Mr. President, Dr. Russell, and you my friends and neighbors here, and those whom on behalf of my friends and neighbors I greet as guests to-night: I want to say first of all, sir, that you could not have enjoyed coming up as much as I enjoyed having you at my house. All I regret is that there were not more of you present.
I am glad to have the opportunity of saying a few words to you this evening, and in a sense my text has been furnished me by what Mr. Russell said when he spoke of the Bible as not only essential to Christianity, but essential to good citizenship; that not only as Christians but as good citizens we have the right to challenge support for the work done by this and kindred societies.
As all of you know, there are certain truths which are so very true that we call them truisms; and yet I think we often half forget them in practice. Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes what a very large number of people tend to forget that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally — I do not mean figuratively, I mean literally — impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves. Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud, of which our people are proud,— almost every such man has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible. Sometimes it has been done unconsciously, more often consciously; and among the very greatest men a disproportionately large number have been diligent and close students of the Bible at first hand.
Lincoln — sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, who, after bearing upon his weary shoulders for four years a greater burden than that borne by any other man of the nineteenth century, laid down his life for the people whom, living, he had served so well — built up his entire reading upon his early study of the Bible. He had mastered it absolutely,— mastered it as later he mastered only one or two other books, notably Shakespeare,— mastered it so that he became almost “a man of one book,” who knew that book, and who instinctively put into practice what he had been taught therein; and he left his life as part of the crowning work of the century that has just closed.
In this country we rightly pride ourselves upon our system of widespread popular education. We most emphatically do right to pride ourselves upon it. It is not merely of inestimable advantage to us; it lies at the root of our power of self-government. But it is not sufficient in itself. We must cultivate the mind; but it is not enough only to cultivate the mind. With the education of the mind must go the spiritual teaching which will make us turn the trained intellect to good account. A man whose intellect has been educated, while at the same time his moral education has been neglected, is only the more dangerous to the community because of the exceptional additional power which he has acquired. Surely what I am saying needs no proof; surely the mere statement of it is enough,— that education must be education of the heart and conscience no less than of the mind.
It is an admirable thing, a most necessary thing, to have a sound body. It is an even better thing to have a sound mind. But infinitely better than either is to have that for the lack of which neither a sound mind nor a sound body can atone — character. Character is, in the long run, the decisive factor in the life of individuals and of nations alike.
Sometimes, in rightly putting the stress that we do upon intelligence, we forget the fact that there is something that counts more. It is a good thing to be clever, to be able and smart, but it is a better thing to have the qualities that find their expression in the decalogue and the golden rule. It is a good and necessary thing to be intelligent; it is a better thing to be straight and decent and fearless. It was a Yale professor, Mr. Lounsberry, who remarked that his experience in the class-room had taught him “the infinite capacity of the human mind to withstand the introduction of knowledge.” Some of you preachers must often feel the same way about the ability of mankind to withstand the introduction of elementary decency and morality.
A man must be honest in the first place, but that by itself is not enough. No matter how good a man is, if he is timid, he cannot accomplish much in the world. There is only a very circumscribed sphere of usefulness for the timid good man. So, besides being honest, a man has got to have courage, too. And these two together are not enough. No matter how brave and honest he is, if he is a natural-born fool, you can do little with him. Remember the order in which I name them: Honesty first, then courage, then brains — and all are indispensable. We have no room in a healthy community for either the knave, the fool, the weakling, or the coward.
You may look through the Bible from cover to cover, and nowhere will you find a line that can be construed into an apology for the man of brains who sins against the light. On the contrary, in the Bible, taking that as a guide, you will find that because much has been given to you, much will be expected from you; and a heavier condemnation is to be visited upon the able man who goes wrong, than upon his weaker brother who cannot do the harm that the other does, because it is not in him to do it.
