Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 21. (5/21/1901)

Review and Herald

May 21, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1901

THE NEED OF A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE

The words of the apostle Paul to Timothy, “Take heed unto thyself, and to the doctrine,” may be addressed to every member of the Church of God. We are not half awake. The enemy is watching for an opportunity to take God’s standard from the hands of His people, and place there his own standard; but they discern it not. The call comes, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God.” It is high time for us to awake out of sleep, to cast off the armor of Satan, and call upon Him who never slumbers nor sleeps. The Lord desires men and women to break their connection with the enemy, and link up with Christ. The mistakes of the past have been enough. Through them minds have been confused, precious opportunities have been neglected,

and time, which is of more value than gold, has been wasted. We need now strong evidence that the Lord is with us of a truth. We need to consecrate ourselves and all we have to the service of God.

In every church there is need of a spiritual awakening; for many who profess to be Christ’s servants are obeying the dictates of a natural heart. They do not the works of God. They have not a saving faith in Him whom the Father hath sent. Oh, if they could only understand that by their waywardness, their inconsistency, their half-hearted service, they are denying their Redeemer and putting Him to open shame!

There are many who do not possess that faith in Christ which would constitute them lights in the world. They are satisfied to stand on a low level. To them the Saviour says, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

Important events are about to take place. While the world is asking in scorn, “Where is the promise of His coming?” the signs are rapidly fulfilling. While men are crying, “Peace and safety,” sudden destruction is coming. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth, and calamity is following calamity by land and by sea. Tempests and earthquakes, fires and floods, are heard of on every hand. Only in God can security be found.

Those whom God has made the depositaries of sacred truth are to stand in a pure atmosphere. Few of those who profess to be the people of God are wearing Christ’s yoke and lifting His burdens. Few are regarded by the heavenly intelligences as laborers together with God. Many who claim to be Christians have very shadowy ideas of what the name “Christian” comprehends.

The kingdom of Christ will come; but who are laboring to that end? If those who know the Lord’s prayer would try to take in its meaning and realize its depth and breadth, the Church would be what God desires it to be—the light of the world. Men would have less desire for form and ceremony; for they would seek to plant in the heart those principles that sanctify the character.

Only when the Church is composed of pure, unselfish members, can it fulfill God’s purpose. Too much hasty work is done in adding names to the church roll. Serious defects are seen in the characters of some who join the church. Those who admit them say, We will first get them into the church, and then reform them. But this is a mistake. The very first work to be done is the work of reform. Pray with them, talk with them, but do not allow them to unite with God’s people in church relationship until they give decided evidence that the Spirit of God is working on their hearts.

Many of those whose names are registered on the church books are not Christians. They have not a genuine experience. If they were copying their Pattern, they would pray more and quarrel less. They would strive to be laborers together with God. Their sincere faith in Christ would lead to entire dependence on Him and perfect co-operation with Him.

Christ is followed by the earnest, the true, the faithful, the meek, and the pure, while angels clothed with the panoply of heaven stand by to guard and enlighten them, for they are heaven-bound. But there are those who are often heard talking doubt and unbelief, and dwelling upon the terrible struggles they have had with infidel feelings. They talk of the discouraging features of their experience. This affects their faith and courage. At times they seem to enjoy talking over the arguments of the infidel, thus strengthening their unbelief.

What is the reason of this darkness, this doubt and unbelief?—These men are not right with God, and they are not dealing honestly and truly with their own souls. They have neglected to cultivate personal piety. They have not separated themselves from selfishness and sin. They have failed to study Christ’s life of self-denial and self-sacrifice. They have failed to imitate His purity and devotion. The sin which so easily besets them has been strengthened by cultivation. By their own negligence they have separated themselves from the company of the divine Leader, and He is a day’s journey in advance of them. For their associates they have chosen the indolent, the backsliding, the unbelieving, the unthankful, the unholy; and evil angels are their attendants. What wonder is it that such are in darkness? What wonder is it that they are filled with doubt?

Such persons do not possess a religion that is pure and undefiled. Their religion is a religion of circumstances, a religion which the refining fires will wholly consume. If those around them are strong in faith and courage, if no influence is brought to bear against them, they are, to all appearance, strong in the faith. But let adversity come upon the cause, let the work drag heavily, and these souls lose faith, and hinder instead of helping. When apostasy and rebellion come, their voices are not raised in encouragement, saying, “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.”

