Review and Herald, Vol. 59, No. 12. (3/21/1882)

Review and Herald

Mar 21, 1882

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1882

THE HOME AND THE SCHOOL.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

It is the boast of the present age that never did men possess so great facilities for the acquirement of knowledge, or manifest so generally an interest in education. Yet despite this united progress, there exists an unparalleled lack of insubordination and recklessness in the rising generation; mental and moral degeneracy well-nigh universal. Popular education does not remedy the evil. The lax discipline in many institutions of learning has nearly destroyed their usefulness, and in some cases rendered them worse rather than a blessing. This fact has been seen and deplored, and earnest efforts have been made to remedy the defects in our educational system. There is urgent need of schools in which the youth may be trained to habits of self-control, application, and self-reliance, of respect for superiors and reverence for God. With such training, we might hope to see the young prepared to honor their Creator and to bless their fellow-men.

It was to secure these objects that our own College at Battle Creek was founded. But those who endeavor to accomplish such a work, find that their undertaking is fraught with many and grave difficulties. The evil which underlies all others, and which often counteracts the efforts of the best instructors, is to be found in the home discipline. Parents do not see the importance of shielding their children from the gilded temptations of this age. They do not exercise proper control themselves, and hence do not rightly appreciate its value.

Many fathers and mothers err in failing to second the efforts of the faithful teacher. Youth and children, with their imperfect comprehension and undeveloped judgment, are not always able to understand all the teacher's plans and methods. Yet when they bring home reports of what is said and done at school, these are discussed by the parents in the family circle, and the course of the teacher is criticised without restraint. Here the children learn lessons that are not easily unlearned. Whenever they are subjected to unaccustomed restraint, or required to apply themselves to hard study, they appeal to their injudicious parents for sympathy and indulgence. Thus a spirit of unrest and discontent is encouraged, the school as a whole suffers from the demoralizing influence, and the teacher's burden is rendered much heavier. But the greatest loss is sustained by the victims of parental mismanagement. Defects of character which a right training would have corrected, are left to strengthen with years, to mar and perhaps destroy the usefulness of their possessor.

As a rule, it will be found that the students most ready to complain of school discipline are those who have received a superficial education. Having never been taught the necessity of thoroughness, they regard it with dislike. Parents have neglected to train their sons and daughters to the faithful performance of domestic duties. Children are permitted to spend their hours in play, while father and mother toil on unceasingly. Few young persons feel that it is their duty to bear a part of the family burden. They are not taught that the indulgence of appetite, or the pursuit of ease or pleasure, is not the great aim of life.

The family circle is the school in which the child receives its first and most enduring lessons. Hence parents should be much at home. By precept and example, they should teach their children the love and the fear of God; teach them to be intelligent, social, affectionate, to cultivate habits of industry, economy, and self-denial. By giving their children love, sympathy, and encouragement at home, parents may provide for them a safe and welcome retreat from many of the world's temptations.

“No time,” says the father, “I have no time to give to the training of my children, no time for social and domestic enjoyments.” Then you should not have taken upon yourself the responsibility of a family. By withholding from them the time which is justly theirs, you rob them of the education which they should have at your hands. If you have children, you have a work to do, in union with the mother, in the formation of their characters. Those who feel that they have an imperative call to labor for the improvement of society, while their own children grow up undisciplined, should inquire if they have not mistaken their duty. Their own household is the first missionary field in which parents are required to labor. Those who leave the home garden to grow up to thorns and briars, while they manifest great interest in the cultivation of their neighbor's plot of ground, are disregarding the word of God.

I repeat, it is the lack of love and piety, and the neglect of proper discipline at home, that creates so much difficulty in schools and colleges. There is a fearful state of coldness and apathy among professed Christians. They are unfeeling, uncharitable, unforgiving. These evil traits, first indulged at home, exert their baleful influence in all the associations of daily life. If the spirit of kindness and courtesy were cherished by parents and children, it would be seen also in the intercourse between teacher and pupil. Christ should be an honored guest in the family circle, and his presence is no less needed in the class-room. Would that the converting power of God might soften and subdue the hearts of parents and children, teachers and students, and transform them into the likeness of Christ.

