Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 8, 1881
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON SIN.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
UNMERITED mercy, no less than strict justice, were strikingly displayed in the Lord's dealings with the house of Eli. Notwithstanding the Heaven-daring crimes of the ungodly sons, and the sinful neglect of the indulgent father, the Lord waited long for them to turn from their evil ways. Then he sent a prophet to denounce their sins and to warn them of impending judgment. Without fear or favor, this chosen messenger of God set forth the high honors which the Most High had conferred upon them, and their base ingratitude in so degrading their holy office:—
"Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel? Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering which I have commanded in my habitation; and honorest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chievest of all the offerings of Israel my people? Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever; but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
Except in his neglect to restrain and control his sons, Eli had faithfully performed the duties of his office. But his failure to maintain the honor of God by repressing sin with an impartial hand, gave rise to a long train of evils, bringing crime and anguish upon a whole nation. In the history of Eli and his sons is a solemn warning for all the ministers of Christ—an admonition to guard their own hearts with diligence, to keep holy all God's requirements, that his blessing may rest upon the workmen, and that the work may bear the signet of Heaven. It should also impress upon them their duty to rebuke sin in the members of the church, be they high or low, rich or poor. Even our dearest friends are not to come between us and our allegiance to God. We need not expect to receive the divine blessing until all that has been left for man to do is done to correct error and repress sin. To neglect this duty, or to be slothful and careless in its performance, is to disobey God, to sanction sin, and to bring his wrath upon his people.
The example of ministers should be such as to impress the people with reverence for God, and with fear to offend him. They should honor the Lord at all times, ever acknowledging that of themselves they can do nothing, that their strength and wisdom must come from God, and that all the glory belongs to him. Those who occupy responsible positions, where if connected with God they might do much good, yet who abuse these privileges by the gratification of appetite or unlawful passion, will be visited with the wrath of God according to the gifts which they have perverted.
It is plainly written on the unrenewed heart and on a fallen world, All seek their own. Selfishness is the great law of our degenerate nature. Selfishness occupies that place in the soul where Christ should sit enthroned. Never does Satan more effectually accomplish his work than in controlling the minds and hearts of those who minister in sacred things. Transforming himself into an angel of light, his true character is not discerned. Alas, how many of the agents of the great deceiver are to be found in the holy office of the ministry! They may possess intellectual ability, they study, preach, and pray, and are looked upon as pious men because engaged in a sacred work. Then, taking advantage of the confidence reposed in them, they lead souls to ruin and to death. There are men in holy office to-day who are similar in character to Hophni and Phinehas. They give loose rein to passion, and disguise their depravity under a cloak of religion. When at last their true character is detected and exposed, the faith of the people receives a shock that often destroys their confidence in religion. Imperceptibly there is left upon the mind a distrust of all who profess to teach the word of God. The message of the true servant of Christ is doubtfully received. The question constantly comes up, "Will not this man prove to be like the one we thought so holy and found so corrupt?" Thus the word of God loses its power upon the souls of men. These false shepherds are of the class who in the day of God will say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" It is to such men that our Lord will declare, "I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Said the great apostle, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." We live in an age when the spurious abounds; but, thank God, there is a true, or there would be no counterfeit. Let all who would be numbered with the faithful few, seek to follow the example of the self-denying apostle.
The words of reproof to Eli are also a reproof to all parents who pursue a similar course. Indulgence of the wayward inclinations of the youth is registered in the books of Heaven as a sin. If a minister of the gospel neglect his duty as a parent, his guilt is as much greater than that of others as his position is more responsible. He is showing contempt for the authority of God. While teaching his word to others, he disregards it himself. That parent can have no true sense of the worth of souls, who permits his children to grow up without restraint, going out from his hearth with their hearts at enmity with God and his law, to infuse that enmity into the hearts of others.
