Your ShelfYour Projects

Review and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 58.

I Shall Not Want

Review and Herald

Nov 23, 1916

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 23, 1916

“I Shall Not Want”

By G. Henderson

WHAT is that “I shall not want”? The finger of faith runs over the keyboard, and brings out eleven distinct notes. Listen to them: —
I shall not want rest, for he maketh me to lie down.
I shall not want refreshment, for he leads me by still waters.
I shall not want guidance, for he leadeth me.
I shall not want peace, for I will fear no evil.
I shall not want companionship, for thou art with me.
I shall not want comfort, for thy rod and staff comfort me.
I shall not want sustenance, for thou preparest a table.
I shall not want joy, for thou anointest my head.
I shall not want anything, for my cup runneth over.
I shall not want happiness now, for goodness and mercy follow me.
I shall not want glory hereafter, for I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
— G. Henderson.

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press
— The grasshopper is the most destructive of all insects, which, when in normal condition, consumes in one day ten times its weight in vegetation.
— The European war to date has cost all belligerents about $60,000,000,000, not counting destroyed property and pension obligations originating from the war.
— Members of the Vegetable Growers’ Association of America, in convention recently at Chicago, announced that an odorless onion would soon be put on the market.
— There are about 8,000,000 foreign-born persons living in the United States today. Of these, the Federal Bureau of Education reports, nearly 1,500,000 adult males are unable to speak the English language.
— The ukulele, a pseudo-Hawaiian musical instrument invented by a Portuguese, has jumped into great popularity in this country. The Department of Commerce reports that the American demand is so great that Hawaiian manufacturers are now turning out 1,600 instruments a month.
— Virginia joined the sisterhood of prohibition States on November 1, when the Mapp act, prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits, except by bonded drug stores, and throwing stringent restrictions around their shipment, became effective. About six hundred and fifty liquor dealers will close their doors.
— The after-dinner cigars smoked by Pierpont Morgan cost $1.25 apiece. They are obtained from a Cuban factory, and were ordered in lots of from 5,000 to 6,000. Most of these superfine smokes are made by one man, who is paid forty cents each for rolling them. His average day’s output is about twenty-five.
— Wisconsin convicts are receiving lessons by mail in a correspondence school conducted by the State University. Many of the prisoners who are thus seeking to better their condition after they are liberated, are studying mechanical engineering, and others are taking courses in Spanish and French.
— Secretary Baker has inaugurated a new system of recruiting for the army. He divides the country into districts, and notifies the officer in charge that he must recruit at least one man for each one thousand people in his district. By this plan the War Department hopes to enlist at least 100,000 men as a “starter” for “preparedness.”
— Joseph Hartigan, Commissioner of Weights and Measures, says the 30,000 bakers in New York City are uniting in a petition to the United States government to stop the export of wheat. The commissioner says the wheat crop is 400,000,000 bushels short, and if its export is not quickly stopped, the price of bread will go up 100 per cent by January 1. He says the people all over the country will join the New York bakers, and the slogan will be heard everywhere, “Feed America first.”
— A petition two and one-half miles long, bearing the signatures of more than 150,000 persons, was recently presented to the English Parliament by representatives of Ulster County, Ireland. The petitioners besought the government to prohibit the sale of liquor in England and Ireland until six months after the war.
— The Denver mint is working day and night to supply the demands for nickels and pennies that are flooding the Treasury Department. More than $10,000 in nickels and $2,000 in pennies are turned out every day. Authorities state that such unusual calls for small coins indicate brisk trade and prosperous times.
— Ida Elionski on a recent Sunday swam around Manhattan Island, a distance of about forty miles. She did it in eleven hours and thirty-five minutes. This is said to be the greatest swimming feat ever performed. She was followed by a boatload of reporters, who were there to see that the performance was a genuine one.
— The cholera epidemic continues to spread throughout Japan, despite the efforts of the doctors to combat it. The newspapers have been prohibited from publishing statistics of the total number of cases, but these are now estimated to be several thousand. All the ports are affected, and shipping is seriously hampered. The disease is believed to have been propagated by refuse thrown into the sea from a steamer which had cholera cases on board.
— As a result of investigations by more than six hundred chemists who have been working for a number of weeks endeavoring to determine the best use for the buildings and machines belonging to the Du Pont Powder Company, the company has decided, when the war is over, to turn them into plants for making dyes, provided ample assurance of protection can be obtained from the government. The buildings and equipment are valued at $60,000,000.
— Monday, October 9, the anniversary of the great fire which in 1871 reduced the greater part of the city of Chicago to ashes, destroyed its entire business center, and caused a property loss of about $190,000,000, was set apart as “Fire-Prevention Day,” devoted to “cleaning-up” and fire-prevention measures, and the consideration of means whereby fires, which now take an average annual toll of over 3,000 lives and $250,000,000 worth of property, may be prevented.
— President Wilson and Secretary of War Baker cabled the greetings of America to the Filipino people on the convening of their first native legislature. During the closing days of Congress the Philippine Government Bill was passed, abolishing the commission and providing for a native congress, thus giving 800,000 Filipinos the right of suffrage. The functions of the Philippine Congress are limited to the extent that coinage, currency, and immigration laws shall not go into force without the sanction of the President of the United States. The office of governor-general is retained. All Americans in the islands who desire to vote must become “naturalized.”
— Orders for more than two hundred aeroplanes have been placed by the War Department as a first step in expansion of the aviation service under the army reorganization act, and contracts for about one hundred additional machines of various types probably will be awarded in the near future. In most cases delivery within a short period is stipulated. Nearly one hundred of the planes already ordered are of a special school type, for use at the regular army training school at San Diego, Cal., and the national guards schools at Mineola, N. Y., and Chicago. The others are of reconnaissance, pursuit, and battle types. The machines, orders for which were distributed among several companies, are to develop a power ranging from 80 to 200 horsepower.
— President Wilson has made public the names of seven men whom he has appointed members of an advisory commission to be associated with the Council of National Defense created by the last session of Congress. They are all men of achievement and distinction in their several fields of activity. They are named as follows: Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor; Dr. Franklin H. Martin, a distinguished surgeon recommended by the affiliated medical societies of the country; Howard E. Coffin, the well-known automobile engineer, who has served as chairman of the Committee on Industrial Preparedness; Dr. Hollis Godfrey, president of the Drexel Institute at Philadelphia; Bernard Baruch, a New York banker; and Julius Rosenwald, the president of a large Chicago mail-order house.