Fathers and mothers should carefully and prayerfully study the characters of their children. They should seek to repress and restrain those traits that are too prominent, and to encourage others which may be deficient, thus securing harmonious development. This is no light matter. The father may not consider it a great sin to neglect the training of his children; but thus does God regard it. Christian parents need a thorough conversion upon this subject. Guilt is accumulating upon them, and the consequences of their actions reach down from their own children to children's children. The ill-balanced mind, the hasty temper, the fretfulness, envy, or jealousy, bear witness to parental neglect. These evil traits of character bring great unhappiness to their possessors. How many fail to receive from companions and friends the love which they might have, if they were more amiable. How many create trouble wherever they go, and in whatever they are engaged!

Children have claims which their parents should acknowledge and respect. They have a right to such an education and training as will make them useful, respected, and beloved members of society here, and give them a moral fitness for the society of the pure and holy hereafter. The young should be taught that both their present and their future well-being depend to a great degree on the habits they form in childhood and youth. They should be early accustomed to submission, self-denial, and a regard for others' happiness. They should be taught to subdue the hasty temper, to withhold the passionate word, to manifest unvarying kindness, courtesy, and self-control. Fathers and mothers should make it their life-study that their children may become as nearly perfect in character as human effort, combined with divine aid, can make them. This work, with all its importance and responsibility, they have accepted, in that they have brought children into the world.

Parents must see that their own hearts and lives are controlled by the divine precepts, if they would bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They are not authorized to fret and scold and ridicule. They should never taunt their children with perverse

traits of character, which they themselves have transmitted to them. This mode of discipline will never cure the evil. Parents, bring the precepts of God's word to admonish and reprove your wayward children. Show them a “thus saith the Lord” for your requirements. A reproof which comes as the word of God is far more effective than one falling in harsh, angry tones from the lips of parents.

Wherever it seems necessary to deny the wishes or oppose the will of a child, he should be seriously impressed with the thought that this is not done for the gratification of the parents, or to indulge arbitrary authority, but for his own good. He should be taught that every fault uncorrected will bring unhappiness to himself, and will displease God. Under such discipline, children will find their greatest happiness in submitting their own will to the will of their Heavenly Father.

Some parents—and some teachers, as well—seem to forget that they themselves were once children. They are dignified, cold, and unsympathetic. Wherever they are brought in contact with the young,—at home, in the day-school, the Sabbath-school, or the church,—they maintain the same air of authority, and their faces habitually wear a solemn, reproving expression. Childish mirth or waywardness, the restless activity of the young life, finds no excuse in their eyes. Trifling misdemeanors are treated as grave sins. Such discipline is not Christlike. Children thus trained fear their parents or teachers, but do not love them; they do not confide to them their childish experiences. Some of the most valuable qualities of mind and heart are chilled to death, as a tender plant before the wintry blast.

Smile, parents; smile, teachers. If your heart is sad, let not your face reveal the fact. Let the sunshine from a loving, grateful heart light up the countenance. Unbend from your iron dignity, adapt yourselves to the children's needs, and make them love you. You must win their affection, if you would impress religious truth upon their heart.

Jesus loved the children. He remembered that he was once a child, and his benevolent countenance won the affections of the little ones. They loved to play around him, and to stroke that loving face with their innocent hands. When the Hebrew mothers brought their babes to be blessed by the dear Saviour, the disciples deemed the errand of too little importance to interrupt his teachings. But Jesus read the earnest longing of those mothers' hearts, and checking his disciples, he said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”

Parents, you have a work to do for your children which no other can do. You cannot shift your responsibilities upon another. The father's duty to his children cannot be transferred to the mother. If she performs her own duty, she has burden enough to bear. Only by working in unison, can the father and mother accomplish the work which God has committed to their hands.

That time is worse than lost to parents and children which is devoted to the acquirement of wealth, while mental improvement and moral culture are neglected. Earthly treasures must pass away; but nobility of character, moral worth, will endure forever. If the work of parents be well done, it will through eternity testify of their wisdom and faithfulness. Those who tax their purses and their ingenuity to the utmost to provide for their households costly apparel and dainty food, or to maintain them in ignorance of useful labor, will be repaid only by the pride, envy, willfulness, and disrespect of their spoiled children.

The young need to have a firm barrier built up from their infancy between them and the world, that its corrupting influence may not affect them. Parents must exercise increasing watchfulness, that their children be not lost to God. If it were considered as important that the young possess a beautiful character and amiable disposition as it is that they imitate the fashions of the world in dress and deportment, we would see hundreds where there is one to-day coming upon the stage of active life prepared to exert an ennobling influence upon society.

