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Signs of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 16.

General Articles

Signs of the Times

Apr 20, 1888

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 20, 1888

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

VISIT TO LEMOORE.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
IN company with my son, W. C. White, and Miss Cecilie Dahl, I left Healdsburg, March 9, for Oakland. From Oakland we took the train for Lemoore. At Goshen Junction we parted with W. C. White, who was en route for Los Angeles. We arrived at Lemoore about eight o'clock in the evening. Brother and Sister Daniels and Brother Gray were waiting to receive us at the depot. Brother Gray conducted us to his home, where we were heartily welcomed and kindly entertained.
Elder Daniels has been laboring at Lemoore, and his earnest effort to preach the truth of God has been followed by most encouraging results. A good interest has been awakened in the town and vicinity to hear the reasons of our faith. The Lord has been moving upon hearts, and we rejoice that a goodly number have had the moral courage to come out and identify themselves with those who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Twenty-nine persons have taken a decided stand for the truth and have signed the covenant. I became acquainted with several of these who have recently come to the knowledge and belief of the truth, and I feel sure that they have embraced the faith after careful and candid investigation, and through solemn and thorough conviction of its divine origin and nature. I believe they will teach others the things which they have learned.
If all who accept the light of truth will let their light shine by precept and example, their influence will be as far-reaching as eternity. By humbly seeking to know and do the will of God, they may be constant learners in the school of Christ, and may be continually educating others in the principles and practices of the truth. If those who espouse the cause of God will manifest the meekness and lowliness of Christ, they may bear a testimony to unbelievers that will have more weight than either sermons or arguments in its favor. The most convincing witness to the world of the worth of our faith is the exemplary conduct and character of its advocates.
On Sabbath morning, March 10, as we approached the house of worship we found it surrounded by the carriages of those who had come to hear the word of God. There was quite a large attendance of those who were interested in our views, and I had much freedom in speaking from Col. 1: 9-14. After the discourse we had a social meeting. Many testimonies were borne, and a good spirit characterized all that was said. A number witnessed for the first time to their belief in the present truth.
I spoke five times at Lemoore, to good audiences. Many who were unacquainted with the positions we hold, seemed much interested. There were in the congregation some infidels and saloon-keepers, who gave most earnest and respectful attention, and we know not but that the seeds of truth may take root and bear fruit to the glory of God in the lives of these men. It is my sincere hope and prayer that this may be so. Christ has said, "Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance." Those who feel perfectly satisfied with their spiritual condition are not the ones who excite the joy of the angels. The Jews claimed to respect the law of God, but they did not keep it. Said Jesus, "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?" He said of the self-righteous Pharisees, "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men;" and in this day, those who profess to be Christians and yet bear no fruit to the glory of God, denying in their works the faith they profess, are among that class who feel no want in themselves, who see no necessity of repentance, confession, or reformation in their lives. They seem in their own eyes to be righteous, and they are satisfied with their own attainments. They do not come to the great Physician, because they do not realize their need of healing. But those who come repenting of their sins, believing that Jesus is able, through the merits of his blood, to cleanse them, and make them whole, cause the angels of God to rejoice in his presence.