Regions Still Beyond

By William Ambrose Spicer

WE have reason for joy and thankfulness as we view the progress of this message wherever the printed page or the living witness has found access. There is no uncertainty about this advent message and movement, as founded upon the living Word of God, and scheduled in rise and progress exactly to the great time-table of divine prophecy. And the same divine hand that launched the movement when the time for it came, manifests itself in power wherever the message is preached. Well may we thank God for the triumphs of the truth at this week of prayer season.
But along with this, we dare not forget for a moment the regions yet beyond us, the vast territories unentered and unwarned, calling to us to “stretch every nerve, and press with vigor on.” We have found no place for rest or self-congratulation. The field is still before us, and everywhere the finger of God’s providence points plainly the open way into practically every unentered region of earth.
Only recently the General Conference Committee had its attention called to one needy field. Some of the facts stated regarding it surely call for earnest prayer. The plea was in behalf of France, and was sent to the Autumn Council of the committee by Elder John Vuilleumier, formerly of Europe, now working in the French field in Canada. Our brother says:—
“France has a population of thirty-eight million people. It is divided into eighty-six departments. Religiously speaking, the population of France may be divided as follows: Sixty per cent Catholics, thirty-seven per cent unbelievers and infidels, three per cent Protestants and Jews.”
Regarding our own work in France the appeal continues:—
“We have at present in France eighteen churches, with three hundred and fifty-seven members, twelve resident workers, and one canvasser. Out of eighty-six departments, twelve or fourteen have been entered. If my estimate is anywhere near correct, we are reaching one half per cent of the whole population within one generation. It is needless to add that at this rate of speed this country will never have the privilege of furnishing its due quota of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. Even supposing that our eighteen churches, located in twelve departments, would be able to finish the work in those departments, who will become responsible for the remaining seventy-four departments? I know of only one way in which this work can be done in the few years remaining, and that is the way followed in the States, in England, in South America, in the Philippines, and elsewhere,—the circulation of the printed page all over the territory. But France has now only one canvasser for her thirty-eight million people.”
After making suggestions regarding the lack of publications to meet the need, Elder Vuilleumier’s plea closes:—
“Just let me say, in conclusion, brethren, that long-neglected, deluded, and persecuted France has very serious rights to our attention and help. A country that has given the world such Christian poets and historians as Racine and Rollin, such moralists and statesmen as Pascal and Coligny, such reformers and apostles as John Calvin and Paul Rabaut; a country that has furnished such an army of martyrs as perhaps no other country on earth can boast of; that has sustained such crushing blows from the Papacy as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and yet manages to keep an honorable place among the nations of the earth,—such a people deserves our sympathy and needs our help.”
“Just now France is passing through a most severe ordeal. In God’s providence, the terrible war is shattering some of her atheism. A favorable movement is discernible among the unbelievers. Rome, of course, is expecting to see her wayward eldest daughter fall down at her feet as she has done so often. And she will do it, no doubt. But all over France are men and women longing for light, and looking to heaven with inexpressible expectation for a religion that will not place in antagonism religion and liberty, faith and reason. Now, just now, is our opportunity.”
The ordering of the work in France rests, of course, with the Latin Union Conference, to which this memorial was ordered sent by the committee. But we quote from it here, not only because of its appeal to earnest prayer in behalf of France, but because this statement brings clearly before us the fact that there is much, very much, unentered territory yet before us, toward which we must strive with all our powers.
W. A. S.

