Signs of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 34. (9/4/1879)

Signs of the Times

Sep 4, 1879

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 4, 1879

General Articles.

By Mrs. E. G. White

The Work for This Time.

By Mrs. E. G. White.

When we reflect upon the amazing love of God to fallen man, and view the small returns we make to him for this great love, we feel deeply humbled. Love of self, and selfish love of the things of the world, cannot find room in the hearts of true Christians. To be a Christian is to be Christ-like. Self is so interwoven in the nature of some that it is the ruling sin of their lives, and not only stands in their own way of attaining Christian perfection, but is a constant stumbling-block to sinners. A vast army might be brought to Jesus Christ through personal effort if selfishness did not obstruct the way.

Many professed Christians will talk and weep over the sacrifice of Christ, the cross he bore up Calvary, his crucifixion, and ascension to Heaven; while at the same time they refuse to co-operate with Christ in working as he worked, in self-denial and sacrifice for the good of souls. They refuse to drink of the cup, or be baptized with the baptism.

Let all those who profess to believe in Christ follow his example, and they will be doing a great work for Jesus. It is easy to cry, when it is popular to do so, "Never man spake like this man," and to echo the hosannas to the Son of David; though we do not the things he bids us, and do not follow his example in self-denial, and in working to do others good. True religion has to do with the heart and life. All who are true followers of Jesus will have a special interest to work for the Master, whose servants they profess to be, in gathering souls into the ranks of Christ. The Christian life does not consist altogether of meditation and prayer, although these are essential, but of earnest, active working, as well as meditating and praying.

Those who are truly converted to the truth and who love Christ will feel their individual responsibility to make personal efforts for the salvation of others. They cannot be indifferent in this respect. They will see and feel the dangerous position of their friends, and of all who oppose the truths which to them are sacred and dear. They will desire to be actively employed in the work of seeking to win them to the truth. When men and women are convinced of the truth and decide to obey it, they have then only enlisted as Christ's soldiers. The work is all before them, to be doers as well as hearers of the word, and receivers of the heavenly gift. To be merely a passive Christian, receiving blessings, and not an earnest worker, is to be a novice and a dwarf in spiritual things.

The moon and the stars would not essentially benefit us if they retained for themselves their beauty and glory, and did not give to us the light they receive from the sun. The earth itself responds to the showers of rain, and the gentle dew, and the warming rays of the sun, and returns to us its bounties in grains, fruits, and flowers.

Man, the noblest work of God, made in his divine image, is found the most ungrateful. Christ comes to every individual to see what he is doing, and frequently finds neither fruits, nor blossoms, but only leaves.

Some are hearers of the word but not doers. They receive the heavenly benefits, but feel no responsibility to advance the cause of truth and save souls by their personal efforts. The divine command is twofold; to not only be hearers, but doers, of the word. We are to receive the word ourselves and impart to others the precious light we have received. As we accept the truth, we virtually pledge ourselves to be workers with Christ, and to be consecrated to his service, and no longer live to do our will, and serve ourselves, but to be faithful servants of the Master to whom we have yielded ourselves servants to obey. The commission of Christ to his disciples was, to go and preach the gospel to every creature. We have a world-wide message.

After men and women have received the truth, it is not to their advantage to depend upon their more experienced brethren to hold them up, and carry them to Heaven. They should be instructed that in order to grow spiritually strong, they must be earnest workers to lead others to the truth, as they were led. If those who receive the truth value its importance they will receive tenfold more encouragement and confidence in seeing their more experienced brethren and the ministers of Christ laboring in new fields, preaching the gospel to unbelievers, and bringing scores to the knowledge of the truth, than to be devoting their precious time and talents to taking care of them.

Missionaries are wanted throughout the great harvest field, self-sacrificing, and who will do as their Master has given them an example in his life.

Ministers to whom is intrusted the most sacred message of warning ever given to the world, have confined their labors too much to looking after the few who have embraced the truth, when their principal labor should have been for those who have not heard the message. There are those who think it is their duty to preach the truth, but they dare not venture from the shore, and they catch no fish. They will choose to go among the churches, over and over the same ground. They report a good time, a pleasant visit, but we look in vain for the souls that are converted to the truth through their instrumentality. These ministers hug the shore too closely. Let them launch out into the deep, and cast their net where the fish are. There is no lack of work to be done. There could be hundreds employed in the vineyard of the Lord where there is now one.