The parents' work of education, instruction, and discipline underlies every other. The efforts of the best teachers must often bear little fruit, if fathers and mothers fail to act their part with faithfulness. God's word must ever be their guide. We do not endeavor to present a new line of duty. We set before all the teachings of that word by which our work must be judged, and we inquire, Is this the standard which we as Christian parents are endeavoring to reach?

ASSURANCE

By Dwight Williams

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Rom. 8:28.

When ruin falls on noble piles, The ivy creeps, and o'er them smiles; And beauty sits above decay With charms that drive the gloom away; So o'er the heart, ofttimes With burdens crushed and losses, Or bleeding from the crimes Of men, as passion tosses, There springeth blessings on the path Of those that know but storm and scath.

The circle of the “all things” broad Is in the sunshine of our God; His light is ever on the wing, And finds the lowest, meanest thing. His love enspheres the race, It makes the peasant kingly; The beauty of his face Falls on us all and singly; What seems the cloud with angry frown Is but a blessing stooping down.

What alchemy of love is this, From pain and woe resulting bliss; From every heart a rapture brought, In every tear a rainbow caught; Gold in the crucible! All storms with beauty rifted, O Jesus, may we feel Our hearts to thee uplifted; For 'tis in thee life hath its balm, And in thine every sigh a psalm.

—Rev. Dwight Williams, in the Christian Woman.

ANOTHER DAY.

By Eld. A. S. Hutchins

BY ELD. A. S. HUTCHINS.

In the fourth chapter of Paul's letter to the Hebrews, he alludes to the temporary and typical rest of ancient Israel in the land of Canaan, but is particular to state that if Joshua had given them rest, another day would not afterward have been spoken of. Of this day he says, “Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

This certain day, to-day, and another day, each refer to the same period of time,—a period allotted to secure the “rest that remaineth to the people of God,” and which will conclude with the termination of probationary time.

Now, how it is possible for any one to seize this probationary day and use it in proof of the first-day Sabbath, it is not easy for us to conceive; for it certainly has not the most remote reference to this institution. To maintain that this institution is defended or even introduced in this chapter, is illogical and unreasonable, and makes the apostle reason most incoherently and confusedly.

But suppose the first day had been introduced in connection with the verse which mentions the limiting of another day, in such a manner as to close the seventh verse with the declaration that the day limited was the first day of the week, and that that day should be observed as the Sabbath; how much would this favor those who claim that the first-day Sabbath is a Christian institution? Let us see. 1. It would prove that the first day has been the Sabbath from the days of David and hence could not be peculiar to this dispensation.

2. It would prove that this institution originated because Joshua did not give ancient Israel rest in the promised land. Or, in other words, it would show that this certain day, the first day, would not have been spoken of if Joshua had given them rest.

3. It would make the injunction, “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” obligatory only on the first day.

4. It would obviate the necessity of a change of the Sabbath to the first day, in the days of Christ or the apostles. Yea, more, it would forbid the possibility of such an act, as it would also obviate the necessity of ceasing to keep the seventh day; for, according to this hypothesis, the two Sabbaths had journeyed hand in hand from the days of David, and they might have continued so to do.

Now if Paul meant to teach by the expression “a certain day,” “to-day,” “another day,” that the first day is the Sabbath, then let no one marvel that Peter says that in beloved brother Paul's epistles are “some things hard to be understood.” But, improbable as it may appear to the reader, the chapter under consideration is seized and presented with great boldness in proof of the Sunday institution. I once heard a deacon state, before a large audience where the Sabbath had been preached, that the fourth chapter of Hebrews was his proof of the first-day Sabbath. And a minister who had heard lectures in one of our tents, stated that the first day is mentioned in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, and that this fact satisfied him that this day should be observed as the Sabbath; and further than this, he stated that if it was not mentioned there, it would weaken his hold for this institution.

How Bible readers, and especially ministers of the gospel, if they have ever read this chapter with the least attention, can state that the first day is mentioned or in the slightest way referred to here, or that the least sanction is given for the observance of that day as the Sabbath, we confess to our inability to comprehend. And we frankly confess that we hardly know which is the greater, our astonishment or our regret that men claiming a call to preach the word of God should handle it thus heedlessly. It seems to us that such teachers must materially change their course of labor before the divine benediction from Heaven or of men can rest upon them. “Moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge.”

The Jews Since A. D. 70.

By Mrs. M. E. Steward

BY MRS. M. E. STEWARD.