Solving the High Cost of Living

By F. M. W.

WE live in an expensive age. Conditions existing in the political, social, and industrial worlds have greatly increased the cost of life's commodities, and it is probable that these increased prices have come to stay. In many instances the price of labor is out of all proportion to the increase in the cost of living. It has become a study with a very large majority of families as to how they can meet expenses. Much suffering in the months to come will result to those who are unable to do so. Probably the coming winter will tax the streams of charity and benevolence as never before.
Much can be done to meet this situation by careful economy and simple living. Extravagance at the present time plays a large part in the living expenses of the ordinary family. A little forethought and reasoning will enable many families to devise ways and means whereby the family expense may be greatly reduced. By the use of plainer and simpler, but even more nutritious, food products, by cutting out money expended for pastries and confections; by stopping the drain which comes through patronage of the soda fountain and ice cream counter, by the wearing of clothes made of durable but cheaper material and in simpler style; by saving much that is spent for popular amusement, for travel, for picture taking, for storybooks and popular magazines; by economy in the use of fuel, and in utilizing for family needs much that is thrown into the garbage can; and in scores of other ways, many persons who are today eking out a hand-to-mouth existence or who are actually feeling the pinch of want, might conserve their income, and utilize it to much better advantage in meeting life's actual necessities.
The following excellent practical suggestions we clip from a recent number of the St. Paul Pioneer Press:—
1. Manage your household or personal affairs in a business-like way—pay cash and do not run bills.
2. Save a fixed sum every month and as much more as circumstances will permit.
3. Memorize this rule and use it to measure all purchases: “Never spend money for anything which does not add to physical health or mental health or moral health.”
4. Do your own buying and marketing. You alone know what should bebought to do your family the most good.
5. Have simple meals, of good pure food, well cooked and served. Remember there is no economy in inferior quality, but that a reduction in quantity is often necessary for health.
6. Don’t indulge in foods and drinks between meals. Amusement at the expense of one’s own health is expensive indeed.
7. Buy only simple, well-made furnishings and furniture. They cost less to clean and last longer.
8. Do not buy an article for which you have no definite use. Once you are past the “bargain table” the desire for possession leaves you.
9. Don’t buy “faddy” clothes to be soon discarded. Think of price and wearing qualities as well as of style.
10. Run your expenditures on a strict budget plan, devised and revised until it fits your individual family needs.—Rules of the Housewives’ League.
In this age of luxurious living we unconsciously fall into ways of doing and into the making of purchases which seem really essential, and yet, after all, could be avoided without actual suffering, and, with a spirit of contentment, with quite as much pleasure and satisfaction in life. We need, in our spiritual life and in our temporal affairs, to place more emphasis upon the really essential things. We need, in the times before us, to learn the lesson of adaptation. Again and again have we been admonished to bind about our supposed wants, and this in these times is almost necessary in order that our actual necessities may be supplied, and that we may have means with which to support the work of the gospel.
Let us consider, as we are tempted to spend money for that which is not bread, the needs of the cause of Christ. A penny spent foolishly might, had it been invested in a tract or paper, have brought a soul to the Master. Money expended for lavish adornment of the person might have been used in alleviating the needs of those in actual want. It is not alone for our gratification in other avenues that we need to curtail our foolish expenditures. As we see others in actual want, our benevolences should be drawn out to supply their lack. We shall find that, even if we give of our penury, “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” By simplicity of living, by denial of every hurtful or unnecessary indulgence, let us seek, by a judicious use of the means intrusted to us, to save that which, when passed on to those in greater need, may bring both them and us the blessing of true and genuine beneficence.
F. M. W.

