“ARISE, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
This is the special message that God bade his servant Jonah bear in the ancient and populous city founded by Asshur, the son of Shem, who “went forth” from “the land of Shinar” about the time of the dispersion from Babel, “and builded Nineveh” along the fertile bank of the Tigris, over two hundred miles to the northward from Babylon.
Jonah was bidden to “cry against” the city, but he was averse to bearing any such message. Instead of obeying, he “rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
God in his providence taught Jonah, by severe affliction, the lesson of obedience that enabled him to fulfil God’s purpose in behalf of the inhabitants of Nineveh. The record of his experience, as given in the first and second chapters of Jonah, is worthy of most careful study.
“The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey, . . . and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
“So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”
As the people of Nineveh humbled themselves before God, and cried to him for mercy, he heard their cry. “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
But Jonah revealed that he valued the souls in that wretched city less than he valued his reputation. He feared lest he should be regarded as a false prophet. The compassion shown by God toward the repentant people “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” “Was not this my saying,” he inquired of the Lord, “when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”
When Jonah saw the Lord exercising his compassionate attributes in sparing the city that had corrupted its ways before him, he should have co-operated with God in his merciful design. But he lost sight of the interests of the people. Again he yielded to his feelings, and, as the result, he was not grieved over the thought that so large a number must perish because they had not been taught to do right. He felt as if he would rather die than live to see the city spared; and in his dissatisfaction he exclaimed, “Now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me: for it is better for me to die than to live.”
“Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.”
Then the Lord gave Jonah an object-lesson. He “prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.”
“Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that can not discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
Our God is a God of compassion. With long-sufferance and tender mercy he deals with the transgressors of his law. And yet, in this our day, when men and women have so many opportunities for becoming familiar with the divine law as revealed in Holy Writ, the great Ruler of the universe can not behold with any satisfaction the wicked cities, where reign violence and crime. If the people in these cities would repent, as did the inhabitants of Nineveh, many more such messages as Jonah’s would be given.
Of the disobedient, God now declares: “Although they have been cumberers of my ground, I will forbear with them as long as there is a possibility of their repenting. Toward those who will choose to leave the ranks of the transgressors of my law, and to stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, I will show mercy and forgiveness. But the end of my forbearance with those who persist in disobedience, is approaching rapidly.”
Ought men to be surprised over a sudden and unexpected change in the dealings of the Supreme Ruler with the inhabitants of a fallen world? Ought they to be surprised when punishment follows transgression and increasing crime? Ought they to be surprised that God should bring destruction and death upon those whose ill-gotten gains have been obtained through deception and fraud? Notwithstanding the fact that increasing light regarding God’s requirements has been shining on their pathway, many have refused to recognize Jehovah’s supreme rulership, and have chosen to remain under the black banner of the originator of all rebellion against the government of heaven.
The forbearance of God has been very great,—so great that when we consider the continuous insult to his holy commandments, we marvel. The Omnipotent One has been exerting a restraining power over his own attributes. But he will certainly arise to punish the wicked, who so boldly defy the just claims of the decalogue.
Not long ago, in the visions of the night, I was in a large assembly, where8the sacredness of God’s law was being pointed out. With solemn earnestness a speaker read the one hundred and nineteenth, the one hundred and twenty-sixth, and the one hundred and twenty-seventh psalms. He declared that the wickedness of the world has reached a point where the Lord will certainly interfere. These words were repeated: “The Lord is slow to anger, and of great power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and in the bowels of the earth, and in the clouds wherewith he hides himself.”
By studying the story of the Amorites, we may learn a lesson regarding God’s dealings with the transgressors of his law. God promised Abraham and his posterity the land of Canaan; but centuries passed by before this promise was fulfilled. One reason given was that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. Though practising idolatry, they had not yet reached the full measure of guilt that was to bring upon them the vengeance of God. Finally, when their period of probation was ended, the command was given for their destruction.