During the siege of Jerusalem, it is computed by Josephus and Milman that 1,100,000 Jews were killed, and 97,000 were taken prisoners; before the siege, under Vespasian, 129,500 perished; after the fall of Jerusalem, 8,660 more were slain; making a total of 1,356,460 Jews who lost their lives in the war with the Romans. Of prisoners, in Gischala, 2,200 were taken; near the Jordan, 2,500; making, with the 97,000 at Jerusalem, 101,700.

How are the mighty fallen! The heritage of Jerusalem henceforth is to be poverty, ruin, and disgrace, “in the midst of her enemies.” Milman in his History of the Jews (Milman and Josephus have been our authority almost entirely in the foregoing articles) says: “It has probably witnessed a far greater portion of human misery than any other spot upon earth.”

The soldiers of Titus left in charge of Terentius Rufus, or Turnus Rufus, as the Rabbins call him, always speaking his name with bitter hatred, having nothing to do after the terrible work of carnage, had leave to raze the city, which they so utterly demolished that it would never have been known that Jerusalem had been inhabited. Jesus had predicted, “There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Luke 21:6. “The soil is [now] mixed

with the rubbish of ages to the depth in some places of forty feet.”—Bible Dictionary.

Titus greatly praised and rewarded all those who had been especially brave during the war, giving crowns of gold on their heads, giving them long spears of gold, and other ornaments, and advancing them all to a higher rank. After mutual congratulations and well-wishes of himself and the whole army, he proceeded to offer a vast number of oxen as a thank-offering, and distributed them to his men to feast upon, which they did for three days.

The tenth legion was permitted to stay in Jerusalem; the twelfth, which had fled under Cestius, he sent, to disgrace them, entirely out of Syria to Melitene, near the Euphrates. Two legions he retained with him. He then went to Cæsarea, where he laid up great quantities of spoils. Winter prevented his taking the miserable multitude of captives he had with him to Rome. He left them here, except seven hundred of the tallest and finest looking (including Simon and John), which had been set apart for his triumph. At Cæsarea Philippi 2,500 Jews perished fighting as gladiators or with wild beasts. It was on the occasion of the birthday of Domitian, Titus’ brother. Their father’s birthday was also celebrated in the same manner.

He journeyed on to the Euphrates. In all the cities of Syria through which he passed, he indulged the people with those “horrible spectacles which are the eternal disgrace of the Roman character,” celebrating his victory in the death of five Jews.

During his journey he showed but one act of mercy to the Jewish race. At Antioch an apostate Jew had exasperated the Greek inhabitants by accusing his countrymen of endeavoring to burn the entire city, for which many of them had been burned alive. After an important part of the city had been burned, including the royal palaces and the archives, or the place where the public records were kept, it was ascertained that it had been fired by some wicked persons, who, to avoid paying their debts, had burned the records of them. However, the citizens petitioned Titus very earnestly to expel them from the city or to cancel their privileges. Titus gave no reply; but on his return from the Euphrates said: “The country of the Jews is destroyed; thither they cannot return; it would be hard to allow them no home to which they may retreat; leave them in peace.”

This was only the beginning of the manifestation of that cruel injustice which, down through the ages since, has made the Jews responsible for many great evils which have befallen the places where they have lived. Titus passed by the ruins of Jerusalem on his way from Antioch to Alexandria. If his hard heart was touched with pity at its utter desolation in contrast with its former glory, how must the unfortunate Jews have felt! The Romans dug up among the ruins much treasure of gold and silver and “precious furniture,” but far more was recovered by the Jews themselves, who knew where they had concealed it, under ground, against the uncertainties of war. Thus from the smoldering ruins of desolated Jerusalem sprung up the inalienable legacy of the only kind of riches, moneyed property, which the Jews have ever since possessed.

Arriving at Alexandria, Titus dismissed the two legions who were with him, to go where they were before the war began, while he went to Rome by sea. After settling the affairs of the empire, Vespasian, who had very recently come to the throne, had built a very beautiful temple of Peace in which he deposited pictures, statues, and curiosities from all parts of the world. In this edifice he placed the golden vessels which had been taken from the temple at Jerusalem; and the book of the law and the “purple veils” of the holy place were laid up in the royal palace. Yet, nothing is said of the ark of God. As the most sacred, precious treasure in Jerusalem, had it been in the temple it would certainly have been mentioned. We are elsewhere told what became of it. “Before the temple was destroyed, God made known to a few of his faithful servants the fate of the temple, which was the pride of Israel, and which they regarded with idolatry while they were sinning against God. These righteous men, just before the destruction of the temple, removed the sacred ark containing the tables of stone, and with mourning and sadness, secreted it in a cave where it was to be hid from the people of Israel because of their sins, and was to be no more restored to them. That sacred ark is yet hid. It has never been disturbed since it was secreted.”—Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 414.

