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Signs of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 31.

General Articles

Signs of the Times

Aug 14, 1879

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1879

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

The Sufferings of Christ.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE. (Continued.)
JESUS had often resorted to Gethsemane with his disciples for meditation and prayer. They were all well acquainted with this sacred retreat. Even Judas knew where to lead the murderous throng, that he might betray Jesus into their hands. Never before had the Saviour visited the spot with his heart so full of sorrow. It was not the bodily suffering from which the Son of God shrank, and which wrung from his lips in the presence of his disciples these mournful words: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." "Tarry ye here," said he, "and watch with me." He was bowed to the earth with mental anguish, and in an agony he prayed to his Heavenly Father. He felt the iniquity of sin, and the wrath of God against the violators of his holy law.
Christ was amazed with the horror of darkness which enclosed him. The temptations of Satan were almost overpowering. These words, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," were borne upon the sympathizing air, to his disciples, in tones of startling agony. The sins of a lost world were upon him, and a sense of his Father's anger in consequence of sin was crushing him. He arose from his prostrate position, and, yearning for the sympathy of his disciples, he came to them and found them sleeping. He roused Peter and said to him, "Simon, sleepest thou?" What, couldest not thou, who so recently was willing to go with me to prison and to death, watch with thy suffering Master one hour? "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." At the most important time, the disciples were found sleeping. It was the very time when Jesus had made a special request for them to watch with him. He knew that terrible temptations were before his disciples. He took them with him, that they might be a strength to him, and that the events they should witness that night, and the lessons of instruction they should receive, might be indelibly printed upon their memories. This was necessary that they might be strengthened for the test just before them.
But instead of watching with Christ, they were burdened with sorrow, and fell asleep. Even the ardent Peter was asleep, who, only a few hours before, had declared that he would suffer, and, if need be, die for his Lord. At the most critical moment, when the Son of God was in need of their sympathy and heartfelt prayers, they were found asleep. They lost much by thus sleeping. Our Saviour designed to fortify them for the severe test of their faith to which they would soon be subjected. If they had spent that mournful period in watching with the dear Saviour and in prayer to God, Peter would not have been left to his own feeble strength, to deny his Lord. We can have but faint conception of the inexpressible anguish of God's dear Son in Gethsemane, as he realized the separation from his Father in consequence of bearing man's sin. The Divine Son of God was fainting, dying. The Father sent an angel from his presence to strengthen the divine sufferer. Could mortals view the amazement and sorrow of the angels as they watched in silent grief the Father separating his beams of light, love, and glory, from his Son, they would better understand how offensive is sin in his sight. As the Son of God in the garden of Gethsemane bowed in the attitude of prayer, the agony of his spirit forced from his pores sweat like great drops of blood. It was here that the horror of great darkness surrounded him. The sins of the world were upon him. He was suffering in man's stead, as a transgressor of his Father's law. Here was the scene of temptation. The divine light of God was receding from his vision, and he was passing into the hands of the powers of darkness. In the agony of his soul he lay prostrate on the cold earth. He was realizing his Father's frown. The cup of suffering Christ had taken from the lips of guilty man, and proposed to drink it himself, and, in its place, give to man the cup of blessing. The wrath that would have fallen upon man, was now falling upon Christ.
The disciples roused from their slumber to find their Master standing over them in a state of mental and bodily anguish such as they never before had witnessed. They saw the grief and agony of his pale face, and the bloody sweat upon his brow, for "his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." The disciples were grieved that they had fallen asleep, so that they could not pray and sympathize with their suffering Lord. They were speechless with sorrow and surprise.
The suffering Son of God leaves his disciples, for the power of darkness rushes upon him with an irresistible force which bows him to the earth. He prays as before, and pours out the burden of his soul with stronger crying and tears. His soul was pressed with such agony as no human being could endure and live. The sins of the world were upon him. He felt that he was separated from his Father's love; for upon him rested the curse of sin. Christ knew that it would be difficult for man to feel the grievousness of sin, and that close contact and familiarity with sin would so blunt his moral sensibility, that sin would not appear so dangerous to him, and so exceedingly offensive in the sight of God. He knew that but few would take pleasure in righteousness, and accept of that salvation which, at infinite cost, he made it possible for them to obtain. While this load of sin was upon Christ, unrealized, and unrepented of by man, doubts rent his soul in regard to his oneness with his Father.
In this fearful hour of trial Christ's human nature longed even for the sympathy of his disciples. A second time he rose from the earth and went to them and found them sleeping. This was not a deep sleep. They were in a drowse. They had a limited sense of their Lord's suffering and anguish. In tenderness Jesus stood for a moment bending over them, and regarding them with mingled feelings of love and pity. In these sleeping disciples he sees a representation of a sleeping church. When they should be watching, they are asleep.