So I plead, not merely for training of the mind, but for the moral and spiritual training of the home and the Church,— the moral and spiritual training that have always been found in, and that have ever accompanied the study of, this book,— this book, which in almost every civilized tongue can be described as “The Book,” with the certainty of all understanding you when you so describe it. One of the highest tributes of modern times to the worth of the Bible as an educational and moral influence of incalculable value to the whole community came from the great scientist Huxley, who said: “Consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this book has been woven into the life of all that is noblest and best in our history, and that it has become the national epic of our race; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary form; and finally, that it forbids the veriest hind, who never left his village, to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilizations, and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest limits of the oldest nations in the world.”
“By the study of what other book could children be so much humanized and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval between the eternities?
“The Bible has been the Magna Charta of the poor and of the oppressed. Down to modern times, no State has had a constitution in which the interests of the people are so largely taken into account; in which the duties, so much more than the privileges, of rulers are insisted upon, as that drawn up for Israel in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Nowhere is the fundamental truth that the welfare of the State, in the long run, depends upon the righteousness of the citizen, so strongly laid down. The Bible is the most democratic book in the world.”
The teaching of the Bible to children is, of course, a matter of especial interest to those of us who have families — and, incidentally, I wish to express my profound belief in large families. Older folks often fail to realize how readily a child will grasp a little askew something they do not take the trouble to explain. We cannot be too careful in seeing that the Biblical learning is not merely an affair of rote, so that the child may understand what it is being taught. And, by the way, I earnestly hope that you will never make your children learn parts of the Bible as punishment. Do you not know families where this is done? For instance: “You have been a bad child — learn a chapter of Isaiah.” And the child learns it as a disagreeable task, and in his mind that splendid and lofty poem and prophecy is forever afterward associated with an uncomfortable feeling of disgrace. I hope you will not make your children learn the Bible in that way, for you can devise no surer method of making a child revolt against all the wonderful beauty and truth of Holy Writ.
Probably there is not a mother nor a schoolteacher here who could not, out of her own experience, give instance after instance of the queer twists that the little minds give to what seem to us perfectly simple sentences. Now, I would make a very strong plea for each of us to try and see that the child understands what the words mean. I do not think that it is ordinarily necessary to explain the simple and beautiful stories of the Bible; children understand readily the lessons taught therein; but I do think it necessary to see that they really have a clear idea of what each sentence means, what the words mean.
Probably some of my hearers remember the old Madison Square Presbyterian church in New York when it was under the ministry of Dr. Adams, and those of you who remember the doctor will, I think, agree with me that he was one of those very rare men with whose name one instinctively tends to couple the adjective “saintly.” I attended his church when I was a little boy. The good doctor had a small grandson, and it was accidentally discovered that the little fellow felt a great terror of entering the church when it was vacant. After vain attempts to find out exactly what his reasons were, it happened late one afternoon that the doctor went to the church with him on some errand. They walked down the aisle together, their steps echoing in the vacant building, the little boy clasping the doctor’s hand and gazing anxiously about. When they reached the pulpit, he said, “Grandpa, where is the zeal?” “The what?” asked Dr. Adams. “The zeal,” repeated the little boy; “why, don’t you know, ‘The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up’?” You can imagine the doctor’s astonishment when he found that this sentence had sunk deep into his little grandson’s mind as a description of some terrific monster which haunted the inside of churches.
The immense moral influence of the Bible, though of course infinitely the most important, is not the only power it has for good. In addition there is the unceasing influence it exerts on the side of good taste, of good literature, of proper sense of proportion, of simple and straightforward writing and thinking.
This is not a small matter in an age when there is a tendency to read much that even if not actually harmful on moral grounds is yet injurious, because it represents slipshod, slovenly thought and work; not the kind of serious thought, of serious expression, which we like to see in anything that goes into the fiber of our character.
The Bible does not teach us to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them. That is a lesson that each one of us who has children is bound in honor to teach these children if we expect to813see them become fitted to play the part of men and women in our world.
Again: I want you to think of your neighbors, of the people you know. Don’t you, each one of you, know some man (I am sorry to say, perhaps more often, some woman) who gives life an unhealthy turn for children by trying to spare them in the present the very things which would train them to do strong work in the future? Such conduct is not kindness. It is short-sightedness and selfishness; it means merely that the man or woman shrinks from the little inconveniences, to himself or herself, of making the child fit itself to be a good and strong man or woman hereafter. There should be the deepest and truest love for their children in the hearts of all fathers and mothers. Without such love there is nothing but black despair for the family; but the love must respect both itself and the one beloved. It is not true love to invite future disaster by weak indulgence for the moment.
