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Signs of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 31.

The Earth in Eternal Edenic Beauty
Earlier text: Doings at the Nation's Capital

THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD

By J. O. C.

He Seeks by Numerous Illustrations to Show His Love—By the Tenderness of This Love He Would Draw All Men to Him

"LIKE as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." Ps. 103:13. These are the assuring words given by one who had experienced many life vicissitudes. By these he had been made to know the strength of fatherhood love, from which pity is generated. Not only have human fathers been known to yield up life in efforts to save children, but the same natural impulse has also led brute affection to meet death in the endeavor to protect offspring. This attribute is doubtless a grant from the Author of life, and therefore must be an offshoot, or outgo, from the divine fountain of fatherhood.
But considering for a moment the low estate to which sin has reduced the mentality of the human family, one must conclude that although the characteristic under examination seems quite pronounced in man, it must have been infinitely more conspicuous had not iniquity entered to disfigure God's image in the human, and so to neutralize his power of love attachment. Man in his natural state is, in consequence, deprived of the fulness of this peculiarity that was once delivered to him.

HIS VERY NAME IS LOVE

Our heavenly Father, however, yet retains the fountain of that love with which man was at first endowed, but has so largely lost. Indeed, His very name is love, because He is love. 1 John 4:8. But no man having actually seen God at any time (John 1:18), and love being of that nature which can not be comprehended through the use of words alone, its incarnation in flesh was actually necessary to reveal the real operative principle of divine fatherhood. Therefore the "only-begotten" of Divinity came to earth in flesh to reveal that love, as the Father's only possible representative. John 3:16.
This revelation was unfolded through both oral and practical methods. To make plain the meaning of His verbal expressions of love, figurative incidents were employed which were founded on ordinary occurrences of daily life, but told in a turn of expression different from that which was common to established human inclination. This was especially the case when on a certain occasion the Pharisees complained of His receiving sinners, and eating with them.
On the occasion mentioned, the detail of His story was based on two illustrations. The first was that of a man having a hundredsheep, one of which had strayed away. The owner left the ninety and nine to themselves while he went to the shadowy, abandoned wilderness to seek the one lost member of his original and beloved flock, which he actually found, and returned with rejoicing to the fold.
The conclusion drawn from this was that in heaven there is more joy over the repentance of a single sinner, than over ninety-nine already just persons who have no need of repentance. But this was only one phase of infinite love expressed in behalf of one individual straying from the heavenly Father's care. Luke 15:4-7.

SEARCH FOR THE LOST SILVER

But the unsparing diligence with which the search for that lost one is prosecuted, was then uncovered in a following parable showing a woman having lost one of her ten pieces of silver. Although separated from her purse, she considered the money as yet hers, and it must be restored to its place. So preceding her search, she produced a light by which to scan every dark corner of the place. She next began carefully to sweep every part of the house, stirring up the entire accumulations of its earthen floor, all the time peering intently about for the lost treasure. That work was pursued until the lost coin was found.
But in doing this, every other duty was made to rest until the object of the search was accomplished. However, this did not end the matter. So glad indeed was the searcher that her pursuit was rewarded, that her neighbors were called together to rejoice with her over the success achieved. This parable, we learn from the context, was uttered to express the joy all the angels of heaven participate in at the recovery of a single lost soul to join the family of our heavenly Father.

STORY OF THE PRODIGAL

It must be, therefore, that the infinite Father will in no wise retard the progress of a soul's return, but rather will do all in His power of creative virtue to hasten that return. That this is so, the story of the prodigal son has fully demonstrated.
Briefly set forth, the account is this: The younger of the two sons who constituted a certain father's household, became uneasy, and demanded a division of the hereditary estate, that he might go to a land beyond the confines of his father's jurisdiction. He went, and soon wasted all his inherited substance in riotous living, which included association with harlotry. In fact, he became entirely bad. In time a mighty famine overtook him, and nothing was at hand to satisfy his terrible hunger longing. So low, indeed, was he reduced that, having been permitted to tend swine in the fields of a stranger, he longed to share the food they had, even the husks that they trampled under their feet.