"Watch ye, therefore; for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping." The church of God is required to fulfill her night-watch, however perilous, and whether long or short. Sorrow is no excuse for her to be less watchful. Tribulation should not lead to carelessness, but to double vigilance. Christ has directed the church by his own example, to the source of their strength in times of need, distress and peril. The attitude of watching is to designate the church as God's people indeed. By this sign the waiting ones are distinguished from the world, and show that they are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth.
How cruel it was for the disciples to permit sleep to close their eyes, and slumber to chain their senses, while their divine Lord was enduring such inexpressible mental anguish. If they had remained watching, they would not have lost their faith as they beheld the Son of God dying upon the cross. This important night-watch should have been signalized by noble mental struggles and prayers which would have brought them strength to witness the terrible agony of the Son of God. It would have prepared them, as they should behold his sufferings upon the cross, to understand something of the nature of the overpowering anguish which he endured in the garden of Gethsemane. And they would have been better able to recall the words he had spoken to them in reference to his sufferings, death, and resurrection; and amid the gloom of that trying hour some rays of hope would have lighted up the darkness, and sustained their faith.
Christ had told them before that these things would take place; but they did not understand him. The scene of his sufferings was to be a fiery ordeal to his disciples, hence the necessity of watchfulness and prayer. Their faith needed to be sustained by an unseen strength, as they should experience the triumph of the powers of darkness. He knew the power which the prince of darkness used to paralyze the senses of his disciples at this time when they should be watching. At this crisis, when they would meet with a great loss, they are found asleep. Again the powers of darkness press upon him with renewed force, bowing him to the earth. He leaves his disciples with a determination to conquer the prince of darkness, that man may not be held in chains of hopeless despair. Giving his disciples one look of the tenderest compassion he left them and bowed a third time in prayer, using the same words as before. The divine sufferer shuddered with amazement at this mysterious and terrible conflict.
Human minds cannot conceive of the insupportable anguish which tortured the soul of our Redeemer. The holy Son of God had no sins or griefs of his own to bear. He was bearing the griefs of others, for on him was laid the iniquities of us all. Through divine sympathy he connects himself to man, and submits as the representative of the race to be treated as a transgressor. He looks into the abyss of woe opened for us by our sins, and proposes to bridge the gulf with his own person. Those who cannot see the force of the sacred claims of God's law cannot have a clear and definite understanding of the atonement.
It was soul-anguish that wrenched from the lips of God's dear Son these mournful words: "Now is my soul troubled,—my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." Christ's soul was bearing a weight of anguish because of the transgression of God's law. He was overwhelmed with horror and consternation at the fearful work sin had wrought. His burden of guilt was so great because of man's transgression of his Father's law, that human nature was inadequate to bear it. His inexpressible anguish forced from his pores large drops of blood, which fell upon the ground and moistened the sods of Gethsemane.
The sufferings of martyrs can bear no comparison with the sufferings of Christ. The divine presence was with them, in their physical sufferings. There was the hiding of the Father's face from his dear Son. Humanity staggered and trembled in that trying hour. It was anguish of soul beyond the endurance of finite nature. It was woe condensed that brought from the trembling lips of the noble sufferer these words: "Now is my soul troubled." "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Again from his pale lips are heard these words: "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." The awful moment had come which was to decide the destiny of the world. Angels are waiting and watching with intense interest.
The fate of the world is trembling in the balance. The Son of God may even now refuse to drink the cup apportioned to guilty man. He may wipe the blood sweat from his brow, and leave the world to perish in their iniquity. Will the Son of the infinite God drink the cup of humiliation and agony? Will the innocent suffer the curse of God to save the guilty? It was here the mysterious cup trembled in his hand, and the destiny of a ruined world was balanced. The world's Redeemer sees that the transgressors of his Father's law must perish under his displeasure. He sees the power of sin and the utter helplessness of man to save himself.
The woes and lamentations of a doomed world come up before him, and his decision is made. He will save man at any cost to himself. He has accepted his baptism of blood, that perishing millions through him might gain everlasting life. He left the heavenly courts where all was purity, happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world which had fallen by transgression. He will not leave man in his sins. He will reach to the very depths of misery to rescue him. The sleeping disciples see not that their beloved Teacher is fainting. He falls to the earth, and is dying. Where are his disciples to place their hands tenderly beneath the head of their suffering Master, and bathe that brow, marred indeed more than the sons of men? Our Saviour trod the wine-press alone and of all the people there was none with him.
Christ suffered not alone. Saith he, "I and my Father are one." God suffered with his Son. The sacrifice that an infinite God has made in giving up his Son to reproach and agony, cannot be comprehended by man. In giving his Son for the sins of the world, God has evidenced his boundless love to man. The angels who had learned to do Christ's will in Heaven, were anxious to comfort him. But what can they do? Such sorrow, such agony, is beyond their power to alleviate. They have never felt the sins of a ruined world, and with astonishment they behold the object of their adoration subject to grief. Although the Father does not remove the cup from the trembling hand and pale lips of his Son, he sends an angel to give him strength to drink it. The angel raises the Son of God from the cold ground, and brings him messages of love from his Father. He is strengthened and fortified. He has the assurance that he is gaining eternal joys for all who will accept redemption. (To be Continued.)

