JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, was with the Father before the world was. He himself says: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." John 17:5.
JESUS CHRIST was the direct Creator of the heavens and earth. "Without him was not anything made that was made." John 1:3. "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him." Col. 1:16. "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." 1 Cor. 8:6. The world was therefore created by God through Jesus Christ.
CREATIVE power is preëminently the distinguishing mark of the true God. The Psalmist contrasts the idols worshiped by the nations with the true God in the following language: "Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands." "Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." Ps. 115:3, 4, 15. "The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He [the true God] hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion." Jer. 10:11, 12.
THE same thought is emphasized in the New Testament. When Paul and Barnabas would turn men from idolatry to the worship of the one true God, they appeal to the creative works of God as evidence of his existence. When the men of Lystra were about to render them worship, the apostles exclaimed: "Sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you [and so were the heathen gods], and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein," and the same God had not left himself without witness, but had given rain from heaven, with fruitful seasons. See Acts 14:11-17. And also at Athens Paul proclaimed the true God with the same characteristics. It was the "God that made the world and all things therein," the "Lord of heaven and earth," who "giveth to all life and breath and all things," in contrast to the multitude of gods worshiped by the Athenians. Throughout the Scriptures it is the same,—the God who created the heavens and the earth is the only true God.
IT would be most natural that this characteristic of the true God should be embodied in some memorial or institution which would constantly keep before his people and the world his true character. And such we have. Says the Psalmist, "He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered" (Ps. 111:4); and this memorial, we are told, is "throughout all generations." Ps. 135:13. But what is this memorial by which God has made his wonderful works to be remembered, which calls to mind the only true God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth? It is his holy Sabbath, the law of which shows its memorial character, as also the characteristics of the God who gave it:—
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day [the day of the Sabbath, the seventh] and hallowed it."
HERE was the memorial of God. Around and in that institution as it came from his hand in the beginning (Gen. 2:1-3) clustered all of the great facts of creation, all of the attributes of the Godhead—his love to man, and his wisdom and power exercised because of his love. Every recurring Sabbath would bring to man in an especial sense God's wondrous goodness in the life, home, and blessings which God had given; would reveal the wondrous wisdom of means to end, of perfect adaption of part to part, manifested in the unfolding revelation of God's will; would continually impress man with the wondrous power bestowed in creating and upholding all the rolling worlds: and this not only on the Sabbath day; for God is ever the same, and his immutable law demands a remembrance of the Sabbath day all through the week. As soon as one Sabbath was past the next one was to be remembered, and all plans laid with that in view, in order that it might be kept holy. And therefore all the days of the week were named or numbered with respect to the Sabbath, "Day One to [or into] the Sabbath," "Day Two to the Sabbath," etc. The Sabbath was the crown of the week, and the only reason for the week's existence.
THUS much for creation, the Creator and the memorial of his work. Man sinned, and lost his dominion, his purity, his life. Only Divine power, only Creative power, can restore what has been lost through sin; and therefore we have the two thoughts so frequently conjoined in Scripture. "In six days Jehovah made the heaven and the earth." Ex. 20:11. "I have made the earth, and created man upon it; I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens." "Israel shall be saved in Jehovah with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thou saith Jehovah that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited; I am Jehovah, and there is none else." "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." "In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." Isa. 45:12, 17, 18, 22, 25. "For I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." Isa. 43:3. "Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am Jehovah that maketh all things." Isa. 44:24. The above passages unmistakably declare that Creator and Redeemer and Saviour are one, and that God's creative power is pledged to redeem and save his people. Such proofs could be multiplied indefinitely.
THAT the salvation of man demands creative power is further evident from the fact that those who are saved are recreated, or created anew, by the very One who created the heavens and the earth. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10); "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness [or sanctification]" (4:24); "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [creation]" (2 Cor. 5:17). Therefore redemption is crea-162tion; the same power which was exercised to bring man into existence is exercised to redeem and save; for the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation." Rom. 1:16.
