p. 621 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 39. (10/15/1885)

California Tract and Missionary Society.

THE fifteenth annual session of the California Tract and Missionary Society was held in connection with the camp-meeting in Good Water Grove, near Stockton, Cal., September 17-29, 1885. The first meeting convened at 5 P. M., September 20, vice-president, Elder Wm. Ings, in the chair. Prayer by Elder Loughborough. The minutes of the last annual session were read and approved. The chair expressed regrets that our president, Elder S. N. Haskell, could not be with us upon this occasion, as we greatly miss his presence and counsel in the meeting.

Committees were appointed as follows:— On Nominations—Elder J. D. Rice, W. N. Glenn, and Elder A. T. Jones. On Resolutions—Elders J. N. Loughborough, E. J. Waggoner, and N. C. McClure.

The second meeting was called at 5 P. M., September 21. Prayer by Elder McClure. The summary of work done by the entire State for the year was then presented. The membership of the tract society is 935, which is 114 more than the number enrolled a year ago. The members have returned 1,562 quarterly reports, from which we learn that the number of families visited during the year is 25,946, or 17,424 more than the previous year; this is 16,163 more than has ever been reported for the same length of time in the past. The number of letters written is 7,151, or an excess of 1,217 over last year. The number of pages of reading matter distributed by the members is 2,786,839, or 1,715,669 more than last reported; and the number of periodicals circulated was 221,659, an increase of 67,753.

The average number of SIGNS taken in clubs during the year is 2,544. This is 740 more than the average last year. The number of subscriptions obtained for our various periodicals is 1,859. The SIGNS has been furnished free to 33 public libraries or reading-rooms, and the Good Health or Pacific Health Journal to 39.

The book sales during the year have amounted to $1,523.11; tracts to the value of $634.50 have been sold. These sales exceed those of last year by $1,198.42. As each item in this report is compared with that of last year, it is seen that in but a single instance has the work decreased; while in all other respects the excess is very perceptible.

The yearly report of labor performed by the ship mission is as follows: Number of ships visited, 1,713; this is 513 more than were reported last year. The reading matter distributed on board these ships amounts to 280,390 pages, which is a difference of 105,015 in favor of this year. The number of periodicals distributed, is 27,641, an increase of 8,628. The book sales for the year amount to $251.91, almost 20 per cent. more than has ever been received during the same length of time in the past.

CASH REPORT.

Cash received on memberships.....$ 82 50 “ “ “ donations ............... 697 51 “ “ “ one-third ............... 199 90 “ “ “ book-sales ............. 911 84 “ “ “ SIGNS ................. 2,074 11 “ “ “ other periodicals .. 924 86 “ “ “ city missions ....... 384 35 “ “ “ reserve fund ......... 6 00 “ “ “ individual accts ... 407 38—$5,688 45 Paid SIGNS Office ...............$5,054 91 “ Review “ ..................... 400 00 “ incidentals ................... 15 15 “ individuals ................... 40 00 “ postage ....................... 101 04 “ publications .................. 77 35—$5,688 45

FINANCIAL STANDING.

ASSETS. Due from districts on account .....$2,996 76 “ “ individuals ................ 208 19 “ “ city missions ............. 955 67 Reserve deposit ................... 3,019 05 Foreign publications .............. 222 58 Other stock on hand ............... 235 35—$7,637 60 LIABILITIES. Society owes SIGNS Office .........$2,171 64 “ “ Review “ ................. 976 24—$3,147 88 Assets over liabilities ...........$4,489 72

Remarks were made by several upon the encouraging nature of this report. Elder Loughborough said that when he arrived upon this coast seventeen years ago, ten Sabbath-keepers could not be found between the boundaries of British Columbia and Mexico; since that time the work has grown so rapidly that during the present season it was found necessary to hold six camp-meetings to accommodate those who have accepted the truth within these limits. And this is but an illustration of what is being done throughout the world. While he is gratified by what he has seen during the past year, he feels that it is no time for us to congratulate ourselves, but that the progress of the truth should only be a source of encouragement and thus stimulate us to still greater efforts.