THE LINK OF GOLD.

LOST—somewhere—a golden hour Of this glowing autumn day; Since the sunrise, ere the sun set, I have lost it on my way.
Was it when I sat and loitered,— That short chain of such great cost, Slipping idly through my fingers,— That my golden hour was lost?
Was I talking of my neighbors, Weighing all their hopes and cares, And too full of idle gossip Well to mind my own affairs?
Did I fret away the minutes? Was I murmuring? was I cross? Where could all my sense have flown to, That I met with such a loss?
For my hour was a jewel, And with sixty small ones set; Round each minute sixty seconds Made the radiance brighter yet.
They could buy me, Oh, what riches! And what wisdom could they bring! Each was worth, in its true value, All the jewels of a king.
For the Lord would give me something, (If I went to him) for each; Oh, how precious those short lessons He can in a minute teach.
Oh, how grand those views of glory Which a second can make known! Oh, my hour! Oh, my minutes! Never more, alas, my own!
Some I might have well invested, Other people's lives to bless; Those bright moments, wisely traded, Purchase healing for distress.
Oh, has anybody seen it? Seen my precious hour of gold? I would go to buy another, But such treasures are not sold.
God prepared for me a number— Just how few I do not know; Did he give them for no purpose, But that I should lose them so? —Zion's Herald.

Self-Love

SELF-LOVE is at once the most delicate and the most tenacious of our sentiments; a mere nothing will wound it, but there is nothing on earth that will kill it.

The Immortality of the Soul.—History of the Doctrine.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

(Continued.)

AFRICAN RACES.

The Damaras, one author says, "have no expectation of a future state." (Galton, p. 189.) Another author says, "Though the Damaras do not profess absolutely to believe in a life hereafter, they have a confused notion of a future state." (Anderson's Ngami, p. 222.) The reader will see that there is no countenance for the immortal-soul doctrine here.
Mr. Moffat, speaking of the Bechuanas, says, "Man's immortality was never heard of among that people." (Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, No. 4, p. 29.) The East Africans have "no notion of a soul, or spirit." (Ibid., table 23.)
The Bulloms and Timmanus have no fixed opinion respecting a future state; for, though they speak of future rewards and punishments, their ideas on this head are vague and fluctuating. They do not believe that the spirits of their deceased friends return to visit their former abodes, nor have they any word in their language to express a spirit, or apparition." (Winterbottom, vol. i, p. 226.)
The faith of the inland negroes is shown by the following:—
"The negresses of Matiamba throw the corpses of their husbands into the water, in order that along with the body they may drown the soul, by which they would otherwise be troubled." (Bastian Mensch, vol. iii., p. 378.) "The Wanikas of East Africa 'have neither god, nor devil, nor heaven, nor hell, nor soul, nor idol.'" (Descriptive Sociol., No. 4, p. 30.)
Of the people of Madagascar, Mr. Ellis says:—
"Still more vague and indefinite are the ideas they entertain respecting the human soul and its future existence. They have no knowledge of the doctrine of the soul as a separate, immaterial, immortal principle in man, nor has their language any word to express such an idea. They speak of the saina, but mean by this the intellectual powers. They speak also of the fanaky, the nearest term found to express spirit, but it seems in their use of it to imply principally the moral qualities or dispositions. . . . The next question is, What becomes of the saina, or mind, when a person dies? To which the Malagasy replies, It is a part of the body. But does it return to dust with the body in the grave? No; the body returns to dust and the saina becomes levona, i. e., vanished, invisible. And the aina, or life, becomes rivota,—air, or wind, not retaining its individuality; but absorbed and lost in mere aura—a mere breeze—a breath in the general mass of air floating around." (History of Madagascar, by Rev. Wm. Ellis, vol. i. chap. xiv., pp. 392, 393.)