THEREFORE as God has "made his wonderful works to be remembered" (Ps. 111:4), as the memorial of those works is the seventh day, his Sabbath day (Ex. 20: 8-11), as that memorial is "throughout all generations" (Ps. 135:13), and as a part of the wonderful works of God is the recreation and restoration of what has been lost through sin, it follows that the Sabbath is the sign-token of God's power in redemption, the ever-present memorial of regeneration in him, "a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable." And this the Lord expressly declares: "And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God." "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctify them." Eze. 20: 20, 12. Here again is presented not only the thought that the Lord, the Creator, is the sanctifier of his people, but that he who sanctifies the Sabbath also sanctifies his people. Christ sanctifies his people by dwelling within them (Eph. 3:17; Gal. 2:20; John 17:17-19), and he sanctifies the seventh day by putting into it in an especial manner his own presence, making it holy unto the Lord (Isa. 58:13; Ex. 20:11). The Sabbath is, therefore, not only a memorial of creation but of recreation, a sign-token not only of the Lord Jesus Christ the Creator, but of the Lord Jesus Christ the Redeemer. And he who comes to know Christ for what Christ wants to be to his people will observe the memorial which Christ has given, and will turn from every counterfeit which Satan has sought to pass current. Reader, how do you stand?
THE BIBLE AND SPIRITUALISM.
A LEADING Spiritualist paper has the following:—
The only essential part of Spiritualism is the belief that the so-called dead can communicate with the living and really do so—the rest is accessory and may be admitted or not. Now, if there is anything in the Bible which is positively taught it is that part of Spiritualism. It teaches that the spirits of “the dead” return and manifest themselves to the living; it teaches clairvoyance in the ecstatic state; it teaches of healing by the spirit and finally the materialization of spirits. And indeed certain Spiritualists allege that the Bible is filled with Spiritualism and if you were to suppress this there would be nothing remaining but the covers of the Bible.
Without going so far as this, we say that the Bible contains a great proportion of Spiritualism, and surely those who believe as the orthodox do, that the Bible is the word of God addressed to man, would be forced to become Spiritualists. Take in the first place the Old Testament and see what a role the angels play in their descent upon the earth. Angels came to the side of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah. An angel saved Hagar and Ishmael, her child, in the desert.
Now right here is where Spiritualists entirely misapprehend the entire question. The Bible does teach spirit communication, or, as we prefer to state it, ministration of angels, but the spirits are not the spirits “of the dead.” Angels, whether good or evil, for there are both, are not dead people. They are a distinct order of beings, and existed before man and the earth were created, before man sinned or a soul died. See Job 38:4-7; Gen. 3:24. Some of these spiritual beings, led by Lucifer, “kept not their first estate,” and they are those which come to us in the guise of the dead to deceive. These in all past paganism have deified, deceived, deluded, and blinded millions to their own doom. The Bible clearly intimates that those who worship the dead, or engage in supposed ancestral worship, worship devils and not God. See Ps. 106:28, 36, 37; 1 Cor. 10:20. Against these deceptions God expressly warns his people and has ever warned them. See 1 Tim. 4:1-3; Rev. 16:13, 14; 2 Thess. 2:9; Deut. 18:9-11. Saul, the rejected king, failed to heed God’s warning and was deceived by the demon which came in the guise of Samuel.
That so-called “orthodox” people will inevitably do one of two things is evident. If they hold to the soul’s immortality and its conscious existence apart from the body, they will eventually become Spiritualists, and in fact many are already; though they deny the name, they hold the essential belief, and will inevitably be led to reject the religion of Christ for the religion of self. But if the Bible doctrine of man’s nature be accepted in truth, Modern Spiritualism must surely be rejected.
The whole doctrine is based on one utterance and one motive. The utterance is Satan’s falsehood, “Ye shall not surely die.” The motive is thoroughly selfish, “Ye shall be as God.” Gen. 3:4, Revised Version. This was the motive that actuated Satan in his rebellion against God. He said: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, . . . . I will be like the Most High.” Isa. 14:13, 14. It is by the same devilish ambition instilled into the hearts of men, the same principle of selfishness, that he has brought all the evil, woe, misery, and death into the world. It is by that first falsehood that every false system of religion, from the ancient sun worship to Roman Catholicism, has lived and does live to-day. It exalts man to deceive him. It dethrones, as far as wish can do, God, and exalts Satan and self in his place.
