Signs of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 37. (9/12/1900)

Signs of the Times

Sep 12, 1900

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 12, 1900

DELIVERANCE.

THE essential and overruling principle of sin is bondage. It is bondage to the mind; it is bondage to the body.

THE first stage of the bondage of sin is a selfish service for ourselves. Selfish ideas and selfish work pervade the entire being. Then a deeper degradation than this may follow, in the form of enforced servitude to others. These things in their very nature bring unhappiness, and keep the individual continually in discontent.

THE essential workings of sinfulness are to keep us forever in the pursuit of happiness, always thinking that the goal of joy, contentment, and bliss is just ahead of us, without ever reaching that for which we seek. It is one of the deceitful plans of Satan, and in following after pleasure in this selfish way, we find ourselves soon involved in entanglements of various kinds, that fill our nights with sorrow and our days with pain. We may appear pleasant and happy, but we carry with us all the time a lurking load of sadness, that puts the sting of pain in every joy, and leaves us without the desired contentment.

BUT there is deliverance from this condition. There is deliverance for the present time, and that deliverance reaches over into eternity; so that the deliverance is not simply a temporal one, for an hour, for a day, or for a year, but it is that which will abide with us forever. This deliverance is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Matt. 11:28-30.

THE individual who has merely heard about Christ, and who is not personally acquainted with Him, and does not know Him as his personal Saviour, will not experience the rich blessings that are given in the foregoing promises. He will not find that rest to his soul. He will not know that Christ's yoke is easy, and His burden is light, because he has not learned to take this yoke upon himself. He may have his name enrolled on the church register, yet he does not know the Man of

Calvary, the great Burden-bearer, because he has not entered into the experience of His rest.

BUT still Christ invites us,—still He says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden.” It matters not what difficulties we encounter; He still invites us to come. It matters not what our labors or heavy burdens are; He still calls for us. He is not saying to a selected few, “Come unto Me.” He is saying unto all that labor and are heavy-laden, “Come.” Observe particularly that it is those who are burdened down with labors, those who are heavy-laden, that He specially invites. Then if your heart is filled with sorrow, if griefs are oppressing you, remember that the Master is saying to you that if you come to Him, He will give you rest.

You may say that you have already come to Him, and you do not find that rest. If this is your condition, be sure that you have not found Him yet. There is something standing between you and Him. He is inviting you, but you have not learned to know Him, because the promise is definite and positive, “Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest.” And again He says, “And ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

THE way through which we are to find Christ is revealed to us in His Word; and if we are anxious to find the rest that He gives,—a rest that is perfect in every respect,—then take the neglected Bible, study His words, and you will see that He clearly reveals His way, and shows us the path through which we may reach the rest that He has to offer. And this path is not a long and devious way, but we may come to Him in a moment, as soon as we recognize Him and are willing to throw away all of the entanglements of sin and receive in their place the solid realities of righteousness and truth.

THEN there is still a deeper joy than all this. Not only may the individual be delivered from sin, but we are on the threshold of the time when the whole creation will be delivered from its curse,—when every result of the curse of evil will be swept from the universe of God, and in all of its brightness, in all the glory of righteousness, it shall again stand forth as the fair and beautiful handiwork of God. This time is right at hand. The joys of the eternal world are just before us; for the Saviour who has invited us to come to Him that we may find rest, has also promised that He will come again and receive us unto Himself. That time of eternal deliverance is at the door. Are you resting in the joys of deliverance from sin, so that in that time when the whole world shall be delivered through the eternal destruction of evil, you may be found among those who are rejoicing with all of God’s redeemed creation? T.

BORROWING TROUBLE.

THERE are some persons who seem fated to go through life with a constitutional tendency to despondency. We all know them, and meet them daily. They can always see a cloud when none exists. With most of these persons it is simply a matter of exercising the will. Anxiety about present troubles or prospective difficulties never brought any good to those who indulge in it. The successful ones are those who have been buoyant in spirit, and who resolutely refuse to allow the cares of life to unduly depress them. Instead of allowing the mind to brood over things that can not be helped, it should be set to work upon the duty that lies nearest to it. Worrying about matters does not improve them in the slightest degree; on the contrary, it weakens the purpose, robs the physical nature of its vitality, and totally unfits us to cope with the obstacles that lie in our path. These will come soon enough; they do not want any encouragement, and very often when they do come they are not half so formidable as we imagined they would be. Anticipation in some cases is worse than the reality.—Selected.