TRIBES OF THE WESTERN CONTINENT.

As we have seen, the Chibchas of Central America expect a future life through a resurrection. (Descriptive Sociology, No. 2, table.) The Peruvians hold the same doctrine. (Ibid., p. 45.) "With respect to the soul, the barbarous Otomies, as they tell us, believed that it died together with the body." (Hist. of Mexico, by Clavigero, book vi. chap. i.)
The inhabitants of Guatemala "were persuaded that to die by any other than a natural death was to forfeit all hope of life hereafter; and therefore left the bodies of the slain to the beasts and vultures." (The Myths of the New World, by D. G. Brinton, p. 246.) They had no idea of the immortality of the soul; for they believed that some utterly perish, and that those who do obtain a future life gain it by a resurrection of the body.
The people of Nicaraugua being asked what about the future state replied, "We only know that infants who die before they have tasted maize, or are weaned, will be raised again, and return to their father's house; and their fathers will recognize and provide for them. Old people who die will not return nor be raised again." Being asked where Indians go when they die, they replied that they go beneath the earth, where "they are buried; and all is over." (Nicaraugua, by E. G. Squire, vol. ii, pp. 357-8.) A few just and brave warriors are exceptions, as they ascend, to live somewhere else.

THE ESQUIMAUX OF ALASKA.

Some important facts with regard to these tribes are stated in the following quotation. Mr. Dall has traveled among them extensively, and hence is well prepared to state their belief. He says: "Many Indians, in fact all the Tinneh that I have conversed with who have not been taught by the English or Russian missionaries, do not believe in the immortality of man. Of those who have a dim notion of the kind, none have any idea whatever of a future reward and punishment, of any Supreme Deity or power, of good and evil in a moral sense, or anything which can be called a religion. Assertions to the contrary proceed from the ignorance or poetic license of the author, or from intercourse with the tribes that have derived their ideas from the missionaries." (Alaska and its Resources, by Wm. H. Dall, Director of the Scientific Corps of the Late W. U. Telegraph Expedition.)
Yes; many of the assertions so confidently made concerning the faith of different barbarous tribes and nations in the immortality of the soul, proceed, as Mr. Dall remarks, from the ignorance or poetic license of the author, or from intercourse with those who have been taught by missionaries. No such doctrine was held among them when first found. Thus upon a little inquiry, we find that there are scores of barbarous tribes who have never dreamed that the soul is immortal.

THE INDIANS.

I know it is often asserted that the different Indian tribes of America all believe the soul immortal; but I have looked in vain for the proof. They have some vague ideas of a future life, but their ideas are all very gross and material indeed. They expect to be in the next world much as they are here,—to take their dog, and knife, and arrows with them, and use them there the same as here. This is far from indicating a belief in an immortal, immaterial soul. The least hint that they have any idea of a hereafter has been taken as positive proof that they believe the soul immortal. But this is an unwarranted assumption. There are no facts to sustain it.
D. M. CANRIGHT. (To be Continued)

Three Signs of the Approaching End.