The very beginnings of evil, the first manifestations of insubordination, should be resolutely checked. The indulgence of appetite and passion should be restrained with earnestness and decision. When parents neglect this work, they permit thorns and briers to occupy the heart-gardens which God has commanded them to sow with precious seed, and to till with care, that a harvest may be brought forth unto eternal life. God will surely visit the transgressors with judgment. Both parents and children must reap the harvest sown.
In the sons of Eli, we may see the sons of many professedly Christian parents. None are more stubborn and perverse, none less susceptible to the influence of the Holy Spirit, than are many of these victims of parental indulgence. There is no class that will exert a more pernicious influence than such ungodly youth. By their inconsistent course, they furnish the enemies of God with arguments against Christianity. There are skeptics and even atheists who are at times troubled, and almost persuaded to believe in the existence of God and the truth of the Scriptures. Satan fears to lose them from his ranks, and he calls their attention to the perverse and immoral children of professed Christians, as the fruit of belief in God and the Bible. The careless find in their course an excuse for not giving themselves to Christ, and many who really desire to become Christians, are discouraged. These wayward youth are successful agents of Satan. Ungodliness and immorality follow in their path, and the crime of perverting and polluting many souls rests upon them, and upon the parents whose neglect of duty made them what they are.
Professed Christians have by their inconsistent course done greater harm to the cause of Christ than can be done by open opposers. The world at large judge of Christianity by the course of its advocates. If this be evil, the system itself is rejected. When a missionary once urged an Indian chief to be a Christian, "the plumed savage drew himself up in the consciousness of superior rectitude, and with indignation quivering on his lip and flashing in his eagle eye, replied, 'Christian lie; Christian cheat; Christian steal, drink, murder; Christian rob me of my lands, and slay my tribe;' adding as he turned haughtily on his heel, 'I will be no Christian.'" Alas that this incident truly represents the course of some who are looked upon by the world as the representatives of Christ!
Eli knew that the wickedness of his sons and the iniquity which by their influence had spread through all Israel, must call down upon his family and upon the nation the judgments of God. He remembered how promptly similar offenders had been punished in the past. In the days of Joshua, one man's sin brought disaster and defeat upon the whole nation. When, contrary to the command of God, Achan took of the spoils of their enemies, and concealed the coveted treasure in his tent, the divine presence was withdrawn from Israel, until the crime had been put away by the death of the offender. The Lord gave Joshua to understand that the sin of even one man would bring the divine wrath upon the whole congregation.
There was work for both magistrate and people, to keep the camp free from iniquity. They must have vigilant care, not only for themselves, but for one another, lest sin should prevail, and the Lord's name be dishonored.
God's character changes not. He was the same in Eli's time as in the days of Joshua. The iniquity signally punished in the early history of Israel could not be tolerated in later years. The crimes of Eli's sons were far greater than the sin of Achan. And their guilt was heightened by the greater light which they had received; they were acquainted with the history of his sin and its terrible punishment, and they had enjoyed superior advantages for religious education and training. Notwithstanding the Lord's forbearance toward them, they had stubbornly gone on in sin, and now the prophet of the Lord pronounced their fate:—
"And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them. And I will raise me up a faithful priest that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind; and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever."
Man may be deceived by the outward appearance; but the Lord looketh upon the heart. Those who steal the livery of Heaven that they may allure souls to death, will as surely receive retributive justice as did Achan, Hophni, and Phinehas. Every man is sowing seed which will produce a harvest for him to reap by and by. We are all treasuring up stores for eternity. The righteous are laying up eternal riches; the wicked treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. While acquiring property on earth, the sinner is by his transgression of God's law gathering for himself anguish and bitterness. He may be honored of men, but, saith the Lord, "Them that honor me, I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." The record of every act of injustice, of cruelty, or licentiousness, is passing up to Heaven to be registered in the book of God's remembrance. To-day the treasure of wrath is greater than it was yesterday; and to-morrow the sinner will add to the amount. Every soul whom his influence has helped to lead astray increases the treasure he has laid up, the vengeance of God, accumulating, deepening, darkening.