What is true affection for a boy? To bring him up so that nothing rough ever touches him, and at twenty-one turn him out into the world with a moral nature that turns black and blue in great bruises at the least shock from any one of the forces of evil with which he is bound to come in contact? Is that kindness? — Indeed, it is not. Bring up your boys with both love and wisdom; and turn them out as men, strong limbed, clear eyed, stout hearted, clean minded, able to hold their own in this great world of work and strife and ceaseless effort.
If we read the Bible aright, we read a book which teaches us to go forth and do the work of the Lord; to do the work of the Lord in the world as we find it; to try to make things better in this world, even if only a little better, because we have lived in it. That kind of work can be done only by the man who is neither a weakling nor a coward; by the man who in the fullest sense of the word is a true Christian, like Great Heart, Bunyan’s hero. We plead for a closer and wider and deeper study of the Bible, so that our people may be in fact as well as in theory “doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
REWARDS OF SERVICE.
From the Testimonies.
(December 22–28.)
“There is no service like his that serves because he loves.”
“We are not to think of reward, but of service; yet kindness shown in this spirit will not fail of its recompense. ‘Thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.’ While it is true that God himself is the great reward that embraces every other, the soul receives and enjoys Him only as it becomes assimilated to Him in character. It is as we give ourselves to God for the service of humanity that He gives himself to us.
“No one can give place in his own heart and life for the stream of God’s blessings to flow to others, without receiving in himself a rich reward. The hillsides and plains that furnish a channel for the mountain streams to reach the sea, suffer no loss thereby. That which they give up is repaid a hundredfold. For the stream that goes singing on its way leaves behind its gift of verdure and fruitfulness. The grass on its banks is a fresher green, the trees have a richer verdure, the flowers are more abundant. When the earth lies bare and brown under the summer’s parching heat, a line of verdure marks the river’s course; and the plain that opened her bosom to bear the mountain’s treasure to the sea, is clothed with freshness and beauty,—a witness to the recompense that God’s grace imparts to all who give themselves as a channel for the outflow to the world.
“The work of beneficence is twice blessed. While he that gives to the needy blesses others, he himself is blessed in a still greater degree. The grace of Christ in the soul is developing traits of character that are the opposite of selfishness,—traits that will refine, ennoble, and enrich the life. Acts of kindness performed in secret will bind hearts together, and will draw them closer to the heart of Him from whom every generous impulse springs. The little attentions, the small acts of love and self-sacrifice, that flow out from the life as quietly as the fragrance from a flower,—these constitute no small share of the blessing and happiness of life. And it will be found at last that the denial of self for the good and happiness of others, however humble and uncommended here, is recognized in heaven as the token of our union with Him, the King of glory, who was rich, yet for our sake became poor.
“He who gives increased talents to those who have made a wise improvement of the gifts intrusted to them is pleased to acknowledge the service of His believing people in the Beloved, through whose grace and strength they have wrought. Those who have sought for the development and perfection of Christian character by exercising their faculties in good works, will, in the world to come, reap that which they have sown. The work begun upon earth will reach its consummation in that higher and holier life to endure throughout eternity.
“The Lord desires us to rest in Him without a question as to our measure of reward. When Christ abides in the soul, the thought of reward is not uppermost. This is not the motive that actuates our service. It is true that, in a subordinate sense, we should have respect to the recompense of reward. God desires us to appreciate His promised blessings; but He would not have us eager for rewards, nor feel that for every duty we must receive compensation. We should not be so anxious to gain the reward as to do what is right, irrespective of all gain. Love to God and to our fellow men should be our motive.
“The reward is not of works, lest any man should boast; but it is all of grace. . . . Therefore there is no occasion for one to glory over another, or to grudge against another. No one is privileged above another, nor can any one claim the reward as a right.