God allows men a period of probation; but there is a point beyond which divine patience is exhausted and the judgments of God are sure to follow. The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard, and the rebellious element that continues to reject the light of truth, will be blotted out in mercy to themselves and to those who would otherwise be influenced by their example.
Forgive and Forget
FORGIVE and forget; the world would be lonely, The garden a wilderness left to deform, If the flowers remembered their chilling winds only, The fields gave no verdure for fear of the storm.
Still in thy sojourn, emblem the flower, Give fragrance of feeling to sweeten life's way; Prolong not again the brief cloud of an hour, With unkindness that darkens the rest of the day.
Forgive and forget; no heart so unfeeling But some gentle thoughts of affection there live. The best of us all require some concealing; A heart that with love can forget and forgive.
Then away with the cloud from those stern-looking eyes; That brow was no home for such frowns to have met. How could you hope for a home in the skies, Should Jesus refuse to forgive and forget?
— Selected.
GEO. O. STATES
By GEO. O. STATES
Lessons From Past Experiences — No. 7
GEO. O. STATES
In the spring of 1861, when the war broke out in this country, President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand men for three months. Few believed the war would last that long. Those who believed what had been shown Sister White in Parkville, Mich., Jan. 12, 1861, knew something serious was before this nation. “We knew that a most terrible war was before us, which would cause great distress and anguish.” As the war progressed, the North was confident of final victory, not realizing how well the South was prepared for the conflict.
In “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, pages 266 and 267, is given a vivid account of the disastrous battle of Manassas, Va. The people of the North were greatly astonished at the unexpected defeat of the Northern army. As time went on and the war continued, becoming more and more serious, draft after draft was proclaimed. During these trying times as our ministers went out to preach the word, they found the people so absorbed with the terrible carnage that was going on that it was almost impossible to call their attention to the third angel’s message. Conditions were growing more serious. Many of our people were drafted, and had to go into the war or pay three hundred dollars. At this time meetings of counsel were held in the Battle Creek church, and the leading brethren advised all to pray much and talk little. In the winter of 1865 large bounties were paid for substitutes, and it began to look as if some of the European nations would take sides with the South, and thus bring about a general war.
Thus matters stood when in the REVIEW of Feb. 21, 1865, there appeared a long article setting before our people the seriousness of the situation, appointing a four-day season of prayer for the end of the war, and urging our people to put away all differences, humble their hearts, and seek God earnestly. This they did.
Those of us who participated in those experiences knew what it was to plead with the Lord. Brethren and sisters who had differences confessed their wrongs, and as far as possible made matters right. We all felt that we were doing a special work, and that God was going to hear and answer our petitions. We felt that the only way that the work of God could be carried on was for the war to cease, and so we earnestly pleaded for that definite object.
Immediately after these four days of fasting and prayer the Northern army began to gain victories. Soon the news flashed over the wires, “Richmond is taken, Lee has surrendered, and the war is over.” This all took place within a few weeks after God’s people fasted and prayed. It was brought about so soon that men of the world were amazed. A peace convention was held, I think in Washington, D. C., and a large banner was stretched across one of the main thoroughfares, with these words, “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes,” showing how astonished men of the world were at the unexpected termination of the war. God’s people, who spent those four days in earnestly seeking the Lord, knew it was in answer to prayer.
Cedaredge, Colo.
The Beginning of Day
By John Norton Loughborough
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH
“WHERE is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, that thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?” Job 38:19, 20. These are among the words spoken by the Lord to Job when correcting him and his unwise comforters. In these questions is really involved the thought, Where is the exact point where light separates from darkness? or in other words, Where is the line of day? Where does one day begin, and another end?
The Lord gave the sun to rule the day. Ps. 136:8. When he was appointing days to be observed by his people, he said they should regard them “from even unto even.” Lev. 23:32. And in his Word we learn that “at evening” is “when the sun did set.” Mark 1:32. So in the revolution of the earth on its axis, causing the recurrence of day and night, the setting of the sun is God’s signal for the beginning of a twenty-four-hour day.
