Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 12, 1894
The Nature of Bible Faith
BELIEF, mere belief, in God's word is not faith. The demons believe that God is. They doubtless believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and in the historic facts relative to his humiliation, incarnation, birth, death, and resurrection, but they have not faith. Simple assent to the great facts of redemption is not Christian belief or faith. Simple belief is merely nominal; it does not affect the life. Faith is a power, a principle, which operates on the entire life.
FAITH, Bible faith, means first of all submission to God. He who exercises it accepts God's ways as his ways, God's wisdom as his wisdom, God's power as the only power which will avail him. He knows that in God is infinite love, infinite knowledge and wisdom, and infinite power, all harmoniously combined and in active operation for the good of all. He who has faith will not wait till he can "harmonize" the things of God. Faith says that there is harmony. Human "expediency" will not rule, for faith knows that it is only expedient to do God's will. It will not be asked whether to do God's will will pay or not; faith knows it can do nothing else but pay. Faith not only trusts God's promises, but submits to God's precepts. It counts God's law as precious as his gospel, for both reflect the character of him from whom they came. Such is the faith "unto righteousness," even the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. It will show itself by works.
THERE is one point connected with the Sabbath question which those who are opposed to it never attempt to meet. They admit that God made the Sabbath in the beginning, that in infinite wisdom he set apart one-seventh part of time. This the wisdom of man unaided would not have done, as France demonstrated. Now if the seventh part of time is appropriate and important, why is it not just as important to observe that proportion just where God placed it, as it is to keep the time itself? In fact, the Lord says absolutely nothing about "the seventh part of time;" that is only inferred; but God does point out a definite day, for a definite time, to be kept in a definite way. That day is the seventh day of the week.
"THE STANDARD OF CHRISTIANITY."
By Editor
THE Midwinter Fair and its closing on Sunday is again an agitated subject among the ministers on the Pacific Coast, although the religious press, so far as our observation has gone, has had but little to say. The protests of the clergy were presented to the directors, and were by the directors acknowledged, and, as expressed by the daily Examiner of January 30, "the ministers have been ignored in a way they do not like."
Now the ministers had a perfect right to present their protests, the directors had a perfect right to respectfully receive them and ignore them, and then throw open the gates of the great Fair on Sunday. Here the matter should drop. The only other step, it seems to us, that the ministers have a right to take in the matter is to convert, by gospel means and methods, the managers of the Midwinter Fair.
But the ministers do not like to be ignored. Says the Examiner:—
As a powerful body themselves and as the spokesmen of the Christian people, the ministers are now uniting and intend using their influence to have the Fair closed on Sunday. They say if all denominations would band together, some effective result might yet be reached. They say they will make one more attempt, and if they fail they will at least convince the world that the standard of Christianity in California is as high as in other civilized lands.
But what has the Fair to do with the "standard of Christianity"? Suppose that twelve cold-blooded murders should occur in the "Christian" city of Philadelphia on a Sunday morning, what would that have to do with "the standard of Christianity"? Suppose that nine-tenths of the men in this country, and the supposition is probably less than the fact, considered first their own interests and pleasures, and secondly the interests and pleasures of God and their fellowmen,—a course of life manifestly not Christian,—how would that affect "the standard of Christianity"? Those who are "of the world" are not of Christ, and they make up the majority of the population, but their lives do not affect "the standard of Christianity."226The professed church of Christ may be taken, however, by the world generally, as bearing aloft the standard of Christianity, but the church does not do this by the help of the world; she does it in spite of the world; and she has lifted that banner highest when the world was most positively and aggressively against her. This the churches of California have the privilege of doing. The theaters may be open on all days; the Midwinter Fair may stop only for the small hours of night; prize fights may occur every day in the week; commerce and trade may know no sabbath; but the church may lift "the standard of Christianity" as high as it pleases her.
