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Review and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 29.

The Mystery Unfolded

Review and Herald

Jul 16, 1914

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 16, 1914

The Mystery Unfolded

By Editor

This is a new book, written by Elder L. R. Conradi. It was first published in German about two years ago. It has since been translated into several languages, and has recently been issued in English by the International Tract Society of London.
Knowing many of our people would greatly appreciate having this work by Elder Conradi, we have imported a considerable quantity of printed sheets, and are now prepared to supply this book. It deals principally with the two great mysteries, the mystery of iniquity and the mystery of godliness. It spreads before the reader a brief yet comprehensive statement of God’s plan for the salvation of man as revealed in the Scriptures, and especially in the prophetic books of the Bible, embracing the entire period of the reign of sin from paradise lost to paradise restored.
This book contains 350 pages, and will be sold in cloth binding for $1.25.

VALUABLE NEW BOOKS

Friends and Foes in Field and Forest

The latest juvenile book.
One of our ministers who has recently secured the book writes us, “I did not know there were so many things to be learned from bees and bugs.” Another one says, “My children are reading it with the greatest delight.” A union conference president writes: “I have carefully examined the book and consider it a valuable addition to our growing list of splendid young people’s books. It will awaken and deepen interest in the lower forms of life and enable the reader to appreciate in a much greater degree the wonderful works of the Creator. I can heartily recommend it to our youth as a book of absorbing interest and of great educational value.” It is a most charmingly written book, and will interest every young person, and if we may judge from the words of appreciation from some of our older workers who have had the privilege of reading it, the older ones, as well as the young people, will be interested in it.
This book describes the various insects and their habits, and is fully illustrated.
“God help the boy that never sees The butterflies, the birds, the bees, Nor hears the music of the breeze When zephyrs soft are blowing.”
The book will be a great help in teaching the children to see the power of God displayed in nature, and will give them a deeper realization of his greatness and goodness. One can fully appreciate the book only by seeing and reading it. It contains 248 pages; cloth binding, $1.00.

Blessed Be Drudgery

This little book was brought out by the Review and Herald Publishing Association just at Christmas time. The employees, who had heard portions of it read in manuscript, were so pleased with the book that they sent out many copies as Christmas gifts to their friends.
The book consists of two essays written by William C. Gannett,—one entitled “Blessed Be Drudgery,” and the other, “A Cup of Cold Water.” The thought of the booklet is the real heart culture which comes from true service. Even the common things which we do, perhaps many times a day, if done from the right motive and to the best of our ability, ennoble and uplift.
“Our prime elements are due to our drudgery, . . . the fundamentals that underlie all fineness, and without which no other culture worth the winning is even possible. These for instance: . . . power of attention, power of industry, promptitude in beginning work, method and accuracy and dispatch in doing work, perseverance, courage before difficulties, cheer under straining burdens, self-control and self-denial and temperance. These are the prime qualities; these are the fundamentals.”
This book is printed from new type, each page surrounded by a tint border. It is neatly bound in cloth; price, 50 cents.

Looking Unto Jesus

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE
LAST night I had a wonderful experience. I was in an assembly where questions were being asked and answered. I awoke at one o’clock, and arose. For a time I walked the room praying most earnestly for clearness of mind, for strength of eyesight, and for strength to write the things that must be written. I entreated the Lord to help me to bear a testimony that would awake his people before it is forever too late. . . .
My soul was drawn out in the consideration of matters relating to the future carrying forward of God’s work. Those who have had little experience in the beginning of the work often err in judgment in regard to how it should be advanced. They are tempted on many points. They think that it would be better if the talented workers had higher wages, according to the importance of the work they do.
But one of authority stood among us in the assembly in which I was present last night, and spoke words that must decide the question. He said: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, trace his work after he assumed humanity, and remember that he is your pattern. In the work of soul saving, his divine-human life in our world is to be your guide. He made the world, yet when he lived on this earth, he had not where to lay his head.”
Were the most talented workers given higher wages, those who do the more laborious part of the work would desire larger wages also, and would say that their work is just as essential as any work that is done.
Work is to be carried forward in many lines. New territory is to be annexed. But no Jerusalem centers are to be made. If such centers are made, there will be a scattering of the people out of them, by the Lord God of heaven.
The work of God is to be carried on without outward display. In establishing institutions, we are never to compete with the institutions of the world in size or splendor. We are to enter into no confederacy with those who do not love or fear God. Those who have not the light of present truth, who are unable to endure the seeing of him who is invisible, are surrounded by spiritual darkness that is as the darkness of midnight. Within, all is dreariness. They know not the meaning of joy in the Lord. They take no interest in eternal realities. Their attention is engrossed by the trifling things of earth. They make haste unto vanity, striving by unfair means to obtain advantages. Having forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, they hew out for themselves broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Let it not be thus with those who have tasted the power of the world to come.
Sow the seeds of truth wherever you have opportunity. In establishing the work in new places, economize in every possible way. Gather up the fragments; let nothing be lost. The work of soul saving must be carried on in the way that Christ has marked out. He declares, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Only by obeying this word can we be his disciples. We are striving for a kingdom and a crown. We shall obtain both by wearing Christ’s yoke and learning of him. “Follow my example,” he says. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
We are nearing the end of this earth’s history, and the different lines of God’s work are to be carried forward with much more self-sacrifice than they have yet been. The work for these last days is a missionary work. Present truth, from the first letter of its alphabet to the last, means missionary effort. The work to be done calls for sacrifice at every step of advance. The workers are to come forth from trial purified and refined, as gold tried in the fire.