God never does what man can do. We have individually, as servants of Jesus Christ, a work to do in unison with Christ, in saving our fellow-men from perdition. While we do with heart and might what we can in the use of means, God alone can make our efforts effectual. He can clothe the humblest and weakest with wonderful power, and manifest his excellence in our sincere human efforts.

If, after souls have embraced the truth, and have had years of experience, they have not strength to stand alone in the truth with the help God has promised them, and if they are incapable of helping others to the light, they are like the barren fig tree which Jesus cursed. Because, although apparently flourishing, he found upon the tree neither blossoms nor fruit, nothing but leaves.

There are in our churches those who profess the truth who are only hinderances to the work of reform. They are clogs to the wheels of the car of salvation. This class are frequently in trial. Doubts, jealousies, and suspicion, are the fruits of selfishness, and seem to be interwoven with their very natures. I shall name this class chronic church-grumblers. They do more harm in a church than two ministers can undo. They are a tax to the church and a great weight to the ministers of Christ. They live in an atmosphere of doubts, jealousies, and surmisings. Much time and labor of the embassadors of Christ are required to undo their work of evil, and restore harmony and union in the church. This takes from the courage and strength of God's servants and unfits them for the work he has for them to do in saving perishing souls from ruin. God will reward these troublers of Zion according to their works. The ministers of Christ should take their position, and not be hindered in their work by these agents of Satan. There will be enough of these to question, and quibble, and criticise, to keep the ministers of God constantly busy, if they will allow themselves to be detained from the great work of giving the last saving message of warning to the world. If the church has no strength to stand against the unsanctified, rebellious feelings of church-grumblers, it is better to let church and grumblers go overboard together than lose the opportunity of saving hundreds who would make better churches, and have the elements existing within themselves of strength and union and power.

The very best way for ministers and churches is to let this fault-finding, crooked class fall back into their own element and pull away from the shore, launch out into the deep, and cast out the gospel net again for fish that may pay for the labor bestowed upon them. Satan exults when men and women embrace the truth who are naturally fault-finding and who will throw all the darkness and hinderance they can against the advancement of the work of God. Ministers cannot now in this important period of the work be detained to prop up men and women who see and have once felt the force of the truth. They should fasten believing Christians on Christ, who is able to hold them up and preserve them blameless unto his appearing, while they go forth to new fields of labor.

I entreat you, my brethren and sisters, to be self-reliant in the strength of Jesus. Do not hang the weight of your perplexities and burdens upon your ministers. Christ has invited you to come to him, your burden-bearer. If you pass along in a state of unbelief and lack of consecration to God, you hang your weight upon the heart of your ministers, and you take just so much time and strength from them which God requires them to use in giving the message to those who have not heard it. Brethren, will you not rather work yourselves in union with the embassadors of Christ in seeking to win souls to the truth? When tempted to become unbelieving and discouraged, you will find the very best cure for this in talking faith to others, and in presenting the truth to those who are in darkness. Extend your efforts to your neighbors, and to those who have not the privileges of meetings. Sow the seeds of truth beside all waters, and encourage the hearts of the servants of God when they visit you by showing that you have not been idle, but through your instrumentality one or more have been brought from darkness to light. You can keep above despondency and doubt by making it your practice to daily pray for the blessing of God to rest upon the men who are presenting the solemn message of warning to the world. Let your prayers follow the servants of God like sharp sickles in the harvest field. God will hear the earnest entreaties of his people. The prayer of faith will move the arm of God.

A great work is before us. We need the help of every one. The cause will need not only money but earnest workers. We believe that the time has fully come when the work should be enlarged and extended on the Pacific coast. The men who work for God in faith, willing to endure, and suffer toil, privation, and reproach, will be the very men whom God will accept, and make powerful to do his great work. We shall not be stinted for means if we will only work, trusting and believing in God.

Missionaries are wanted to carry the message of warning to other lands. God will accept of men who have devoted hearts, whom he can teach, and impress, and polish, by his own divine hand. God will require personal service at the hands of every one to whom he entrusts his truth. Not one is excused. Some may feel that if they give their substance they are excused from personal efforts. But God forbid that they should deceive themselves in this. Gifts of means do not meet the requirement of God, for the duty is but half done. He will accept nothing short of yourselves. You must work to save souls.

All will not be called to go to foreign missions, but you may be missionaries at home in your own families and in your neighborhoods. There is work for you to do for God that you do not see and do not feel, because you have not wanted to see, and know, and do, because your worldly interests and your arrangements in business would be interrupted.