Mission Offerings

By William T. Knox

OUR report on the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 1916, shows the total receipts for the period as $418,012.52, which is $138,421.70 short of the quota allotment to the North American Division Conference. In all portions of the world our workers are looking forward to the support and assistance which the full contribution of this fund will bring to them.
These laborers in the foreign lands have gone forth with confidence that those who remained in the homeland will rally to their support, and furnish the means not only for present necessities, but for future requirements. These workers should not be disappointed, for they are giving the best that is in them to hasten the message on in its journey to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. The comforts of a pleasant home are not present with those who have gone far into the interior of the countries where the mold of civilization is unknown. It is the call of the gospel message that compels men to respond to invitations from such fields; but as they respond, we who remain in the homeland must sacrifice with them and sharein the labor if we expect to partake of the blessings that come when God's work is finished. Our sacrifice comes in furnishing the means to support these workers in these distant fields.
Most excellent reports are reaching us of the Harvest Ingathering campaign for missions. Already 975,000 copies of this special number of the Signs of the Times have been printed, and nearly 900,000 copies ordered to the fields. We confidently expect that all the shortage in our mission funds will be more than made up with the returns that will come from the careful circulation of these papers. W. T. KNOX.

Statement of Twenty-Cent-a-Week Fund for Nine Months Ending September 30, 1916

Conference Membership Amt. at $7.79 per member Amount Received Amount Short Amount Over
ATLANTIC UNION
Eastern New York 874 $6808.46 $5319.56 $1488.90
Greater New York 1321 10290.59 10380.79 90.20
Maine 449 3497.71 3898.47 400.76
Massachusetts 1425 11100.75 9896.82 1203.93
Northern New England 618 4814.22 3450.90 1363.32
Southern New England 477 3715.83 3850.48 134.65
Western New York 836 6512.44 7088.99 576.55
Bermuda 62 482.98 278.24 204.74
Totals 6062 47222.98 44164.25 4260.89 1202.16
CENTRAL UNION
Colorado 1891 14730.89 10992.41 3738.48
Kansas 2148 16732.92 9368.65 7364.27
Missouri 1295 10088.05 6497.09 3590.96
Nebraska 2072 16140.88 11531.52 4609.36
Wyoming 539 4198.81 4216.86 18.05
Totals 7945 61891.55 42606.53 19303.07 18.05
COLUMBIA UNION
Chesapeake 725 5647.75 3543.80 2103.95
District of Columbia 960 7478.40 4779.19 2699.21
Eastern Pennsylvania 1150 8958.50 6767.06 2191.44
New Jersey 906 7057.74 5311.77 1745.97
Ohio 2100 16359.00 14077.58 2281.42
Virginia 514 3794.54 2831.65 962.89
West Pennsylvania 810 6309.90 4726.36 1583.54
West Virginia 240 1869.60 1747.23 122.37
Totals 7405 57475.43 43784.64 13690.79
EASTERN CANADIAN UNION
Maritime 266 2072.14 1587.07 485.07
Ontario 550 4284.50 3747.71 536.79
Quebec 150 1168.50 935.30 233.20