In reference to this subject Elder Waggoner stated that the way in which the message has spread is incontestible evidence of the Lord's soon coming. Comparatively a small part of the work is due to the ministers, and that which is now being done by the missionary workers will be made still more apparent as we near the end, for many will then reap the benefit of the seed that is now being sown. The tract societies are laying the foundation for a great work. This labor of faith and love will not be lost, though it may never be known until revealed in the kingdom; for one plants and another waters, but the increase is from God. Still there is a lack among us. We are not doing all that we might, but are too well satisfied with what is being accomplished. He hoped that the present meeting would very much advance the work in California.

The Committee on Nominations recommended the following persons as officers of the society: For president, Elder S. N. Haskell; vice-president, Elder Wm. Ings; secretary, Anna L. Ingels; assistant secretary, Marian Kleabir. Directors—District No. 1, Elder N. C. McClure; No. 2, Elder J. D. Rice; Nos. 3 and 4, W. N. Glenn; No. 5, W. G. Buckner; No. 6, Elder John Fulton; No. 7, J. W. Bond. These persons were elected for the ensuing year.

The third meeting of the session was held at 5 P. M., September 22. Elder Ings expressed gratitude for the advance steps taken in the missionary work during the past year, among which is the establishment of the city missions. He referred to the important work accomplished by these missions, and to the necessity of such missions being established in other large cities. He spoke particularly of the distributor work, and the good resulting from their use. He said that he had often taken occasion to notice them, yet in all his observations he had never seen any of the reading matter taken from them destroyed. He expressed thanks for the co-operation of our people thus far, notwithstanding that the work is crippled financially. Many more of the distributors could be used to advantage. He would like to see them hanging in every available place of public resort in the city. The estimated cost for filling once a week for one year is $12. If individuals would take upon themselves the responsibility of keeping them supplied at their own expense, much more could be accomplished.

Elder Waggoner thought San Francisco an important missionary field, as its population is about one-third that of the State. During the past summer a training-school was very successfully conducted in this city by Brother Ings. As it continued but a few weeks, the same results could not be accomplished as though it were an established school.

The following resolutions were acted upon separately and unanimously adopted:—

Resolved, That we see reason for devout gratitude to God for the good already apparent from the efforts made in circulating our reading matter through the medium of the distributors, and we request our people to put distributors in every available place where they can be judiciously used and cared for.
Resolved, That the success that has attended the efforts to place our reading-matter on the trains in Oakland and Los Angeles is such as to encourage us to extend these efforts to other cities.
Resolved, That we request our people to pay their over-due pledges to the city missions and to make further pledges, that this work be not crippled.

September 25, at 9 A. M., the fourth meeting of the session convened. The time was occupied by Brother Ings in giving instruction in reference to missionary work. In any ordinary vocation of life, to become proficient it is necessary to obtain a thorough knowledge of the trade or profession undertaken. A preparation is equally important to become successful workers in the Master's vineyard. In sending the SIGNS out through the mail, they should be carefully wrapped and addressed, that they may present as neat and attractive an appearance as possible.

Some cases have come to notice in which the privileges of membership have been misunderstood; where papers are drawn from the society and sent to friends for an indefinite period of time, without the knowledge that they are accomplishing good. This is wrong. These societies were organized for the purpose of warning the world, therefore members should not appropriate the papers to their own use by sending them as presents to friends. A sample of an introductory card was read. Its object is to notify the one receiving the papers that they are not sent by the publishers with a view of collecting the pay for them, but that they will be sent free for a short time. If a card or letter is not sent with the first paper, in many cases the SIGNS will not be taken from the office. A copy of a letter was then read, such as should be sent with the fourth paper.

It is thought advisable to use tracts in answering questions in reference to our faith rather than to give our own explanations. These publications were written by men of deep thought, assisted by the Spirit of God.