On Sabbath there was a decided movement made toward seeking God, by those who desired to draw near to him. The instruction for our day is, "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness." This valuable treasure of righteousness and meekness will not come without sincere and earnest seeking. It is not something that will develop naturally in the human heart. There must be most diligent and persevering efforts put forth by every individual to obtain the meekness and righteousness of Christ. Says the prophet, "Seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." We sought the Lord by earnest supplication, and his Holy Spirit witnessed to the presence of God in our midst. Those who seek the Lord from the heart will certainly find him, for he is a present help in every time of need.
On Sunday, both morning and afternoon, I spoke to a full house. The Spirit and power of God was in the midst of us, impressing hearts with the truth. We knew that Jesus was inviting the weary and the heavy-laden tocome unto him and find rest to their souls. If they would but comply with the conditions, and take his yoke, and bear his burden, and learn of him who was meek and lowly of heart, they would find his service sweet, and his paths the paths of peace. I felt anxious that all present might take the yoke of Christ, and find the peace and rest that the world can neither give nor take away. When those who have by transgressing the law forfeited all right to the favor of God, return to allegiance and keep the commandments, what but blessing and peace and rest can come to them from him who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, whose love is graciously and freely bestowed to all who turn to him to serve him with a sincere heart.
Before me was a class of men possessing no inferior talent; there were those who had no knowledge of God, and no faith in his Son, but I knew that Jesus was willing to receive these men, waiting to pardon their transgressions, to take their feet from the miry clay, and to place them upon the Rock of Ages. I felt an intense desire to present the truth of God's word in such a way that they might be constrained by the love that Jesus had manifested for them to come to him in all their sinfulness and pollution, that they might be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. The most sinful may be made fit for the mansions that Jesus has gone to prepare for those who love him and keep his commandments. They may be cleansed by faith in his blood, sanctified through obedience to the truth, and glorified by the power of God to shine in his everlasting kingdom.
I had very solemn thoughts as I looked upon that assembly. I wondered how many present will hail with joy the glorious appearing of the Lord and Saviour. How many will receive the crown of life? How many will lift up their voices in glad hosannas, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints"? How anxious I felt for these souls, as I thought, Jesus loves them better than I do. His love is without a parallel; and if I feel grief of heart to see these souls employing their intrusted talents in dishonoring God, how must the pitying Saviour feel, who died that they might live?
Oh, that everyone might feel that Jesus has something in store for him vastly better than what he is choosing for himself! Would that all might realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the blessedness of righteousness! Would that all might see how powerless is all effort to contend against omnipotence! Man is doing the greatest injury and injustice to his own soul when he thinks and acts contrary to the mind and will of God. He is sowing to the flesh, and will of the flesh reap corruption. No real joy can be found in the path forbidden by the God who knows what is best, and who plans for the good of his creatures. The path of transgression is a path of misery and destruction, and he who walks therein is exposed to the wrath of God and the Lamb.
The cross of Calvary, with its suffering Victim who bore the curse for us, testifies to the love of God for the sinner; and the voice of God calls to the disobedient, "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" There is a fountain opened to cleanse the guilty souls of men. The merits of Jesus plead for the repentant sinner; and to all that receive the Saviour he will give power to enable them to walk in the paths of righteousness and peace.
The word of God is the directory to Heaven. If man will follow in the path marked out in the sacred word, he will reach the eternal city and the realms of glory. The very God of truth presents his promises to encourage man to seek for eternal life, and an inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not away. Let the repenting sinner believe the word of God, and come to Jesus the Saviour of men, take his yoke upon him, bear his burden, and he shall find rest unto his soul.