The Romans in Italy received Titus with every demonstration of joy and pride. For the awful work of slaughter and desolation they had accomplished, Titus, with his father, Vespasian, were thought deserving of a triumph which was more magnificent than any that had ever preceded it. “Besides the usual display of treasures,—gold, silver, jewels, purple vases, and the rarest wild beasts from all quarters of the globe,—there were extraordinary pageants, three or four stories high, representing, to the admiration and delight of those civilized savages, all the horrors and miseries of war; beautiful countries laid waste; armies slain, routed, led captive; cities breached by military engines, stormed, laid waste with fire and sword; women wailing; houses overthrown; temples burning; and rivers of fire flowing through regions no longer cultivated or peopled, but blazing far away into the long and dreary distance. Among the spoils, the golden table, the seven-branched candlestick, and the book of the law from the temple of Jerusalem, were conspicuous.”—Milman.

The captive Jews themselves were highly adorned. The crowning triumph of the procession, showing, according to the Roman custom, the complete victory obtained, was the execution of the bravest general of the enemy, which lot, as we have seen, fell to Simon, son of Gioras.

(To be continued.)

TWO WAYS TO LIVE.

There are two ways to live on earth— Two ways to judge, to act, to view; For all things here have double birth— A right and wrong, a false and true!

Give me the home where kindness seeks To make that sweet which seemeth small! Where every lip in fondness speaks, And every mind has care for all;

Whose inmates live in glad exchange Of pleasures free from vain expense; Whose thoughts beyond their means ne’er range, Nor wise denials give offense;

Who in a neighbor’s fortune find No wish, no impulse, to complain; Who feels not—never felt—the mind To envy yet another’s gain;

Who dreams not of the mocking tide Ambition’s foiled endeavor meets— The bitter pangs of wounded pride, Nor fallen power that shuns the streets.

Though fate deny its glittering store, Love’s wealth is still the wealth to choose; For all that man can purchase more Are sands it is no loss to lose!

Some beings, whereso’er they go, Find naught to please or to exalt— Their constant study but to show Perpetual modes of finding fault.

While others in the ceaseless round Of daily wants and daily care Can yet cull flowers from common ground, And twice enjoy the joy they share!

Oh! happy they who happy make— Who blessing, still themselves are blest! Who sometimes spare for others’ sake, And strive in all things for the best!

— Selected.

DANGER AHEAD!

In that masterly series of fine paintings by Cole, called “The March of Empire,” the third picture represents a nation in the full career of ostentatious splendor and luxury. And this is the fitting prelude to widespread ruin and desolation. The pomp and pride of life go logically before a fall. “The injury of prodigality,” says Confucius, “leads to this, that he who will not economize will have to agonize.” The love of display, unchecked by a rigid sense of propriety and by conscientious principle, is one of the most baneful of human passions.

Are we as a people incurring peculiar risks from a rapidly-growing indulgence in this passion? The thoughtful observer must admit it. When was there ever such a demand in our country as to-day for the most costly and magnificent fabrics—for finest laces, silks, velvets, sealskins, and jewelry of the loudest description? The standard of taste and modesty, which formerly made it lady-like to reserve fineries, and especially diamonds, for the parlor and social circle, has been so lowered as to make it fashionable to parade these things on the street. The long processions of wives and daughters disporting themselves on our avenues of a pleasant day, fairly flash in an endless line of diamonds that, for enormous size and fiery glitter, might excite the envy of the princesses and kings of Europe. Indeed, a diamond merchant recently declared that the purest and, on the average, the largest stones in the world found their market in the United States. It is literally true, he said, that American women wear more precious brilliants than foreign duchesses and baronesses. Our young lady seems striving to rival the East Indian maiden, who professedly carries her entire fortune and dower on her person in the form of pearls, rubies, and other dazzling ornaments.