Christ called fishermen from their nets to do his work, and they left them and followed him. He called Matthew, a publican, from his business to follow him, and he obeyed the invitation joyfully. He may call men from their farms, from their merchandise, and from their various trades, and send them forth to warn the world.

With the love of Christ in the heart, Christians will work. All who have made a profession of Christ have virtually pledged themselves to preach the gospel of salvation to sinners. Some may never be required to stand in the pulpit; but there are many ways to preach Christ. By deeds, by a godly, consistent life, and by letting our light shine forth to others, we may preach Christ. In acts of self-denial for others' good, and showing a love for precious souls that is paramount to love for riches or earthly enjoyment, we may preach Christ.

In doing the works of Christ, the Christian worker will become strong in spiritual strength. God is a present help in every time of need. Those who work for the salvation of souls feel their inefficiency and lack of heavenly wisdom, and in their emergency they flee to their tower of strength, and God meets their necessities, and they are obtaining a valuable experience. They are gaining spiritual strength, and growing in the knowledge of the truth. They are not spiritual dwarfs, or bodies of death; but are shining lights, gathering daily strength from God, and conferring blessings upon others.

"ACCORDING TO HIS WORK."

By American Messenger

Not the number of our talents, But their faithful, wise employ, Is the measure of the service That doth give the Master joy. He doth not regard our person, Nor the station that we fill; "But the GREATEST in his kingdom Are the least who do his will."

Wheresoe'er my Father calleth— Whatsoe'er he bid me do, Is the only field of labor Which his grace shall bear me through. 'Tis not mine to choose the manner, Neither to appoint the place— But to labor for his glory, In a large or humble space.

He doth oversee his vineyard, Understands its every need, Give the quick'ning of the Spirit, Which does germinate the seed. "Paul may plant, Appollos water," And in labors never cease; But to God must be the glory, Who alone doth give increase.

He that soweth, he that reapeth, Both together shall rejoice In the fullness of the harvest, And with glad united voice, Sing his praises when he biddeth— Rich reward for their employ— "Well done, good and faithful servant, Enter thou thy Master's joy." — American Messenger.

No Time.

By Christian

THERE are persons who have no time to read the Bible, no time to pray, no time to serve the Lord. They remind one of that old shoemaker who, commencing his work in the morning, was in such haste that he had no time to put a bristle on his waxed end. The result was he toiled long and accomplished nothing. There is a story of a soldier pursued by his enemies who was seen mending the girth strap of his saddle while the foe was in sight. He labored diligently, but yet carefully, until at last the work was done, and then, springing into his saddle he fled as on the wings of the wind. Had he in his haste sought to escape without mending the girth strap, he would surely have been overtaken and destroyed. So in this world's care and business, we have no time to lose, but we have time to pray. Prayer and provender hinder no man's journey. A thousand dangers are averted by prayer; a thousand difficulties are prevented by prayer; a thousand hindrances are removed by prayer.

What emergencies may confront us, what temptations may assail us, what snares may encompass us, what trials may come upon us, no man can tell. In watchfulness and prayer is all our security; and if we make God our refuge and turn to him continually, we shall find him a present help in time of need, and his prospering hand will bear us safely through the world and bring us home at last.

The Immortality of the Soul.—History of the Doctrine.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

(Continued.)

IN THE TIME OF THE CÆSARS.

WE come now to the time of Polybius, who was born B. C. 203. "There is a remarkable passage by Polybius," says Leland, "which shows that the disbelief of a future state had in his time become very common and fashionable, both among persons of superior rank and among the lower kind of people." (Ibid, p. 385.) The doctrine of the immortality of the soul was, then, far from being universally believed as yet.

We next come to the time of Cicero, who was born B. C. 107. Perhaps this doctrine had gained greater credence by that time. Hear our learned author again: "What that great man Cicero says of the philosophers in his time is remarkable. In that celebrated treatise where he sets himself to prove the immortality of the soul, he represents the contrary, as there were crowds of opponents; not the Epicureans only, but, which he could not well account for, those that were esteemed the most learned persons had that doctrine in contempt." (Ibid, p. 285.)