A. E. PLACE

By A. E. Place

“Judge Not”—No. 1

A. E. PLACE

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? . . . Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Matt. 7: 1-5.
EVERY generation, every people, and doubtless every individual, has to a greater or less extent violated the principle laid down in the text quoted above. We have beheld motes when we should have been considering beams. We have felt sure that we saw a beam when it was in fact but a mote. We have failed to discern and apply just weights and measures. And some of us at least have strained at the proverbial gnat, and swallowed a camel. But, letting bygones be bygones, is there a cure for the constitutional disease?
It would seem, from the Saviour’s words, that to behold a mote in a brother’s eye, and not consider the beam in our own eye, is hypocrisy, and the same author said, “Woe unto you, . . . hypocrites.” To “consider,” according to Webster, is “to fix the mind on, with a view to a careful examination.”
Perchance if we should fix our mind upon our own eyes, with a view to a careful examination, we might find a beam. If so, and we should find the grace of God sufficient to take it out, we might be unable longer to see the mote which before we saw so plainly in our brother’s eye. These motes, are sometimes but a reflection of the beam which is in our own eye, and which, by a faulty focus, we locate in our brother’s eye.
O, how much sadness and misery have been brought into this world because of a wrong focus or an obstructed vision!
Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews (chap. 12: 1), speaks of “the sin which doth so easily beset us.” We say Paul referred to unbelief. But there is another sin which doth easily beset us,—the sin of seeing things we ought not to see, carrying reports that should never be carried; in a word, violating the plain demands of our text.
Seventh-day Adventists are dealing with a most sacred work, the finishing of the “mystery of God” (the gospel). This finishing must embrace the perfecting of character as truly as the carrying of a theoretical message to the world. Of the finished people it will be said, “Without guile in their mouths,” “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”
Are we prayerfully considering the fact that in this finishing work, God himself is judge? Are we studying both motes and beams by means of God’s great perfect looking-glass? See James 1: 23, 24.
It is so easy to sit in the judge’s chair and pass sentence upon this one, that one, in fact, any one except the first person singular,—myself,—and still worse, to do it without jury, and without once calling in the prisoner; then to kneel down and pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Think of a judge passing sentence without one word from the accused! Think of a judge listening to tales about a prisoner while the accused is not at the bar! Would this be tolerated by the courts of this world? But is it not a common thing in the church, even in the remnant church?
Judging, condemning, or criticizing without Christlike labor for the accused one, has caused more heartaches, made more separations, produced more leanness of soul, than almost any other one thing. It has lacerated and torn most tender cords of affection; it has driven honest husbands, wives, and children from home; it has doubtless driven many to ruin, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. Because of it “many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”
For several years, this has to me been a burning question, and from this sin I have prayed earnestly and long to be completely and eternally delivered. Often have I asked myself the question, When will it all end in my life, and the lives of my brethren and sisters? The only answer I seem to get is, Never, unless we come to see clearly.
We well remember the case of the blind man whom Christ touched, and then asked him if he saw anything. The man answered, “I see men as trees, walking.” Then Jesus touched him again, and he saw clearly. Has Jesus touched us but once? Are we ready for his divine hand to rest upon us again? If so, he will touch our eyes, and suddenly we shall lose sight of the motes and the beams, we shall cease to see men as “trees.” Then we can see men as men. In them and through them we shall see one Man,—the Man of sorrows, dying on the cross for every man, that he might give to every man the divine focus.
When we see every man as Christ sees him, we should rather go to the cross ourselves than put a stumblingblock in the way of the weakest.
“Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. . . . So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”
San Jose, Cal.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