In no place in his Word has he ever told us the precise point we must begin to reckon those sun settings. At the close of creation week, when God sanctified the seventh day (commanded it to be kept holy) those to whom it was first given were in the garden of Eden. But in the settlement of the earth, their posterity went east from Eden, as well as west. Now if Eden was an exact longitudinal point from which they must reckon the course of day, then those who went east from Eden would begin their Sabbath just as those west of Eden were closing the Sabbath day. We have no hint in all the Bible that any such difference ever existed among the Edenic race.
After the flood the descendants of Noah—the posterity of Shem, Ham, and Japheth—divided the territory of the Eastern continent (Gen. 9:19), settling in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Thus they were scattered hundreds of miles apart, and far away from any point that has been conjectured as the ancient site of Eden. Being thus far away, east and west, from that point, did they differ one day in reckoning the days of the week, or in the keeping of the Lord’s Sabbath? There is nothing in the Scriptures from which we could infer any such thing.
The facts in the case are these: As mankind settled the world, they went east and west until they had covered the land portion. They took their day reckoning with them, as measured by God’s great timekeeper,—the sun,—and never knew any necessity for any other “day line” until they began to cross the Pacific Ocean. Going from either side to the other, they found a difference of a day in the reckoning of the day of the week. All the nations on the lands thus settled were agreed in their reckoning of the days of the week. They still thus agree, as may be demonstrated by the “chart of the days of the week,” compiled by William Meade Jones and Prince Lucien Bonaparte, of London, England. This agreement is in itself a proof that none of these have ever recognized an Edenic day line.
As before stated, men circled the land portion of the earth, from the west side of the Pacific Ocean—Asia—to the east side—America—all in the whole round were in perfect harmony in their week, and day reckoning. They began to cross the Pacific Ocean, and, whether going east or west, if they took their day reckoning with them, they would find themselves out of harmony with those on the other side. This demonstrated a stubborn fact, which was this: In God’s providence, in the settling of this world, following the Lord’s timekeeper—the sun—days were fixed to this earth, and9to be in harmony with those fixed days mankind must adjust themselves to these stubborn facts.
From actual experience they had now learned that the day, from one to two, and so on, actually changed in the Pacific Ocean. No matter whether or not you decide to do it at some particular meridian of longitude of man’s choosing, the day actually changes between America and the eastern shores of the Eastern continent. To keep in harmony with the actual change of day, the nations have established their “day line” in the Pacific, where the navigators add or drop a day, and that only that they may be in harmony with the established days of the people among whom they land.
In late years some persons have arisen who have contended that the “day line” in the Pacific Ocean is all man-made, and that it is wrong to comply with this arrangement, and instead the change of days should be made at a point where the day first began with mankind; namely, in the garden of Eden. In carrying out that theory, the first trouble that confronts us is to settle within several hundred miles where the garden of Eden was located. Among those who have speculated on the site of Eden there is diversity of opinion. As that garden is not on earth now, and no vestige of the river that flowed out of it remains, who can tell where it was? One branch of that river it is said compasses Ethiopia. Ethiopia is on the west side of the Red Sea. As all contend that Eden was east of the Red Sea, it would seem that some mighty changes must have been made by the flood. Was the Red Sea there before the flood? and did the river now compassing Ethiopia run through the Red Sea like the Gulf Stream through the Atlantic?
A few years ago there was in England one, who, for a time, was with our people. He finally advocated the theory of an Edenic day line. He thought he had identified the location of ancient Eden. He said that the people in Australia and New Zealand were so far east of that Edenic line that the real day was one day ahead of their reckoning. Although those there who observed Sunday according to their reckoning thought they were keeping the first day of the week, they were actually keeping the seventh day of the week, as reckoned from his imaginary Edenic day line. He took passage to Australia to give his revised third angel’s message.