DIVINE PEACE.

By Horatius Bonar, D. D.

PEACE upon peace, like wave upon wave, This the portion that I crave; The peace of God which passeth thought, The peace of Christ which changeth not.
Peace like the river's gentle flow, Peace like the morning's silent glow, From day to day in love supplied, An endless and unebbing tide.
Peace flowing on, without decrease, From Him who is our joy and peace, Who, by his reconciling blood, Hath made the sinner's peace with God.
Peace through the night and through the day, Peace though all windings of our way, In pain and toil and weariness, A deep and everlasting peace.
O King of peace, this peace bestow Upon a stranger here below; O God of peace, thy peace impart To every troubled, trembling heart.
Peace from the Father and the Son, Peace from the Spirit, all his own; Peace that shall nevermore be lost, Of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. —Horatius Bonar, D. D.

PROGRESSION.

By R. F. Cottrell

THE watchword of Spiritualists is progression. This is their boast; and with this they decoy those void of understanding. But their progression is in the wrong direction; it is from bad to worse. Its victims are led on from one degree of infidelity and sin to another, till they become acquainted with the very "depths of Satan." And this sort of progression is rapid and accelerating; for it is a down-hill course, and consequently easy and agreeable to the carnal mind. When one is perfectly given over to it, the lowest level is soon found. Those who do not rapidly descend to this lowest level are still under some kind of restraint which makes them cautious and half-hearted in the service of the devil. But their master does not care for this, for he knows they are on the direct and sure way to ruin; and indeed he is more than willing that they should keep up some sort of respectable appearance among men, the better to decoy others into the fatal net. This accounts for the different degrees of progress among them, in their downward course.
But there is another kind of progression,—a progression in an opposite direction. And though it may seem up-hill work, the result will be transcendently glorious. It is a cross-bearing way, but it is upward to God. The end of it is life everlasting. Though it is the few that choose this way, yet those who do, will at length see that they made the wise choice.
While Spiritualism is doing up the last work of Satan, to sweep mankind down to destruction, the Lord, by the progressive light of revealed truth, is preparing a people for translation into his kingdom, which is about to come, in answer to the Heaven-taught petition, "Thy kingdom come." While Spiritualism is leading its votaries to discard the precious truths of the Bible, the work of the Lord leads men to love and cherish the sacred word with increasing delight. While the former leads men to break every commandment of God, the latter is leading the erring back to every precept of the decalogue. By this we may know where and what the present work of the Lord is. It is opposed to Spiritualism in all its leading features. It is reasonable to believe, that when Satan is permitted to work with such power, the Lord has a work to do for his people which is the very reverse of Satan's work.
There is but one people in the world that stands opposed to all the false doctrines of Spiritualism. They teach a theory of man's nature and destiny utterly opposed to it. This, together with the teaching of all the commandments of the moral law, is found with no other people but those that are being moved out by the fulfillment of the message of Rev. 14:9-12. No other people, I say, present a bold and directly opposing front to this wily foe. Those, then, who are heeding this Heaven-appointed message, are progressing in the right direction. It is progression toward the Bible, its truths and its Author, and toward the New Jerusalem; and soon its golden gates will be swung open to welcome them in. Rev. 22:14; Isa. 26:1, 2. Onward, onward, then, the goal will soon be reached; the prize will soon be given.
R. F. COTTRELL.

EFFECTIVE PREACHING.

By Arthur S. Pierson

THE maxim of Paul, "Preaching of Christ crucified; not with wisdom of words, lest the cross be made of none effect," is a golden milestone from which many roads lead—and into what fields of thought they open!
The church is largely leavened with the world, adopts worldly maxims, and robes the gospel in worldly charms, seeking by making it attractive to make it effective. The pulpit sometimes becomes a platform for lectures more fit for the lyceum, and sometimes a stage for dramatic acting more fit for the theater! The service of sacred song is turned into a display of art, in which an appeal to aesthetic taste takes the place of the divine savor and flavor of worship. In his house, where "the Lord alone shall be exalted," classical music is exalted, pagans and papists are hired to lead us in praise; or a profane, drunken organist sometimes uses the keys of the grandest of instruments to play out the congregation, and play out the impression of the gospel. We build Gothic cathedrals, furnish them with crimson and gold, adorn them with the pencil and chisel of art; then we have concerts and lectures, fairs and festivals, entertainments and excursions; and we say, "Surely we shall draw the people to the house of God." But they do not come. The writer went to a splendid church, on the Pacific Coast, where a silver-tongued preacher had his throne, and a choir of artists warbled music; there were seven performances by organ and quartette, and then a grand oration, but the church was more than half empty.
Such charms do not permanently draw the eyes of men to God's house, and their feet to his altars and feasts. Zion's attractions are peculiar to herself; they "are not of the world, even as He is not of the world." The church, robed in the world's charms, instead of drawing the world to herself and to Christ, takes the infection of the worldly spirit; therefore her Master bade her keep herself "unspotted from the world," "hating even the garment spotted by the flesh!"—Arthur S. Pierson, D. D.