By John Norton Loughborough

The Second Advent Movement — No. 2

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

ALTHOUGH the disciples had wrong conceptions of the outcome of the message they were proclaiming, their expectation added to their zeal in their labors. So also those engaged in the second advent movement were aroused to great earnestness by supposing they had reached the actual consummation of their hopes. It was true that the coming of the Lord was near, and that the Lord designed the arousing of his people to the fact. This appears from our Saviour’s answer to the question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming?” After calling attention to signs that should appear, he said, “When ye shall see all these things, know that it [“he,” margin] is near, even at the doors.” Matt. 24: 3, 33.
That the Lord’s near coming was to be taught is clear from many scriptures. In Isaiah we read of the time when the Lord would swallow up death in victory. “It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him.” Isa. 25: 9. Waiting implies a knowledge of his coming, and preparation to meet him. The admonition of the Saviour shows the same: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.” Luke 12: 35, 36. The apostle Paul, referring to the consummation of the hope at the coming of Christ, said, “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5: 4. Peter, speaking on the same subject, said, “There shall come in the last days scoffers, . . . saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3: 3, 4)—evidence that at that time his coming would be taught. So the apostle James, speaking of the heaping up of treasures “in the last days” and the defrauding of the laborers of their just due, said: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James 5: 7, 8.
One reason why the Adventists taught as they did was their entertaining the idea that the judgment was at the actual coming of Christ; they also believed the commonly accepted idea that this earth was the sanctuary. There was no denomination at that time that had the true light respecting the sanctuary in heaven. During the Dark Ages, and even following the Reformation, the church looked upon Christ’s ministry in the world as “sanctuary service.” Before the rise of the third angel’s message we heard nothing from the pulpit of a sanctuary in heaven. Well do I remember in my boyhood days hearing the ministers call church services “sanctuary services,” and speak of devout worshipers as “sitting under the droppings of the sanctuary.”
As the Levitical sanctuary was cleansed from sin once a year, and that yearly round of service represented the complete service of Christ as a priest, it was concluded that his service for sinners in the sanctuary—the world—would close with his cleansing the earth of sinners, by fire, at his second coming. Daniel had heard it stated, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8: 14. In view of that, the Adventists thought if it could be ascertained when, in our reckoning, that period would close, they would have the year when Christ would come.
Daniel pressed his suit for light respecting the things he had seen and heard. With great earnestness he inquired, “How long?” and, “O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” He was told, “Go thy way, Daniel [as much as to say, do not trouble your mind]: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Dan.12: 8, 9. While no exact date was given to him, he was pointed to an event which, when it should be fulfilled, would be the time of the end. In a view of the great apostasy and the persecutions that should come, he was told that the Lord’s people would fall by the hand of that power “till the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.” Dan. 11: 35. The appointed time of that persecuting power was 1260 years. This period beginning in A. D. 538, the 1260 years would terminate in 1798. That year the Papacy was overthrown, which marks 1798 as the time of the end, and the time when knowledge on the time should come. Now, let us look at the facts of that time. In the Midnight Cry (an Adventist paper) of June 15, 1842, we read: ‘It is truly interesting to find the various independent writers who, since 1798, have seen what was entirely unperceived before,—that the seventy weeks was the key to the twenty-three hundred days.’ Again, in the same article, we read: ‘Is it not a wonderful coincidence that so many writers, without any knowledge of each other, came to the same conclusion about the same time?’
The church had had the light on the seventy weeks from the time that Christ had preached, ‘The time is fulfilled.’ But lo, when God’s time came for the light to appear on the 2300 days, his servants discover that the Hebrew word which had been rendered “determined” was really “cut off.” They said: ‘This is an explanation of the 2300 days. The seventy weeks are cut off from the 2300 days. Both periods begin together. So the 2300 days will terminate 1810 years from the termination of the seventy weeks—A. D. 34, or in our year 1844.’ In at least twenty different countries this light was discovered on the 2300 days, and when in after years those reckonings were compared, they were all found to agree that the period would terminate in 1844. As the Adventists accepted this reckoning of the 2300 days, it was the strong plank in their message that Christ would come to cleanse the sanctuary—the world—by fire in 1844.
Lodi, Cal.