His message, reduced to “nutshell” size, it seemed to me would run on this wise: “The people who, in the order of God’s three messages have established the work in Australia and New Zealand are mistaken. The mass of professed Christians in those countries are in no danger of worshiping the beast in Sunday-keeping, because the Sunday they are keeping, which the Catholic Church claims that it has put in the place of the seventh-day Sabbath, is really the true Sabbath commanded by the fourth commandment, and sanctified in the garden of Eden.” I have never heard that the Englishman made any great stir in Australia. Truly the people might have said of his proposed revolution, in the language of Isaiah, “Your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay.” Isa. 29:16.
Let us look at this situation in the light of fulfilled and fulfilling prophecy. These rules are accepted by all true expositors of prophecy:—
1. God is the author of prophecy, therefore the events predicted in a prophecy will be fulfilled as God has given them.
2. When God’s time comes for a prophecy to be fulfilled, the very event predicted is there every time.
3. A false fulfilment of a prophecy in the appointed time for a true fulfilment is therefore an impossibility.
In harmony with the above proposition let us consider the bearing of the proposed new light respecting the “day line of Eden.” God’s time came for the great second advent movement. The first and second messages were given in harmony with and exactly fulfilling the prediction made concerning those messages. A third message was to follow. It thus arose, and after sixty years of its onward course, in which time it has made its entry more or less into all the leading countries of the world, some one claims to discover that in a large portion of the territory already entered no such message is needed to correct the people in regard to the keeping of the Lord’s commandments, but rather to tell them that they are already keeping the right day if they would only begin it at sunset instead of midnight. Those who have been so zealously laboring to establish the message, it is claimed, should confess to the people, and tell them that the third angel’s message applies to only a part of the world that is west of the site of Eden. Does that look like God’s manner of working in the fulfilment of his prophetic word? According to Matt. 24:14 the last message is to be proclaimed to all nations for a witness.
If it is true now that acceptable obedience to God’s Sabbath is only found in keeping a sun-measured day that began its course on the meridian of Eden, it must ever have been so. If the claim of the Edenic day-line reasoner is correct, then every one east of that line, to be really a true seventh-day keeper, must keep his sabbath the day after the one on the west side of the line, beginning just as the other closes its observance; in other words, keep it on what on this plan was, and is, reckoned by that people as the first day of the week. This Sunday, the first day of the week, the North British Review styles “the wild solar holiday of all ancient pagan nations.”
Shall we then decide that when the Jewish people were in captivity in Medo-Persia, with its one hundred and twenty provinces, whose territory extended east to the eightieth degree of longitude, more than twenty-four hundred miles east of any point that has been claimed as the site of Eden, they changed their day of worship to the pagan Sunday, and differed one day with their brethren who were still left in Palestine?
Is there in the Bible a single hint that on their return to Palestine, under the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, they had to remodel their day reckoning? It would seem that some such facts are needful to establish an Edenic day-line theory, before proposing to one half of this world’s inhabitants to change their reckoning of the days of the week.
While the ancient Scriptures reproved the people for following the customs of the heathen in sun-worship, and other idolatry, we find no hint that they were called upon, after their return to Palestine, to change their day of Sabbath-keeping. So let us observe God’s order of days established in his providence on this round world, and go forward in the faithful proclamation of the third angel’s message, not being turned aside by any rushlight of the enemy’s devising to throw discredit on the work.
Mountain View, Cal.
The Cause and Significance of Earthquakes
By D. H. Kress
D. H. KRESS, M. D.
THOUSANDS of people who were hurried out of their comfortable homes during the earthquake in San Francisco found the enforced outdoor life a real blessing in disguise. The health authorities stated that in spite of the rain and inclement weather which lingered most unseasonably this year, the health of the city had never been so good. The earthquake was therefore not altogether an unmingled curse. “When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” The curse comes for man's sake; it never comes without cause.