But the opposite exalts God and Christ Jesus, who revealed God as the One above all others, the Source of all good, of all life, of all righteousness, of all felicity and blessedness; and all these he will freely impart to him who simply trusts. He is “the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE.”
JOTTINGS FROM EUROPE.
By H. P. Holser
[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]
IN many respects, this has been a remarkable year for Europe. In the physical world the season started out very promisingly; but in many places the high hopes of a bountiful harvest were blasted by unusually heavy late frosts. This disaster was quickly followed by a general and severe drought; thousands of cattle were sold at less than one-fifth the usual value.
The social and industrial world have been even more disturbed. Long-continued coal miners’ strikes in England and on the Continent reached such a pass that the national governments had to interfere. During the first part of the year, the German Army Bill held the attention of all Europe; then the commercial treaty between France and Switzerland, and later that between Germany and Russia, gave rise to many unpleasant experiences, and led to commercial wars.
After a long and doubtful discussion, the military bill which increased the German army was barely passed; and scarce was this struggle over when the remarkable demonstration between Russia and France took place, making the insecurity of Germany seem more apparent than ever. And while at present struggling with the financial problem of how to support the present army, Germany is brought face to face with the hard question of another increase in her military forces. The empire is full of malcontents. The burden is already too heavy. Social Democrats and Anarchists are increasing, and the great question is, How can these elements be tamed and corrected?
Recently the synod of the national church met at Hannover. Emperor William was there a portion of the time, and gave audience to a committee from the synod. To this committee he expressed the belief that the attacks of the Anarchists on existing institutions could be combated only by the church, and expressed the hope that the State church would stand by him in this sense. Thus the history of the fourth century is very plainly repeating itself.163
Just now the German Empire is occupied with the repeal of the law of ’72 excluding foreign Jesuits. Last week the Reichstag took action on the question, and decided by a vote of 173 against 136 to repeal the law, and thus open the country once more to the Jesuits. This action is not final; it must yet pass the Imperial Council; but the probabilities are that it will pass. The feelings of the emperor, as expressed at Hannover, reveal the reason why.
The long-continued crisis of Italy is not yet ended. Last week a new cabinet was reported, but scarce was the news out when its fall was announced. Military expenses present the great obstacle so difficult to surmount. It seems almost impossible to do otherwise than lessen the army, but this the Triple Alliance will not suffer.
All these perplexities are the opportunity of the Papacy. While professing to be the only one capable of restoring peace, the pope is really encouraging some of the troublesome factors. It is generally believed that the pope is at the bottom of the recent Franco-Russian demonstration, his object being to weaken the Triple Alliance. He has by no means given up his long-cherished hope of temporal sovereignty.
Not long ago he gave audience to a deputation of one hundred, who presented to him a gold cross set with jewels. In the pope's remarks to the deputation are the following words: "May this cross be a witness of our never-faltering zeal to regain our freedom and independence. However great the number of our enemies may be, they can do nothing against the foundation stone on which the scepter of the Cæsars was dashed to pieces. The church will triumph through her martyrdom and patience." At the present rate of development the Papacy will not have long to wait to see the accomplishment of her long-cherished hope. On all hands she is gaining ground.
Affairs in Russia have also been on the steady march towards contributing their part of the last-day troubles. In consequence of the commercial war with Germany, the price of coal in Russia has been increased 70 per cent, making it impossible for factories to continue business. In addition to this the country has by no means recovered from the effects of the great famine, in consequence of which, in 47 governments, the farmers owe to the crown 183,619,723 rubles, and 16,000,000 quarts of grain. To this must be added unpaid taxes, which continue to accumulate. For the first time in three years the people had a fair harvest, and now they must sell their products at about half price, as exportation to Germany is closed. There is little hope for the farmers unless the government cancels a part of their debt and unpaid taxes.