This class should cultivate love for God and for secret prayer. The promise is sure, “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.” It will not be received with doubt and hesitancy. The heart will be filled with an assurance that will put to flight all doubt and questioning.

The light that is shining upon us with ever-increasing brightness keeps us under obligation to use every power in God’s service. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, seeking to find out how we can best glorify God in the use of our endowments.

It is the duty of every Christian to vindicate the honor of God by winning souls to Christ. But where are the missionaries to answer the

calls that come from all parts of the world?

Only those who place themselves in Christ’s school, only those who are willing to lift His cross, can be successful missionaries. Men who can be depended on in the church, who understand its wants, who strive to keep its members true to God; men who pray and keep themselves pure from the defilement of sin, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh; men who do not leave God out of their reckoning,—these are the men whom God can use.

IN THE HEART OF THE WOODS

By Margaret E. Sangster

Such beautiful things in the heart of the woods! Flowers and ferns and the soft green moss; Such love of the birds in the solitudes, Where the swift wings glance and the tree-tops toss; Spaces of silence, swept with song, Which nobody hears but the God above; Spaces where myriad creatures throng, Summing themselves in His guarding love.

Such safety and peace in the heart of the woods, Far from the city's dust and din, Where passion nor hate of man intrudes, Nor fashion nor folly has entered in, Deeper than hunter's trail hath gone, Glimmers the tarn where the wild deer drink; And fearless and free comes the gentle fawn, To peep at herself o'er the grassy brink.

Such pledge of love in the heart of the woods! For the Maker of all things keeps the least, And over the tiny floweret broods, With care that for ages has never ceased. If He cares for this, will He not for thee— Thee, wherever thou art to-day? Child of an infinite Father, see— And safe in such gentlest keeping stay.

—Margaret E. Sangster.

A REPRESENTATIVE COMPANY

By A. Smith

A. SMITH (Grandville, Mich.)

“And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” This same company is finally seen standing on Mount Zion in heaven, and it is said of them that they were redeemed from among men, and that they follow the Lamb (Christ) whithersoever He goeth. Rev. 14: 1-5. They are to visit all the worlds, and view the works of God. See “Early Writings,” page 33.

Our world is the only place in the universe where sin has entered. The inhabitants of the other worlds have heard of, but have never experienced, the terrible consequence of sin. Jesus will go with this redeemed people to those worlds, that their inhabitants may see with their own eyes a company of those whom He has redeemed.

Every class and condition of men, women, and children must be represented. It will evidently take one hundred and forty-four thousand different experiences to embrace all human conditions in this world of sin. There will have been experiences of excruciating suffering from disease, and examples of as robust health as mortal man can possess. There will be examples of opulence and wealth, of weakness and dire poverty. There will be representatives of the noble and respectable as viewed by man, and of the lowest and most depraved. They will be gathered from every nation and color and condition, and of all languages,—a company redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and beautiful in their robes of righteousness and crowns of glory, which only the royal sons and daughters of heaven’s King can wear.

You may not know just now why you are having so many trials that your life seems little more than a failure; but Jesus may be giving you an experience that He is giving to no other, that you may have something to tell in other worlds about the discouragements and difficulties over which Christ has given you the victory.

Arise in the strength of Israel’s God, and assert your prerogative as a son or daughter of the heavenly King. Do not bow down your head and murmur; but rise above ill feelings and discouragements, and triumph in Christ. The Lord will want no person in that company who cannot tell of victories won. The command is, “Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”

If you do not fill the place that God wishes you to in that company, remember that He will not give you a place of your own choosing, but will have to reject you entirely, and delay His coming till He can find some one who will be willing to take your place. Do not throw away your crown, or surrender your place in the ranks of that chosen people. They are to sing a song before the throne of God that no others in heaven can sing. It will be a song of victory. See Rev. 14: 1-3; 15: 2-4. Will you join in that anthem of redemption?

ATTRACTING POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

By B. E. Tefft

B. E. TEFFT (Davenport, Iowa)

The Father and Son are in perfect union. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in perfect union. In the plan of salvation it has been ordained that this union should not be complete without the human agent—the union of Spirit with flesh.