RESURRECTION OF JESUS.

By L. McCoy

We had the pleasure, on eve of Easter Sunday, of hearing a Chicago Baptist minister preach upon the "resurrection of Jesus," an old subject, but one rarely dwelt upon by modern popular ministers, and yet it is one of the cardinal doctrines of the churches. His premises were sound, and his conclusions just and reasonable. He was emphatic, and waxed eloquent in argument, alleging that the resurrection of Jesus was not only a scriptural and reasonable doctrine, but a well-attested historical fact. He boldly declared that if Christ did not arise from the dead as recorded and proclaimed by the apostles, then we have no Saviour, no Christ, no Son of God at the right hand of the Father; our prayers and hopes are in vain, and we are yet in our sins. He asserted that upon the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, were based all the hopes of the Christian church; that although Jesus might have been a good man, the greatest teacher of morality, a prophet sent of God, performing wonderful miracles, healing diseases, feeding the hungry, etc., yet if he did not rise from the dead, he was a "deceiver," and the world has no Saviour to-day. All this and much more we were glad to hear him say, believing every word to be true.
It so happened (providentially, I think) that at the close of the service the minister sought me out of the crowd, knowing I was a stranger, and kindly asked me to come again. As we lingered and conversed when nearly all had left the house, I was constrained to ask the earnest, friendly man one question. It was this:—
If, in order that Jesus might enter Heaven, sit at the right hand of his Father, and engage in his intercessory work, it was absolutely necessary that he arise from the dead, come forth from the tomb, is it not also true by parity of reasoning that Abraham, David, and Paul must have a resurrection from the grave before they can enter Heaven and receive their reward? I assured the minister that I heartily indorsed his positions, as being sound and scriptural. Before pressing him for an answer, I reminded him that if his position was correct and scriptural, and the resurrection of Abraham and others was yet future (which he admitted), then all the righteous dead are still in the prison-house of death, and not in Heaven, not alive; and without a resurrection are perished. 1 Cor. 15: 18. He tried in vain to evade the trap he set for himself, and asserted that the righteous dead were now in paradise, without a resurrection. I again reminded him that if he could get Abraham, David, and others to Heaven without a resurrection, he could do the same with Jesus, and thus overthrow the argument of his sermon, and leave himself standing on the "Spiritualist" platform.
The reader can better imagine than I can describe his confusion at this point. He frankly admitted that there is no future immortal life except by and through Christ. This admission was fatal to his inherent immortality theory. I left the earnest man with his half-and-half, truth-and-error position, hoping he would have the courage to accept the truth. How grateful to God we ought to be for the light of truth he gives us in these times when error has so many eloquent advocates!
May we so live that when Jesus, the Life-giver, shall come, whether sleeping or waking, we may have eternal life in a home with the people of God. L. McCoy.

EVOLUTION.