“Many are God’s promises to those who minister to His afflicted ones. He says: ‘Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.’ ‘Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.’ Ps. 41: 1–3; 37: 3. ‘Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.’ ‘There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.’ ‘He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.’ ‘The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.’ Prov. 3: 9, 10; 11: 24; 19: 17; 11: 25. And while much of the fruit of their labor is not apparent in this life, God’s workers have His sure promise of ultimate success.
“The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! ‘I was a sinner,’ it will be said, ‘without God and without hope in the world, and you came to me and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope.’ . . . Others will say: ‘I was a heathen in heathen lands. You left your friends and comfortable home, and came to teach me how to find Jesus, and believe in Him as the only true God. I demolished my idols and worshiped God, and now I see Him face to face. I am saved, eternally saved, ever to behold Him whom I love.’ . . .
“Others will express their gratitude to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked. ‘When despair bound my soul in unbelief, the Lord sent you to me,’ they say, ‘to speak words of hope and comfort. You brought me food for my physical necessities, and you opened to me the word of God, awakening me to my spiritual needs.’
“What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf! And those who have lived not to please themselves, but to be a blessing to the unfortunate who have so few blessings,—how their hearts will thrill with satisfaction! They will realize the promise, ‘Thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.’”
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the one great reward that embraces every other? What kind of service does it follow?
2. Describe, from the Word, the effect of true service upon temporal affairs.
3. What is the nature of the reward of true beneficence?
4. What relation will the final reward bear to that which the true servant receives day by day?
5. Give as many promises from the Scriptures as you can, relating to the reward, designating the present from the future.
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
By A. J. B.
— Germany reports a big shortage in her wheat and rye crops.
— France decides to investigate American trusts. Her Councilor of Foreign Commerce and another government official sailed for this country the 14th inst.
— An exchange reports that “the new survey of the international boundary line will leave the greater part of the town of Blaine, Wash., on the Canadian side.”
— There are 1,815,097 more males than females in the United States, only eleven States having an excess of women. Massachusetts has 70,398 more women than men.
— London dispatches announce that “owing to the proclamation of martial law in Cape Colony and Natal, nobody will be allowed to land in South Africa after January 1, without a permit.”
— At an anti-imperialist meeting held in Boston, Mass., the 3d inst., presided over by George L. Boutell, “resolutions were adopted calling upon Congress to acknowledge the absolute independence of the Filipinos, and invite them to establish a republic.”
— It is said that seven States can be seen from the top of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee; namely, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The elevation of the mountain is 2,500 feet above sea level, and 1,750 feet above the city of Chattanooga.
— Governor Yates, of Illinois, issued a proclamation on the 4th inst., in response to a large popular petition calling his “attention to the destitute and helpless condition of the women, children, and other noncombatants now confined in the military camps of South Africa.” He called “upon all the charitably disposed and humane citizens of this State to contribute money, medicine, food, and clothes for the use of the sick and needy prisoners in the South African camps.”
A. J. B.
THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL.
By Frederick M. Rossiter
FREDERICK M. ROSSITER, M. D.
(Battle Creek, Mich.)
From ancient Bible times to the present day drunkenness has been caused by drinking fermented liquors. That fermented fruit juices produce marked disturbances in the body was early recognized, but what new element entered into a fermented fluid to produce such marked disturbance was not discovered until a few centuries ago. In the Sacred Writings vinegar was known to have a benumbing and narcotic effect.
The first distillation of which we have any record is described by Pliny, 50 A. D. He tells us that oil of turpentine was obtained from crude pitch by boiling the pitch, and catching the vapors on fleeces, from which oil was afterward pressed.
Late in the thirteenth century the art of distillation, and the properties and uses of alcohol were described by a famous Arabian alchemist. Alcohol was first obtained from fermented wines, and it is said that because of its demon-like effect upon men, it was called Al Ghole, the Arabian word for evil spirit.
For hundreds of years, alcohol was regarded as a great boon by alchemists and physicians. They fairly went wild over it, and gave it the highest place among their drugs. They considered it a panacea for all the ills flesh is heir to. It was the most widely used remedy in their possession.