"The standard of Christianity" in teaching and example is Christ and his word. He who preaches that word the most faithfully and lives the life of Christ the most humbly, lifts highest the standard of Christianity. It matters not though he stand alone, he is doing better service than a multitude of Christians who are compromising with the world. "The standard of Christianity" was never held higher, it never shone with a holier light, than when its divine Author was nailed to the cross in apostate Judea by the civil power of the world. There was revealed the infinite holiness of God's law, the infinite love of the All-Father for the race. We commend this object lesson to our brethren who are determined that the Fair shall close.
But he who follows Christ and his word will not unite with civil power; for Christ's kingdom is not of this world. John 18:36. He will not endeavor to compel or coerce men into doing his way; he will "persuade" and "beseech" by the "tender mercies of God." Rom. 12:1; 2 Cor. 5:11. He will not sit in judgment upon the world; he, like Christ, will be seeking to save the world by the gospel of peace. John 12:47; 1 Cor. 5:12. "The standard of Christianity" knows no political methods, knows no union with the world, knows no coercive methods, knows no boycotts, knows no maledictions and anathemas. Let our brethren hold up this "standard," and the opening or closing of the Midwinter Fair will not trouble their consciences half as much as will the unchristian methods now being used by the church.
The Rich and the Poor.
By Editor
That the poor are frequently their own worst enemies, that many of them are shiftless and extravagant, that many more are addicted to bad habits, that thousands of poor workmen are bound by some tyrannical trade union a dozen times more oppressive than helpful,—that all the above and more is true, all thinking people will admit. But because these things are so, men and women, and especially Christian men and women, should not settle down in contentment and indifference, and conclude that the fault is all with the poor. The poor have their faults, and they are not glossed nor varnished, nor given high-sounding nor smooth names. But the rich have their faults also. The grinding greed of great soulless corporations is known of God, and some souls will be held to account for it. The cruel avarice which has forced out of trade and shop and store thousands upon thousands of poor men, that wealthy companies or men might extend their trade and grow richer, lies at the door of some one or ones, who will be called to meet it in the day of God. The heartless cruelty of great firms, which cast off tried and faithful yet underpaid servants who have helped in creating the wealth, and men who discharge them at a time when work is needed most, are remembered of God. The greed, the avarice, the covetousness, the heartlessness, the indifference to their poorer brothers, are all written in the books of heaven, and will all appear at the Great Assize. The wealthy "defaulter" and the poor "thief," the "shrewd" manager and the "dishonest" clerk, will all meet on the same common level. God is just. Let the rich use their means so as to glorify God and help their fellowmen. Let the poor submit himself unto God. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." Let both classes heed what the great Judge says.
THE CLOSING OF THE MIDWINTER FAIR ON SUNDAY.
By Editor
SOME time ago the Occident, the Presbyterian paper of the coast, gave up the closing of the Midwinter Exposition on Sunday as a lost cause. But the clergymen do not seem willing to let it rest there. They are repeating their efforts with more vigor than before. The Examiner of the 31st ultimo reports the result of ministers’ meetings and the opinions of several noted clergymen regarding the matter. The Congregational club, “after a thorough discussion of the question,” adopted the following resolution:—
We, as ministers, vigorously protest against the opening of the Midwinter Fair on Sunday, and recommend the exhibits of Christian denominations and individual Christians be covered on that day.
“The same protest,” says the Examiner, “was unanimously adopted by the Methodist ministers last week,” and “will be adopted by the Presbyterian Ministerial Union next Monday.” The Examiner gives the following utterances, ascribing them to the various clergymen whose names follow:—
The Sabbath day should be kept in accordance with Christian principles. All the religion we have comes to us directly from God, and there is no use of trying to compromise with the Lord on the question of religion and pleasure. I think the Midwinter Fair and all other institutions should be closed on the Lord’s day. Every place should be closed that is not open for a religious purpose. I have great sympathy for the toilers who work from early Monday morning until late Saturday night, and have no time but on Sundays to visit the Fair, and can understand how a man can stretch his conscience and modify the point of duty, yet I think the ministers are right in protesting, if only for the sake of the reputation of our State, the only one in the Union that is without a Sunday law. It falls to us to do what we can to counteract the Eastern impression that we are a lawless people. Most of the revenue for carrying on the Fair will be derived from Eastern visitors, and when the description of the Kanaka race, as exhibited at the Fair yesterday, travels Eastward, I fear some who intended to come here will winter in Florida in preference.—Rev. C. O. Brown, D.D. (pastor First Congregational Church).
