming of the Lord. But all in vain. This offensive word repent has the same effect now upon these confused organizations that it had when it fell from the lips of John the Baptist in the wilderness of Judea.
But a grand era is now quickly coming. The day of God’s wrath is near, it hasteth greatly. It will be an era fraught with awful importance to the wicked; to the righteous it will be a bright, a glorious day. To the wicked it will be a day of tempest, of hail, and of pestilence; but to the righteous a day of deliverance, of joy and rejoicing, an era from which through eternity they will date immortality and eternal life.
How remarkable that any with the prophetic scriptures open before them, with their fulfilment recorded on almost every page of profane as well as sacred history, can still reject the testimony of the prophets. How strange that the second advent of the Messiah can be doubted in the face of such proof! O awful thought! that men are now ripening for the seven plagues spoken of in Rev. 16.
J. CLARKE.

Bad News and Good News

BAD NEWS AND GOOD NEWS.—Quaint old Thomas Fuller makes the following striking observation: "Lord, I find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in four immediate generations:—
"1. Roboam begat Abia; that is, a bad father begat a bad son.
"2. Abia begat Asa; that is, a bad father, a good son.
"3. Asa begat Josaphat; that is, a good father, a good son.
"4. Josaphat begat Joram; that is, a good father, a bad son.
"I see, Lord, from thence, that my father's piety cannot be entailed; that is bad news for me. But I see, also, that actual impiety is not always hereditary; that is good news for my son."

Going On Unto Perfection

THAT which seems to the Christian perfection is no longer perfection when attained, for the struggle to attain it develops new power to be consecrated, and higher views of duty. So God leads us onward toward himself, ever going on unto perfection.

Light Sown for the Righteous

"LIGHT is sown for the righteous."

No Cross, No Crown.

By Chas. L. Boyd

BEARING the cross of Christ has come practically to be a mere name. Every age has its peculiar crosses. I have heard of a young disciple who on starting for the Celestial City thought the cross laid upon him heavier than that borne by any of his fellow-pilgrims. "Any cross but this I would willingly bear," was the sentiment of his soul. He was permitted to lay aside his own cross, and to choose from a large collection of crosses. But, alas! each was unendurable, and with a heart weary with disappointment he again received the cross assigned by the divine Master.
The name of Christ has ceased to be a reproach. The cross is painted by the artist, and framed as an ornament. Made of gold, it is worn by the gay, pleasure-seeking youth. The cross is carved upon the monument of the nominal Christian, and raised above the temples of an apostate church. But is this the cross which separates us from the world?—No; for the world is bearing it with us. Is there, then, no cross for us to bear?—Yes; and, strange as it may seem, even here, in our own enlightened land, which makes the highest boast of Christianity of any nation on earth, in which every town has its church-spires towering heavenward as evidence of our loyalty to God, the heaviest cross which can be presented to rich or poor is the keeping of the commandments of God.
This is the cross for the present generation. Dear reader, do you wish for some more pleasant test of loyalty, some lighter cross to bear? Is the Sabbath to you a "delight"? or have the scoffs and scorns of the world and of a sleeping church caused you to blush with shame? The time has been when to acknowledge faith in the resurrection of Christ (who was reported as stolen from the grave by the designing disciples) by being buried in the likeness of his death, was as heavy a cross as it now is to keep God's Sabbath.
The privilege of drinking the bitter cup of suffering, and, if faithful, of sitting with Christ in his kingdom was offered to James and John. The certainty of the cross, and the possibility of the crown was held out before the great apostle to the Gentiles. Our blessed Pattern bore the cross, and drank the bitter cup to the dregs.
I said, "This is the cross for us to bear;" I would rather say, "The privilege which is offered to us."
With too much of truth the poet says,— "Some with Jesus are delighted When he speaks of joys to come, Thinking that for them is plighted, After death, a happy home; But the cross—when he declares it— 'None but he who takes, and bears it, Can my true disciple be.' Few—how few!—to this agree." CHAS. L. BOYD.

Abide in Me.

By Mrs. C. Lawton

"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
What is it to abide in Christ? It certainly is not merely to profess to be a Christian, or even to attend to all the outward forms of religion. We may be decided believers in present truth, and do much to help forward the cause; we may make great sacrifices, and suffer persecution and reproach, and not fully abide in Christ.
Christ says, "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." You may say, "Do we not keep the commandments?" We certainly profess to; but do we keep them all? If we break one of the least commands, we have broken the law. In reply to the lawyer, Jesus gave this epitome of the law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." We must keep these commandments before we can say that we fully abide in Christ.
Is it not to be lamented that we do not put forth a greater effort to obtain this glorious freedom in Christ which he has so freely purchased for us with his own precious blood? We shall be accountable to God for our influence, which would be tenfold greater were we free from sin and unbelief. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." 1 John 3:6. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." We shall not knowingly or willfully sin against God when our hearts are filled with the love of God, and all that is opposed to love and purity is overcome. Then we shall partake of the divine nature, and be brought into very near union with Christ. Oh, what a desirable position! our wills wholly subdued, and in sweet union with Christ. We can then sing with the poet:—
"Give joy or grief, give ease or pain, Take life or friends away, But let me find them all again In that eternal day."
We have no choice only that we may glorify God in life or death. We are as a little child, that has no fear while enfolded in the loving arms of its parents. Dear brother, dear sister, shall we not seek rest in Christ? How few live in the enjoyment of this inestimable blessing! Yet we can thus live a Christian life much more easily, and there is as much difference between the life and influence of such a Christian and the life and influence of one who is not thus living as there is between twilight and the sun at noonday.
Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and was translated; but before his translation he had the testimony that he pleased God. And we may also have this testimony. Those who have enjoyed the love of God, the Spirit witnessing with their spirits that they are children of God, can never rest satisfied without it; and no one is fully qualified for usefulness without full consecration to God. How soon would the loud cry go forth, and the work of the third angel be closed up, if the whole church of Seventh-day Adventists were wholly consecrated to God! What a mighty influence would go out in every direction! Cannot the church do much to help forward, or to retard the coming of Christ?
Shall we who profess to love the appearing of our blessed Lord and Saviour longer delay his coming by our tardiness, our lukewarm spirit? Shall we not rather press into the light by making a full surrender to God? If we are thorough in the surrender we make, it is our privilege and duty to believe that God accepts the sacrifice; and he will send light, love, joy, and peace into our hearts. Then we shall feel like rallying around the standard of truth. We shall have a desire to do all we can to hasten the work. Our prayers, fervent and effectual, will go out after those who are strangers to the truth.
Dear brethren and sisters, "abide in Christ," and let his word abide in you; then you may ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be done unto you. Mrs. C. LAWTON.