The Son is subject to the Father, the Holy Spirit to the Son, and thus to the Father, and likewise the human agent, in being subject to the Holy Spirit, is subject to the Father and Son. If the Son should cease to be subject to the Father, or the Holy Spirit to the Father or the Son, the union would be broken, and the power derived from the Father would be lost. While this condition will never exist, a condition no less disastrous to man often exists.

When the human agent ceases to be subject to the Holy Spirit, and tries to subject the Spirit to himself, the perfect grade of control is changed, the union is broken, and the power lost to the man. By refusing to be controlled by the Spirit, he places himself outside of that union in which is all power. Satan is constantly seeking, by every strategem and artifice known to his experience, cunning, and power, to break

this union; for he knows that so long as man is in the union, and thus connected with “all power,” his efforts against him are useless.

The mind of God is revealed through the Spirit by “the Word,” and thus disobedience to the Word destroys the union. But when man from the heart obeys the Word, it is his privilege to pray for the Holy Spirit, and to believe that he receives the Spirit. Physically, he may seem to be the same man he was before, but he now has a power that he did not have before,—the power to do something for the Lord.

Here is a magnet and a piece of iron. Bring the iron in contact with the magnet. The iron does not look any different from what it was before; it weighs no more, nor is it in any physical or chemical sense changed; and yet it has a new power; namely, that of attracting other pieces of iron. So the human agent, brought under control and in vital contact with the Holy Spirit, will have the power of attracting other souls to Christ.

BUSINESS

The King's Messenger

DOES the Holy Spirit desire us to engage in the active business life, or the rather to withdraw into solitude, separation, quietude, away from the noise and clattering of the machinery of worldly strife?

This is the question that is pressing upon many anxious, earnest hearts that desire and design to follow. What are we to do in relation to business? Is it possible to engage in the business of to-day, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, and love God with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves? What is to be done?

The Holy Ghost is the God of business, the God of affairs. He has to do with creation, and with all the works of God. He comes into the heart, and molds the life, not to make it inert, inactive, and lazy, but to augment its powers and increase its activity, adaptability, and usefulness. He comes in to be made unto us wisdom, to cause us to be diligent in business, and to work together with Him in the work of the age. He comes into our heart to make it not only His temple, His armory, His arsenal, but His manufactory as well; His abiding, accounting, and developing place of abode.

The God of business desires the man or woman of business to enter into a co-partnership with Him; so we may be workers together. He delights to make business men and women; so the more intimate we are with Him, the more adapted we are to do business for and with Him for the benefit of our fellow men. He will eliminate selfishness from business,—we will do business not to get rich, not to accumulate wealth, not to secure honor nor achieve success; but our eye will be single, and we will do business in, for, and with Him for others of our own and of distant lands. We will gather to scatter, we will use to bless.

We have no right to hide the talent in a napkin, and bury it in the earth. We are to use and increase its usefulness for the glory of God in the good of men. A Holy Ghost business life is a most blessed and desirable life, giving active play to all your faculties, bringing out the latent powers, developing, strengthening, and enlightening us, and bringing us into sweetening relationships to God and man, making our own lives sublime by the constant contact, the needed friction, and the continual testing.

Business men for God! for God is for business men. Cast all your care on Him. He careth for you. Do business without care, or anxiety, or worry, so we may do business for God. He needs, wants, desires, unsordid, unselfish business people that He may use, prosper, bless, so that He may lift business life out of the plane in which it has fallen, to a higher, holier, heartier position, and make a business life in keeping with the occupation of the Son of God, whose life was summed up in the sentence, “He went about doing good.”

Knowledge From God and Experience

By S. O JAMES

The knowledge we get from what others say, may be good; but that which we get from what God and our own experience tell us, is the best we can have. S. O JAMES.

ALWAYS IN A HURRY

By Priscilla Leonard

I know a little maiden who is always in a hurry; She races through her breakfast to be in time for school, She scribbles at her desk in a hasty sort of flurry, And comes home in a breathless whirl that fills the vestibule.

She hurries through her studying, she hurries through her sewing, Like an engine at high pressure, as if leisure were a crime; She's always in a scramble, no matter where she's going; And yet — would you believe it? — she never is in time.

It seems a contradiction until you know the reason; But I'm sure you'll think it simple, as I do, when I state That she never has been known to begin a thing in season, And she's always in a hurry because she starts too late.

— Priscilla Leonard, in the Churchman.

“KNOCKING, WAITING, O ’HOW FAIR!”