OUR DUTY AS CHRISTIANS.

By Ellen G. White

FINALLY, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” Do not trust in your own strength. “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Do we make the preparation which it is our privilege that we may be able to stand against the enemy? Do we realize the sacred character of God’s work and the necessity of watching for souls as they that must give an account? We must be vigilant, “knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

These promises are the assurance that through the influence of the Holy Spirit we are strengthened to become like God in character. By beholding His purity and holiness, we become partakers of His nature, overcoming the selfishness of the natural heart. There is a power in truth that will always work if the human agent will heartily co-operate, allowing himself to be brought by faith into captivity to Jesus Christ. The Saviour’s virtues and excellencies then become the savor of the whole being.

“And besides this,” the apostle continues, “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”

This is not a surface work. It means a clear understanding of spiritual things, and a genuine sense of the practical working of the Holy Spirit upon mind and heart. “He that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” But “if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Through the application of the truths of the Gospel, men become laborers together with God. But those who while claiming to believe the Bible fail to practise the truth it contains, are blind and can not see afar off. This is why so many men and women live at cross-purposes with God. They do not live and work upon the Gospel plan of addition. Their religious experience is dwarfed.

“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

A mere creed, tho every jot and tittle of it may be sound, is not enough to restore in man the moral image of God. An ancestral faith, however tenaciously held, can not correct the evils of the natural heart. It is the willing mind, the earnest spirit, the hearty, self-denying efforts, imbued with love to God and man, which bring results approved by God. The whole heart must be given to God, else we shall fail to love Him supremely, and then, necessarily, we shall fail to love our neighbor as ourselves. We can not obey the law unless it is written on the heart. Only the truth as it is in Jesus can illuminate the soul, enabling us to do good and only good to those with whom we are associated.

There are those to whom the truth is not truth. The work of the Redeemer exerts no restoring influence upon their lives. The will of God is not obeyed. The countless mercies and blessings bestowed on them are received as a matter of course. What is the matter? They do not obey the injunction, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”

Christ declares, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” To make a profession of faith while we fail, to receive the truth as a thirsty man receives water, leaves the soul as barren as the hills of Gilboa. The heart is the citadel of the being, and until the heart is surrendered to God, the enemy will claim it as his stronghold, and no power on earth can dispossess him. Christianity is not there. Its place is occupied by sophistry. Love for the Saviour and for those for whom He died is not there. There is no experimental knowledge of the words, “We are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God’s building.”

Are there not many like the fig-tree which bore no fruit? They seem to think that a profession of following Christ constitutes the sum of Christianity. Many dishonor the religion of the Bible by lowering the standard to meet their own attainments. They do not prepare themselves to meet the attacks of the enemy. They do not crucify self. They seem not to realize that they are to fight constantly against the inclinations of the natural heart. O, for more of the spirit of the Master! How much His children need it!

We are not obliged to forsake business pursuits in order to live the religion of Christ. We need not flee to the desert and dwell in the caves of the earth in order to obtain a closer walk with God. The Lord does not require us to be useless in society in order to serve Him. Indolence is not a Christian grace. We are to be zealous of good works, “not

slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”

In all business relations we must represent God, showing ourselves to be Christians. Men can serve God in business life if amid the temptations of the world they keep His religion pure and undefiled. The Christian is to set his aim high. He is to let his light shine before men, that they may see his good works, and glorify his heavenly Father. Amid the confusion and change of daily life, he is to hold fast his integrity.

God's will is to be our will and His way our way just as much when we are engaged in business as when we are on our knees in prayer. We are to maintain Christian principles under all circumstances, however trying. The religion of the Bible is for all times and all occasions.

True goodness is revealed by the bearing of good fruit. This goodness bears the endorsement of heaven. The religion of Christ makes all who possess it truly benevolent. It countenances no littleness, no mean transactions. True Christians have a nobility which allows none of the cheap, covetous actions that are a disgrace to the doer.

If we would work wisely and intelligently for God, our human passions, our hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, must be brought under the control of a higher and more commanding generalship than human ability.

“Cease to do evil; learn to do well.” This is the lesson each one should learn day by day. We are to walk in accordance with the will of God, who is too wise to err, and too good to do us harm. The Redeemer met Satan's treacherous advances with the words, “It is written,” and with the imperative command, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” Christians should receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save the soul. The Word of God is a tower of strength, into which they may run and be saved. MRS. E. G. WHITE.