But if our religion as regards the Sabbath day “comes to us directly from God, and we are to keep the Sabbath in accordance with Christian principles,” we will keep that day which the word of God declares to be “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Ex. 20:10), the day which Christ kept, the seventh day, not the first. Is it not “in accordance with Christian principles” to follow Christ? Again, can it justly be said that Californians are a “lawless people,” when in doing business or seeking pleasure on Sunday they are transgressing neither civil nor divine law?
The animus of the whole Sunday-law movement is shown in the expression:—
Every place should be closed that is not open for a religious purpose.
The Sunday-law movement means that the great Sunday-law churches consider that the day is theirs, that they are in the right, that their influence is more than all others, and that the day should therefore be used only in accordance with their dictation. But be not deceived. The Presbyterian or Methodist Sunday-law people do not, if “orthodox,” believe in Unitarianism, Theosophy, Esoteric Buddhism, Spiritualism, nor Roman Catholicism; and when the great art and mechanical exhibitions are closed, the theaters suppressed, the athletic sports on that day made criminal, then the next step will be to eliminate, by methods to which history is not a stranger, one religious body after another, till the one church shall stand supreme, monopolizing the only religion which by law will be allowed to exist, and tyrannizing over the people. For no one will contend for a moment that an orthodox Catholic believes that Protestantism preached and expounded as of old, will do less damage than an open Midwinter Fair on Sunday. No one will for a moment contend that an orthodox Methodist or Presbyterian believes that an open Midwinter Fair on Sunday is as subversive of truth as the free teaching to vast throngs of Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Unitarianism, etc. But in the closing of the Fair the Sunday-law men expect the coöperation of all professing Christians and social reformers; yet when this end is accomplished, they will never rest till one faction or other of them is supreme, and religion is the monopoly of the one and the tyranny of the many. This is the logic of the thing; it is not, however, based on the word of God nor on Christian principles.
I fully indorse the protest, and think that it would be right for Christians to emphasize their disapproval of Sunday opening by covering their exhibits and remaining away from the Fair on that day.—Rev. W. C. Pond, D.D. (Congregational).
It would be right for Christians to do so who did so voluntarily; but no man nor association of men has any right whatsoever in bringing to bear upon such men any other influences than Christian,—Christian persuasion and prayer to God. It would be the duty of every seventh-day observer who has an exhibit at the Fair to close that exhibit on the Sabbath of the Lord, but he has no right to seek to coerce or compel others so to do, nor can others compel him.
I believe that it would be wise to close the gates on Sunday out of respect to the principles of church-going people. They include a large proportion of the useful and enterprising citizens of the State, and it is not prudent nor in good taste to antagonize their views or weaken their interest in the success of the Fair.—Rev. H. A. Wikoff (Congregational).
Is it not well to modestly inquire what more right “the church-going people” have to demand, “out of respect” to themselves, the closing of the Fair than their opponents have to demand that the Fair be kept open, without protest from the church people, “out of respect” to the world; that is, putting it on the basis of mere respect, as Mr. Wikoff does? Those who desire the Fair open also “include a large proportion of the useful and enterprising citizens of the State.” Is not the same respect due as much to the one party’s convictions as the other’s? But Mr. Wikoff goes farther; he says that it is not only not good taste, but “it is not prudent” “to antagonize” the church-going people’s views. This covert threat of some future danger is similar to that of many others. It meant the boycott in Chicago. It meant in the Dark Ages the dungeon, the rack, the stake. It evidently will mean that here if they can be worked and are found necessary.
I avow a strong opposition to a Sunday exhibition, and if Christian sentiment could have prevailed, the gates of the Midwinter Fair would not have been open yesterday.—Rev. John Kimball (Congregational editor of the ‘Pacific’).