It was during this age that men were in search of the fountain of eternal youth and the elixir of life; so when this subtle fluid was discovered, it was pronounced the aqua vitae, or the water of life. It was eagerly sought, and in the course of two or three centuries its use became enormous. In those days a physician compounded his own drugs, prepared his own elixirs, cordials, infusions, and extracts. In the great majority of these compounds, alcoholic liquors supplied the principal active ingredient. Each physician claimed extraordinary, almost miraculous, powers for his nostrums.
The noted German physician, Theoricus, has the following to say about alcohol: “It sloweth age, it strengtheneth youth, it helpeth digestion, it cutteth plegme, it cureth the hydropsea, it healeth the strangurie, it pounceth the stone, it expelleth gravel; it keepeth the head from whirling, the teeth from chattering, and the throat from rattling; it keepeth the weason from stifling, the stomach from wambling, and the heart from swelling; it keepeth the hands from shivering, the sinews from shrinking, the veins from crumbling, the bones from aching, and the marrow from soaking.” What more could be desired?
It was not until 1688 that people learned that alcohol was the intoxicating principle of their fermented beverages. The demand for these fiery spirits became so great that it was considered too expensive to make alcohol from wines, hence beers were produced in great quantities, and alcohol was distilled from these.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century all England and Europe was one vast distillery. Gin, beers, and wines were used by all classes. It is said that the streets of London were lined with gin-shops placarded with the following: “Drunk for a penny; dead drunk for twopence; clean straw for nothing.”
Alcoholic liquors were within the reach of the common people; and so great was the consumption of gin, and so terrible were the poverty, crime, and vice that followed, that national destruction was imminent. As a means of self-preservation, Parliament was forced to pass the noted “gin law” in 1736. A tax of twenty shillings a gallon was levied on spirits. Then, as now, liquor dealers devised every possible means to evade the law. Liquors in small quantities were sold under such names as “Colic Water,” “Make Shift,” “Ladies’ Delight,” with instructions to take two or three teaspoonfuls several times a day, or “as often as the fit takes.”
The eighteenth century was one marked with terrible extremes in intemperance. Drinking was not the exception, but the rule. Every one drank. A man who did not drink held no place in society. To get drunk was not considered a disgrace. Gout was more common than toothache is to-day, and many able statesmen in the meridian of life had to give place to others because of the torturing and atrocious pains of this malady.
Nor was this excessive indulgence in fermented liquors confined to the Eastern hemisphere. The colonists of this country early showed the pit from which they had been digged. The Puritans in 1620 complained bitterly because they had no wine nor beer, and were compelled to drink water. One of the first orders sent back to England from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 was a request for “ministers, vyne planters, rye, barley, and hop rootes.” In two years drunkenness became so common that a law was enacted to put drunkards in the stocks. In 1650 every town and village of New England, and even many farms, had its distillery, and the seaports had many. Rum, or “kill devil,” was very cheap, and was shipped to Africa in exchange for slaves. It was impossible to “raise a meeting-house” without a free distribution of rum, beer, ale, cider and sugar.
Even George Washington, a little more than one hundred years ago, in engaging a gardener, agreed that the man should have “four dollars at Christmas with which he may be drunk for four days and four nights; two dollars at Easter to effect the same purpose; two dollars at Whitsuntide to be drunk for two days; a dram in the morning and a drink of grog at dinner and at noon.” When we consider the excessive consumption of alcoholic drinks one hundred years ago, it is not at all strange that intemperance of all forms is the ruling passion to-day. We are reaping from the sowing of one and two hundred years ago, not only in the very great number who actually drink, but in the increasing number of idiots, lunatics, imbeciles, epileptics, mental defectives of all types, deformed bodies, and many other disorders. In a large percentage of all these cases a history of alcoholism may be obtained.
SAVE THE CHILDREN.
By M. A. Price
M. A. PRICE.
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; . . . for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? . . . Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord.”
“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” Read also Lam. 2: 11, 18, 19.