In Eli's reproof to his sons are words of solemn and fearful import,—words which all who minister in sacred things would do well to ponder. "If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" Had their crimes injured only their fellow-men, the judge might have made reconciliation by appointing a penalty, and requiring restitution; and thus the offenders might have been pardoned. Or had they sinned ignorantly, the priest might have presented a sin-offering for them, and secured their pardon. But their sins were so interwoven with their ministration as priests of the Most High, in offering sacrifice for sin; the work of God was so profaned and dishonored before the people, that no expiation could be accepted for them. Their own father, though himself high priest, dared not make intercession for them; he could not shield them from the wrath of a holy God. Let those whose hearts are given to the service of sin and Satan, beware how they pollute the sacred office of the ministry. Let them beware how, while at heart agents of Satan, they dare to stand before the people as ambassadors for Christ. In the day of Judgment542the doom of Hophni and Phinehas will be theirs.
BE THOU WITH ME.
Be thou with me; the way is dark and drear,
Vouchsafe, O God, to make the pathway clear.
Doubtful and devious still my way must be
If thou dost guide me not—be thou with me.
Life's bitter chalice to its dregs I sip,
Its fair fruits turn to ashes on my lip;
O thou who wept in dark Gethsemane,
I too have suffered—oh, be thou with me!
Lonely, adrift upon a troubled sea,
The cold waves, pitiless, break over me;
O thou who stilled the waves at Galilee,
Still thou my troubled soul—be thou with me!
O Cross to which I cling, illume the night;
O Lamp unto my feet, shed forth the light;
O love divine that brightened Calvary,
Descend upon my heart—be thou with me.
—Advance.
"Familiar spirits, . . . wizards that peep, and that mutter." Isa. 8:19.
There are many specimens of the frog-like peeping and muttering of spirits through modern mediums, and some of them have been put on record by the Spiritualists themselves. As a specimen we refer to their attempt to give a correct history of the creation. The Bible account they say is unintelligible. They seem to have a spite against the book of Genesis, which gives an account of Satan's first lie, and of the serpent being a speaking medium; so they would peep it all out of existence, or into frog-like confusion. Under the imposing head of "Disclosures from the Interior," in the Mountain Cove Journal, by T. L. Harris, a Spiritualist author and medium, "an exalted spirit" (?) croaks as follows:—
"In the beginning God, the Life in God, the Lord in God, the Holy Procedure, inhabited the dome which, burning in magnificent primeval and revolving in prismatic and undulatory spiral, appeared, and was the pavilion of the Spirit in glory inexhaustible and inconceivable, in movement spherical, unfolded in harmonious procedure disclosive.
"And God said, Let Mechanical Procedure be! and movement, rhythmical, harmonical, melodial, unfolded from the firmament.
"And God said, Let there be space! and the firmament was separated from the emanation, and the firmament, unmoved, appeared, and the emanation unfolded within the procedure. And the firmament is manifest Infinitude, and the emanation separated, is encompassed space.
"And God made two great lights to rule the zodiac, and to be for creative disclosure, disclosive manifestation, manifest glory, glorious radiation, interpenetrative aggregation; and thence vortices, vortical suns, suns of vortices, solariums, vortical planetariums, planets, floral universes, universal paradises, paradisiacal heavens, heavens of spiritual universes, celestial heavens, seraphic habitations, seraphim universes, cities of heavenly seraphima, and final consociative universal intelligence in unity of innumerable individuality, in triunity of unfolding universes, adoring and ascending in beatification unto eternal life.
"This is the Genesis of Nature; not uncreated or self-originated, but created;—not the progressive upgrowing, upheaving, upmentalizing, upspiritualizing, upreaching struggle of a germ;—but condescension infinite, creation voluntary, and bestowment merciful, of the Divine Creator; to whom be given adoration immeasurable and eternal! world without end!"