All of which is doubtless true, if we take the term “Christian sentiment” to mean the sentiment of the majority of professed “orthodox” “Protestants.” But the Roman Catholics are in favor of the opening, and they hold their sentiment to be Christian sentiment, and they have a large following in San Francisco.
A CHICAGO MINISTER.
I think it is sad and deplorable to have the exhibition thrown open on Sunday. It is a blur upon the beauty which nature has lavished on this favored State. Chicago did not make anything on her Sunday exhibition days; they were the poorest paying ones of all. I trust the same experience will come to them here.—Rev. Dr. Porter.
But Chicago’s poorest day was not a Sunday, but a Friday, May 5, when the attendance was but 10,791, about 2,000 less than the first Sunday in San Francisco. There was also a legal question involved at Chicago; there is none here.
OPPOSITE VIEWS.
It was to be expected that the question of the Sunday opening of the Midwinter Fair would be raised here just as it was at Chicago. The principles involved here are the same as were offered there on both sides of the question, and involve, perhaps, a discussion of the nature and use of Sunday. Men of good sense will differ in regard to it, and I am always in favor of giving those persons who have conscientious and religious scruples the benefit of the doubt. I would not do anything to hurt the reverent regard and religious sensibilities of any human being; yet my opinion of this matter, according to its intrinsic merit, is in favor of opening the Fair on Sundays, provided that the attendants should be relieved227from their daily routine and have a day of rest.
There is much dissipation on Sundays, but it will not probably be increased by the Fair, neither would there be any recreation there so violent and coarse as is frequently witnessed in places of Sunday resort. In all matters we must take society as it is and not as it ought to be, and it is no small gain if pleasant and refined recreation can be offered to those who choose it. The question whether or not it will be remunerative is a matter on which I have no opinion; only this much seems to me just and right, that if the Fair be opened on the grounds of the public welfare and as an honest desire to give those who wish an opportunity to go on Sunday, the management should stick to its bargain and keep the Fair open for the benefit of those who wish to visit it, even though it does not “pay.”—Rev. Horatio Stebbins, D.D. (Unitarian).
I do not look upon the Sunday opening of the Fair as a desecration, and if it is properly conducted, as there is every evidence it will be, it is more likely to prove a blessing than a curse. It will be a liberal education for people to go quietly to the Fair on Sunday and be instructed by familiarity with fine art, the wonders of science, and the various products of the soil, and not be breaking the Lord’s day any more than going to the park or libraries. The people who will go to the Fair on Sundays would go some place for recreation, and there are worse and more immoral places in and around this city than the Midwinter Fair. If the people would do nothing worse than go to the Fair on Sunday, the Fair would prove a godsend and would make San Francisco the most moral city in America.—Rev. Father Montgomery (Roman Catholic).
It is a very good move for the ministers to protest, but in my opinion they will gain nothing satisfactory. Protests have never yet amounted to anything, and are not likely to in this particular case. The Midwinter Fair is a purely business enterprise, and will continue to be conducted as such. California has no Sunday law and no Sunday sentiment, and a religious stand against such an enterprise as the Midwinter Fair will, I think, be productive of little good. California has always had the reputation of being irreligious, and the Sunday opening of the Fair will be but so much against her making any headway in gaining Christian reputation.—Rev. John Hemphill, D.D. (Presbyterian).
The Bible is the professed standard of Protestant Christianity, and yet every one of the above must know that Sunday has no authority as a holy day, or as the Sabbath, in the Scriptures. They know that Christ did not observe the first day of the week. They are making special pleas in an unchristian way for an institution which every principle of true and original Protestantism condemns. Is it not time to return to God and his word?
CATHOLIC SENTIMENT IN REGARD TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDS.
By W. N. G.
THE New York Independent recently sent to various Catholic dignitaries the following letter:—
DEAR SIR: In view of the interest taken by the public just now in reports that representatives of the Catholic Church propose to ask for a division of the public school fund in various States, will you be kind enough to inform me whether it is the policy of your church to obtain such a division, and whether you would give your countenance to a movement in your diocese with such an object in view?