A pass-book for the purpose of recording the work done by the members was presented at the meeting, and an illustration of the method here adopted was explained by means of a blackboard. The work of reporting is thus simplified, and an accurate record can be kept with but little difficulty. If all could realize the importance of reporting, and be prompt in this duty, it would be a great source of encouragement to see the amount of work that is being accomplished.

An appeal was made for means to support our city missions during the coming year. As a large number of those present had heavy unpaid pledges to this fund, which they were unable to meet, but $280.40 was pledged, of which $169 was paid. The meeting adjourned sine die. WM. INGS, Vice-President. ANNA L. INGELS, Secretary.

Glorify God, Not Self.

By S. S. Times

THERE is a good deal of difference between letting one's light shine, and letting one's self show; and either of the two processes may go on independently of the other. The unknown worker who freely expends life, health, and money in the cause of Christ, lets his light shine, even if he does not himself show; while perhaps another, whose praise is in all the newspapers, and whose beneficence is a matter of public fame, may, through a perverted motive, be making himself show rather than letting his light shine. True, the command reads, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven;" but letting men see your good works does not necessarily mean letting them see yourself—does it?—S. S. Times.

God Helps at the Right Time

God always helps us at the right time. It may not be our time, but his time is the best. We should commit our way unto the Lord, wait patiently upon him, and in due time he will work out deliverance for us.—Sel.

They Also Serve Who Only Stand and Wait

By William Robertson Nicoll

SOME of God's hired servants are called upon not to work, but to wait. A poor old sister in the work-house waited for orders from Christ, and could only hear him saying, "Lie still and cough." Many are called upon to glorify God in lives of meek submission spent upon sick beds, on the edge of the grave. Let them not murmur. "They also serve who only stand and wait." It is not theirs to turn with the thousands who speed over sea and land to do the Lord's bidding; but by their saintly patience, their constant trust, their joyful unworldliness, they may be made an abiding blessing. And doubtless great reward will come to them in the day when the meek shall inherit the earth, and the merciful shall obtain mercy.—Rev. W. R. Nicoll.

Parent and Child.

HERE is a relation which is the very fountain-head of society, "the root and bond of all creation;" a relation of infinite moment, of eternal consequence; the relation in which God himself stands to man. We forget its greatness in its familiarity. Fatherhood and motherhood are the most common thing in life—alas! the most sorely abused. That any thinking creature should enter lightly upon such a relation! Fatherhood and motherhood being entered upon, the child being born into the world, and parents and child living together, certain things follow inevitably. The parents educate the child. Not by any mere code of duty, but by a law of necessity, the parents develop and train the child's nature. They form his character. It is not a matter of choice or deliberation; it is a matter of fact. The parents train the child whether they will or not. It is a solemn duty. It is a heaven-endowed privilege. But, back of these, it is an inevitable necessity. "Oh! we are not training our children; we are just growing up with them," a mother says. All very well, if you can grow as fast as the children grow. And it is one very beautiful and true aspect of the case, of which more hereafter. Nevertheless, are you not mistaken, my dear mother? You are training your children. By the very fact of growing with them you are training them. When you lie down and when you rise up, at times when you are least conscious of it, you are educating your child. Sleeping or waking, the child is breathing the atmosphere of the home, the atmosphere you furnish him; and his blood is enriched by it, or it is vitiated by it. Your tones are ringing in his ear. Your look, your smile, or your frown, is impressing itself indelibly on his mental retina. Your principles of action are becoming his principles of action. The forces which affect the child's character are the forces of the home. Teacher, pastor, friend, may introduce other forces. They may modify, or they may in time overthrow, the principles in the child's mind. But the foundation principles are the principles of the home, the principles of the father and mother. A gloss may be put on from the outside, but it is the home that fixes the grain of the wood. The original tendency of growth is given in the home. There is no getting away from this fact. It is evident, and needs no proof. How unerringly the child's voice echoes the family tone! Father and mother, the whole world may read your secret souls through your child's eyes.