These are but a few jottings of the many facts which one sees in Europe to-day. As stated at the beginning, this has been a most remarkable year for this part of the globe. Should matters continue in the same direction and at the same speed, who knows what another day may bring forth? Professor Palmieri, of the observatory on the side of Mt. Vesuvius, who has observed the volcano for forty years, believes that we may soon look for another remarkable eruption, perhaps in the year 1894. What he expects of Vesuvius we may expect of the nations; all things seem to be ready, except the sealing of the servants of God, and as soon as that shall have been accomplished, we may look for the great eruption. All these gathering elements of uncertainty, which cause men's hearts to fail them for fear of what is coming, cause the child of God to lift up his head and rejoice, for he knows by them that the great and glorious event, the appearing of the Son of Man, is at hand.
H. P. HOLSER.
The Watch Tower.
By Editor
“Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night.” Isa. 21:11, 12.
A WRITER in the Religio-Philosophical Journal, in stating the position of Spiritualists, or the Secular Union, to which many of them belong, says: “The undersigned believes in secular Sunday laws for the protection of labor from the grasping exactions of capital, and, judging from the demands of our secular societies, as above presented, he finds himself in very good company, and the day is far distant when all Sunday laws will be repealed.” Yes, it is; for all those who desire “secular Sunday laws” will please the “religious Sunday law” people. It is Sunday laws which are demanded, let them be called what they will, but when obtained they will ever be found to be religious and to be enforced by religious bigotry. Our Sunday-law friends have accused Adventists of being associated with infidels, Spiritualists, etc., but all except those who truly revere God’s word will be found at last on the Sunday side. They will receive the mark either in the forehead or in the hand.
The Parliament of Religions
It is thus that Rev. W. W. Faris, D.D., one of the editors of the Occident, speaks of the Parliament of Religions:—
“I have been asked these questions: ‘Will the Parliament of Religions in your judgment prove to have been beneficial or injurious to the world?’ Answer—Injurious. ‘In what do you look for this injury?’ Answer—The Parliament of Religions has done somewhat to obscure the majestic exclusiveness of Christianity; to give currency to the pernicious notion that information about religion has inherent moral force, apart from the sacred functions of appointed gospel agencies, the broadest and most important of all broad churchism, and thus to so conceal Christ in the disguise of an esoteric force that men will less easily find him as a personal Saviour.”
WHAT THE PAPACY HAS DONE FOR SPAIN
By Percy T. Magan
A REVIEW OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION IN CENTURY NINETEEN. NO. 8.
BY PERCY T. MAGAN.
WHAT THE PAPACY HAS DONE FOR SPAIN.
I SAID in a previous number of this paper that Rome ruined every country she ever ruled. This is even so. In no land on earth has Rome enjoyed such enormous power as in Spain. Of her power over the race of Israel in that peninsula, I have already spoken, and of her power over the Saracen invaders of Spain, I will speak later. Suffice to say at present that both of these unfortunate people were, by cruelties untold and unspeakable, driven out or killed. The last of the heretics was exterminated in 1612. Then says Buckle, the prince of historians:—
Now, for the first time, the church was really triumphant. For the first time there was not a heretic to be seen between the Pyrenees and the Straits of Gibraltar. All were orthodox, and all were loyal. Every inhabitant of that great country obeyed the church, and feared the king. And from this happy combination, it was believed that the prosperity and grandeur of Spain were sure to follow. The name of Philip III. was to be immortal, and posterity would never weary of admiring that heroic act by which the last remains of an infidel race were cast out from the land. Those who had even remotely participated in the glorious consummation, were to be rewarded by the choicest blessings. Themselves and their families were under the immediate protection of heaven. The earth should bear more fruit and the trees should clap their hands. Instead of the thorn should come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier, the myrtle. A new era was now inaugurated, in which Spain, purged of her heresy, was to be at ease, and men living in safety, were to sleep under the shade of their own vineyards, sow their gardens in peace, and eat the fruit of the trees they had planted.
These were the promises held out by the church, and believed by the people. It was164told how that now the arts, the commerce, the wealth and magnificence of Spain would flourish and increase as never before, ridden of the heretical Jew and the idolatrous Mohammedan. Her ships were to plow the seas and crowd the ports of other shores, her soldiers were to wreathe themselves with laurels of victory, till the sun should never set on her dominions, and all earth should do homage at the feet of her scepter of greatness.