TRUST THOU IN GOD.

By John Greenleaf Whittier

TRUST not in man, with passing breath, But in the Lord, old Scripture saith; The truth which saves thou mayst not blend With false professor, faithless friend.

Search thine own heart. What paineth thee In others, in thyself may be; All dust is frail; all flesh is weak; Be thou the true man thou dost seek.

Where now with pain thou treadest, trod The whitest of the saints of God. To show thee where their feet were set, The light which led them shineth yet.

The footprints of life divine, Which marked their path, remain in thine; And that great Life transfused in theirs, Awaits thy faith, thy love, thy prayers. —Whittier, in "Chapel of the Hermits."

CAN WE INFLUENCE HEALING POWER?

By David Paulson

"We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed." Jer. 51:9. Healing power is always present in the human system; for it is divine power that maintains all the vital functions of the body.

The principal healing agent is the blood, which is the life. Gen. 9:4. This fluid bathes every portion of the body, for the purpose of repairing and building up tissue, and transferring the resulting waste products to the various eliminating organs. Every organ and each tissue in the body are constantly undergoing more or less change; but there is scarcely any tissue which is so short-lived as the blood. Millions of new blood-corpuscles have to be created every few minutes to replace those that have outlived their usefulness. But the blood is made from the food which is eaten. It is difficult to imagine a stream rising higher than its fountain-head, and it seems equally impossible to conceive that God should continue day by day to make pure blood out of impure food; for "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean" thing?

Infinite wisdom has so arranged that the most important products of digestion must pass through the portals of the liver before they are allowed to proceed to the different parts of the body. One of the important duties of the liver is to neutralize, store up, or destroy various poisons which may have been taken into the system, either ignorantly or deliberately, or those equally serious poisonous products frequently produced within the alimentary canal as the result of unwise diet or unsuitable food combinations. This faithful organ can, however, become so overwhelmed by the unnatural tasks which are imposed upon it that it practically gives up the struggle. The blood becomes flooded with toxic substances of various kinds, and then, instead of carrying life and healing power, it becomes a messenger of disease and death to various parts of the human body.

It is a part of God's plan that the blood should always be a healing agent; but He allows us to have our own way to such an extent that if we are determined to eat improper food, He is made to serve with our sins. Isa. 43:24. This is sometimes carried so far that the blood becomes a destructive agent.

It is not alone by diet that we have the power to influence this healing agency; for by exercise and appropriate hydrotherapeutic applications, we may increase to a remarkable extent the activity of the circulation of the blood.

There are large blood spaces in the interior of the body, wherein the circulation of the blood is naturally less active than in other parts of the body. Through nervous connection with these internal organs, short, vigorous applications of cold water to the surface of the skin causes their blood-vessels to contract, and, as a result of the reaction which should follow such treatment, if properly applied, a larger quantity of this blood is brought into active circulation, thus increasing its healing possibilities.

Recent scientific investigations have clearly demonstrated that after a cold bath has been taken, the blood has in it a much larger percentage of corpuscles than it had previous to this application. Cool sponges, sprays, or baths, followed by vigorous friction, are physiological stimulants; they increase the efficiency of the heart's action, and arouse the activities of every cell in the system. There is a marked difference between physiological and artificial stimulants. The longer the natural stimulant is used, the more efficient it becomes; while the longer the unnatural one is used, the more disappointing it is in its results.

Thousands fail to live in harmony with God's plan for them physically; and, as a consequence, they are continually living so far below the disease line that they are an easy prey to any germs which may be in the immediate vicinity. Such persons may wonder why they do not receive the benefits of the healing gifts promised to the people of God, when all the while they are absolutely neglecting to utilize the possibilities of the healing agencies God has already committed to them. The use we make of what God gives us to-day determines how much He can intrust us with to-morrow.

When an individual who is eating "for drunkenness" asks the Lord for strength, he will find that the way to receive it is to eat "for strength." Eccl. 10:17. And the Lord is always willing to impart His Spirit to all who desire it, to instruct them how to use this strength to His glory. "If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." Mark 16:18. Certainly, this promise does not apply to those who persist in drinking liquor, tea, or coffee, simply to please a perverted appetite. Furthermore, those who have had committed into their hands the knowledge necessary to enable them, by suitable applications of rational remedies, to influence the healing agencies within our bodies, if they reject these, may be reasonably sure that God is not preparing them to experience the possibilities of Mark 16:18: "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

The faithfulness which we manifest in utilizing the possibilities that God has already committed to us for the service of humanity, will be the best indicator as to how much greater possibilities may be committed to us.