“Those who neglect the light and instruction which God has given in His word in regard to training their children and commanding their households after them, will have a fearful account to settle. Aaron’s criminal neglect to command the respect and reverence of his sons815resulted in their death. . . . He was priest of his household; yet he had been inclined to pass over the folly of his children. He had neglected his duty to train and educate them to obedience, self-denial, and reverence for parental authority. Through feelings of misplaced indulgence, he failed to mold their characters with high reverence for eternal things. Aaron did not see, any more than many Christian parents now see, that his misplaced love and the indulgence of his children in wrong, was preparing them for the certain displeasure of God, and for His wrath to break forth upon them to their destruction. . . . Aaron had to learn that his gentle remonstrance, without a firm exercise of parental restraint, and his imprudent tenderness toward his sons, were cruelty in the extreme.” — “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. III, pages 294, 295.
“My brethren, God calls upon you as His followers to walk in the light. You need to be alarmed. Sin is among us, and it is not seen to be exceedingly sinful.” — Id., page 476. “It is no time now for lightness, vanity, or trifling. The scenes of this earth’s history are soon to close.” — Id., page 474.
The mothers of to-day stand in great need of constant communion with God. Let them “lift up their hands toward Him for the life of their young children.” Let parents “cry out in the night,” Spare our children, O Lord. Let fathers weep and mourn for their whole household. It is high time to be awake, for the enemy of righteousness has set traps for even the smallest ones.
“They [the mothers] may mold the minds of their children, and shape their characters so that they may be useful in this world, and that they may become sons and daughters of God. . . . There is enough necessary and important labor in this world of need and suffering without wasting precious moments for ornamentation or display. . . . Those who are engaged in this work will not be satisfied with the fashions and follies which absorb the mind and affections of women in these last days.” — Id., pages 483, 484.
“Samuel was a child surrounded by the most corrupting influences. He saw and heard things that grieved his soul. . . . He did not fellowship, or have the least delight in, the sins which filled all Israel with fearful reports. Samuel loved God; he kept his soul in such close connection with Heaven that an angel was sent to talk with him in reference to the sins of Eli’s sons, which were corrupting Israel.” — Id., page 472.
“Some parents are in subjection to their children. They fear to cross the will of their children, and therefore yield to them. . . . The salvation of children depends very much upon the course pursued by the parents. In their mistaken love and fondness for their children, many parents indulge them to their hurt, nourish their pride, and put upon them trimmings and ornaments which make them vain, and lead them to think that dress makes the lady or gentleman. . . . Those who love meekness, humility, and virtue, should shun such society, even if it be Sabbath-keepers’ children. Their company is poisonous, their influence leads to death. Parents realize not the destructive influence of the seed which they are sowing. . . .
“In these last days children are so noted for their disobedience and disrespect that God has especially noticed it, and it constitutes a sign that the end is near. It shows that Satan has almost complete control of the minds of the young. . . . Again I was directed to the condition of the young in these last days. Children are not controlled. . . . Some children, as they grow older, think it a matter of course that they must have their own way, and that their parents must submit to their wishes. They expect their parents to wait upon them. . . . The curse of God will surely rest upon unfaithful parents. Not only are they planting thorns which will wound them here, but they must meet their unfaithfulness when the judgment shall sit. Many children will rise up in judgment and condemn their parents for not restraining them, and charge upon them their destruction.” — Id., Vol. I, pages 216-219.
“Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.” Jer. 10:2. “And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Mal. 3:3.
“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” Amos 3:6. May the trumpet be blown loud enough to save the children.
WHO FEARS THE SAVIOUR’S RETURNING?
By L. D. Santee
ELDER L. D. SANTEE.
Who has fear of the Saviour’s returning?
Or to rest on the bright, shining shore,
Where the sad and the restless yearning
Of the soul will be left nevermore?
Aye, felt nevermore, no, never,
While the years of Jehovah shall roll,
But a heaven of joy be forever
The happy birthright of the soul.
Who has fear of the Saviour’s returning? —
None but the sinful in mind,
Who the offers of mercy are spurning,
And leaving their hopes all behind;
Yea, spurning all heavenly providence,
Their barks through the tempest are hurled,
Without compass, knowledge, or guidance,
On the stormy sea of the world.