Nor is this vice of extravagance less conspicuous at fashionable evening entertainments. They are not considered “high-toned” without the rarest dainties of a fancy caterer and the harmonies of a whole orchestra; while the style in dress and the lavish expenditure involved simply beggar description. And the worst of all this is that individuals of small means are, as usual, aping their more fortunate neighbors of large means. In the general desire to keep up appearances and reciprocate hospitalities, thousands have already entered upon the perilous path of living beyond their incomes. Credit begins to take the place of cash. Debt loses its hideous terror; the thought of stern sacrifice to meet every obligation with absolute honesty grows disagreeable, and is banished as much as public sentiment will allow. Thus extravagance leads directly to a debasement of moral character.

“He that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds,” exclaims Francis Bacon, “will hardly be preserved from decay.” And his lordship had reason to bear this testimony out of a most bitter and melancholy experience. Betrayed by his passion for splendid plate, and liveried servants, and regal feasts, he yielded to bribery, and was sentenced to the Tower in disgrace. Many a victim of extravagance is to-day treading, though on a scale less notable, in the footsteps of England’s ruined judge. The secret process of either risking or appropriating other people’s money to support an establishment that outruns one’s own earnings is in many a case well under way, and by and by the explosion will come. There is danger ahead in this reckless fondness for show; danger to private character, danger to manifold virtues that spring out of simplicity of tastes and frugality of life; danger to the spirituality and benevolences of the church; danger to the manhood of the young, whose ambition is allured to a false ideal of existence and fixed upon utterly unworthy objects; danger to public prosperity, since extravagance leads to a wild expansion of the credit system, and that in turn brings financial panic and crash; danger, in short, all around and to everybody! The Bible always inculcates economy, not for the sake of hoarding, but for the sake of owing no man anything, and for the sake of having something with which to relieve the poor and sick while contributing also to send the gospel throughout the earth.—Christian at Work.

PRAYER IN FAITH NOT FAITH IN PRAYER.

There is a vast difference between prayer in faith and faith in prayer—a difference as vast in their character as in their commonness. Faith in prayer is very common; almost everybody has more or less of it. Prayer in faith is anything but common; so uncommon, in fact, that our Lord questions if he shall find any of it on the earth when he comes back to this world again. Prayer in faith is a commanded duty; faith in prayer is neither commanded nor justifiable. Prayer in faith is always reverent and spiritual; faith in prayer is often superstitious and presuming, although again it is the unconscious reliance of reverent and spiritually minded—but sadly mistaken—Christian disciples. What has been the nature of your praying—that of prayer in faith, or of faith in prayer?

Praying in faith is making known our requests unto God, in full confidence that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us; and that according to our faith an answer to our prayers will be granted us. Having faith in prayer is believing that because certain prayers are offered, certain results will follow; that the praying will secure the thing prayed for. Prayer in faith comes of an abiding faith in the person prayed to; the confidence is in him; it is based on a knowledge of what he is, and on a full conviction that he is every way worthy to be trusted. Faith in prayer is a blind or a presuming reliance on an agency of good—an unauthorized dependence on mere human means. Praying in faith is the act of a simple-hearted child of God. Faith in prayer may be but one remove from the heathen's reliance on his charms and incantations.—S. S. Times.

The Qualities of Respected Authority

—If authority would be respected, it should render itself respectable by its modest dignity, its adherence to truth, justice and right, and its unbiased unselfishness, impartiality, and forbearing kindness.

MAKE A STIR.

By Eld. E. H. Gates.

BY ELD. E. H. GATES.

No one will believe that we are sincere in our profession of looking for the return of our Saviour, the end of the world, and the pouring out of the vials of God's wrath, unless our deportment and words are in accordance with the solemnity of such important events.

The coming of the Lord means the close of probation, the great Judgment day, the conflagration of the earth, and the final doom of the impenitent, which are events of the most startling importance. If at midnight I see my neighbor's house on fire, while the inmates are unconscious of the impending danger, duty demands that I should make a noise about it. And to convince my neighbor that I am not jesting, my actions and words must show that I am terribly in earnest, and that I realize the danger to life and property. At such a time, who would think of leisurely going to the house, and of indifferently or jokingly telling him that it might be well to get up and see if his house was not in danger? No; there would be a stir.

So it should be in divine things. If we wish to convince others of the solemn truths for our times, we must show by our talk, our actions, and our self-sacrifice, that they are divine realities to us, and not held simply as theories. We may present the truth so clearly that men will be compelled to admit the strength of argument; but some undue levity, some vain or frivolous conversation, may balance them on the wrong side, where they can never again be reached. And it is quite possible that such persons may, in the Judgment, reproach their teachers in the following words: “Yes, we heard you preach, and believed what you taught, and would have accepted and acted upon it; but you laughed and joked just like everybody else, and treated the matter so lightly, that we thought you did not really mean what you taught, nor attach much importance to it.”