Newfoundland 62 482.98 462.95 20.03
Totals 1028 8008.12 6733.03 1275.09
LAKE UNION
East Michigan 1680 13087.20 12091.26 995.94
Indiana 1665 12970.35 9625.08 3345.27
Northern Illinois 1487 11583.73 8525.82 3057.91
North Michigan 857 6676.03 3190.13 3485.90
North Wisconsin 652 5079.08 2600.62 2478.46
South Wisconsin 1915 14917.85 13084.14 1833.71
West Michigan 2591 20183.89 12537.51 7646.38
Southern Illinois 661 5149.19 6736.41 1587.22
Totals 11508 89647.32 68390.97 22843.57 1587.22
NORTHERN UNION
Iowa 2398 18680.42 16461.69 2218.73
Minnesota 1775 13827.25 13858.38 31.13
North Dakota 1325 10321.75 13421.17 3099.42
South Dakota 944 7353.76 6498.22 855.54
Totals 6442 50183.18 50239.46 3074.27 3130.55
NORTH PACIFIC UNION
Montana 502 3910.58 3210.94 699.64
Southern Idaho 852 6637.08 4932.20 1704.88
Southern Oregon 721 5616.59 1958.13 3658.46
Upper Columbia 2365 18423.35 13708.66 4714.69
Western Oregon 2220 17293.80 9111.94 8181.86
Western Washington 2016 15704.64 9701.16 6003.48
Totals 8676 67586.04 42623.03 24963.01
| PACIFIC UNION | | | | | | |---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:| | Arizona | 331 | $2578.49 | $1618.93 | $959.56 | | | California | 1620 | 12619.80 | 11254.12 | 1365.68 | | | Central California | 1322 | 10298.38 | 6988.83 | 3309.55 | | | Inter-Mountain | 648 | 5047.92 | 2699.49 | 2348.43 | | | Northern California | 1617 | 12596.43 | 5988.26 | 6608.17 | | | Northwest'n California | 1261 | 9823.19 | 8323.91 | 1499.28 | | | Southern California | 2163 | 16849.77 | 11147.40 | 5702.37 | | | Southeast'n California | 1645 | 12814.55 | 8545.36 | 4269.19 | | | Nevada | 200 | 1558.00 | 1087.89 | 470.11 | | | Totals | 10807 | 84186.53 | 57654.19 | 26532.34 | | | SOUTHEASTERN UNION | | | | | | | Cumberland | 604 | 4549.96 | 2130.24 | 2419.72 | | | Florida | 815 | 6048.15 | 6724.88 | | $676.73 | | Georgia | 491 | 3564.93 | 2064.73 | 1500.20 | | | North Carolina | 554 | 3958.70 | 1814.34 | 2144.36 | | | South Carolina | 295 | 2001.23 | 1660.24 | 340.99 | | | Totals | 2759 | 20122.97 | 14394.43 | 6405.27 | 676.73 | | SOUTHERN UNION | | | | | | | Alabama | 666 | 4652.70 | 2130.83 | 2521.87 | | | Kentucky | 601 | 4351.99 | 1517.90 | 2834.09 | | | Louisiana | 428 | 3112.96 | 1690.45 | 1422.51 | | | Mississippi | 343 | 2340.23 | 1057.72 | 1282.51 | | | Tennessee River | 717 | 5401.13 | 2857.13 | 2544.00 | | | Totals | 2755 | 19859.01 | 9254.03 | 10604.98 | | | SOUTHWESTERN UNION | | | | | | | Arkansas | 364 | 2757.96 | 1628.65 | 1129.31 | | | New Mexico | 258 | 1986.54 | 1367.05 | 619.49 | | | North Texas | 1456 | 11225.84 | 4110.22 | 7115.62 | | | Oklahoma | 1900 | 14638.04 | 11973.75 | 2664.29 | | | South Texas | 434 | 3338.18 | 2328.56 | 1009.62 | | | West Texas | 250 | 1931.98 | 1083.61 | 848.37 | | | Totals | 4662 | 35878.54 | 22491.84 | 13386.70 | | | WESTERN CANADIAN UNION | | | | | | | Alberta | 721 | 5616.59 | 6040.07 | | 423.48 | | British Columbia | 452 | 3521.08 | 1795.44 | 1725.64 | | | Manitoba | 242 | 1885.18 | 1895.84 | | 10.66 | | Saskatchewan | 430 | 3349.70 | 5944.77 | | 2595.07 | | Totals | 1845 | 14372.55 | 15676.12 | 1725.64 | 3029.21 |