And let it be remembered that father and mother share alike in this education of the child. Neither can make over this responsibility to the other. As certainly as they share the responsibility of the child's being they share the responsibility of its training. "This life that they have dared invoke" is in their hands. They develop it. They both develop it whether they will or not. The father cannot leave the child's soul in the mother's hands and go his way. Not only must he not—he cannot. The very fact of his omission will affect the child's whole life. By what he does, by what he leaves undone, he is developing his child. The mother may not leave the discipline to the father, and give herself to the matters of food and raiment. The whole child, body, soul, and spirit, is to be fed—is fed—by both. Such as they have to give they are giving every day. And the child is growing thereby to symmetrical manhood, or he is becoming dwarfed, misshapen, or diseased.

This is one inevitable consequence of the relation. The parents train the child. Another is this: The child trains the parents. No discipline sent by the heavenly Father is more beautifully adapted to its end than this which he sends to men and women through their children. Taken aright, how the character grows and rounds into symmetry and fullness under this most gracious discipline! Call to your mind the characters you have known most remarkable for rounded grace. Were they not those of some aged mother, or of some old man grown wise with years of loving service to the young? God's best and highest course of education in this world comes through the children's hands. Yet there are those—is it possible?—who, when God would grant them this promotion, refuse it. They lose the crown of their life. They choose to themselves arid wastes where they might have blooming gardens. They choose stunted incompleteness where they might have vital growth toward noble stature. The child trains the parents unconsciously but inevitably. The bringing out of certain faculties of mind and heart and soul in the education of the child is the parent's own highest education. You send your boy to the gymnasium to develop his muscle. By your care and study and labor for him you are developing your own noblest powers. The parent who has most nearly attained his child's development has most nearly attained his own development.

To come to some details of this mutual development. The child has certain rights, in studying which and deferring to which the parents find noble discipline. By virtue of his existence the child has these rights. The child, to begin with, has the right to be treated as an individual. The parents are not the proprietors of the child. They have no right to trespass on that young identity. They will find in time that they cannot do it if they try. Wiser to guide and mould, to so infuse into the child's mind motive and principle that his growth in the desired direction will be assured. This is a point too imperfectly apprehended by parents—the separateness of the child's nature, however sweet and close the bond of love. A child has a right to be treated with politeness. There are parents—conscientious, Christian parents—who do not show common civility to their children. The child may not feel its absence, but he quickly recognizes its presence, and lays it up in his warm and yielding heart. How easy and sure a way to teach that consideration for others which we all require and expect of our children!

Respect your child's confidence. Remember that that young soul has its own experiences, distinct from yours, its own struggles and failures and triumphs, its loves and its hates. If, won by love for you and trust in you, it chooses to bring to you some portion of its own little secret history, the disclosure should be treated with sacred confidence. It may be a trivial matter. But it is no trivial question whether your child shall trust you another time or shall shrink from you.

There is a certain magnanimity which may be shown by a parent, very winning to the child and very inspiring. "I shall always remember it of my mother," a friend says, "her generous treatment of me when I had done some childish mischief,—broken a choice dish, or something of that sort. She saw what some parents overlook, that the accident itself was a punishment, and, while not making light of it, and often inflicting some suitable penalty, she yet gave me to feel her sympathy in such a way that I was doubly careful afterward." In all these ways the child's rights as an individual should be respected.

Another of the child's rights is the right to honor his parents. The late Dr. Leonard Bacon once preached a sermon on what he called the obverse side of the fifth commandment,—the duty of parents to be worthy of honor. The child is born into the world with this right. His pure eyes look to his elders for example. His soul waits for impulse and inspiration from them. Woe unto that parent who by unworthy character causes one of these little ones to stumble; it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea!