THE FATHER'S GREAT LOVE

Coming to his senses, and recalling the plenty in his father's home, he resolved to return thither, and humbly beg to be there received and treated as a mere servant. But while he was yet a great way from home, the father's great heart-love led him to go out and meet the prodigal—his own long lost son. Putting his arms about the repentant's neck, he planted a kiss of welcome and forgiveness upon his brow, even before there was any confession of wrong-doing. When, however, this did come forth, and the humiliating request was made to stand in the family as only a field servant, the petition was met by the father's order for the best robe to be brought and put on him. He also called for a royal feast to be served in gladsome honor of a deeply mourned and long lost son.

COVERS THE NEEDS OF EACH

If this recital means anything, it covers the needs of each individual, however well it may be applied to Gentiles in general. This is made plain from the Saviour's assertion that the fall of a single sparrow to the ground is distinctly noticed by Him whose creation it is. This being so, not a single individual, as he is of infinitely more value than a sparrow, can possibly be passed silently by in the great and wondrous plan of salvation. Matt. 10:29-32.

ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN

The conditions to this end are amply revealed: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Luke 11:9. There is added to this the thought that if the son of an earthly father should ask that parent for food, he would not be taunted by the offer of something undesirable, and perhaps detrimental. How much more, then, will the infinite Father, filled with ineffable love, yearning with goodness of desire toward His children, give good things, even the grace of the Holy Spirit, to every one asking for it!
He is truly waiting for any poor soul on the verge of despair, to prove the truthfulness of His word. Then come to Him as to a loving father, and He will surely verify His asserted character of infinite love. J. O. C.

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By Editor

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SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS

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HE COMES TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT

The Triumphs That Follow—Eternal Separation of the Wicked—The Terrible Are Brought to Naught—The Voices of Genesis and Revelation in Unison
WHEN the New Jerusalem descends, Christ will not come to proclaim His law from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. This He did of old from Sinai; and again from Jerusalem, in the days of His humiliation, when, derided by kings, insulted and abused by a world He would die to save, and rejected in scorn by a church He came to redeem, He established the new covenant with Israel, promising to put His law in their hearts, to forgive their iniquities, and to remember their sins no more.

HE COMES AS JUDGE

He now comes to execute judgment upon the ungodly, according to their treatment of His law and His offered pardon, which they have refused. There must first be the resurrection of the unholy dead. Acts 24: 15. They must awake to the shame and judgment which, during their lives, they have chosen. They that pierced His side, smote Him with the reed, plaited and placed the crown of thorns, together with Herod and Pilate and all nations of all the ages, must meet His searching eye as He now sits in kingly glory as their judge. No falling rocks nor crumbling mountains can hide the guilty in that day of final indignation against sin.
Death must again deliver up its dead. The sea must again "unfold its waves, and give up the myriads that lie beneath its tidal flow. Rev. 20: 13. Hades itself, with all its bars and bolts and cords and pains, must yield to the hand of Him who bears its key, and deliver up its dead. Rev. 1: 18. All must come forth at the summons of the Judge." Death shall be no cover, the grave no refuge, in that awful day when God shall judge the world in righteousness according to their works.

THE DEAD, SMALL AND GREAT, STAND BEFORE HIM

"God shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ, according to the gospel. Rom. 2: 16. All classes will be there. All ages will be represented. The dead, small and great, shall stand before God and be judged. Rev. 20: 12.
"The men of Nineveh, who repented at the preaching of Jonah, shall rise up in judgment to confound and condemn the men of Jerusalem, who did not repent at the preaching of Jesus Christ. Matt. 12: 41. The men who ate and drank with Jesus, and in whose streets He taught, shall hear Him say at last, 'Depart from Me; I never knew you.' Luke 13: 26. The Jews who listened to His words shall weep and gnash their teeth when they see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and they themselves thrust out. Luke 13: 28. Felix shall find that the Judgment to come, at the mention of which he trembled, was no idle tale. Acts 24: 25. Judas shall learn how much better it had been for him if he had not been born. Matt. 26: 24. And all sinners shall find that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb. 10: 31. None shall be so great that they can defy His judgment, so mighty that they can escape His notice. He shall judge the world in righteousness.