Considerable alarm is still felt by the people of San Francisco. The views expressed by noted scientists regarding the cause of this and similar disturbances certainly will not tend to increase the confidence of the people in the earth's stability and security. While there does not seem to be any agreement among them regarding the causes of these disturbances, they are all agreed upon one point,—that what has occurred may again occur at any moment and with great severity. This is not at all soothing to the future dwellers of this unfortunate city. But what has occurred in San Francisco may occur at any place on the earth's surface.
The simplest explanation of the causes of these terrific internal commotions and disturbances of the earth may be gathered by a careful reading of Biblical history. At the time of the flood not only did the rain descend in torrents from the heavens, but all the fountains of the deep were also broken up. Undoubtedly with terrific force10water gushed out of the bowels of the earth, carrying with it huge boulders, rocks, and earth. Forests containing mammoth trees were torn up and buried under this mass. These have since been converted into coal beds. The coal has produced petroleum and gases. When these are caused to ignite, rocks are intensely heated, limestone is formed, and iron ore melted. When water, lime, and these heated elements in the earth meet, the immense pressure produced causes loud, muffled explosions, the ground trembles and heaves, and in places rises in waves. This was experienced in the earthquake at San Francisco.
At some points this intense internal pressure finds a vent through a Vesuvius or some other crater, and huge, heated rocks, melted ore, and lava are thrown many feet into the air with terrific and indescribable force, often burying entire cities. This gives some idea of what is at present taking place in the bowels of the earth, and shows the insecurity of earth's inhabitants.
Where there is no vent to this internal pressure, upheavals and earthquakes are more apt to occur. In the past, mountains have been known to mysteriously make their appearance, and whole cities and villages have disappeared. When these commotions take place in the ocean, the earth beneath is forced up, and new islands may even appear; thus tidal waves are often formed which are almost as destructive as earthquakes.
In the past God has warned the people of the earth of these impending judgments before he permitted them to come. In the time of the flood, Noah warned the inhabitants of the earth for one hundred and twenty years, and called upon them to cease to do evil and learn to do well. Had they heeded the warning, as did the inhabitants of Nineveh when warned by Jonah, the flood would never have come upon them. Before the cities of the plain could be destroyed, angels came and took Lot by the hand and hastened him and all he had out of the city, telling him to escape for his life, and to look not behind him. “As it was in the days of Lot, . . . even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
What has been in the past will be again; similar causes will bring about similar results. As the wickedness of our modern cities increases, and it becomes evident that the inhabitants are throwing off all restraint, we may expect to witness a repetition of the judgments of the past upon these cities; when this corruption becomes general, we may expect the judgments to become general. That this time will come, the Word of God predicts. “The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. . . . The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein.”
But before this can take place, “the Lord himself [not an angel, as in the case of Lot] shall descend from heaven, . . . the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air,” to be escorted to the place he has been preparing for the righteous. The Lord will say, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.”
Few will look upon these visitations as judgments and warnings from God, or as indications of the coming general destruction and the near coming of Christ. Scientists will scoff and bring forth theories opposed to this. Peter, in speaking of this, says: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Just as truly as water was used to destroy the earth's inhabitants in the time of Noah, so surely will fire be the means of the destruction of the wicked in the last days. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
That we shall see the fulfilment of this, there can be no doubt; and as earth's internal disturbances and commotions become more frequent and more severe, we may know we have reached the time when universal iniquity abounds, and God is calling upon men and women to flee from the wrath to come. As yet mercy is mingled with wrath; God's voice and appeals may still be heard in the midst of these judgments, calling upon men and women to cease to do evil and learn to do well, for their own sakes. He is unwilling that any should perish.
As men misinterpret these judgments, refuse to heed these solemn appeals, and harden their hearts, there will finally be judgment without mercy. We shall then witness the unmingled wrath of God poured out without mixture, without mercy. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”
Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. The Saviour had said, “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh: then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains.” This was to the early Christians the signal of escape. They heeded the warning, watched for the signal, and as a result not one lost his life. So to-day, there are signs of impending dangers, but none who heed the signals held out need perish in the judgments that are coming upon these wicked cities. They will not be found in them when these cities are visited with these judgments; and when the universal destruction comes, those who have heeded the warnings will be secure in the mansions above.