In the issue of January 11 there appear thirty-two different replies, thirty of which are from bishops and archbishops. In most of these replies there is special care not to commit the church to any sentiment held by the individual, but there are two pointed exceptions to the rule. Bishop Hennessy, of Wichita, Kansas, says: "I beg to assure you that the Catholic Church has no policy whatever as to obtaining or claiming a division of the public school funds. The question has never come before the church." On the other hand, Bishop Durier, of Natchitoches, La., says: "It is positively the aim—say the policy, if you will—of our church to obtain a division of the public school fund, as she is satisfied both that she has a right to it and she can prove her right."
While there are a variety of ways of expressing the principle, and somewhat different ideas as to a "movement" to secure what is deemed justice, there is unanimity in the sentiment that Catholics ought not to be taxed for the support of schools in which their religion cannot be taught. Another idea seems quite general throughout the replies, namely, that the securing of what is deemed the rights of Catholics in this respect should be a movement originating with the State rather than with the church. In other words, it should be a political movement. A few expressions on this point will indicate the thought:—
Whatever concessions we may at any time obtain must come from the consent of our fellow citizens, and by convincing them of the justice of what we ask.—Bishop Phelan, Pittsburg.
We shall continue to pay for our own schools until we have convinced all lovers of fair play and all believers in religious truth that our position is correct, until the public indorse our views on education.—Bishop Maes, Covington.
We hold that an equitable settlement of this question must come from the fair-mindedness of the American people themselves. Their intelligence must be enlightened and their conscience be pricked before they can be expected to move even in a question of elementary justice.—Bishop McQuaid, Rochester.
I am entirely against any policy of obtaining a share of public school money, if the State will not give it of itself, on the principle of the true American spirit, in testimony of which facts do louder speak than words—"Be Americans."—Bishop Vertin, Marquette, Mich.
Policy has dictated to them [Catholics] to submit to this injustice in the hope that time would dispel prejudice, disarm bigotry, enlighten ignorance, and bring American fair-mindedness to the surface to acknowledge and allow the justice of their claim.—Bishop Heslin, Natchez.
We have often said, and we repeat, that the fair-mindedness of our American people and the religious convictions of so large a number of well-meaning American citizens, will sooner or later coincide with our views in this regard.—Bishop Ryan, Buffalo.
I do not entertain the least doubt that, if the people were left to judge the case on its merits, they would in this, as in other matters of public honesty, be just to their Catholic fellow-citizens, and gladly give them what is theirs—a pro rata share of money collected for educational purposes to be devoted to the education of Catholic children.—Rt. Rev. Leo Haid, Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina.
While these and other expressions show that the movement referred to should be on the part of the people in general, they also show that such a consummation is expected at some time. And no doubt their expectation will be realized. Bishop Marty, of Sioux Falls, is somewhat pessimistic in this regard, but he is an exception. He says: "As long as the majority of the nation is not Christian, we cannot hope for their cooperation to Christianize its schools. There are no more Christian nations, and therefore State schools are no longer Christian." The bishop evidently sees that it requires more than a court decision to make a nation Christian.
But, from the standpoint of the "Christian nation" theorists—the Supreme Court decision to that effect being their basis—the Catholics have reason to expect the fulfillment of their desires, not only in regard to the school question, but as to every other question. In fact, Bishop Hennessy plainly says: "The religious conscience of our people is regarded and respected in every matter of public concern, with the single exception of education." From the standpoint of the Supreme Court decision, we repeat, the Catholics have reason to expect the State to encourage their every policy—this from the fact that the decision was in the main based upon Catholic documents and claims, and from the further fact that the Christian nation doctrine is a Church and State doctrine, and Church and State is emphatically Catholic in its origin, so far as it lays any claim to Christianity. The logic of Catholic expectation is thus stated by Bishop Hennessy:—
If our country be Christian, and if our laws be based upon Christian principles, it seems to me to be a paradox that Christianity in any and every form should be excluded from the schools in which our children and future citizens receive their daily training.