THE ETERNAL SEPARATION

"There shall come the solemn and eternal separation of the righteous and the wicked. They have been mingled together from the beginning, but now they shall mingle no more. Cain shall no more slay Abel. The Sodomites shall no more vex Lot. Pharaoh shall no more oppress Israel. The child of the bondwoman shall no more mock the son of the free. Haman shall no more plot against Mordecai. Nero shall no more afflict Paul. Herod shall no more imprison John. Nations shall no more persecuteChristians, nor shall rulers put them to torture or to death. God shall make an eternal severance of these different classes. He shall thoroughly purge His floor, garnering His wheat, and burning up the chaff with fire unquenchable. Matt. 3: 12. Saints shall return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not, for the day that cometh shall burn the wicked up, while on the servants of the Lord shall rise the healing beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Mal. 4: 1, 2."—H. L. Hastings.

THE WILDERNESS IN BLOOM

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there." Isa. 35: 1-6, 8, 9.

FEARFULNESS SURPRISES THE HYPOCRITES

"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off." "Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isa. 33: 14-17, 20, 21, 24.

NO VOICE OF WEEPING THERE

Then shall God rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in His people. "And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Isa. 65: 19. "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth." Zech. 14: 9. "This earth where Christ has been a hopeless outcast, a despised wanderer, and has met a felon's doom, shall yet shine forth, redeemed, purged, glorified, and arrayed in everlasting splendor, as the center of divine dominion."
"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Rev. 21: 23-27.

VIOLENCE SHALL BE NO MORE

"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified." Isa. 60: 18-21.
"Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." Isa. 30: 26.
"Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." Isa. 24: 23.

THE TERRIBLE ARE BROUGHT TO NAUGHT

"The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught." Isa. 29: 19-21.
"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Isa. 11: 6-9.

GENESIS AND REVELATION IN UNISON

"God's word declares the end from the beginning. It is not only the chart which guides each weary wanderer to his eternal rest, but it is the record of the great plan and purpose of the Almighty concerning the world which He has made and the church which He has redeemed. It unfolds God's everlasting purpose, as manifested in Jesus Christ; and if one will read three chapters at the beginning of the Bible and three at the end, he will be struck with the correspondence which there exists.
"At the beginning of the Bible, we find a new world: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' At the end of the Bible, we find a new world: 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.' At the beginning, we find Satan entering to deceive and destroy; at the end, we find Satan cast out, 'that he should deceive the nations no more.' At the beginning, sin and pain and sorrow and sighing and death find entrance to the world; at the end, there shall be no more pain nor sorrow, no sighing and no more death. At the beginning, the earth, for man's transgression, is cursed with thorns and thistles; at the end, 'there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it.' At the beginning, we find the tree of life in Paradise, from which the sinner is shut out by a flaming sword, lest he eat and live forever; at the end, we find the tree of life again, 'in the midst of the Paradise of God,' and the blessed and the blood-washed ones have a right to the tree of life, and 'enter in through the gates into the city.' At the beginning, man was beneath the dominion of death and the grave: at the end, 'the dead, small and great, stand before God,' the sea gives up its dead, and death and hell are destroyed in the lake of fire. At the beginning, the first Adam lost his dominion over the earth, and was driven out of the Garden of Eden in shame and sorrow; at the end, we find the second Adam victorious over sin and death and hell, enthroned as King and Lord of all, and reigning in triumph and glory forever."
"Thus shall this city shine forth in all the glory of divine adornment as the home of the saints. Men shall come from earthly wanderings to celestial homes; from dens and prisons here to joys and mansions there; out from iron doors and in through pearly gates. And feet that woke the dull echoes of the gloomy dungeon's floor shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem! Hands that clanked their chains with slow and tedious move shall strike the instruments of heavenly melody, and wake the harp notes of enduring joy. Brows once crowned with thorns and grimed with smoke and burning, shall grow smooth, and fair, and royal, beneath the crowns that never fade. Sackcloth shall be exchanged for fine linen, clean and white; and gazing on the least of all the gathered throng, we may say, 'Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'" Matt. 6: 29.