Is the reader instructed by the foregoing? or is he reminded of a scene at the frog pond in spring-time? Then hear another spirit peeping as follows:—
"God, the life in God, the Lord in God, the Holy Procedure organized the first Orb-Creation in form of appearing as one globular ovarium, which was the germ of the terrestrial universe of universes: and within the embryo of the external of universal impersonal creation, as one curvilinear ovarium; and within the curvilinear the germ of the external, of the universal, personal, or intellectual creation in form of one vortical ovarium... The universal concavity the universal convexity were co-enfolded and encompassed in the universal zodiac, and within the concavity was the visible disclosure unto the germ of the terrestrial."
The above will fairly justify the strong contrast drawn by Prof. Stuart in the Biblical Repository, of 1832, between true and false prophets and spirits:—
"I agree to the fact that the heathen seers were rightly named manteis, from mainomai, to rave; as Cicero has declared in his first book, 'De Divinatione.' But what an immeasurable distance, now, between a raving man or woman, uttering incoherent sentences; or (which was more common) a dissimulating hypocrite, uttering cunningly and artfully and equivocally constructed sentences and poetic riddles; and a Hebrew prophet, animated by the strongest and deepest feelings of reverence for Jehovah, and a holy ardor in the cause of true piety! Is there ambiguity, flattery, self-seeking enigmas, in the message of the latter? None. Are not all these stamped on more or less of the heathen oracles? They are."
The spirits at the Banner of Light circle, Boston, May 2, 1864, described how they get possession of the body:—
"I ask that spirit, 'Will you yield me up the control of your mortal form for a short time?' The answer is generally, 'I will.' . . . The spirit is subjected to the entire control of the predominating spirit. It is, in a word, magnetized by the spirit; held in perfect subjection."
Swedenborg gives the object of the spirits as follows:—
"We mean to revolutionize the whole race of man. We will write what we will, and this medium has not the power to resist what we will to be done. Such we intend shall be the condition of all men. Human destiny is now measurably in our hand."—Book of Human Nature, p. 308.
Again the same author says:—
"Nearly the whole world of spirits is fanatical, and seeks nothing else but to teach and to lead, striving even to possess the bodies of men and loosen all the bonds of conscience especially in respect of marriage."—Ib., p. 299.
In the same book is the following confession:—
"Many now in this city [Philadelphia] consult their guardian spirits with as much, yea, more, confidence than they would a kind and experienced parent, and willingly yield to their suggestions and directions in all matters both great and small."—Page 270.
SEDUCTIVE, LYING SPIRITS.
The Scripture terms describing their deceptive character are the following:—
Their flattering style is like that of the seducer. The communications from the spirits abound in such as the following:—
"Come in confidence to us." "Let our teachings deeply impress you." "You must not doubt what we say." "Learn of us." "Have confidence in us." "Obey our directions and you will be benefited." "Seek to obtain knowledge of us." "Have faith in us." "Fear not to obey." "Obey us and you will be greatly blessed."
Judge Edmonds, in his Broadway Tabernacle lecture, Feb. 16, 1855, said:—
"I assure you from my own experience and observation, that the fascination of this intercourse is so great that its tendency is to lead men away from their proper judgment, and instill a spirit of fanaticism most revolting to the calm and natural mind."
The Spiritual Telegraph, of July 11, 1857, says:—
"In giving the results of our own experience and observation upon this subject, we would premise that spirits unquestionably can, and often do, personate other spirits, and that, too, with such perfection, as, for the time being, to defy every effort to detect the deception. Not only can they represent the leading personal characteristics of the spirits whom they purport to be, but they can relate such facts in the history of said spirits as may be known to the inquirer, or to some one else with whom the communicating spirit is or has been en rapport."
Joel Tiffany says:—
"The point to which I wish to call your attention is the almost universal fact that mediums devoted to external manifestations, while under the influence of this presiding spirit, are under an influence to deceive, to cheat, which is almost irresistible. It does not matter particularly how good manifestations they get. I have seen this deceptive disposition manifested in mediums who could get very remarkable manifestations, such as the movement in the open light, of a table with several men standing upon it.—Lect., pp. 122, 123.