By Mrs. A. W. Heald

MRS. A. W. HEALD (Windham, N. H.)

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” The Saviour here represents himself as waiting for admission to the inmost heart, seeking an entrance, that He may bring to us a divine blessing. How attentive we should be, that we may hear when God speaks to us! If discord, strife, or self-love are permitted to reign in the heart, we shall fail to recognize the “still small voice.”

God speaks to us in various ways, but mostly through the written Word. When we read the Scriptures with a receptive mind, some passage will often arrest the attention, causing us to pause, reread, and ponder. In this way the Holy Spirit teaches us a lesson of present duty, comfort, or blessing.

Again: God speaks to us by His providential dealings. Through affliction and adversity, He would soften the hard heart, and humble the proud, leading us to look above and beyond these earthly scenes if we would secure true happiness. A prosperous life and unnumbered blessings should awaken in us a sense of deepest gratitude to the Author and Giver of all good.

God speaks to us also through the wonderful works of nature. Happy is he who has the seeing eye, and the hearing ear, to learn of the loving Father through His great creative power. There are constant lessons for us, if we will but observe them. He who gives purity to the lily springing from the blackest soil, can cleanse the heart from every stain of sin, making it a fit temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

How eagerly we should open every avenue of our being to the divine Guest, who pleads in all these ways. May God help us to hear His voice, and to open the door, that He may come in and sup with us, and we with Him!

The Twins’ Dark Birthday

It was the morning of the twins’ tenth birthday, May 19, 1780, and they were sitting together on the door-stone, finishing their breakfast of porridge and milk, into which a spoonful of molasses had been stirred in honor of this anniversary.

“Grandsir’” was dozing in the chimney corner in the large kitchen behind them; their mother sat close to the eastern window, spinning thread for Paul’s coat; Keturah, the maid, was in the pantry, skimming the milk; Oliver, the man, was in the field, plowing; and their father was in the army, fighting bravely and hopefully.

The children had straw-colored hair of the same shade, and blue eyes, and when they stood up against the kitchen door to be measured, one mark always served for both of them; but here the resemblance ended, for Patience was strong and rosy, while Paul was weak and pale.

“It rained a little this morning,” said Paul, tasting his porridge with his pewter spoon, “and it thundered before I was awake.”

“How did you know it when you were asleep?” asked Patience, showing the dimples in both cheeks.

“I felt it,” answered Paul. “What made us sleep so late this morning, do you suppose?”

“It must be early,” replied Patience, glancing up at the cloudy sky. “The sun hasn’t risen yet, and the clock must be wrong,” turning to look at the tall clock in the corner of the kitchen, whose hands pointed to a quarter of nine.

Suddenly there was an exclamation from the pantry, and the sound of breaking earthenware.

“I thought the grandsir’ had set himself afire again,” cried Keturah, running to the old man’s chair, “I smelt fire so strong; and I turned and dropped the milk-dish.”

“There is a strange, smoky smell, and grandsir’ is unusually drowsy this morning. I wish we could have a good heavy shower to clear the atmosphere; for I want to finish Paul’s coat to-day, and I can scarcely see to sew now. Just run out, and turn the linen on the grass, children; I want it to be nice and white; for when it is bleached, I shall make it into shirts for your father, though the war may be over and he at home before that time, please God.”

Leaving their wooden bowls on the door-stone, the children ran across the damp grass.

“It is all smutty and dirty,” cried Patience, lifting up one end of the long piece of linen.

“So it is,” replied Paul, bending over it. “It looks as if some one had brushed down the chimney back, and then shaken the brush over the linen. Keturah will have to wash it.”

“Keturah! Keturah! Come and look, Keturah!” they called.

Keturah came and looked at the soiled linen, then she rubbed it in her fingers and smelled of it, and then she looked straight up into the clouds.

“It rained down,” she declared; “there’s been woods afire, and the rain was full of burnt leaves. That must be why the sun has been so red for two or three days, and why he shows himself so little to-day.”

Running to the barrel of rain water at the end of the house, she dipped her large, red hand into the water.

“Just the same,” she muttered, smelling of it. “Curious! curious!”

“What makes the birds twitter so?” asked Patience. “See! they are all flying to the woods, and singing, just as they do at night. And hear how the roosters are crowing!”

“Perhaps they think it will rain,” returned Keturah, glancing at the clouds, with a startled face. “The clouds are breaking away, but it doesn’t get any lighter. I wonder what your marm thinks now.”