1. THE Scriptures very distinctly tell us that the period of Christ's Second Coming shall be a period of abounding apostasy, skepticism, and wickedness. I need not repeat the passages on this point. "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man." (Luke 17:26). As Milton says, "The first peculiar sign of the Second Advent will be an extreme recklessness and impiety, and an almost universal apostasy." And what a distressing agreement to this do we find in the characteristics of the present times!
Look at Christendom itself. About one half of those who profess and call themselves Christians are wrapped up in the foul embrace of Popery, where it is the fashion, if not the law, to put aside the Scriptures as dangerous, to trust to the word of the priest for forgiveness, to pray to Mary as the great intercessor, to adore the Pope as the viceregent of God, to hold for doctrines the mere commandments of men, and to look for admission into Heaven through human works. The millions in the Greek and Oriental Churches are scarcely any better in regard to what concerns the vital matters of evangelical godliness.
And still further. Look at the moral and religious condition of the nations at large, even those that are called enlightened and Christian. See how crime flourishes and infidelity vaunts itself. What are our secular newspapers but registers of depravity, avarice, ambition, lawlessness, and sin? See the inefficiency of law or gospel to restrain the violence of passion, or to keep under the brazen iniquity which rears its head aloft on every side. Behold your crowded infidel clubs, your besotted revolutionary combinations, and your hardened and daring propagandists of falsehood, treason, and all forms of social disruption.
See with what readiness people, reputed intelligent, take up with the lowest delusions, and stand forth as the abettors and defenders of some of the foulest emissions of hell, such as universalism, spiritualism, etc. Behold how even great men, professed theologians, editors, professors, lecturers, and men in high places of influence, adopt, advocate, and preach theories of pretended science and philosophy which unsettle the very foundations of piety and faith. What contempt for Christianity and calloulness to its great truths do we encounter. And may we not conclude that "God will not, cannot, suffer this wicked world much longer"?
2. Another sign of the Saviour's Second Coming is to be found in great revolutionary troubles, political perplexities, and vast national agitations. The Saviour himself and all the prophets have taught us this. And never have the universal political heavens been so shaken as in our day. When were human politics so confused, contradictory, and threatening as now? Look at them from one end of the world to the other. Who among the great ones of the earth can tell where he stands? Behold the strange alliances, the deep, sudden, and mysterious antipathies, the unforeseen combination of events, and the unknown tendencies of mighty inscrutable movements, which have been manifesting themselves all over the world in these last days.
Who can tell what shall be next? If it is war, who knows where it will end? If it is peace, who is sure that it will not prove the prelude to war? In either case, mighty dangers everywhere threaten. Democracy, republicanism, autocracy, and military despotism have about equal chances, and neither has any rational hope. As things now are, no conceivable human arrangements can steer clear of the mighty maelstrom which seems to have drawn all the nations within the circle of its awful whirl.
Men of wisdom, men of Ahithophel astuteness, are at their wits' end, and the prudent and the far-sighted are growing wild with amazement and fear. With all that can be done, things refuse to bend to any mortal control. The ship answers no more to the helm. There is not a government on earth that is not quaking with commotion. Everything is moving, but whither, politicians cannot tell. (Haggai 2:7).
3. A third sign of the nearness of the end is a stir and inquiry among many respecting Scripture prophecy, leading to the conviction that Christ is at hand. This is set forth in two passages, the one in Daniel, the other in the Lord's prophecy in the twenty-fifth of Matthew. The passage of Daniel, 12:4, is, "O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." That is, in the period of the end, as Michaelis interprets, "many shall give their sedulous attention to the understanding of these things;" or, according to an old marginal note in an old English Bible, "many shall run to and fro to search the knowledge of these mysteries." Dr. Gill thus explains the passage: "Towards the time of the end appointed, many shall be stirred up to inquire into these things delivered in this book, and will spare no pains or cost to get a knowledge of them; and, with the blessing of God upon them, the knowledge of this book of prophecy will be increased, things will appear clearer and plainer the nearer the accomplishment of them." Luther's rendering of it is as follows:— "And now, Daniel, shut up these words, and seal this book, until the last times; when many shall come over it, and find great understanding." Coke, Clarke, Henry, and Duffield understand the passage in the same way and concerning the same period of the end—"The wise shall understand." And as the result of all this inquiry and enlightenment on the subject of prophecy, the Saviour tells us that "then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins which went out to meet the bridegroom, and there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." (Matthew 25:6).
And how evidently and significantly has this mark of the end been manifesting itself within the last fifty years! Though the multitude still turn from prophecy as from a sealed book, yet what a stir, anxiety, and study has it awakened in many earnest minds! By some in every denomination, and in every Christian country, the subject is being studied and agitated. Everywhere there are men of God proclaiming the great doctrine of Christ's speedy coming.
In England, in Scotland, in France, in our own country, in Germany, in Norway, in Russia, in India, in the isles of the sea, the cry has been raised, "BEHOLD, THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH; GO YE OUT TO MEET HIM!" Never, never, since the days of the early Christians, has there been so much earnest longing, expecting, preaching, believing, and praying upon the subject of the nearness of Christ's coming. The interest, the study, and the faith are by no means as general as they should be, but general and intense, enlightened and earnest enough to warrant us in saying that this sign of the end has appeared.—J. Seiss, D. D., Philadelphia.