Dr. Child, in Banner of Light, Oct. 26, 1864, says:—
"Nor can we doubt, I think, that there are a diverse host of badly misdirected spirits. The lower spirits seek to undo the good work of the higher, and to harass, and to annoy and subject to suffering, medium and sitter. They will deceive us for their amusement. Where is the medium but what has either seen or felt this? I have both. But wise spirits, who are to us the revelators and executors of the divine will, designedly deceive us for our good."
In the above they have divided their spirits into two classes: the first deceive for their own amusement, and the second "deceive us for our good." So they are all deceivers by their own admission.543
The following is part of a list of predictions made at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Sept. 20, 1860, by the spirits, and published by A. J. Davis. The reader will see that it must have come from the father of lies:—
"1. Next winter Congress will get into a fight. Blood will flow.
"2. This nation will be dead as a nation before the 4th of March next.
"3. We will have no more presidents. The present one (Buchanan) will not serve his time out.
"4. The Republican candidate will get the popular vote, but will not be elected.
"5. Canada will enter the new Republic in America."
Swedenborg says:—
"When spirits begin to speak with man, he must beware that he believe nothing that they say; for nearly everything they say is fabricated by them and they LIE; for if they are permitted to narrate anything, as what Heaven is and how things in the Heavens are to be understood, they will TELL SO MANY LIES that a man would be astonished."—Banner of Light, March 20, 1869.
The Crucible of April 23, 1871, says:—
"The best that can be done, a spirit cannot always make a medium speak the truth. During the last half score of years, we have had varied and extended experience as a psychological operator, which has enabled us to look with more charity on the false in Spiritualism than in former days. We have learned that, do the best we can, it is impossible to find a medium that can always be made to speak the truth. We can often make them talk eloquently, and sometimes logically, but no one can be made to always talk truthfully."
The poet Saxe aptly says:—
"If in your new estate you cannot rest,
But must return, oh! grant us this request:
Come with a noble and celestial air,
And prove your titles by the names you bear,
Give some clear tokens of your heavenly birth;
Write as good English as you wrote on earth;
And, what were once superfluous to advise,
Don't tell, I beg you, such egregious lies."
A WISE REPLY.
Some persons, very “advanced” in their notions, say that the Bible is an obsolete book, too old-fashioned for the present age. The New York Tribune is not so far “advanced.” The following is a copy of a letter sent to that paper not very long ago, and the Tribune’s reply:—
“I am a young man just commencing business, and have some young men in my employ. How can I manage to prevent insubordination on the one hand, and to make an affirmative success as an employer on the other hand? Are there any books that will help me? What are some of the best books for a young business man?”
The following pertinent suggestions were given in the answer:—
“The best single treatise is the New Testament; next to this is the book of Proverbs of Solomon. The best business man we have ever known, memorized the entire book of Proverbs at twenty-two—carrying the American Tract Society’s ten-cent edition in his vest-pocket, and committing a half-dozen verses daily; and when he became an employer gave a copy of the book to every employee, with a friendly inscription commending it as an admirable business guide.”—Youth’s Companion.
Infidelity Springs from the Heart
By Punshon
THE great source of infidelity, believe me, is not in the head, but in the heart; it is not because men are bewildered by the feebleness or the lack of evidence, but because they love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Are any of you thus in danger? Do I speak to one now upon whom a cloud of doubt has darkened, or who by listening to the blind suggestions of some infidel acquaintance has had his faith in gospel verities unsettled and shaken. My brother, haste thee to cast out that demon; fling it away as a serpent, for there is death in its grip and in its fangs!—Punshon.
DO YOU KNOW JESUS?
I WAS walking hastily along a crowded street when my steps were suddenly arrested by a voice behind me uttering the words, "Sir, do you know Jesus?" For the time and place it was a strange question. It was high noon, and many were hastening to the Exchange near by. It was in the center of a busy thoroughfare through which hundreds were pressing, each intent upon his own particular errand. In the midst of the temples of Mammon and of the things of his worshipers, I heard the strange, thrilling question, "Sir, do you know Jesus?" Stranger still, when I turned to see the person who uttered the words, I could not fix upon any one of the numbers behind me as the speaker. I did not see, either, to whom it had been spoken. If it had fallen from the clear sky above me it could not have had less of personality about it. The air had borne it to my ear, but from whom I could not discern; and the words so unusual in that place and at that time, seemed to have become doubly strange, that their speaker had so quickly vanished.