And, last—perhaps it should have been first—the child has a right to be taught obedience; obedience not to the parents' caprice or self-will, but obedience to principle, obedience guarded by penalty and encouraged by reward, obedience inspired by love of that which is right, by love of God. "For this is right," says Paul, when he bids children obey their parents. Engrave the law of right deeply on your child's mind, and there will be less trouble about technical obedience. The parent may not exact obedience as to himself. He is in duty bound to exact it as to God. He is verily guilty if he does not do his utmost to create in his child the habit of obedience, the regard to law and to right, the love of law and of right, which is the soul's greatest safeguard in this world of temptation. It is a habit, it is a temper of mind, which all parents know is most easily induced in the early years of the child's life. God give them grace to implant it before it is too late!

Father and mother, does this work seem too great, this responsibility too heavy to be borne? There are two things which make it easy. The first is the help, the sympathy, the magnanimity, the forgiveness, of our own Father in Heaven. When we are faint, he gives strength. When we mistake, he overrules. When we fail, he forgives. He recognizes the right endeavor. He understands us all, parents and children, and includes us all in his wise and loving discipline. And the second thing is the children themselves. They bring their hands full of rewards—these little ones. No parent need be told the hourly compensation, the hourly refreshment and delight they bring. They come, marvels of grace and brightness, into the dullness of our middle life, and make us young again. What is like a child's love—so pure, so unquestioning? They overlook our faults. They see only our love and our deep intent of good to them. The young creatures shame us sometimes with their trustful eyes. The rather, let them inspire us. Father and mother, with God's help, let us be more worthy of our children!—Christian Union.

The Home Circle.

By Earl of Lytton

TEARS.

THERE be three hundred ways and more Of speaking, but of weeping only one; And this one way, the wide world o'er and o'er, Is known by all, though it is taught by none. No man is master of this ancient lore, And no man pupil. Every simpleton Can weep as well as every sage. The man Does it no better than the infant can.

The first thing all men learn is how to speak, Yet understand they not each other's speech; But tears are neither Latin, nor yet Greek, Nor prose, nor verse. The language that they teach Is universal. Cleopatra's cheek They decked with pearls no richer than from each Of earth's innumerable mourners fall Unstudied, yet correctly classical.

Tears are the oldest and the commonest Of all the things upon earth, and yet how new The tale each time told by them! how unblessed Were life's hard way without their heavenly dew! Joy borrows them from Grief; Faith trembles lest She lose them; even Hope herself smiles through The rainbow they make around her as they fall; And death, that cannot weep, sets weeping all.

—Earl of Lytton, in Glenaverill.

A Curious Barometer

A CURIOUS barometer is used by the remnant of the Araucanian race which inhabits the southernmost province of Chili. It consists of the cast-off shell of a crab, which is said to be extremely sensitive to atmospheric changes, remaining quite white in fair, dry weather, but indicating the approach of a moist atmosphere by the appearance of small red spots, which grow both in number and in size as the moisture in the air increases, until finally, with the actual occurrence of rain, the shell becomes entirely red, and remains so throughout the rainy season.—Advance.

Medical Authority.

THE following extract from the Pacific Medical Journal is indorsed by the officers of the Home Life Insurance Company, of New York, and is used by them in the form of a circular:—

"The fashion of the present day, in the United States, sets strongly toward the substitution of beer for stimulating liquors. An idea appears to be gaining ground that it is not only nutritious, but conducive to health, and still further, that there does not attach to it that danger of creating intemperate habits which attends the use of other drinks. The subject is one of great magnitude, and deserves the attention of medical men as well as moralists.

"Many years ago, long before the moral sense of society was awakened to the enormous evils of intemperance, Sir Astley Cooper, an undisputed authority in his day, denounced habitual beer drinking as obnoxious to health. Referring to his experience in Guy's hospital, he declared that the beer drinkers from the London breweries, though presenting the appearance of most rugged health, were the most incapable of all classes to resist disease; that trifling injuries among them were liable to lead to the most serious consequences, and so prone were they to succumb to disease, that they would die from gangrene in wounds as trifling as the scratch of a pin.