Many who might support the cause of truth with their God-given means are swallowed up with the “cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.” With their mouth they profess to be looking for the return of the Saviour; but down in their hearts they say, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” Their actions preach with a voice that drowns their words, and effectually prevent any one from believing that their profession is anything more than a theory. The following extract from Sabbath Reading is to the point:—

“Among Noah's hearers none were more regular in attendance, nor more outspoken in sympathy and respect, than Sebed-lo-Sabad. Others reviled; he confessed his acceptance of the truth. His conversation with the preacher often turned upon the approaching deluge.

“At first his neighbors believed him in earnest; but they soon noticed that he bated not a jot of interest in his farm or his merchandise. He builded, he planned, he lived as though there were no threatening storm. In vain the preacher warned him to make suitable preparation. He always gave some ready excuse; and meanwhile flattered himself for accepting the truth and honoring the preacher.

“At last the storm burst. ‘Ah!’ said he to his neighbors, ‘I knew it would come! I told you the preacher spake truth!’

“‘Why, then,’ they answered, ‘did you not flee to the ark, and we perchance, would have followed your example?’

“He breasted the storm and reached the ark's door. ‘Father Noah!’ he cried, ‘open to me! I knew, I always said, you spake the truth. Open to me!’

“‘Not so, Sebed-lo-Sabad’ (servant of no service), was the reply. ‘Others disbelieved and are condemned therefor. You believed, but confirmed them in their unbelief by your own disobedience. Yours is the greater guilt. The Almighty hath closed the door.’

Battle Creek, Mich

By Eliza H. Morton

Sorrow.

BY ELIZA H. MORTON.

Poets have mourned over the sorrows of life, and sung sad songs of woe. Artists have illustrated the dark side of human existence, and painted heart-rending scenes. Historians have recorded thrilling tales of human suffering, and we all have felt the sharp arrows of grief; still, few of us have drained the bitter cup, or felt the wild crushing weight of despair that sometimes bears upon the human soul.

Dispositions differ; some people forget their troubles, others bury them amid the confusion of life, and still others seem devoid of feelings of natural affection.

Human love varies, like the vegetation in the forest. Some hearts stand alone and independent, while others cling to near companions, and twine the very fibers of their souls around loving hearts. When these sensitive clinging natures hear the “shuddering sound of coffin-echoes smothered under ground,” the agony is so intense that they are almost “choked with tears that never come.” To them, “that which is gone, is gone, and no one else can fit into the hollow that separation or death hath made.” No thought of earth can banish the terrible loneliness, or fill up the blank within; no arm of flesh can uphold the sinking heart. In this terrible hour, God only can give relief, and such natures Heaven alone can comfort.

We should deal gently with sorrowing hearts, and not condemn too harshly sad countenances, for we know not the depth of the wound, but rather sing of the re-union and the joy, point the mourning one to Him whose heart is one great fountain of love, and who will eventually wipe away all tears, fill every aching soul, and give a sweet fullness to yearning souls.

Battle Creek, Mich

Perilous Times.

The times in which we live are ominous. Infidelity and licentiousness are rampant. Our country is flooded with a literature contaminating and demoralizing in its character and tendency. Formalism or mere sensationalism seems to take the place of the sound, healthful religion taught in the word of God. Drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking, domestic infidelities and immoralities, thefts, robberies, rapes, and murders, are things of daily occurrence. Indifferentism is widely and fearfully prevalent, doing more harm, perhaps, than is done by openly avowed infidelity. We are living in the days of which the apostle spoke in his second letter to Timothy, chapter 3. Look on that dark picture, study it closely, then look around and see how exactly the prediction is being fulfilled. Can any man deny

fulfilment that is so plainly before his eyes? Surely not. Then let every man and every woman and every child that loves the right, the true, and the good, and desires the prevalence of the same, ask themselves, each for himself, What can I do, what ought I to do, in opposition to the swelling tide of ignorance, indifference, and viciousness that threatens to deluge the land? Surely no true patriot, philanthropist, and Christian can allow himself or herself to be indifferent to the existing state of things, or to what must inevitably be the result unless the evil is changed.—St. Louis Christian Advocate.

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