But 1613 was the apex of the pinnacle of her power. In that boasted hour of her might—all heretics dead or driven out—the lowly Christian can hear, even at this late day, the death knell of her prestige and glory. Intolerance in religion was the policy of Rome. But “intolerance in religion” is a dire disease which eats into the vitals of all truth and progress, religious, industrial, commercial, and intellectual.
It was even so with Spain; from that very day her glory waned away till naught is left to-day but the mistiest shade of a shadow. The church had driven out the men who cultivated her rice and her cotton, and not being cultivated they grew no more. She had expelled from her borders those who had manufactured her silk and paper, and the ceaseless humming of the looms and buzzing of the mills no longer reverberated upon the breezes. The olives and the vines ceased to yield their increase, for they were neglected.
In the sixteenth century and early in the seventeenth, Spain enjoyed great repute for the manufacture of gloves, which were made in enormous quantities and shipped to many parts, being particularly valued in England and in France, and being also exported to the Indies. But Martinez de Mata, who wrote in the year 1655, assures us that at that time this source of wealth had disappeared, the manufacture of gloves having quite ceased, though formerly, he says, it had existed in every city in Spain.
In every department all power and life disappeared. The Spanish troops were defeated at Rocroy in 1643; and several writers ascribe to that battle the destruction of the military reputation of Spain. This however was only one of many symptoms. In 1556 it was proposed to fit out a small fleet; but the fisheries on the coasts had so declined that it was found impossible to find sailors enough to man even the few ships which were required. The charts which had been made were either lost or neglected; and the ignorance of the Spanish pilots became so notorious that no one was willing to trust them. As to the military service, it is stated, in an account of Spain, late in the seventeenth century, that most of the troops had deserted their colors, and that the few who were faithful were clothed in rags, and were dying of hunger. Another account describes that once mighty kingdom as utterly unprotected; the frontier towns ungarisoned; the fortifications delapidated and crumbling away; the magazines without ammunition; the arsenals empty; the workshops unemployed; and even the art of building ships entirely lost.
I might go on interminably, to show what papal power has done for Spain. It was ruin, ruin, ruin on every hand. To this condition was Spain brought by Roman Catholicism and the Inquisition. And in this terrible condition she is to-day. What news have the cables brought us from Spain during the last few months?—National bankruptcy, talk of a dictator and anarchy, her flag is almost unknown on the seas, her wares and fabrics crowd not the marts of the world. Not a solitary ring is heard from her intellectual anvils, if she has any; only a deathlike silence answers when her name is called in any department of knowledge.
I know of no more fitting words with which to close this sketch of Spain, the most finished product of the Roman Catholic machine, than those of Buckle in his superb portrayal of her deathlike lethargy:—
Content with what has been already bequeathed, they [the Spaniards] are excluded from that great European movement, which, first clearly perceptible in the sixteenth century, has ever since been steadily advancing, upsetting old opinions, destroying old follies, reforming and improving on every side, influencing even such barbarous countries as Russia and Turkey, but leaving Spain unscathed. While the human intellect has been making the most prodigious unheard-of strides, while discoveries in every quarter are simultaneously pressing upon us, and coming in such rapid and bewildering succession that the strongest sight, dazzled by the glare of their splendor, is unable to contemplate as a whole; while other discoveries still more important, and still more remote from ordinary experience, are manifestly approaching, and may be seen looming in the distance, whence they are now obscurely working on the advanced thinkers who are nearest to them, filling their minds with those ill-defined, restless, and almost uneasy feelings which are the invariable harbingers of future triumph; while the veil is being rudely torn, and nature, violated at all points, is forced to disclose her secrets, and reveal her structure, her economy, and her laws to the indomitable energy of man; while Europe is ringing with the noise of intellectual achievements; . . . while, amidst this general din and excitement, the public mind, swayed to and fro, is tossed and agitated,—Spain sleeps on, untroubled, unheeding, impassive, receiving no impressions from the rest of the world, and making no impressions upon it. There she lies at the further extremity of the Continent, a huge and torpid mass, the sole representative now remaining of the feelings and knowledge of the Middle Ages. And what is the worst symptom of all she is satisfied with her own condition. . . . All these things conspiring together, produce in their aggregate that melancholy exhibition to which we give the collective name of Spain.