"We apprehend that no very great change either in men or beer has taken place since the days of that great surgeon.

"It may also be said of beer drinking that there is less limitation to it than the habitual use of other drinks. It does not produce speedy intoxication. When the drinker becomes accustomed to it, it will scarcely produce active intoxication in any quantity. It makes him heavy, sleepy, and stupid. Even in moderate quantities it tends to dullness and sluggishness of body and mind. Beer drinkers are constant drinkers. Their capacity becomes unlimited. The swilling of the drink becomes a regular business. It has no arrest or suspension like whisky drinking, to admit of recuperation. The old definition of a beer drinker was true:—

"'Every morning an empty barrel, every night a barrel of beer.'

"Of all intoxicating drinks it is the most animalizing. It dulls the intellectual and moral, and feeds the sensual and beastly nature. Beyond all other drinks it qualifies for deliberate and unprovoked crime. In this respect it is much worse than distilled liquors.

"A whisky drinker will commit a murder only under the direct influence of liquor—a beer drinker is capable of doing it in cold blood. Long observation has assured us that a large proportion of murders, deliberately planned and executed without passion or malice, with no other motive than the acquisition of property or money, often of trifling value, are perpetrated by beer drinkers.

"We believe, further, that the hereditary evils of beer drinking exceed those proceeding from ardent spirits: first, because the habit is constant and without the paroxysmal interruptions which admit of some recuperation; second, because beer drinking is practiced by both sexes more generally than spirit drinking; and thirdly, because the animalizing tendency of the habit is more uniformly developed, thus authorizing the presumption that the vicious results are more generally transmitted.

"It will be inferred from these remarks that we take no comfort from the substitution of malt drinks for spirituous liquors. On the contrary, it is cause of apprehension and alarm that just as public opinion, professional and unprofessional, is uniting over all the world in condemnation of the common use of ardent spirits, the portals of danger and death are opening wide in another direction."

Didn't Think.

OPENING the door of a friend's house one day, I made my way through the entry to a small back court, where Ned, the only son, was crying bitterly.

"Ah, Ned, what is the matter?"

"Mother won't let me go fishing. Harry and Tom are going to the harbor, and I want to go."

Here Ned kicked his toes angrily against the post, to the great danger of his new boots.

"Whose little dog is this?" I asked, as a brown spaniel came bounding up the garden walk.

"It is mine," cried Ned, in an altered tone. "Didn't you know I had one?"

"No, indeed. What a fine fellow! Where did you get him, Ned?"

"Father bought him for me. He is so knowing, and I teach him many things. See him find my knife," and Ned, wiping away his tears, threw his knife into the clover. "There, Wag," he said, "now go and find my knife."

Wag plunged into the grass, and after a great deal of smelling and wagging, he came triumphantly forth, and brought the knife to his young master.

"Give it to him," said Ned, pointing to me, and Wag laid it on my feet.

"This is a knife worth having," said I, "four blades."

"Tis a real good one," said Ned. "Father gave it to me on my birthday; and he gave me a splendid box of tools, too."

Ned looked up brightly and forgot his crying.

"Let me think," said I. "Was it with this knife that you hurt your foot so badly?"

"Oh no," cried Ned; "that was done with the ax; but I've got well now."

"I was afraid you would be laid up all the spring."

"Well, it was mother's nursing, the doctor says. Mother and father took great care of me. It was lonely staying in the house so; but mother used to leave her work and read to me, and father often stayed with me."

"I should think you had very kind parents, Ned."

The boy looked down on the floor, and a slight pout puckered his lips.

"I suppose there are none who have your interest and happiness so much at heart."

"But I want to go fishing," muttered Ned.

"And can't you trust them, Ned, and willingly agree to their wishes? You may not know the reason why they object to your going; but from all your experience of their kindness and wisdom, are you not sure that they would not cross your wishes without good reason for doing so. And surrounded as you are by so many proofs of their love, will you sit there and murmur and cry, and fill your heart with angry and stubborn thoughts, because of one little denial of your wants? Is not this a poor and ungrateful return for their kindness? It is little enough that a child can do for a parent, and that little he ought to do most cheerfully. I suppose the best return a child can make to a parent is a cheerful obedience. How small that seems! And would you grudge giving that, Ned?"