Union Summary

UNION Membership Amt. at $7.79 per member Amount Received Amount Short Amount Over
Atlantic 6062 $47222.98 $44164.25 $4260.89 $1202.16
Central 7945 61891.55 42606.53 19303.07 18.05
Columbia 7405 57475.43 43784.64 13690.79
Eastern Canadian 1028 8008.12 6733.03 1275.09
Lake 11508 89647.32 68390.97 22843.57 1587.22
Northern 6442 50183.18 50239.46 3074.27 3130.55
North Pacific 8676 67586.04 42623.03 24963.01
Pacific 10807 84186.53 57654.19 26532.34
Southeastern 2759 20122.97 14394.43 6405.27 676.73
Southern 2755 19859.01 9254.03 10604.98
Southwestern 4642 35878.54 22491.84 13386.70
Western Canadian 1845 14372.55 15676.12 1725.64 3029.21
Total 71894 $556434.22 $418012.52 $148065.62 $9643.92
Net amount short 138421.70 138421.70
Grand totals $556434.22 $556434.22 $148065.62 $148065.62

A Strong and Noble Character

“LIFE is largely what we make it, and whatever may be its clouds and storms, they will be chased away at length by the clear sunlight of a strong and noble character. ‘Fill thy heart with goodness, and thou wilt find that the world is full of good.’”

“And Had a Funeral”

By G. B. T.

“In course of time the beggar died; and he was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and had a funeral.” Luke 16:22. (New Testament in Modern Speech.)
“Had a funeral.” The rich man was able to hold splendid banquets, to revel in pleasure, to have more than heart could wish, to live in ease, and to enjoy luxury, while the poor suffered at his door. But the grim reaper comes gleaning with his sickle. The cold finger of death is laid upon him. He has a funeral, there is a shroud, a coffin, a few tears, a great grave. That is all. No hope, no light beyond!
This expresses the end of all those who live for this life. The rich man in the parable, when his crops were abundant, instead of planning to give to those in need; instead of helping those who suffered, and assisting in spreading the gospel, decided to keep them, hoard them up, and use them for himself in having an easy time. “He thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” Luke 12: 17-19.
The parable illustrates the experience of those who cling selfishly to that which the Lord gives them. They lay up goods with which they may take their ease, eat, drink, and be merry; they spend their lives in ease and selfishness. As David viewed at one time this class, his feet well-nigh slipped. He almost concluded that it was foolish to live a life of poverty and sacrifice. But when he went into the sanctuary of God and saw their end, when he viewed the slippery foundation upon which they stood, and the destruction which awaits them, he saw how ignorant and foolish he had been.
At the close of the life of all such there is an oration, a few nice things are said, then the hearse, a few flowers, the grave, and all is over. They have a funeral like the rich man in the parable; nothing more. A life is finished that had within its reach eternal possibilities, but it ended without hope. How sad to contemplate!
How different is the experience of the trusting child of God, even though he be a beggar! He may have been born and have lived in obscurity, yet he laid hold on eternal and enduring riches. Of some of these we read: “Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Heb. 11: 36-38. A den or a sheepskin was their only possession. No fame or ease was theirs; but imprisonment, affliction, and poverty instead. They had no palace in which to live, but a home in a desert or on a mountain. They were dishonored of men, but honored of God; traduced by evil reports of men, but well reported of by the angels of God; unknown, yet wellknown; looked upon as deceivers, yet known in heaven as true and faithful; unable to contribute to the work a mere pittance only, like the widow who cast in two mites; yet accounted by Him who sits by the treasury as giving more than all the rest. The Lord does not look into the treasury to see how much we give, but into the heart that he may understand the motive, and estimate the sacrifice involved.
Faith sees the invisible, and grasps the things that are eternal. And though death may come to the child of God as to all others, he has a hope beyond. By faith he has laid hold on everlasting life, and is an heir to a home which is eternal in the heavens.
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.” Isa. 65: 17-23.
“O what are all my sufferings here, If, Lord, thou count me meet With that enraptured host to appear, And worship at thy feet? “Give joy or grief, give ease or pain, Take life or friends away; But let me find them all again In that eventful day.” G. B. T.

A Law Turned to Profit

By L. L. C.