Who has fear of the Saviour’s returning? —
Those only who sin against God,
Who shall suffer the anguish and burning,
When the “wine press” of wrath has been trod;
Who scoff at the signs of His coming,
And yield to each sinful desire;
Who sow to the flesh in the springtime,
And reap the sad harvest of fire.
THE USES OF SAGE.
SAGE should be used more than it is: it certainly would be if its true properties were known. It will produce perspiration without stimulating the system. A warm tea of sage drank freely is an excellent remedy for colds, checked perspiration, and coughs, and is a good drink in fevers. It is valuable in sore throat or quinsy, and should be taken in a strong infusion, and the throat frequently gargled with it. In severe cases of quinsy and sore throat attending scarlet fever and the like, a handful of sage simmered in fine vaseline or olive oil, and when cool, given in teaspoonful doses occasionally,—that is, three or four times a day,—acts almost as a specific. At the same time the throat and neck should be bathed on the outside with the same. In all cases of ulcerated sore throat and mouth, sage is an important article. In such cases it should be steeped in vinegar, and a little honey, alum, and borax added. Use freely as a gargle, occasionally—swallowing some of it. On taking cold, or in the first stages of fevers, drink freely of warm sage tea, go to bed, cover up warm, with perhaps a few hot bricks around you, and sweat good. Every family should keep a good supply of sage in the house.—Selected.
SINGING
By Sarah M. Saunders
SARAH M. SAUNDERS. (Battle Creek, Mich.)
We read in the Bible that Moses and Miriam sang unto the Lord, who had so gloriously triumphed in the overthrow of their enemies, the Egyptian host. Ex. 15:1-21. David spoke to the Levites concerning singing, instructing them to “lift up the voice with joy.” 1 Chron. 15:16. The apostle Paul says, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” 1 Cor. 14:15. God has given us a voice for singing, thus enabling us to praise Him in song. In this age of culture and improvements the human voice has been cultured so much that sometimes it seems almost entirely to have lost its original music and melody. This culture, so called, first originated with operatic singing, and later was introduced into the choir of the Catholic Church, and still later was adopted by modern Protestant churches. Surely God is not praised, glorified, nor pleased with the singing we sometimes hear when those assembled on the Sabbath to worship Him, are invited to listen to a solo, duet, trio, or quartet, the singers making a display of their cultured voices. No doubt the sentiment expressed in the words of the hymn may be divine, but the congregation, as a whole, hears nothing but the sound, which to some persons seems more like shrieks, howls, moans, and sighs of the lost soul than like praise to God.
The apostle Paul asks how the people shall know when to say Amen, if they understand not what is said. He also says, notwithstanding the eloquence of learning, “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.” 1 Cor. 14:19.
PHOSPHATIC FOODS.
If people would seek the phosphates which are required for the nerves in fruits and vegetables, instead of taking them from the counter of the drug store, it would be far better for their health. How many men, after working under a broiling summer sun until the perspiration streamed from every pore, and their temples throbbed with pulsing blood, have sat down hungry to dinners of fine flour or corn bread, fat pork, greasy beans, butter, pie, doughnuts, rice, and molasses, and probably tea or coffee. Such dinners only add fuel to flame, and many strong toilers have gone from them to sunstroke, bowel or liver complaint, gastric or typhoid fever, dysenteries, etc., who have studied how to feed their horses, milch cows, laying or sitting hens, but have not studied as to what is the best food for man.
We need four times as much of carbonaceous food as of nitrogenous, and fifty times as much as of phosphatic, but most people take from two to fifty times these proportions of the carbonaceous. Butter, fats, oils, sugar, molasses, fine flour, rice, arrowroot, tapioca, and sago are almost wholly carbon, yet they are found, singly or in combination, on every table, no matter what is the staple dish. Many a hungry child swallows large quantities of rice and molasses before its appetite gives up its vain search for phosphates, then goes to sleep from the stupefying effects of so much unadulterated carbon. Is it strange that lassitude and an “all gone” feeling are experienced.—Selected.