David Paulson.

GOD'S GREAT PURPOSE.

By Francis M. Wilcox

FROM preceding articles regarding the condition of the world in the last days, we have found that wicked men will exist even until the coming of the Lord. He will find them alive on this earth when He appears in the clouds of heaven, and they will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. It is the desire of the loving Father to save all men, but this He can not do consistent with the principle of free moral agency, upon which His relationship to mankind is based. He invites, He exhorts, He pleads, He wooes by His Holy Spirit, but only a few from each age of the world have yielded to the Spirit's drawing power, and have been won by its gracious wooing, and this was in the mind of God away back in the beginning of this earth's history when the plan of salvation was first given to man.

Originally God designed that this earth should be peopled by a holy race. After the earth had been filled with inhabitants, doubtless the increase of population would have ceased. Sin entered, and the Lord said to the woman, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception;" knowing this to be a necessity in order to secure out of the multitude of the children of Adam and Eve the requisite number to fill up God's original purpose. And so, in no period of the history of the world have all the men then living been converted to the Lord. As James says in the first council of Christian churches ever held, as reported in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name." Even when the Lord had chosen a particular nation, the Jews, and set them apart as His own peculiar treasure, many of them were rebellious, and fell out by the way. Says Paul, All are not Israel who are of Israel. Without reference to the heathen world, even in the professed church of God, in every age, true Israel has not included all who outwardly bore the name.

The Gospel of Christ is the same in every generation. In the days of Adam it possessed the same power as to-day. At the first advent of Christ it was the same divine, all-powerful agency as it was in the days of Luther and Wesley, and in the last days it will possess no power that it has not possessed in every preceding period. Consequently as it has been the work of the Gospel to gather out of the nations of the past a people for the name of God, so that purpose to-day remains unchanged, and with humanity sunken still lower we can not expect the Gospel of Christ to accomplish any more glorious results to-day than in the history of the past. This principle which we have just enunciated, is clearly taught by our Lord in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, in the following verses: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of

fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

As stated above, the Gospel net has embraced within its folds the evil as well as the good. The evil is to be cast away. Declares our Lord in the great prophetic discourse of Matthew 24, verse 14, "And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." We believe fully in the evangelization of the world in the last days in the sense that the Gospel will be preached to earth's remotest bounds. It is to be preached for a witness to the nations. If they receive it, it will result in their salvation. If they reject it, it will testify against them. The truth of God in every age has been a "savor of life unto life, or of death unto death." That truth has been both positive and negative in its character—positive in that it has inculcated aggressive truth; negative in that it has withstood sin, and every system of error. Titus 2:11-14. Hence the Gospel message has always been a reform message. It has pointed out both the evil in the church and in the world. This is true, and will be true in an emphatic sense, in the work of the Gospel in the last days. In the last-day church, apostasy has found a place. That special phase of the message which applies to the last generation, will rebuke that apostasy, and call back the church of God to her allegiance to her Lord. Says the prophet Joel, "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." Chap. 2:1.

Here it will be seen that the trumpet must first be blown in the church, to awaken it from its indifference, and from there the warning cry is to go out unto the ends of the world. But the church as a whole, and the professed people of God in their entirety, will not receive the message, because, as indicated in preceding papers, professed Christianity in the last days occupies a low plane. Under the term "Babylon," it is represented as in a fallen condition, and so great is its fall, and so general is its apostasy from the Lord, that the Lord can no longer work through it as a church. In it are honest souls, true and loyal to every principle of right as they know the right, and these individuals are sighing and crying for the abominations that are done in the midst of God's professed people. The Lord, in His infinite love, does not leave these souls in darkness. He calls them out from among their associates to a higher plane of Christian living and experience. Says John, the Revelator:—

"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lighted with His glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Chap. 18:1-4.