I turned away and passed up the street, pondering over the question which I had so mysteriously heard. I thought of the declaration of Jesus, that "to know" him is "life eternal," and then I forgot the strangeness of the query in the sense of its overwhelming importance. I questioned my own soul, "Dost thou know Jesus," the eternal life? I applied it mentally to those who passed me so hurriedly, eager in their pursuit of present good. One I recognized as a shrewd and practical financier. He knew something of the secrets of the banking-house. He understood the vast system of exchanges which spreads over our country like a network. He could fluently discourse upon the crisis and its causes. Did he know Jesus? If not he had missed the highest knowledge. He knew not him in whom infinite treasures of wisdom and grace are found.
I passed on further, and I saw a well-known merchant ascending the steps of the Custom-House. He was an adept in his business, thoroughly versed in all the departments of trade. He knew the value of commodities at a glance, and could predict the turn of markets, and speculate wisely upon the changes in commerce made by the manifold changes of times. He was an oracle in the counting-house and on change. But did he know Jesus? was my thought. In his made at calculations has he ever computed the worth of his soul, or the value of Christ's sacrifice offered for its redemption? Did he know Jesus as his Saviour, and heartily receive him as his sacrifice before God? If not, what was his acquired knowledge but a guide for a few years, to be utterly useless when God should call him to give up his possessions on earth.
Further on, I met another familiar face. It was pale, and an air of abstraction spread over it. The man of science was conning some new problem, or pondering over some novel facts. He knew the laws by which the stars move and the waters flow. He had analyzed and combined until he understood many things in their elements, and the processes by which these elements were united in many different forms. He knew the history of the past and could tell where the mountains had been built up and seas spread out. Did he also know Jesus? That is the great question. Reader, do you know Jesus? Do you know his power to save from sin and the fear of impending judgment? Do you know how free his mercy is? how full his grace? You must know him or perish. You must know him or miss eternal life.—The Presbyterian.
THAT FELLOW.
A SUNDAY-SCHOOL superintendent, one day took in hand a class which had no teacher, and which had recently been gathered from the streets. He commenced talking with them of sin and salvation, and in the course of his conversation inquired, "Is there any sinner in this class?" Instantly one of the brightest boys pointed to another boy at the end of the seat, "Yes, that fellow down there."
The number of persons who can see sinfulness in "that fellow" is very large. It is not hard to find sinners in this world; the difficulty is in finding saints. The Lord has looked down from Heaven to see if there were any that did seek after God, and he declared that they had all gone out of the way, that there was "none righteous, no not one." Many, however, are very apt to see the sins of others much more clearly than those which they themselves have committed. My one sin will be ten times as hurtful to me as a hundred sins committed by my neighbor, and the thing which is most important for me to do is to ascertain and correct my own faults, rather than to busy myself with the faults of others. When the beam is taken from my own eye, it will be comparatively easy to pluck the mote out of the eye of my brother. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God;" and the sinner that needs special looking after and special watching over, is not "that fellow," but the one person whose sins most concern and most injure us, and will, if persisted in, most surely consign us to ruin.—The Christian.
RELIGIOUS CHARACTER
By Daniel Webster
POLITICAL eminence and professional fame fade away and die with all things earthly. Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth. These remain. Whatever of excellence is wrought into the soul itself belongs to both worlds. Real goodness does not attach itself merely to this life; it points to another world. Political or professional reputation cannot last forever; but a conscience void of offense before God and man is an inheritance for eternity. Religion, therefore, is a necessary and indispensable element in any great human character. There is no living without it. Religion is the tie that connects man with his Creator, and holds him to his throne. If that tie be all sundered, all broken, he floats away, a worthless atom in the universe; its proper attractions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation and death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe, in such terse but terrific language, as living "without God in the world." Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation.—D. Webster.