This is what Rome has done for Spain, and, as I intend to show in the next number of this paper, this is what she will most certainly do for the United States.
WHY THE LABORING MAN DOES NOT ATTEND CHURCH.
By W. E. Cornell
BY W. E. CORNELL.
THERE is a marked class distinction between the rich and the poor in the popular churches of to-day. The equality of the gospel, which the Master proclaimed should exist between his followers, is there only in theory. The working people of the middle classes are losing their interest in the church, and the church is fast losing its hold on these people. The natural result is just what we see about us on every hand,—a disposition on the part of the professed Christians to compel these people to do unwillingly what they will not do of their own free will.
A case in point occurred in Milwaukee, Wis., lately, where the pastor of the Farwell Avenue Methodist Church invited Ex-Congressman Smith, as a leading representative of the laboring classes of that city, to state his opinion freely as to why the laboring men were not in sympathy with the church. The congregation was four times its wonted size. The meeting was opened by the pastor, Rev. Naylor, who read the sermon on the mount, and then introduced Mr. Smith, who said:—
I have listened with pleasure to the reading of that wonderful sermon on the mount, and the old question has come to me, as it comes to the working people daily, and as it has come to me whenever I've read that—for I read it often, I assure you—Why has the church not lived up to the teachings of that sermon?
It is strange, is it not, that, after preaching the Nazarene for 1,800 years, the church has to ask why the laboring men are not in sympathy with it. My friends, the laboring classes have not left the church, but the church has left the laboring classes. I've been in the church myself. You may not think it true, but I have taught a Sunday school class in this city, though for thirty-five years I have not attended church. Fifty years ago, when I first came here, we all attended church on an equal footing. After a few years, when some men grew wealthy in the churches, this equality disappeared. I felt myself gradually shoved to the wall and finally out of the church door. The laboring classes know this spirit of inequality exists, and they have little respect for the results of your churchly (I say churchly instead of Christian) teachings. What are the results? I'll tell you—here Mr. Smith held up his left hand and with his right he dramatically counted off the results on his fingers—they are a Rockefeller, a 36-foot gun, and the tramp.
It is not in this country alone that these results of churchly teaching were seen. In Europe there are 10,000,000 men training for war, learning how skillfully to take the lives of their fellows. Is that following the teachings of the Nazarene? When Peter smote off an ear from the servant of the high priest, Christ bade him put up his sword. He did not teach war and bloodshed; but with every regiment of those armed nations there is a clergyman who prays that his side may be successful in murdering the enemy. It is plain that the church has gone far away from the teachings of its Master, and in so far as they have, they have got out of sympathy with the laboring man.
And thus for nearly an hour Mr. Smith poured hot shot into the camp. At its close the pastor said that he could not agree with Mr. Smith in all he said, but must admit that he had pointed out some existing evils; and he hoped his church would meet the laboring man on the equality that was the ground of simple Christianity.
GOD'S SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR TO-DAY.
By Eliza H. Morton
BY ELIZA H. MORTON.
To-DAY God has a special truth for men,
E'en as in days before the flood, e'en as
When John the Baptist preached with power, e'en as
When Luther charged against the hosts of sin.
The law divine must be restored and kept,
And Christ must live his life within the hearts
Of men. And, lo! we see the message speed,
Going to all the earth with wondrous power.
It gathers in its wake the humble ones,
The earnest souls who long to see the light,
And angels work with men and point the way
To those who hunger for the bread of life.
E'en like an avalanche, which gathers strength
As on it rushes to the vale, so swells
The mighty cry which heralds Christ to come;
So moves the great reform which just precedes
The end of time. The work is not of men.
And men, though wrought upon by Satan and
His hosts, cannot prevent, cannot retard,
That which was long ago foretold. We gaze
With awe, we tremble, we adore, and yet
We sing a song of praise. Our hearts are touched
As we are led, perchance, by unseen hands,
To thirsty souls who welcome us with tears.
Oh, blessed privilege to work with God!
Oh, blessed labor, though we see not here
In full the fruits of toil! We soon shall see,
We soon shall know. We soon shall strike a note
Of gladness sweeter far than we have dreamed.
Fade, earthly joys. Grow dim, O fleeting years!
We cast our all into the ark of faith.