Unlimited Service

By John N. Quinn

JOHN N. QUINN
LOVE measures no gift. LOVE limits no service. God gave not the Spirit by measure to Jesus Christ. He filled him with all the fullness of the Godhead. “Of his fullness” does the believer in Christ receive, and to the one who has received of Christ’s fullness, there are no limitations to service.
When missionary activity is urged, not infrequently has the objection been offered, “My daily service is in a religious institution, and when the day’s work is finished, I have done all that is required of me.” But this was a limited service, perhaps a failure fully to enter into the spirit of our Lord and Master.
The tithe has been paid, and an offering given to missions, and here ends responsibility in the cause of Christ, is the feeling of others. The nine tenths is mine, to be used as I please. A measured gift! It requires all to buy the field containing the pearl of everlasting life, and he who is fully in touch with the spirit of heaven is willing to give time and strength and money to rescue men from the soon-coming maelstrom of God’s wrath, and bring them to Christ. No other spirit than this is recognized by the gospel; no other spirit will enter the kingdom of Him who emptied himself that we might receive of God’s fullness. “Freely [fully] ye have received, freely give.” LOVE measures no gift. LOVE limits no service.

The Origin of the Bible

By L. L. CAVINESS

L. L. CAVINESS
IN these days no one need be without a Bible. The almost universal distribution of the Book, makes it really difficult to conceive of a time when there was no Bible. As one author expresses it:—
“A world without a Bible! How strangely the words sound in our ears! And yet, though few probably realize it, that was the actual condition of this world on which we are living, so far as is known, throughout more than one third of its entire existence as the dwelling place of man. In other words, during the first 2,500 years, that is, until about 3,500 years ago, there appears to have been no written revelation from God.”—Sidney Collett, “All About the Bible,” Fleming H. Revell Co., N. Y., page 1.
God’s plan during the first ages of the world seems to have been an oral communication of his will to the saints of those early times; yet in due time God prepared the way for a written revelation of his will.
“About the close of the first two thousand years, God called Abram out from the idolatrous surroundings of his native home, changed his name to Abraham, and constituted him the head of a people, known as the Hebrews, or Jews, whom he pleased to call his own peculiar possession, and whom he specially fitted and prepared during many generations, that they might in due time become the depositaries of a revelation committed to writing, which would at once be more permanent in its nature and less liable to be either forgotten or corrupted; and that they as a nation, separated from all other peoples on the earth, might themselves first learn to ‘do all the words of this law’ (Deut. 29:29), and in the fullness of time might spread the blessings of this precious heritage among all nations.
“Accordingly, about five hundred years after the call of Abram,—that is, about B. C. 1500,—the time came to have this written revelation accomplished, which was to embody a history of the preceding 2,500 years, including an account of the creation, together with God’s laws, precepts, promises, prophecies, etc.”—Id., page 6.
Yet the Bible was not written as are ordinary books, by one person and within a comparatively short time.
“Altogether, about forty persons, in all stations of life, were engaged in the writing of these oracles, the work of which was spread over a period of about sixteen hundred years—namely, from about 1500 B. C., when Moses commenced to write the Pentateuch amid the thunders of Sinai, to about A. D. 97, when the apostle John, himself a son of thunder, wrote his Gospel in Asia Minor.”—Id., pages 11, 12.
“The authorship of this book is wonderful. Here are words written by kings, by emperors, by princes, by poets, by sages, by philosophers, by fishermen, by statesmen; by men learned in the wisdom of Egypt, educated in the schools of Babylon, trained up at the feet of rabbis in Jerusalem. It was written by men in exile, in the desert, in shepherds’ tents, in ‘green pastures’ and beside ‘still waters.’ Among its authors we find the taxgatherer, the herdsman, the gatherer of sycamore fruit; we find poor men, rich men, statesmen, preachers, exiles, captains, legislators, judges; men of every grade and class are represented in this wonderful volume, which is in reality a library, filled with history, genealogy, ethnology, law, ethics, prophecy, poetry, eloquence, medicine, sanitary science, political economy, and perfect rules for the conduct of personal and social life. It contains all kinds of writing; but what a jumble it would be if sixty-six books were written in this way by ordinary men.”—H. L. Hastings, “Will the Old Book Stand?” pages 19, 20.
Not only does this Book represent the work of so many different persons writing under such a variety of circumstances, but it was written in different languages. All the New Testament was written in Greek, while “the Old Testament—at least, almost the whole of it—was written in Hebrew. The following three small sections, however, were written in Chaldean: Jer. 10:11; Dan. 2:4 to 7:28; Ezra 4:8 to 6:18.
“We are not told, and therefore it is impossible to say with absolute certainty, why these three parts should have been written in a different language from the rest of the Old Testament; but there was, no doubt, a special purpose in it.”—“All About the Bible,” page 22.
It is well to remember also that not alone the language, but even the style of writing differed from our modern form.
“The Hebrew language was originally written, not only entirely in consonants without any vowels at all (thus Jehovah was simply written JHVH), but there was no spacing to divide one word from another, as if we should write the Lord’s Prayer thus:—
“RFTHRWHCHRTNHVNHLLWD-BTHNM, etc.
“It was not until after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity that words were divided from one another, and the Hebrew Old Testament generally was arranged into verses and paragraphs, and the present square Hebrew characters were substituted for the ancient Phœnician or archaic Hebrew alphabet. These changes, which were only gradually introduced, were commenced, Dr. Ginsburg tells us, in the days of Ezra, by certain men known as the Sopherim scribes. The vowel points were introduced much later, about 500 or 600 A. D., by the Masoretes, who put in writing many oral traditions as to the correct method of reading the sacred text.”—Id., pages 16, 17.
The Greek New Testament also was at first written unpunctuated, a point which is at times of much importance in the interpretation of the text.
As one considers the origin of our Bible, he cannot but be impressed with the wonderfulness of the revelation which God has vouchsafed to us, and there springs up a renewed determination to give it more time and study.