The Pocasset Tragedy.

THE Pocasset tragedy recalls the case of one Truman Phinney, a farmer of Geauga county, Ohio, who, ten years ago, went crazy at a Methodist revival and became seized with the idea that the Lord had commanded him to kill his son. At 3 o'clock one morning his wife was aroused by her husband, who was engaged in the work of whetting the butcher-knife in a very diligent way. Having noticed that he was a little strange the day before she was alarmed, and asked what he was doing. At first he would not tell her, but at length, with great show of reluctance, he said that the Lord had revealed to him that, in order that the whole household might be saved, his little son must be sacrificed, and he was getting ready to carry out the will of the Lord.
The alarm of the mother was beyond description, but she kept perfectly cool and appeared to be greatly interested in what was going forward. At length she attempted to persuade him to put off the sacrifice for a time, but this he would not consent to. He said that now was the accepted time and the day of salvation. Finally she suggested that it would be proper to have a certain neighbor present, as he always took much interest in all that was going forward in the family and was withal very pious. To this Mr. Phinney consented, and with his wife went to invite the neighbor to the sacrifice. The neighbor came and succeeded in securing Phinney before he completed his bloody work. He was taken to the Cleveland Insane Asylum, where he died some years later.—Solano Republican.

Reporting Converts.

By Editor

A WRITER in the Biblical Recorder, on the custom of numbering converts in modern revivals, says:—
"The rule with some people is to profess religion every protracted meeting, even if those meetings are held twice or three times a year. A brother who is now in the midst of one of those wonderful meetings in his church reported to us one hundred and fifty converts up to that day. We asked him how many of them were already on his church book as regular members. He replied: 'Well, it is as is usual in such meetings. We are doing a work for all the churches.' We once aided a good brother in one of these meetings that lasted two weeks. Seventy-five or eighty people shouted gloriously and hardly a sinner was left in the neighborhood. We were both strangers and thought the Lord had done a great work in converting sinners in this meeting. But when we went around to see who of the converts were going to join the church, we were surprised to learn that nine-tenths of them were already on the books and had doubtless been numbered many times before. But when the preacher's success is measured by the number of the additions and when a minister's standing in his conference depends upon the number of conversions reported, how can it be otherwise? The brethren must number and must get up revivals or sensations."

Hopeful.

By Editor

REV. J. C. SIMMONS contributes to the columns of the Pacific Methodist a ringing orthodox article versus the filthy and wasteful habit of smoking and chewing tobacco. He says that parents find it exceedingly difficult to check the habit in their little sons, who plead that it must be right since the preachers use the weed. The preachers, of course, must be good men! Brother Simmons says:—
When hunting homes for the preachers a lady said to me: "Send me any body but a smoker. I had Bro.——the last Conference held here, and he kept the whole family sick the whole time with his pipe, and it was weeks before we could get the smell of his smoke out of the house."
This reminds us of an incident. We were once at Conference and, with other ministers, the guest of a very pleasant family of wealth and culture, who were not church members. Once as we were leaving the parlor for the church, Bro. R lighted his cigar at the jet of gas, giving it a draft to set it going. On returning after the service, our host addressed his wife in our presence: "My dear, can it be possible that any one has been smoking in this room?" "No," said she! "Mr. R. lighted his cigar just as he was starting to church." "Well," said he, "If I had been here, I should have asked him to go out of my house!"—Cal. Chr. Advocate.

Harsh Criticism.

It is a common fault to construe language to the injury of those who utter it. The larger share of criticisms is evidently strained to make a case. Language is made to convey a bad meaning when designed to express that which is good and true. This is the style of partisan strife, and especially of theological discussion. A bad case is manufactured, because more easily attacked than a good one. Luther was charged with doctrines he did not teach; Wesley was accused of motives he utterly abhorred; Edwards was criticised as a heretic; Lyman Beecher was tried for deadly errors; Finney was denounced as a teacher of dangerous doctrines, and, indeed, about every man who has attempted any reform, has suffered from perversion of his language, and misstatement of his motives.—Sel.
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