Mr. Watson, speaking of the same time, says: "Both philosophers and poets regarded them as vulgar fables. . . . Nor was the skepticism and unbelief of the wise and great long kept from the vulgar, among whom they wished to maintain the old superstitions as instruments by which they might be controlled. Cicero complains that the common people in his day mostly followed the doctrine of Epicurus." (Theological Institutes, vol. i. chap. vi. p. 54.) Epicurus denied the immortality of the soul. This testimony is worthy of consideration. The mass of the common people followed Epicurus, that is, they totally denied the doctrine that the soul is immortal. And the poets and philosophers taught them this! Then who believed the doctrine at that time? It was universally disbelieved.

Cæsar represents the same thing as being true in his day. (Leland's Rev., vol. ii. p. 3, chap. viii. p. 387.) So it was in the time of Plutarch, who was born about the middle of the first century. "He intimates that these things were not commonly believed." Not only the philosophers, but the mass of the Roman people had no faith in the doctrine of future rewards and punishments.

Of the popular religion Mr. Jones says: "The Romans in general knew the whole to be an imposition, and many of them ridiculed the pretense that the institution was divine." (Church History, p. 21.) Again he says: "The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, was but little understood, and, of course, only very partially acknowledged. Hence, at the period when Christ appeared, any notions of this kind found little or no acceptance among the Greeks and Romans, but were regarded in the light of old wives' fables, fit only for the amusement of women and children." (Ibid, 21. See also Mosheim's Commentaries, vol. i. pp. 24, 25.)

The learned Mr. Milman bears this decided testimony: "One class of fables seems to have been universally exploded even in the earliest youth,—those which related to another life. The picture of the unrivaled satirist may be overcharged, but it corresponds strictly with the public language of the orator and the private sentence of the philosopher:—

" 'The silent realm of disembodied ghosts, The frogs that croak along the stygian coasts, The thousand souls in one crazed vessel steer'd, Not boys believe, save boys without a beard.'

"Even the religious Pausanias speaks of the immortality of the soul as a foreign doctrine, introduced by the Chaldeans and the Magi, and embraced by some of the Greeks, particularly by Plato. Pliny, whose Natural History opens with a declaration that the universe is the sole Deity, devotes a separate chapter to a contemptuous exposure of the idle notion of the immortality of the soul, as a vision of human pride, and equally absurd, whether under the form of existence in another sphere or under that of transmigration." (History of Christianity, chap. i. p. 34.)

Gibbon, the celebrated historian, thus confirms this statement of the case: "We are sufficiently acquainted with the eminent persons who flourished in the age of Cicero and of the first Cæsars, with their actions, their characters, and their motives, to be assured that their conduct in this life was never regulated by any serious conviction of the rewards or punishments of a future state. At the bar and in the senate of Rome the ablest orators were not apprehensive of giving offense to their hearers by exposing that doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected with contempt by every man of a liberal education and understanding." (Milman's Gibbon's Rome, chap. xv. p. 528.)

From the days of the apostles to the present time, there have been more or less Christians who have rejected the dogma of the natural immortality of man. Of late their numbers are rapidly increasing. They are found in large numbers both in Europe and America. With a very few exceptions, the whole body of Adventists are of this faith; so also are thousands in other churches. They believe the Bible implicitly, and believe in future rewards and punishments, and the eternal life for the saints; but they do not believe in the immortality of the soul, nor in the conscious state of the dead. They hope for a future life through the resurrection.

Another class must be counted out, as non-believers in man's immortality. We have traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Minnesota to Alabama, and preached the doctrine of the mortality of man. Wherever we go, we find a large class of persons who say that they were never satisfied about the immortality of the soul, and never could really believe it. We find these persons both in the churches and out of them; yet they are commonly counted as believers in that dogma. Again, there are many thousands of intelligent skeptics who do not believe the soul immortal.

SUMMARY.

We confidently believe that the facts we have presented fully explode the oft-repeated argument that the immortality of the soul has been universally believed. Facts are against it. But if it had been generally believed, so have other monstrous errors. The oldest idea of a future life was, that it is obtained through a resurrection. This view was held by the Egyptians, Persians, Arabians, Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, Peruvians, and even some barbarous tribes of all countries.