The Smallest Wave of Influence
THE smallest wave of influence set in motion
Extends and widens to the eternal shore.
We should be wary, then, who go before
And we should take
Our bearing carefully when breakers roar;
One mistake
May wreck unnumbered barks that follow in our wake.
PILGRIMS AND STRANGERS.
By Dwight L. Moody
A PARTY of Americans, a few years ago, on their way from London to Liverpool, decided that they would stop at the North-Western Hotel; but when they arrived they found the place had been full for several days. Greatly disappointed, they took up their baggage and were about starting off, when they noticed a lady of the party preparing to remain.
"Are you not going, too?" they asked.
"Oh, no," she said, "I have good rooms already."
"Why, how does that happen?"
"Oh," she said, "I just telegraphed on ahead, a few days ago."
Now that is what the children of God are doing; they are sending their names on ahead; they are securing places in the mansions of Christ in time. If we are truly children of God our names have gone on before, and there will be places awaiting us at the end of the journey. You know we are only travelers down here. We are away from home. When the war was going on, the soldiers on the battle-field, the Southern soldiers and the Northern soldiers, wanted nothing better to live in than tents. They longed for the war to close, that they might go home. They cared nothing to have palaces and mansions on the battle-field. Well, there is a terrible battle going on now, and by and by when the war is over God will call us home. The tents and altars are good enough for us while journeying through this world. It is only a night, and then the eternal day will dawn.—Moody.
THE CHRISTIAN GLORIES IN CHRIST.
By Leighton
If we knew him rightly, we would not sell the least glance or beam of the light of his countenance for the highest favor of mortal men, though it were constant and unchangeable, which it is not. It is ignorance of Christ that maintains the credit of those vanities we admire. The Christian that is truly acquainted with him, enamored with the brightness of his beauty, can generously trample upon the smilings of the world with the one foot, and her frownings with the other. If he be rich or honorable, or both, yet he glories not in that, but Christ, who is "the glory of the Lord," is even then his chiefest glory; and the light of Christ obscures that worldly splendor in his estimation. And as the enjoyment of Christ overtops all his other joys, so it overcomes his griefs. As that great light drowns the light of prosperity, so it shines bright in the darkness of affliction. No dungeon is so close that it can keep out the rays of Christ's love from his beloved prisoners.—Leighton.
THE LORD NOT DEAF.
A poor old deaf man resided in Fife, and was visited by the new minister shortly after his coming to the pulpit. The minister said he would often call and see him; but the time went on, and he did not visit him until two years after, when, happening to go through the street where the deaf man was living, he saw his wife at the door, and therefore could do no other than inquire for her husband.
"Well, Margaret, how is Tammas?"
"None the better o' you," was the curt reply.
"How! how! Margaret?" inquired the minister.
"Oh, ye promised twa years syne to ca' and pray once a fortnight wi' him, and hae ne'er darkened the door sin' syne."
"Well, well, Margaret, don't be so short. I thought it was not very necessary to call and pray with Tammas; ye ken he cannot hear me."
"But, sir," said the woman, with a rising dignity of manner, "the Lord's nae deaf." And it is to be supposed the minister felt the power of her reproach.—Leisure Hours.
Pull Down the Stars
"PULL DOWN THE STARS."—One of the Red Republicans of 1793 was telling a good peasant of La Vendee:—"We are going to pull down your churches and your steeples—all that recalls the superstition of past ages, and all that brings to your mind the idea of God." "Citizen," replied the good Vendean, "pull down the stars then."
Stripping Leaves from the Rod
Dr. Hawes used to say that his style of preaching was moulded by the criticism of Dr. Emmons on a single sermon. The doctor read a paper to his tutor exuberant with rhetoric. "Joel," said the sage, "I kept school once. When I whipped the boys, I always stripped the leaves off the rod."