THE theory of evolution, although sometimes not very clearly defined nor very well understood, is accepted by many persons, and among them many ministers of religion, as fully established, and as worthy of cheerful acceptance. Although the doctrine of evolution, in its last analysis, is denied by some of the greatest living scientists, yet we sometimes hear it proclaimed from the pulpit with as much assurance as if it were enforced by a "thus saith the Lord." Men who so readily accept the doctrine of evolution, to reconcile the Bible and science, do not seem to be fully aware of the effect of their admissions. Unless evolution is accepted in its strictly scientific sense, and the Bible is made to harmonize with it in that sense, nothing is gained for the cause of religion by its acceptance. If we adopt some unscientific theory of evolution, and make the Bible harmonize with it, we do nothing to break the force of the argument against the Bible, based on what is claimed to be strictly scientific principles. It would be well for men, and especially ministers of the gospel, before they accept the doctrine of evolution, and attempt to correct the errors of Moses, to carefully examine the whole subject in all its bearings.
There are several theories of evolution advanced and advocated at the present day. The first of these is the strictly scientific theory, which is pure naturalism. It is simply the name of a process in the operation of purely natural forces, by which a purely natural thing under the influence of purely natural environment, passes into a higher form of existence. It excludes all forces not strictly inhering in nature. It claims that all the elements entering into the higher type were previously existing in nature and were evolved by natural forces, and consequently, according to this hypothesis, there can be no recognition of anything but nature. It is a system of pure materialism, and recognizes nothing in all the operations of nature but purely material forces.
According to this theory man, as well as all the material forms about him, has been evolved from inferior forms, by the operation of purely natural causes. This theory admits of no Creator, no moral lapse, no redemption, and no final retribution. It is simply the operation of natural forces, producing natural results, without any reference to moral causes or moral accountability. How can such a system as this be accepted by any Christian man? How can it be made, in any sense, to harmonize with the Bible? Mr. Spencer must smile at the ignorant attempts made to harmonize the Bible with evolution, as the theory is held by him. The thing is so absolutely contradictory that we had almost said no sensible man would attempt it.
Another theory of evolution, which is termed the organic or theistic, and by some the creative theory, recognizes, in some sense, a Creator, who has stamped certain unalterable laws upon matter, which, under the force that he originally imparted to them, have operated in evolving one form from another in an ascending series, until all the forms of nature that exist have been produced. This theory recognizes a God back of nature, who acts only through fixed laws, and who by the laws which he has imposed on nature, has produced, by a long and imperceptible process, all the forms, organic and inorganic, that are found to exist. This is the theory of evolution which is accepted by many Christians and many Christian ministers, and which they attempt to harmonize with the Bible; or, rather, they attempt so to explain the Bible as to make it harmonize with this theory.
Man's place in any system of evolution is one of the difficult problems to be solved. According to some, man's entire nature, embracing that which he has in common with lower orders, and that which he is believed to possess in advance of them, is the simple outcome of an evolutionary process as truly, and in the same sense, as the anthropoid ape is the outcome of that process working upwards from the lowest forms of life. Man's great superiority to the highest of the creatures below him is admitted, but at the same time it is maintained that however high we may rate man's spiritual powers, and with whatever dignity we may invest him as a free moral being, all this may be explained in harmony with the theory of a "slow and steady growth from the sensible and emotional life peculiar to the animal world." Moral choice and obligation, the two terms which are supposed to indicate a spiritual nature and a capacity for sin and for fellowship with God, it is contended by Darwin, Spencer, and Haeckle, are but designations for the fact that man, as we know him, has consolidated and registered the experiences of his long line of human and brute ancestry. Such a theory as this is incapable of being harmonized in any sense with the teachings of the Bible.
Others hold that man is included in the scope of organic evolution only so far as his animal nature is concerned, and that in this respect he has been evolved from lower forms, but that the moral and spiritual differentia of man is such as to forbid the possibility of his being only an outgrowth of brute intelligence. According to this view, man's higher naturewas a direct creation. This, if we understand it, is the theory entertained by Professor Woodrow. Here questions arise outside of science, and so far as man's higher nature is concerned, an unscientific position is taken. Scientists assume that there is but one method for the whole nature, and that "to suppose one part to be through a process and the other to be direct is to introduce dualism in the order of the universe."
Another view entertained by some evolutionists is, that man is not included in the scope of organic evolution; "that he, being the head of all creatures, has been directly, truly created, while all the rest have been evolved, according to a divinely ordered law, out of the simple primordial germ of life." They claim that while there is strong cumulative evidence in favor of evolution up to man, the evidence fails to prove the evolution of man as a scientific fact. Here these evolutionists and the scientists part company,
From this mere glance at the subject, we perceive that the acceptance of the doctrine of evolution in its strictly scientific form, involves, of necessity, not a new interpretation of the Bible, but its utter rejection. To accept the theory in part and reject it in part involves us in all the scientific difficulties consequent upon its entire rejection. If God could create man, with his exquisite organism, by the word of his power, why could he not create the universe in the same way? This question, if not pressed, is well worthy of being considered. When the whole subject is candidly examined, the difficulties connected with any theory of evolution will be found to be quite as great as those connected with the errors imputed to Moses.—Methodist Recorder.