IN the third chapter of Second Timothy we read a description of the condition of society in the last days, when, it is declared, perilous times shall come. Adventists are sometimes accused of being pessimists when, on looking about them, they see that the prophetic description is an accurate one for the present time. From time to time, however, proof is brought to light of the real condition of society under the surface.
Because of the great increase of commercialized vice it was necessary, a few years ago, to pass what is known as the Mann law. This law was intended to prohibit and punish commercialized vice, but this very law has become an instrument in the hands of criminals to extort blackmail from victims whom they have entrapped. A group of men and women have been arrested who are reported to have gained in blackmail from prominent persons more than $250,000 within the last few months. Probably the real amount was, if anything, in excess of the estimate.
From two standpoints this is a startling revelation of social conditions. Not only does it show the double lives which many prominent persons, both men and women, are living, that they should be subject to such blackmail by criminals who use the threat of the Mann law against them, but it also shows how even law may be turned to advantage by the expert criminal. Surely the student of prophecy is justified in seeing in present conditions a striking proof that the conditions of the times in which we are living are those described in the Scriptures as prevalent in the last days.
L. L. C.

A Striking Increase

By L. L. C.

Of the many interesting facts brought to view in the annual statistical report for the year ending Dec. 31, 1915, one of the most significant is the increase in the number of students taking college work in our advanced schools in North America. We as a denomination are coming more and more to look to our schools for the young people to meet the increasing demands for thoroughly trained workers both at home and abroad.
The following comparison of the college enrolment in these advanced schools for the year 1915 with that for the year 1914, makes plain this striking increase:—
1914 1915 Increase Loss
Broadview Swedish Seminary 4 60 56 —
Clinton German Seminary 4 19 15 —
Danish-Norwegian Seminary 4 3 — 1
Eastern Canadian Miss. Sem. — 3 3 —
Emmanuel Missionary College 91 102 11 —
Fireside Correspondence School 64 51 — 13
Keene Academy — 6 6 —
Loma Linda Col. of Med. Evan. 71 104 33 —
Pacific Union College 103 100 — 3
South Lancaster Academy 98 42 — 56
Southern Training School 8 — — 8
Union College 115 155 40 —
Walla Walla College 40 90 50 —
Washington Missionary College 80 125 45 —
Totals 682 860 259 81
The net gain in enrolment of college students is seen to be 178. This represents a net gain of twenty-six per cent over the enrolment of 1914.
A still more striking increase is seen in a comparison of the college graduates of our six American colleges for the year 1914 with those of 1915. The following is the record:—
1914 1915
Emmanuel Missionary College 10 6
Loma Linda College of Med. Evan. 10 16
Pacific Union College 1 14
Union College 16 13
Walla Walla College 2 4
Washington Missionary College 5 21
Totals 44 74
This shows a net gain of thirty, and represents a sixty-eight per cent gain in college graduates in 1915 over those of the previous year. Truly this is remarkable, and especially so in view of the large proportion of these graduates who are going out to the needy foreign fields. Let us thank the Lord for his providence, which is not only opening doors as never before to carry the message both at home and in foreign fields, but is preparing thoroughly trained young people for filling the openings. Let us pray the Lord that these many young people may have such a spirit of consecration as will lead them to give themselves wholly to God's service, that the work may soon be finished.
L. L. C.

Blunted Senses

THE last few years have witnessed a lessening of the sense of sin on the part of many professed Christians. The great flood-tide of evil which has swept in from every side has made many forms of sin so commonplace that we think of them as belonging to the natural order of things rather than as perversions of the great law of right and truth. The Master recognized this danger which would threaten the church in the last days, and sounds the warning:—
“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21: 34-36.
Never did the remnant church stand in danger of becoming indifferent, or of giving way to spiritual sleep and insensibility, as it does today. There are so many things to charm the senses, to lull hearts into the sleep of carnal security. When the great European war broke out, more than two years ago, the world awoke with a start. It realized that it was in the throes of a terrible catastrophe. But that realization is passing away. The world is becoming inured to disaster, to great suffering, to terrible crimes. Our danger is that in the very commonness of these conditions our sense of sin will become benumbed.
It is only as we preserve unbroken a personal touch with the Lord Jesus Christ that we shall be safeguarded. No theory of truth will save us. No system of doctrine, however fortified by Scriptural truth or logical argument, will hold us steady. Our great need is Christ—Christ within, the hope of glory,—a living, ruling, reigning Saviour. This living, vital connection with God can be secured and maintained only by daily surrender, by daily study of the Word, by daily prayer, by daily unction of the Holy Spirit. But the experience is worth while, and no sacrifice in obtaining it can be compared to its great value.
Continue reading: The Widow’s Mites