Ned looked sober. Tears started in his eyes. "Oh, sir," he said humbly. "I didn't think of all this—I didn't think of it."

"Didn't think" is at the bottom of a great deal of our ingratitude and murmuring against both our earthly parents and our Father who is in Heaven.—Children's Friend.

The Toy Cannon of Palais Royal

A FAMILIAR Parisian feature is likely soon to disappear—the toy cannon in the Palais Royal, fired daily by the sun at noon ever since 1788. The tiny piece is the delight of the French children, while even many sober elders set their watches by the daily report.

Health and Temperance.

By A. Sims

Dishonoring God by Tobacco Using.

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31.

It is very evident that God has created man for a great and noble end,—the glory of Himself. Man is expected and commanded to make everything he does subserve to this end; and what cannot conduce to this purpose must not be done. He must not eat, nor drink, nor do anything, that will not be for the glory of God; in short, it must be the one ruling motive of his life to please his Lord. How clearly and strongly is the common use of the weed condemned by this rule! Is a drug so deleterious in its effects upon the human frame, so injurious to man's soul, and the coadjutor of drunkenness, conducive to the glory of God, as it is commonly taken? Who will dare to say that the puffing and blowing, the spitting and chewing of tobacco users, together with the time lost, money squandered, health injured, and bad example set, is for the glory of God? What tobacco devotee who loves the Lord, would like, before lighting his pipe, or cigar, to get down on his knees and beseech Heaven to bless the weed to the good of his body and the glory of his God? Would he like to say, Lord, let the consumption of this tobacco into smoke, or a piece of useless filthy quid, be acceptable unto thee, and nourish my body? I trow there are but few even of the most confirmed tobacco consumers who would feel like doing such a preposterous and wicked thing. Yet no man is at liberty to consume anything upon which he cannot ask God's blessing, and which he knows will not be for his glory. It is utter folly to argue that because there is no passage in the Bible that says, "Thou shalt not use tobacco," therefore it is quite lawful to use it. The Bible is essentially a book of principles, and it is left to common sense and honesty to apply these principles. In the passage above we have a clear and safe guiding principle for every circumstance and condition of life. It is too plain to be misunderstood; it bears right on the subject in question, and, surely, if we wish to be led by Bible teaching at all, we will not in the very face of this principle (which is tantamount to a direct command) complain that the Scriptures say nothing against the use of tobacco.—Rev. A. Sims.

Cholera’s Routes and Ravages

Dr. Pettenkofer has written a very full historical resumé of cholera facts, and the London Lancet gives a good translation of the original German. Some facts are well worth glancing at. Cholera has existed in India from time immemorial, but it did not reach Europe until 1830. Then it came by the way of Russia. It cannot make a sea voyage of twenty days. If we could not cross the ocean to Europe in less than twenty days, cholera would never reach us. Since the first arrival in Europe, cholera has been supplied with relatively numerous and expeditious lines of travel, and the penalty Europe pays for close connection with India is, in part, cholera visitations. There are unfavorable land routes. Cholera never gets over deserts which require more than twenty days for caravans to cross. South America enjoyed exemption from cholera until 1854, when fast-sailing vessels carried it from Philadelphia to Rio de Janeiro, and a terrible epidemic was the result. Cholera makes the most remarkable jumps. It regularly jumps from Marseilles to Paris, right through Lyons, the second city of France. In Munich it has established itself three times (1836, 1854, 1873), but always in houses of the suburbs, situated on a clay soil. Cholera prefers low-lying situations; the disease falls off in hills and mountains. The Himalayas and the Alps are places of refuge in cholera seasons, though now and then an epidemic occurs there.—Sel.

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