In some of the replies there are patronizing appeals to the sympathy of Protestant denominations through advocacy of the "denominational system," that is, a system by which all denominations could have their religion taught in State-supported schools. But experience has proved that Protestants invariably lose by falling into Catholic ideas; and every time they have done so, they have simply aided in the construction of the "image." This was well illustrated in the government support of denominational Indian schools, when in a short time the Catholics were drawing considerably more than all other denominations combined. There is now considerable clamor for the teaching of the Christian religion in public schools, and this clamor will become louder and louder as the Christian nation doctrine becomes more practically incorporated in the laws of the land. And when blinded and truculent Protestants shall have fully installed the Catholic idea, they will suddenly wake up to the fact that the Christianity of the nation and the Christianity taught in the public schools is Roman Catholic Christianity.
God Increases What We Have
God helps us by increasing what we have.
Religion Works From Within
By Editor
IN an article in the California Christian Advocate of January 31, 1894, the Rev. Dr. Dille, in writing against certain rules in the church concerning forbidden pleasures, says:—
True religion works from within outward; a thief is not reformed by tying his hands behind him, nor a dancer by manacling his feet. "The malady lies deep within," and defies the superficial quackery of man-made rules.
And all this is true. But would it not be well for our Methodist friends who so believe to apply some of these same principles to the Sunday and national reform questions? A nation is not made Christian by law; the church has no business to discipline the world.
CO-OPERATION WITH GOD A NECESSITY.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" I repeat the words of John, "Behold the Lamb of God!" We are to contemplate the character of Christ. We are to meditate upon the cross of Calvary; for it is the unanswerable argument of Christianity. The message we are to bear to the impenitent, the warning we are to give to the backslider, is, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" Those who bring the message to the soul may turn aside from the truth, but he who would be saved must keep his eye on Jesus. By beholding Christ he will learn to hate sin, that has brought to his Redeemer suffering and death. By beholding, his faith is made strong, and he comes to know "the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The sinner sees Jesus as he is, full of compassion and tender love, and by beholding the manifestation of his great love toward fallen man in his sufferings on Calvary, he is transformed in character.
While our salvation is wholly dependent upon Jesus, yet we have a work to do in order that we shall be saved. The apostle says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The work that we are to do is not independent of what God is to do, but a work of coöperation with God. The power and the grace of God is to be wrought into the heart by the divine Worker, but some go astray here, claiming that man has a work to do that is wholly independent of any work of God. Another class take the other extreme, and say that man is free from all obligation, because God does the whole work—both the willing and doing. But the true ground to take is that the human will must be in subjection to the divine will. The will of man is not to be forced into coöperation with divine agencies, but must be voluntarily submitted. Man has no power of himself to work out his own salvation. Salvation must be the result of coöperation with divine power, and God will not do that for man which he can do for himself. Man is wholly dependent on the grace of Christ. He has no power to move one step in the direction of Christ unless the Spirit of God draws him. The Holy Spirit is continually drawing the soul, and will continue to draw until by persistent refusal the sinner grieves away the tender messenger of God.
In the heavenly councils it has been decided by what means and methods the grace of Christ shall prove effectual in saving the soul. And it is clear that unless the sinner consents to be drawn, unless he will coöperate with divine agencies, the end will not be attained. The work to be done is a united work. The divine and the human are to work together, and the sinner is to depend upon grace, while rendering willing obedience to the dictates of the Spirit of God. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
God has endowed men with reason and with intellectual faculties, but if these are untrained, left uncultivated, men will become like the savage heathen. The mind must be cultivated, and it is necessary that teachers present line upon line and precept upon precept, guiding and training the free-will moral agent so that he shall understand what it is to coöperate with God. God works in the human agent by the light of truth, and the mind, enlightened by truth, is capable of seeing truth in distinction from error. Open to the light of truth, free from prejudice, unbound by the opinions and traditions of men, the enlightened mind clearly sees the evidences of the truth, and believes it as from God. The man enlightened by truth will not call falsehood truth, and light darkness. The Spirit reveals to the mind the things of God, and to him who coöperates with God is the realization that a Divine Presence is hovering near. When the heart is open to Jesus and the mind responds to the truth, Jesus abides in the soul. The Spirit's energy works in the heart, and leads the inclinations toward Jesus. By living faith, the Christian places entire dependence on divine power, expecting that God will will and do that which is according to his good pleasure. As fast as the soul resolves and acts in accordance with the light that is revealed, the Spirit takes the things of God and gives more light to the soul.