We have shown that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was first taught by the Egyptians, that there is no trace of it in the early history of ancient nations; that it was denied by most men in the time of Socrates; that the masses did not believe it in the time of Polybius; that the contrary of the soul's immortality was the prevailing opinion in the time of Cicero; that this disbelief was full as extensive in the first century; that nearly all the great schools of philosophy openly denied it; that even those who professed to believe it held it only on the principle of emanatiou and re-absorption, which virtually annihilates all individuality; that none of the ancients could possibly believe it, as they all held to a great periodical destruction of all things; that the Arabs were ignorant of the doctrine; that the Jews did not believe it; that the Hindoos and Buddhists, comprising fully one-third of the human race, implicitly held to the annihilation of all men; that the Chinese do not believe it; that many of the Mohammedans believe in the sleep of the dead; that many of the natives of Asia, of Polynesia, of Africa, and of the Western Continent have no such doctrine among them; that it is not proved that the native Indians believe it; that there are many Christians who deny it; and that, finally, there are thousands of others who have no faith in this doctrine. These facts show that but a small portion of the race have ever believed in the immortality of the soul. D. M. CANRIGHT.

"When" and "Then."

By G. H. Lillard

"WHEN Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."

The adverbs "when" and "then" announce and declare the epoch of the saints' glorification. The time of being glorified with Christ is here set at "His appearing and his kingdom." We learn from the words quoted that they whose lives are hid with Christ in God will not be with their King and Saviour in a glorified state previous to the period here designated. We interpret this to be the same era in the future to which David alludes or refers when he declares that he shall behold his Maker's "face in righteousness," when he shall "awake in His likeness." No man in the flesh can behold "His face and live"—the flesh is corruption "because of sin;" "the spirit is life because of righteousness"—the righteousness of God—the holy nature given us of God in regeneration. The "seed that remains in us," like God, is holy, and being of God is possessed of God's righteousness, or the "righteousness which is of God." But we who possess this "treasure in earthen vessels," have the "first fruits of the spirit" "groan within ourselves," "waiting for the adoption, to wit: the redemption of the body." Paul expresses the same thought thus: "Waiting for his Son from heaven"—"waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." We do not desire so much "to be unclothed" as "clothed upon with our house which is from heaven," "that mortality might be swallowed up of life." We are now "partakers of the divine nature;" this nature is "holy as He is holy, righteous as He is righteous." When He shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto Himself, we then "will be like him," righteous every whit, entirely righteous, completely righteous, clothed in His righteousness, thus we will "behold his face;" then we "will be satisfied," fully so—not before; then we will appear with Him in glory—not before. But the "Lord is at hand;" the "glorious offering" is near. Hasten, Lord, the glorious time.—G. H. Lillard, in Evangel.

A Poor Church Member.

By Editor

WE must not be personal. We have no single individual in mind. Before us pass a multitude of men and women from all classes and conditions. An unquestionably poor church member can be made out of any kind of material.

The regenerating power of the Holy Spirit is all sufficient, and it will not do to say that some people are only partially regenerate. But there are some church members whose every day life is very derogatory to God's converting grace. In fact, it requires loud and repeated claims to raise the suggestion that God has anything to do with such lives.

The poor church member is widely known. He is conspicuous. He sits on the back seat, or in the front seat. In the first position he has come part of the way to church to avoid discipline, and stopped afar off to avoid being called upon. When he takes the front seat, he is "making an impression." He is very religious—a leading brother—at the Christmas tree and at the annual picnic. He is invariably sick or engaged on prayer-meeting evenings.

At the business meeting he seldom casts a vote on either side of a question, as that would rob him of the privilege of criticising whatever course might be adopted. He never helps a measure that he approves, and never keeps silent when he disapproves. "I did not vote for that measure when it was adopted," is his favorite form of introducing objections. His principle mission is "holding back." He is regularly on the other side.

Spiritually, he is always out on the edge—sometimes burning up, sometimes freezing. There is an even and constant temperature in spiritual life that is very different in character and power from the spasmodic ebullitions of such a man. Our poor church member is either too highly elated to be cautious, or too despondent to look at the hopeful indications. There have been armies afflicted with bravery in the camp and cowardice on the field. Our character has valor and spirit, but they never move out of camp.

The poor church member wants it distinctly understood that he does not belong to the church. He is a member of this or that congregation; he has a pew at this or that church; he attends divine service, and hears Mr. So and So; but he does not, in the motest sense, belong to the church—he is at best only a member. He speaks of the church as a distinct party from himself. He speaks of them as "they," not as "we." Such a member can do a vast amount of down hill work.

Years ago the endless-chain horse power was in common use. Two fine horses stepped grandly on their inclined floor, and to their tread a hundred wheels were spinning around, and a score of men were kept busy in their places. But a mere boy could take hold of a small lever that bore down on the fly-wheel, and his weight stop the entire machine and set all the men idle. Our poor church member is nearly always at the lever bearing down. Here, better than anywhere else, he can make himself felt.