Wahroonga, N. S. W.
Tried With Fire
By G. W. E.
G. W. E.
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS will be a tried people. Each one of them will be tried as by fire. Each one of them will be brought into circumstances, and will have to pass through experiences, that will mean a life-and-death struggle with the powers of darkness which are pressing upon the soul from without and from within. The divine plowshare of trouble and trial will cut its furrows through the heart's desires, deep and long. The angry billows of temptation will rise higher and higher. The tempest of affliction will sweep in with a fury that seems to know no bounds. But there is an all-wise purpose in it all. The Lord “doth not afflict willingly.” A loving, tender, pitying eye is watching the process of refining, the work of purification, and a fatherly heart is waiting and hoping and praying and yearning that the dross might be successfully removed and burned up in the furnace of affliction, and only the good, the solid, the stable, remain. “Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
O that the tempted one, the tried one, the afflicted one, might look away from the awful pressure of the moment, to that glorious time when the Refiner's work is done! O that he might be willing, for the sake of the eternal joys of the near future, aye, for the sake of becoming an efficient instrument in God's hand to help some soul into the kingdom, to endure the cross, to despise the shame, to have the Lord trim and cut and burn and chisel until the perfect character of Jesus appears in the flesh!
Let not despair enter into the hearts of any thus tried. Painful though it be, lonely hours of weeping and agonizing though it bring, darkness though it cause to overshadow us, yet it will have an end, it will not last always. Hold on, trust, believe, watch, and pray, and the result will be glorious.
College View, Neb.
Our Father's Care
By Mrs. L. R. Reynolds
MRS. L. R. REYNOLDS
I would learn a precious lesson
Of my Father's tender care
From the happy birds about us,
Pouring forth their morning prayer.
Giving thanks and joyful praises
For supplies of daily food,
Never doubting — and he hears them,
And he feeds them — God is good.
If he careth for the birdlings,
Then he careth for us too,
And we should be trusting, like them,
Trusting, praising, as they do.
Leave thy worries for the morrow,
Leave with God thy load of care;
For the trials of the present
Are enough for thee to bear.
We may labor what is needful
As it seemeth for the best,
But he bids us bring our burdens
Unto him and sweetly rest.
*Wichita, Kan.
Children and Stars
Nature study, which has been transformed in a majority of cases into nature recreation, has extended to a great variety of subjects, but has treated one important branch with curious neglect.
Birds and butterflies, trees, flowers, mushrooms, ferns, and shells have their enthusiastic admirers everywhere; but a question as to the summer constellations, or the planets which are the morning and evening stars of the month, reveals the fact that nineteen persons out of twenty can barely recognize the Milky Way and the Great Dipper. Yet what a door here stands open to the thoughtful mind!
Night after night, over city roofs, the great procession passes; one need go but to the street or the window to watch. What child who has been taken out into the whispering darkness of a summer night or the splendid silver beauty of a winter evening for a star talk has ever forgotten it? The names may slip away, perhaps, but something—a sense of beauty, of mystery, of the unspeakable wonder of the universe—remains unforgettably.
There have been children with other star memories. One of the prettiest pictures in biography is that of Lyman Beecher’s children watching for the end of the long Puritan Sabbath and the release from constraint “when three stars came out.” What friendly aspect the early stars must have worn to them all their lives, with the memory of their playtime signal!
Nathaniel Bowditch, the mathematician, had other devices. His son says that the father’s reward for good behavior was to draw one of the constellations, in dots of ink, upon the child’s hand. Happy children, so to learn the stars in shining hours! Happy stars to be so linked with radiant memories!