FORBEARANCE OF OUR LORD.

By Irene Widdemer Hartt

THERE is nothing in life harder to bear than injustice; the greatest task set the Christian is to endure in silence any wrong. It sometimes seems almost impossible to do this. Cross words we can bear, but when false accusations are brought against us and we are judged wrongfully, we must reply, even though that reply, instead of setting us right in the eyes of our accusers, brings on a war of words. But our Lord suffered even this. He met injustice and calumny everywhere and was "dumb." He made no endeavor to set himself right, and thus most surely bring about the "strife of tongues." He who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, never strove to have the last word; he bore all unkindness and unjust reproach meekly and silently. He was perfect truth and knowledge amid a false and ignorant nation, yet he bore their contradiction. If he was the subject of unkind insinuations, he did not revenge himself by making like insinuations; when his motives were misrepresented he kept on in his work, proving by its results, not by his replies, that he was right. It was a small thing to him that he was judged of men or of men's judgment. He was certain of his Father's approval, so he could afford to be silent when the world condemned or contradicted.
He was constantly strengthened by uninterrupted communication with the Father, and thus made strong, even aside from his own divine nature, to suffer long. He was made strong to tame the tongue, that little member which St. James has said no man can tame. The member which is to us so full of poison was in him so full of healing words. With us truly it is sometimes "set on fire of hell," but his tongue was always set on fire of Heaven. His was always the gentle reply, if a reply must be made, which turned away wrath, enduring unkindnesses, and by his endurance magnifying his Father, but never by one word bringing discredit upon that Father.
"Finally be ye all of one mind" "not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing."—Irene Widdemer Hartt, in Christian at Work.

THE EMOTIONAL IN RELIGION.