A Prayer for Daily Cheerfulness

By Robert Louis Stevenson

The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep.—Robert Louis Stevenson.

Purified Through Sorrow

“WHAT solace would God's sorrowing saints pluck from the very boughs of trial could they but feel that he is purifying and perfecting them by the discipline of sorrow!”

Present Salvation

It is our privilege to experience present salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, if Christ does not become a present Saviour, he never will become an eternal Saviour. It required both the death and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring salvation to his children. Through his death we obtain “remission of sins that are past.” Rom. 3:25. By his life we obtain victory over sin; “for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Rom. 5:10. Of the manner in which salvation comes, the apostle Paul speaks further in Gal. 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Christ came to save his people from sin, not in their sin. When predicting the birth of the blessed Lord, the angel declared to Joseph: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus [Saviour]: for he shall save his people from their sins.” It is this salvation from sin today for which we should seek. Today the Saviour desires to abide in us by his Holy Spirit, giving us grace and overcoming power over every besetment. From anger, from malice, from envy, from jealousy, from impure thoughts, from evil speaking, and from every form and phase of sin, he desires us to find release today. O, this is the glorious freedom which is offered to the children of men!
From the thralldom of sin we may be free. The chains which have held us in bondage may be broken. God has promised us grace sufficient for all things. It is for us to come out into the light and liberty of his forgiving love. Victory over sin now, today, should be our experience. This should be our great aim and object. This may be accomplished through surrender, daily surrender; through continuous prayer; through simple, childlike faith, which takes God at his word, which invites him into the heart, and opens the heart to receive him in his fullness. Let us seek and obtain this victory which is in Jesus Christ for every one of his children.

The Christian Mission of the Home

By C. M. S.

Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children,” has in it a thought which is worthy of the attention of every parent. The American Revised Version reads, “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” Eph. 5:1.
Every parent knows how natural it is for a child to do what it sees its parents do, or its teacher do, or its older playfellows. The “beloved children” are those who are heeding parental advice, copying their living pattern, and so meriting continual approval. The parent is to follow, or imitate, his pattern (Christ) as he expects his child to follow, or imitate, the pattern which he sets. The ideal result would be that the child would learn to follow Christ by following the example of his own parent. The more closely the parent followed Christ, the more closely would the child follow Christ in following, or imitating, the parent. What a grand opportunity! What a field for true gospel evangelism in the homes of our people!
But the child will imitate the parent and the teacher whether they are following Christ or the adversary. What a weighty responsibility! The example which we set before the child, which is imitated by the child, does not cease with the child, but is passed on and on, carrying with it a blessing or a blight, the sunshine of helpfulness or the mildew of selfishness.
If we expect politeness and courtesy in the children, we must set before them the example we wish to see worked out in them. We must be polite and courteous both before them and to them. It is not enough to say, “Johnnie, you must say, ‘Thank you,’ ‘If you please,’ ‘Excuse me,’” etc. We must ourselves practice the courtesies we would exact from him. If the child is accustomed to hearing the expressions of courtesy in the home, they will become his natural language. If he is accustomed to seeing the courteous acts which are the true accompaniment of such expressions, they will almost invariably be seen in his life. If the parents set an example of true, consistent piety, of kindly helpfulness, of forbearance in love, of reverence for God and his house, of genuine Christian living, of true Sabbath keeping, the very atmosphere of the home they create will act as an evangelizing and saving influence in the lives of their children. Such acts and such lives are almost certain to be seen reproduced in the children of that home.
When neighbors call, it is a very common thing for some parents to rehearse to the callers the misdoings of a child, in the presence of the child who has done the wrong, and perhaps even tell what punishment has been administered. It is done in the hope of making the child so ashamed of the deed that he will not repeat it. It does not accomplish the result, and it breeds in the heart of the child a spirit of hatred which the parent may never be able to eradicate. Its effect is to repel instead of to win the child; and as the parent loses hold on the child, the child loses hold on God.
It is perfectly natural that the child should dislike being held up to ridicule. Parents do not like it themselves, and they come to dislike very heartily those who ridicule them before others. It is a very dangerous place for any parent to put himself in with reference to his child. It may mean the loss of a soul. “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” God does not accuse his children before those outside his family.
What you wish your children to be, live that before them. Copy Christ. Learn his ways and imitate them till the graces of Christian kindness are seen in your every act. Then you may rightfully expect to see at least some of them in the lives of your children. One of the most promising fields of missionary activity in the world is in the home. Let us not look lightly upon it; for God holds as very precious the souls of those he has placed under our charge.
C. M. S.

Grumblers and Growlers

By F. M. W.

What a blessed thing it would be if the world could be rid of this class of people! Not that they should be put out of it, but that they should gain such a viewpoint that there would be wrought in their lives a change of spirit.
We cannot charge them with dishonesty. In fact, all the grumblers we have ever met believed that they had abundantoccasion for their complaint. Something once had gone wrong; the times were hard and so that they could not make a prosperous living; the affairs of the conference were badly managed; the members of the church were cold and unsympathetic; some of the church officers were anything but patterns of meekness; the neighborhood was unfriendly; their friends cherished a spirit of criticism; their gifts and abilities were not appreciated, or others were afforded superior advantages and opportunities. These and a legion of other reasons, led these persons to feel that the world was awry; that the whole town, or church, or neighborhood was wrong; and so this class of people go about sowing the seed of discontent and of faultfinding.
It is pitiful to possess minds of this character which sow the baneful seeds of jealousy, evil surmising, and discontent. Perhaps some of these persons had a hard time. They may have been treated unkindly and dealt with unjustly, but this ill treatment on the part of others furnishes no occasion for them to manifest in their lives the same evil spirit with which they charge others.
Faith shines the brightest in the darkness. The real test of meekness is in enduring trials and afflictions. It is for every disciple to realize that he sustains a personal relationship to God, and that that relationship should not be affected and need not be affected by the relationship of any other individual to his Maker, and though all his fellows turn against him, he still may maintain his integrity.
God calls us to manhood, to womanhood. We are not to be children, swayed by every breeze, influenced by every word; laughing when others smile upon us, crying when they frown. We shall see disloyalty to the end of the world; we shall see coldness in others; but we need not succumb to this. The warmth of Christ's love in our hearts will enable us to dissipate much of the coldness around us. We are not to become the children of circumstances, but under God we are to convert circumstances into stepping-stones to success. We are not to yield weakly to the difficulties we meet, but with Christian faith and hope and courage we are to breast the current, and trust God to cause every adverse influence to work for our good.
The church of God today needs generous-souled men and women. It needs men and women with kindly hearts who will not continually stand upon the defensive, jealous of personal rights, but who are able by God's grace to pass by slights and fancied grievances, and maintain in the face of the most unfriendly conditions the spirit of the Master.
The grumblers and growlers need to change their viewpoint; they need to become converted; they need to experience the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then they can quietly rest in him and let the storm pass by. Let us be lifters, not leaners; boosters, not knockers. Let us not growl and grumble and complain. Let us rejoice in God. Let us cherish faith in our fellows in spite of their mistakes. Let us be generous enough and big enough and broad enough to live above the mean things of life. Doing this, life in spite of its trials and vicissitudes will be one grand, sweet song in Christ Jesus. F. M. W.
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