A poor merchant injures himself and the few to whom he is indebted. A poor typesetter gives the proof reader double work. A poor—well, a poor church member is the poorest dependence of all. He is "henceforth good for nothing," so utterly worthless as to be in the way and fit only to be thrown out.

We need good men and women in our churches. Money and influence are not religion, nor are they good substitutes for it. Personal attentiveness, deep-seated earnestness and patient continuance in our entire membership would help very much just now. —Central Baptist.

Wanting What God Denies

It is a great mercy to want that patiently which God denies justly, and to use that wisely which God bestows bountifully.

A Common Error About the Christian Life.

By Wayland Hoyt

THAT the Christian life is all in the beginning. I am sure that the general thought, while it is not too much concerned about the beginning of Christianity in the soul—because it cannot be too much concerned about it—is not enough anxious about its subsequent development. It would have been just as wise for the ancient racer, after he had gone through the training process, and stripped himself for the contest, and entered the arena, and run on three steps, to have stopped there, and declared the race won and himself entitled to the prize. Why, the judge would answer, the race is but begun. Your preparation may have been assiduous and admirable, but it is in the law of the arena that the entire course must be accomplished, and the prize adjudged as you shall have carried yourself around the whole circle. The race itself is the only test of your preparation and beginning.

But, somehow, we have too generally come to think that if we can only get a man to acknowledge his sinfulness, and walk for a time in darkness, and then pass out into a better state of feeling, to break forth in joy and songfulness, to see new light in the sun, and fresh greenness in the grass, to profess trust in Jesus Christ, that then the whole race is run, the victor's crown is on the brow.

Now it may be that a man passing through such an experience has become a Christian, and it may be he has not. You cannot predicate Christianity altogether upon feeling. It is not all fervors, and raptures, and high excitements, and suffusions of sentiment. These may be the glorious door into the noble Christian life, and they may be the door into delusion. Christianity is deeper than feeling. Christianity is a changed nature. To be a Christian is to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. Christianity is the setting of the purposes toward God; it is resolute determination to arrange our action with, and not athwart the will of God; it is living as ever in our great Task-master's eye. And so the only test of the truth of the beginning is the whole race succeeding. "By their fruits ye shall know them," said the Saviour. The genuineness of the new life is to be judged of what you do each day in your business, in your family, amid your pleasures—not so much by what you thought you felt on some dim day years back. Christianity is more a life than a feeling. If the life bloom other than Christian, the strong presumption must be that the root out of which the life issues is other than Christian.

It is the spring time, and I want flowers in my garden. I go to a seed store and ask for hyacinth bulbs. Unless my sense of smell be acute the man may sell me onions instead of hyacinth bulbs. They look very much alike. I take them home, and plant them, and water them, and watch them. If instead of the perfumed pyramid of flowers I get some weed or vegetable, then I am sure I have not planted hyacinths. So it is with Christianity. Unless the bloom be Christian it is certain that the bulb is not. The only test of saintship is endurance in saintship. The beginning is not everything in Christianity.—Wayland Hoyt.

General Fisk on the Theatre.

A LADY friend of Mrs. Fisk called on them the other evening at their rooms in the St. Nicholas hotel, and requested them to go with her to the theatre, and hear Mr. Booth in Romeo and Juliet.

"I cannot go," said the General, "I have an engagement."

"Ah! but you can get excused from that engagement," she insisted. "What is it, if I may be so impertinent?"

"It is the evening for my prayer meeting," he replied, "and I make it a point always to be present when possible."

The lady seized his hand and tears filled her eyes as she exclaimed, "General! you have preached me the best sermon I have heard for many a month. I too, am a member of the church, and ought to be as punctual and faithful in my duties as you are; but I am not. But do you really think it is wrong to attend the theatre?" she added after a slight pause.

"It would probably do me no harm", he replied. "But suppose I was to go for this reason, mindful only of my own pleasure or of its influences upon myself. I take my seat. Yonder is a young man who has been enticed to the place, not without some misgivings of conscience; he casts his eye up, and says to himself with satisfaction, 'Ah! there is General Fisk. He is a good Christian man. I heard him deliver an address to the Sabbath-school the other Sunday; surely I must be all right in Christian company.' No," said the noble Christian man, "I cannot lend my influence thus."

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