THAT there is a demand for a religion in which the emotional shall have no place, or in which it shall be reduced to a minimum, no careful observer of the facts can deny. We are living in an age of great intellectual progress. In morals, in metaphysics, as well as in mechanics, the pendulum swings from one extreme to another. Mind and matter are controlled by the same law. The equilibrium of truth is rarely reached. It is more rarely retained. The tendency of wealth and culture is to repose. Esthetics demand the even poised. The command that "all things be done decently and in order" is receiving a new interpretation. Of old it was the custom to sacrifice all things to life. The new order sacrifices life to taste. History is repeating itself. Methodism was a rebound from the dead and dry formality of the English church. From this church all feeling seemed to have been eliminated. It was ranked among the heresies. Its existence was incomprehensible, its manifestation unpardonable. Methodism in its beginning was a moral cyclone. It swayed the hearts of men as the tempest sways the grass. Multitudes were in agony. Like storm-tossed sailors, they awoke to find themselves in peril. The land was filled with wailing. Deliverance from such sorrow must result in highest joy. Jubilant song and ecstatic shout mingled with penitential cries. Their meetings were sometimes scenes of strange confusion. The emotions were uncontrollable. The sublime and the weird mingled in their devotions. The new birth was preceded by throes of agony and was succeeded by vociferous thanksgiving. Such was its beginning.
But those were the days of ignorance. Such times, a charity that hopeth all things may possibly wink at, but in these days of culture is it not time to relegate the emotional in religion with the jerks, contortions, and catalepsis to the obsolete and outworn? In a word, is there a place among a cultured people for the emotional in religion? This question finds a place in the heart more frequently than on the lips of men. The demand of the age is for a religion purely intellectual. "Convince the judgment," say the critics, "and then leave men to accept Christ or to reject him." Alas! alas! for poor humanity, when its light becomes darkness and when its highest wisdom is such consummate folly. A religion without emotion! As well ask for vegetation without heat, or joy without sensation. True, indeed, religion is intellectual. Its problems and mysteries summon us to the mightiest exercise of our reasoning faculties. But it is far more than that; as the body is more than raiment, as the life is more than meat. Religion deals with undying interests. It appeals to hope and fear. It tells of reward and punishment. It is much that it convinces the judgment, it is far more that it arouses the conscience. As aforetime it brings into condemnation, and still it has its time and song of jubilee. Religion and emotion are inseparably connected. Eliminate emotion and you have nothing of religion left but an empty name. It is a soulless body, a headless trunk, a wingless bird. Religion is love, but love is emotional. It tells of danger, but fear is emotional. It leads to highest joy, but joy is emotional.
Moreover, this demand made in the interest of reason is in itself unreasonable. Why demand an unemotional religion until you have succeeded in banishing emotion from the other walks and haunts of life? There are times in the life of each of us when, wholly apart from religion, our emotion has been uncontrollable. When Archimedes, in his bath, discovered the method by which he could demonstrate whether the gold in the crown of Hiero was mixed with baser metal, he was so beside himself that he ran unclothed through the streets, crying, "Eureka!" When Newton was concluding the calculations that have made his name immortal, he was so overwhelmed with emotion that he was compelled to commit the completion of his problems to other hands. Rittenhouse fainted when, at the precise moment that he had predicted, he beheld the transit of Venus; and Zeuxis is said to have died of laughter at a picture of his own creation. If, then, the emotional holds so important a place in both science and art, is it reasonable to suppose that it can be banished from religion? A simple statement of its nature will show the folly of the demand. Religion is a life. It is God manifesting himself in and through man. But this implies a union of the human with the divine. Man must touch God. The human and the divine must blend. The earthly is moulded into the image of the heavenly. The body becomes the temple, the heart the throne of God. But is this possible without emotion? Can soul blend with soul, even when both are human, without ecstasy? To state the proposition is to refute it. "These," says Robertson, "are the soul's bridal moments." Paul says the joy is "unspeakable and full of glory." The poet calls it "The speechless awe that dares not move, And all the silent heaven of love." We may rest assured that the demand for an unemotional religion is based upon a misconception of both the nature of religion, and of the nature of man. Neither on earth nor in Heaven can such a thing exist. Extravances doubtless occur. They abound in every walk in life. They may offend a cultured taste, but they are evidences of life. The religion that satisfies itself with form and ceremony may be esthetic and stately, but it is not the religion that saves the soul. It may chant artistic music in faultless accent, but it forces from no lips the glad refrain, "I will praise thee, for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me."—Northern Christian Advocate.

GROWTH MEANS GOD.