A Very Present Help.

By Eld. A. S. Hutchins

BY ELD. A. S. HUTCHINS.
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. 46:1. There can be no doubt that these words were uttered by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They express firm confidence in the protecting care of God; implicit trust in him as a present help, help in trouble. This psalm sets forth the "desolations" of earth, —the shaking and overturning of mountains, the removal of kingdoms, the melting of the earth, etc.
Amidst these devastations of property and life everywhere, terrifying the ungodly, and rending the hearts of those who have no hope in the Saviour, a voice is heard, "Be still, and know that I am God." Afflicted, chastened child, do you in this recognize the voice of a loving Father? And of him can you exclaim: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in him will I trust; he is my shield, and the horn of my refuge, my Saviour"?
The judgments of God are wide-spread in the earth. Floods sweep away the treasures of this world. Costly mansions with their valuable contents float away like a bubble upon the surface of the water, or the earth opens and swallows them up with their inmates, and they are seen no more.
Cyclones do their strange and terrible work, leaving death, mourning, and poverty, widows and orphans, in their track. Disasters upon the sea cause thousands of hearts to bleed, while over the throbbing wires the terrible news flash again and again of railroad catastrophes, saddening homes unexpectedly and mysteriously bereaved, paralyzing the energies of those bowed with age and feebleness, who mourn the loss of the cherished and loved, torn from us at a time when we least knew how to spare them.
All these scenes of grief are but a faint prelude, or index of what lies before the inhabitants of earth. And do hope and courage fail here? Let them not. Rather let us draw near to God in full assurance that "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."
"Afflicted saint, to Christ draw near, Thy Saviour's gracious promise hear; His faithful word declares to thee, That as thy day thy strength shall be.
"Let not thy heart despond, and say, How shall I stand the trying day? He has engaged by firm decree That as thy day thy strength shall be."
Afflictions are far from being conclusive evidence that God does not love his people. We may complain to God, but must not complain of him. Says David, "I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my troubles." And again, as evidence that the Lord was to him a present help in time of trouble, he exclaims, "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me."
The king of glory will soon come. The resurrection morning is near. The sleeping saints will awake to life and immortality. Had some earthly benefactor whom we never met been continually granting us favors and needful blessings from the earliest moments of our existence, how much we should want to see him; with what respect and reverence we should speak of him; with what unfeigned gratitude should we call him to mind. Well, he who shed his blood for us, he who liveth to make intercession for us, is coming again. Would we see him? would we live and reign with him? If so, may we "endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ," and trust him as a very present help in trouble.

Postal-Card Jottings.—No. 1.

By Henry Veysey

JEHOVAH-JIREH was the name of the place where God graciously saved Abraham's son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, from the hand of death, providing a ram to die in his stead. Gen. 22 : 2, 13, 14. Abraham, looking forward, by a living faith, to the Great Sacrifice, who has since died for the sin of the world, John 1 : 29, said Jehovah-jireh, The Lord will provide. We look back to the tree on which hung the Saviour of the world (Gal. 3 : 13), and look forward to the time when the Great Shepherd, our Great High Priest, will put all our sins upon the head of the anti-typical scape-goat, Azazel, the devil, and Satan; when the last act in the awful drama of sin will be finished; when our sins will be forever cast into the depths of the sea (Lev. 16 : 8, 10, 21, 22; Micah 7 : 19), and we can shout Jehovah-jireh, The Lord will provide. Dear reader, will you not this day say: “I am only worthy of death and of everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. 2 Thess. 1 : 9. My sins are more in number than the sand of the sea. I only deserve to fall under his wrath, and to be swallowed up in his righteous vengence, but I believe God's promise, I see my Saviour. I can say, The Lord will provide, I have a Sure Refuge in the person of the Son of God?” Can you thus rejoice? If not go to him to-day as a humble suppliant for mercy. You may well trust him, apart from any fitness in you. All the fitness is in him. Now live by his grace, as one redeemed to God, at such a price. Let every energy of your being be devoted to him. For every need the Lord will provide.
HENRY VEYSEY. Battle Creek, Mich.

The Dangers of Secret Societies

THE Toledo Blade finds a lesson in the Dublin Park murders and similar Irish atrocities, against all secret combinations and all surrender of the individual conscience to the will of any official superior. It says: "No man has the right to place himself where he has no moral control of his own actions, yet this is what he does when he joins a secret society and binds himself to blindly obey all orders from headquarters without hesitation or thought of whether they are right or wrong. Indeed he dare not question the mandates of these persons whom he does not know. He must simply do as he is bidden, even though it makes him a partner in the most atrocious crimes, when he has no intention of committing a moral wrong. The lesson these disclosures teach is to become a member of no societies whose purposes are not openly declared, to take no oaths to obey persons whose very names are unknown."
Continue reading: An Atonement Consistent with Reason