“How green the grass looks!” exclaimed Paul.

“Green!” repeated Patience; “why, it’s as blue as blue can be.”

“As blue as indigo,” added Keturah, perplexed.

“What crooked eyes you both have!” cried Paul. “O mother, how does the grass look to you?” he asked as the mother came to the door with a grave face.

“A most beautiful green,” she answered. “I never saw anything more lovely; but in the corners it has a bluish appearance; it is very strange when there is so little light. But run down the lane, children, and see what ails the sheep; they are bleating as if they were in trouble.”

“Take hold of my hand if you want to,” invited Paul; and, afraid, they knew not why, they clasped hands and ran toward the meadow bars.

“The hens are going to roost,” said Paul, as they passed the henhouse. “They never went to roost in the morning before.”

“Hurry!” cried Patience. “The cows are lowing as if they wanted to be milked.”

At the bars they found an impatient group; the cows were trying to jump over the stone wall, and the sheep were huddled together, bleating piteously.

“Perhaps they got frightened by bears,” suggested Patience.

“Then I’ll open the bars,” said Paul, beginning to draw aside the heavy rails. “Stand back, Patty.”

Patience had scarcely time to obey his caution before the cows rushed past her, closely followed by the frightened sheep.

“I’ll leave the bars open,” decided Paul, “because it tires me to put them up, and Oliver is coming this way with the oxen. I wonder if he thinks it is dinner time? Nobody blew the horn for him.”

“They are going right straight into their pen,” announced Patience, looking after the hurrying sheep, “and the cows have gone into their shed. And oh, how dark it grows! Let us run!”

At the door they found their mother watching for them; and when they entered the kitchen, they saw Keturah lighting a candle at the fireplace.

“When I couldn’t see to read the almanac in the forenoon, in a room with two windows, I thought it was proper time to light a candle,” she observed, as she straightened herself.

“And now I’ll have my supper and go to bed,” the great-grandfather said, sleepily, rubbing his eyes with his trembling fingers.

“But it is only the forenoon, grandsir’,” exclaimed Patience, standing at his side and shouting into his ear, “and we are to have Indian dumplings boiled in the pot for dinner. We only light the candle because a thunder-shower is coming up, and that makes the sky so dark,” she added, looking into her mother’s face for confirmation to her words.

“I do not know what it is, child,” answered the mother, “but God will take care of us, whatever it is.”

“A dark day?” inquired the great-grandfather, with his hand up to his ear. “I remember all about—that—that—happened in—the year—seven-teen—hundred—and—sixteen. We did not—know—what it was,—dark—dark—all day. Never—knew—what it was. Never knew—what it was,” he repeated, sinking back in his chair and closing his eyes.

“What’s that?” asked Paul, as several small objects were apparently thrown in at the door.

“’Tis the day of judgment of ungodly men come at last,” howled Keturah, dropping down on the hearth-rug, and covering her face with her apron.

“Only some poor little sparrows,” said the mother, picking them up from the floor.

“Poor little things!” echoed Patience, receiving them in her pinafore. “Three are dead,” she said, touching them tenderly; “but these two have their hearts beating. Oh, how fast they do beat!”

“It is a bad omen for birds to come in the house. They never come to do nobody no good. Oh, hawk! we shall all be swallowed up,” groaned Keturah.

“Not by the birds,” smiled the mother. “Lay the dead ones in the grass, Paul, and put the others in a warm, quiet place where they can revive. They were attracted by the light.”

Dropping the dead birds on the grass near the door-stone, Paul gave a hasty glance around; all out-of-doors was quiet and dark and solemn, the lights that were beginning to gleam here and there in the neighboring farmhouses appearing strangest of all.

“We are all bewitched together,” declared Oliver, entering the kitchen behind Paul, and closing the door as if something frightful were following him. “I don’t know whether I’m in this world or the next, and may the Lord have mercy on my poor soul.”

“Sit down and rest, Oliver,” said the mother, motioning him to the settee in the chimney corner. “The sun will shine brightly to-morrow, I trust. This darkness is caused by a peculiar state of the atmosphere.”