This call to Babylon, or to apostate Protestantism, is now sounding to the world. By voice and pen, over land and sea, it is being proclaimed to earth's remotest bounds. Thousands are responding to the call. God does not call these thousands to the acceptance of a new Gospel, but He asks them to return to the old paths. He requires them to take their stand upon the broad platform of the "commandments of God and the faith of Jesus;" to revere the law of God, which has been despised; to exalt the Sabbath of Jehovah, which has been trampled in the dust. This is the work that God is doing in connection with the proclamation of the everlasting Gospel; this is the message He is sending to the world. These, indeed, are ominous and thrilling times. This, of all the ages making up the history of the world, is the most glorious. In it are being worked out to a finale, the most momentous problems which have concerned the human family. Truth and error, which have so long been antagonistic, which have so many times met each other in fierce combat, have in this age entered the field for the last mortal conflict. Error may have on its side the unnumbered multitude. The visible advocates of truth may be few, but truth has God on its side, and with God on its side what matters who may be arrayed against it? Truth has been crushed in the past, but—

"Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, The eternal years of God are hers; But error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies amid her worshipers."

May God give to every honest heart spiritual discernment, integrity of character, strength of conviction. The victory will soon turn on Israel's side. The destruction of sin in the last days will be but the destruction of evil principles. All who have identified themselves with these principles will be destroyed with them. The triumph of truth will be but the triumph of right principles, and all who have identified themselves with right principles will triumph with the truth. The triumph of right and truth will be the triumph of all the Israel of God.

REDEMPTION.

By Mrs. H. Hurd Haskell

FEW realize the magnitude of the work embraced under this one word, "redemption." In order to fully comprehend it we need to consider three phases of the work. Redemption is defined: To repurchase. Then something must have been sold; and in order to have been sold it must have been in the possession of a seller. In other words there must have been (1) possession, (2) loss of possession, (3) regaining of that which was lost.

We will apply these to the work of Christ. What did man possess in the beginning?—A body made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26), a right to the tree of life (Gen. 2:9, 16), direct communion with God (Gen. 3:8-10), dominion over the whole earth, which was then in a perfect condition (Gen. 1:26, 31). This, in brief, represents the condition of Adam, "the Son of God," the representative of our earth, before sin entered.

Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. The lion and the lamb sported peacefully around them, or lay down together at their feet. The happy birds flitted about them without fear; and as their glad songs ascended to the praise of their Creator, Adam and Eve united with them in thanksgiving to the Father and the Son. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring vail between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels.

He who had caused rebellion among the angels of heaven determined to mar the happiness of the rightful possessors of the earth. He triumphed, and they were driven out from the garden, as he had been cast out of heaven.

Then began the second phase of the great work of redemption. The lawful Owner relinquished all His rights of ownership. The body made in the image of God was to "return unto the ground" (Gen. 3:19), and the right to eat of the tree of life was forfeited, for God "drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24). Man's sins hid the face of the Lord from him. Isa. 59:2. In becoming servant, and giving the devil the mastery, his dominion was transferred to the arch-deceiver, who, when he met the Son of man in the wilderness, boldly asserted that the dominion belonged to him.

The curse of God rests upon the hitherto perfect earth. The decree goes forth: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake. . . . Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." Gen. 3:17, 18. Thus we see the second step completed and all the possession forfeited, to remain forever lost to the human race unless it could be redeemed.

If an angel from heaven could have paid the price, it would have been the possession of the angels, and not of humanity. It must be redeemed by humanity. But all man could say was: "Lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants; . . . neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards."

"Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you?" God disclaims having any part in the selling. He has not divorced humanity from Him, neither has He sold them to any of His creditors; but He adds, "Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away."

Then the wonderful challenge is given, "Is My hand shortened at all, that it can not redeem," or "buy back?" The one who redeems must be a man "near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen, or one that hath right to redeem." Therefore it must be one who "is not ashamed to call them [humanity] brethren." "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver [buy back] them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject [sold] to bondage. For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."

Truly His hand is not shortened that He can not redeem, for with His human arm He encircles the human race, while His divine arm clasps the throne of the Deity. Thus He lifts fallen humanity to a position more exalted than that of angels and those who have never fallen. He is the Mighty Conqueror, who has "spoiled principalities and powers," making a show of them openly, triumphing over them.

He now calls to every poor, weak, tempted soul who realizes that he is sold under sin. "Fear not; I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death." I am your near kinsman, even your very Brother. I have undisputed right to redeem you, soul and body, and all that belongs to you. "Be of good cheer."

MRS. H. HURD HASKELL.

O Change! Stupendous Change!

By Caroline Bowles Southey

O CHANGE! stupendous change! There lies the soulless clod; The sun eternal breaks, The new immortal wakes— Wakes with his God. —Caroline Bowles Southey.

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