Doubtless the stars may be learned from books or named from a professor’s chair, but the parent who teaches his boy or girl even a little of the beauty and the glory of the heavens—who puts the sky into his childhood—gives him a memory beyond all price.—Youth’s Companion.
Babies in Other Lands
THE Indian baby is strapped to a birch-bark board, and hung up in a tree or carried on his mother's back. He has no playthings; and, if he cries, no one seems to mind much.
In South America some of the cradles are made of palm leaves. A single leaf turned up at the edge holds the baby. This cradle is often hung up in a tree, and the wind rocks the baby to sleep.
In Africa the mother carries the baby in a leather pouch slung on her back. When she gets tired of this way, she makes a hole in the sand, under some shady bush or shrub, and tucks the baby into it.
An Eskimo baby is tucked up in his mother's hood. It is a warm place, and travelers say their chubby little faces look very good-natured and happy. When the child comes out of the hood, he is stuffed into a fawn-skin bag; and a string draws the garment together like a pudding-bag, keeping him safe and warm.
In Lapland the cradle is a piece of wood, shaped like a canoe and hollowed out until it is very light. A quantity of grass is put in; and in this soft bed the baby laughs, sleeps, and plays with his simple toys all the very long days. When his mother goes to church, she leaves him outside to keep warm in a hole made in the snow, with a faithful dog to drive the wolves away. Sometimes several cradles are left in a cluster, when the children set up such a chatter as to disturb the meeting.
In Persia, when an Armenian baby is born, it is sprinkled with salt, and left to itself for nearly twenty-four hours. This is done to harden it. The baby is tied in its crib, and the little feet are left bare even in the coldest weather. The mothers blacken the eyebrows and eyelashes; and a little girl's ears are pierced for rings often when a day old, and always before she is four days' old.
The day a Chinese baby is born, it is called one year old. When the next New-year's day comes, even if it happens to be the day after it is born, it is two years old; and thereafter every New-year's day is its birthday. The winter cradle is shaped like an hour-glass, open above and below. The waist holds the child in, and the hands are left free to play with odd-looking rattles. If the baby is a boy, the top of his head is shaved when he is four weeks old, and after that is shaved once a week.
In India the baby is rocked in a swing. The mother takes a long cloth and ties the two ends together over a small rafter in the low roof of the house, and puts the baby into the fold of the cloth. When the mothers go out to work in the field, the cloth is fastened to the branch of some tree. When the baby gets sick, the mother thinks some one of the gods or devils that the family worship must be angry, and so she calls a sacred man, who wears a yellow cloth and pretends to tell secrets, and asks him what the matter is with the child. He takes two or three little idols out of his bag, and puts them down on the ground before him, repeating some prayers to them, and then pretends to hear what they say. Then he tells the woman she has not given her offerings properly, and makes her go and bring a few pennies, a little rice, and even a chicken. These he takes for himself and goes away, telling her the child will get well. — Little Missionary.
Typhoid Fever
WATER is the usual vehicle for typhoid germs, as is well known, and probably all great outbreaks of the disease in cities are due to an infected water-supply. But a city with an ideal water-supply may be scourged with typhoid fever, although less severely, through the medium of impure ice, and it is almost as important to know where the ice is cut, or with what water it is made, if artificial, as where the city water comes from. Not long ago a number of officers on one of the United States ships in the Mediterranean squadron were taken down with typhoid fever. When the source of the infection was traced, it was found to be some ice bought at Athens, the ice-machine on shipboard having broken down.
Raw vegetables used for salads may have been grown in soil contaminated with slops used as fertilizers, or may have been washed in infected water.
Unless a water-supply is above suspicion, all that used for drinking, tooth-cleaning, and in the kitchen should be boiled, and the drinking water cooled by putting vessels containing it on the ice, not by putting ice in the water itself.
Finally great care should be taken to screen all food from flies, for if there is a case of typhoid fever in the neighborhood, flies may become most active distributors of the poison.— Selected.