“A very peculiar state of the atmosphere, marm,” repeated Oliver, wiping the cold perspiration from his face. “Most days, in the morning the shadders fall to the west, and in the afternoons they fall to the east; but to-day the shadders fell every way, and that’s what scared me first, to have natur’ turn agin me so. And then the mist riz straight up out of the springs, and spread in a big red cloud, and then another lot of mist riz right up under that and made a green cloud, and then another white cloud came out of them same springs, and they all sailed off together, one on top the other, to the west, and finally got mixed up with the dark clouds.”

“Very strange and beautiful,” commented the mother, unrolling the cloth of her own weaving upon the table, and proceeding to cut out Paul’s coat with her sharp shears.

“Strange enough, as you may say, marm,” continued Oliver, his uneasiness lessening in the importance of the wonderful story he had to tell. “And Eben Strong, he came along on horseback, and he said a mountain has grown up betwixt us and the sun, and we shall always live in the dark. And Seth Rider told him he thought the British has smashed us all up, and this is the sign of it. And some folks do say,” lowering his voice, “that General Washington is dead.”

(Concluded next week.)

CHAPTER AND VERSE

By I. D. House

I. D. HOUSE

(Hokah, Minn.)

It is well known that the Bible was not divided into chapters and verses, with the exception of the Psalms, until a few centuries ago; but the reason for dividing it is probably not so well known.

The first attempt at dividing the Scriptures was by the Jews, at an early date. Later, they were divided by the Christians. We are indebted to Cardinal Hugo for the first concordance, and the present numbering of the chapters, which he completed about the middle of the thirteenth century. The division of the Old Testament into verses was made at a later date by a Jewish rabbi, named Isaac Nathan. Robert Stephens, a printer who died at Genoa in 1559, is said to have divided the New Testament into verses. The following on this subject is quoted from Kitto’s “History of the Bible:”—

“The carrying on of this work [Bible Commentary] gave him [Hugo] the occasion of inventing the first ‘Concordance’ that was made of the Scriptures,—that is, of the vulgar Latin Bible,—for, conceiving that such an index of all the words and phrases in the Bible would be of great use for the attaining of a better understanding of it, he projected a scheme for the making of such an index, and forthwith set a great number of the monks of his order, on the collecting of the words under their proper classes in every letter in the alphabet, in order to this design; and, by the help of so many hands, he soon brought it to what he intended. This work was afterward much improved. . . . But the whole intention of the work being for the finding of any word or passage in the Scriptures, to make it answer this purpose, the cardinal found it necessary, in the first place, to divide the book into sections, and the sections into other divisions, that by these he might better make the references, and more exactly point out in the index where any word or passage might be found in the text; and these sections are the chapters into which the Bible has ever since been divided.”

“For on the publishing of this concordance, the usefulness of it being immediately discerned, all were desirous to have it; and, for the sake of the use of it, they all divided their Bibles as Hugo had done; for the references in the ‘Concordance’ being made by these chapters and the subdivisions of them, unless their Bibles were so divided, too, the Concordance would be of no use to them.”

Whatsoever He Saith to You, Do It

“THE teaching of the Word is, ‘Whatsoever He saith to you, do it.’ But the devil’s version reads, ‘Whatsoever He saith to you, delay it.’”

LIFE'S EVENTIDE

By Mary D. Brine

Dear old grandmother, sitting alone, In the gathering gloom of the dying day, Lays down her Bible, the while her thoughts Go roving over the past away. Oh, back they fly to the olden time, When the morning of life was bright and fair, And the gay young heart for the present lived, Nor gave to the future a thought of care.

“’Twas a merry morning that dawned for me, And God was good, and my life was glad,” Dear grandmother thinks; “and ’twas all for the best When shadows at moontide made me sad.”

Then quickly creep to the aged eyes The tears that are born of memories drear, As grandmother thinks of the missing ones, Now lying asleep in the churchyard near.

There have been long hours of grief and pain, But others have followed with sunshine filled; And many a murmur of discontent The remembrance of blessings has quickly stilled.

“Ah, yes,” thinks grandmother, “life itself Is an April day of changeable skies; One moment we laugh with the sunbeams gay, The next there are tears in our weary eyes.

“But the gracious Lord, with His tender love, Has brought me safe to the eventide; And I fear not night with its chill and gloom, For I know He is standing my life beside, Standing with arms outstretched and true, While I wait His time for the sleep of rest; And presently, when the day is o’er, I shall lie forever on Jesus’ breast.” —Mary D. Brine.

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