By Rusticus

I HAVE just been feeding my stock—horses and colts, cows and calves, hogs and pigs. I fed them all with hay. They all ate it greedily, for it was good hay; and they all seemed to be doing well. While they were eating I was thinking. And as it is too wet to plow this morning, I will write my thoughts. These colts are growing. Growing means more bone, more muscle, more fat, more teeth enameled, more hoof, more hide, more hair, more mane, more tail, larger eyes, more nerves, more tendons, lengthened arteries and veins, a proportional enlargement of the heart, the lungs, the digestive organs, the viscera, etc., etc. It takes a thousand things to make a colt, and there must be something added to each of these thousand things every day, as the colt increases in size, and becomes a horse. Now where does the colt get a little more all the time to add to these thousand things? All out of the hay. The dried grass that I feed him furnishes bone and flesh and skin and hair; and it goes just where it is needed. It goes to the different parts of the animal in just the right proportions. It does not make too much of any one thing, or fail to make enough of any.
Now take that dried grass to the most skillful chemist. Tell him to analyze it, and see if he can get flesh and bone and hair out of it as the colt does, and he will tell you that he cannot do any such thing. The wonder to me is that my colts, and everybody else's colts the world over, can do what these men of science can't do.
But here is something stranger yet: The calves eat the same hay, and they make out of it differently-shaped bones and hoofs, different flesh and fat, from that which the colts make. They make horns, too, and the colts don't. And the cows, feeding beside the horses, make milk out of the hay, and milk is a very curious liquid. It contains caseine and albumen, and ever so many other ingredients, all of which come from the hay. Isn't there something strange about this? It seems to me that if I had in my barn at feeding-time one of the wise men who think they can explain everything; that we don't need any God; that their theory of evolution, and their laws of nature, are sufficient for making the world and for keeping it a-going—it seems to me that I could puzzle him by just pointing to my horses and cattle.
Now, suppose that I had three machines; that when I put hay into one of them and turned the crank awhile, out would come carpets of perfect texture and beautiful colors. Then, if I put the same kind of hay into another machine, and turned the crank awhile, out would come sets of porcelain, plates, cups, saucers, etc.—all perfectly shaped, enameled, and painted. And, finally, if I should put hay into a third machine, the result would be books, well printed, elegantly bound, and profusely illustrated. What would the scientists who know all about making worlds say to my machines? Wouldn't they think there was something about them that was never dreamed of in their philosophy?
But I have in my barn-yard a score or more of machines fully as wonderful. They are working up the hay into hundreds of different things, and into just the right proportion of each, while I write. Did a law of nature make these machines? and do the laws of nature keep them a-going? Or, is there not a wise and powerful Being who created each one of them, and who superintends all their operations?
It is said that Robespierre, when he saw the efforts of atheism in France, exclaimed: "If there is no God, we must make one; for we cannot get along without him." So must every man feel who has not permitted that "dangerous thing," a "little learning," to magnify his self-conceit and minify his common sense.
The tendency of positivism, and of all the infidel philosophy of our day, is to sheer atheism. Men want to get rid of the idea of a personal God—a great, wise, and good Being who made, upholds, and governs all things. But grand, solemn, and mysterious as that idea is, it is the simplest explanation of the wonders that we see around us. The grass is growing now all over our hills and plains. Why? The soil was full of seeds, we are told, and the rain has made them germinate. But water can't make grass out of seeds. Here is a chair factory all complete, and lumber piled up in it. And now a fire is kindled under the boiler, and the wheels revolve; but no chairs are turned out. Why? The chair-maker has not come to put the lumber into the lathes. Nature during winter or a drought is like that factory, full of lumber but without steam. Nature, when the sun shines and the rain falls, is like that factory when the steam is up, and the wheels are in motion. Nature is God's workshop. It is the grand factory in which he is making all the while the many, the numberless things that we speak of as growing. With all our science we don't know what growing really is, and the most sensible notion we can get of it is this—the presence of the omnipresent One superintending the operation of the laws and forces that he has ordained. All growth requires something higher and mightier than what we call law. It is not mechanical merely, it is vital. And as the cause of a thing must be greater than the thing itself, the cause of all this living growth must be a living agent. An invisible Spirit must brood over field and fold.
That Spirit's work far transcends the power and skill of man. Hence, it is a superhuman Spirit. It is the Spirit of God. Here we rest. We cannot rest in any other idea of nature.
When Mungo Park sat down in the African desert, alone, lost, hungry, sick, footsore, heartsore, and just ready to give up in utter despair, he saw a little flower. It was like the vision of an angel. He said: "God is here. Only his hand could have fashioned that flower. And he who fashioned it can take care of me." So we should feel as we look on a blade of grass. In everything that lives, and moves, and grows, and blooms we see proof of the wisdom and the power of an omnipresent God.—Rusticus, in Occident.
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