"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." The Spirit of God is not commissioned to do our part of the work, either in willing or doing. It is the work of the human agent to coöperate with divine agencies. As soon as we incline our will to harmonize with God's will, the grace of Christ is supplied to coöperate with our resolve. But it is not to be a substitute to do our work,—to work in spite of our resolutions and actions. Therefore, our success in the Christian life will not be because of an abundance of light and evidence, but will depend upon our acceptance of the light given, upon the rousing of the energies, and operating with the heavenly ministers appointed of God to work for the salvation of the soul.
If the sinner or the backslider settles himself in sin, the light of heaven may flash about him to no purpose, as it did about Saul when the bewitching power of the world's deception was upon him. Unless the human agent inclines his will to do the will of God, as finally Saul did, the light will shine in vain, and a thousand-fold more light and evidence would do no good. God knows when the sinner has sufficient evidence, and says to such, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Paul had a terrible awakening when the light from heaven flashed upon him, and a voice said to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Paul answered, "Who art thou, Lord?" And Christ said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." And the Lord said, "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." The Lord always gives the human agent his work to do. Paul was to work in compliance with the divine command. If Saul had said, "Lord, I am not in the least inclined to follow your directions in working out my salvation," then, should the Lord have showered upon him a light tenfold as bright, it would have been useless. It is man's part to coöperate with the divine. Here is where the conflict is to be sternest, hardest, and most fierce—in yielding the will and way to God's will and way, relying upon the gracious influences which God has exerted upon the human soul throughout all the life. The man must do the work of inclining. "For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do." The character of the actions will testify what has been the nature of the resolve. The doing was not in accordance with feeling and natural inclination, but in harmony with the will of the Father in heaven. Follow and obey the leadings of the Holy Spirit; obey not the voice of the deceiver, which is in harmony with the unsanctified will, but obey the impulse God has given. This is what the heavenly intelligences are constantly working to have us do,—the will of our Father which is in heaven.
Everything is at stake. Will the human agent coöperate with divine agencies to will and to do? If a man places his will on the side of God's will, fully surrendering self to do his will, the rubbish will be cleared from the door of the heart, the defiance of the soul will be broken down, and Jesus will enter to abide as a welcome guest.
KEEP ME.
By Eliza H. Morton
BY ELIZA H. MORTON.
Keep me from sin, dear Saviour,
Day by day.
Keep every thought and action,
Lest I stray.
So weak is self without thee,
All undone;
With faith the fiercest battle
May be won.
Shut in, why need I trouble
If with thee,
For, lo, thy blessed presence
Comforts me!
'Tis this that makes me labor
With delight;
'Tis this that turns my darkness
Into light.
O blessed Jesus, Saviour,
I adore
And long to love and serve thee
Evermore!
“APPALING.”
By Editor
WE are generally told that the world is growing better, but occasionally we get some statistics that stultify the usual claim. Here is a specimen from Dr. De Costa:—
There is something appalling in the revelations of the census; the condition of the marriage relation alone would preclude happiness. Think of from forty to fifty thousand immoral women in New York; think of 328,716 divorces in twenty years, the hundreds of thousands of homes ruined by drink, with 82,392 criminals in prison, and an annual production of homicides amounting to 7,386, besides 73,045 paupers in almshouses, and a million tramps, vagabonds, and pensioners of all sorts scattered far and wide. One of the most serious signs of decay is found in the increase of insanity. Years ago it was found that society was “dying at the top,” and it was computed that 1 in 250 of the population was insane; but now the number has been put at 1 in 127. New York City to-day has 1 in 300 in her asylums, and the city is full of persons of unsound mind, rendering it probable that the estimate of 1 in 127 in the country at large is correct.