PALACE OF THE ANGELS AND THE THRONE OF GOD

"Here is the palace of angels and of God. Here stands the throne of God and the Lamb. Rev. 22: 3. Here shall the nations of the saved walk lovingly and peacefully in the calm, still light that beams through jasper walls and radiant palaces. Rev. 21: 24. All shall be pure and bright and blessed; for the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them,—their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things shall be done away. Rev. 21: 3, 4. 'And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.'
"Glorious shall be that city, the new metropolis of the established kingdom of God. And as Israel's sons, returning to their own land to dwell forever, shall join themselves with ties of love and vows of attachment to its soil, and call their land married, so shall Jesus, taking this as His eternal residence, consecrate it as the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Isa. 62: 4, 5; Rev. 19: 7, 8.

NIGHTLESS DAY AND TEARLESS JOY

"And all this glorious garniture of gates of pearl, and streets and buildings of transparent gold, and walls of jasper, and foundations of amethysts, and chrysotites, and emeralds, and gems set by the cunning of its divine Architect, shall abide and adorn the home of the saints, the city of their glory, the palace of their King, the dwelling of their God. Blessed city of nightless day and tearless joy, where enemies never come, and whence friends never depart; city expected by Chaldean patriarchs, and foretold by Hebrew prophets; seen in the visions of God on Patmos, and
by the eye of faith in all ages and in all lands;—we hail thy coming, and welcome thee as our endless home,—the peaceful Paradise of God."—H. L. Hastings.
"Behold the promised golden throne, The conquering palm, the unfading crown; And, more than all, that beaming eye Whose glance is love and ecstasy! But, lo, what sudden splendors beaming O'er heaven's illumined arch are streaming, What hues of varied beauty blending, What fair celestial towers descending! O, Salem! City of our God! The saints'—the martyrs' blest abode! I see thy gates of pearl unfold, I see thy streets of burnished gold, I see thy towers in crystal shine, Meet temple for a King divine. Hail, perfect, pure, in virgin pride, The mighty Lamb's resplendent bride! Within thy hallowed courts are found No lurking foes to vex or wound; No dim eye sheds the hopeless tear; No bosom throbs with doubt or fear; And hushed is shame's tumultuous thrill, And passion's warring storm is still. No bright sun beams by day, by night No pale moon sheds her feeble light; But from the throne of living fire Where sits revealed the eternal Sire, Where seraphs raise their loudest strain, To hail the Lamb that once was slain, Though faith and hope have passed away, Love sheds a pure, unchanging ray. What faintly shone on earth before, Now beams and burns forevermore." R. C. P.

2—EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT, MATT. 25: 41, 46

By Editor

Punishment of the wicked after death puzzles many. For instance, in Matt. 25: 41, 46, it reads as though the wicked were punished forever and ever by fire. Please explain the text.
D.
Our querist truly wonders if God can punish so severely and still be loving and merciful, and asks if the Bible does not say that God loves us with even greater love than a mother, and remarks, that even a mother would not punish her child by burning it, let alone forever and ever, however erring that child must be.
No, God does not punish in that way. All His punishments are just and right. He has more than a mother's love. Isa. 49: 15. There is another way to look at this term "everlasting fire," as found in Matt. 25: 41, or as the Revised Version gives it, "eternal fire," prepared for the devil and his angels. The fire is not eternal in its burning, but eternal in its effects. It does a work for all eternity.
For instance, Jude 7 declares that Sodom and Gomorrah are now suffering the punishment of eternal fire—not that the people are in eternal torments, or that the people are now burning, but that those cities are suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. But where are those cities now?—They were burned up, whelmed with fire, and the Dead Sea rolls in sluggish waves over the beautiful valley where those cities stood. The fire was eternal in its effects but not in its infliction. It is so with the punishment of Matt. 25: 46, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment." That is, the punishment is a completed process. The text does not say, "into everlasting punishing," a process going on but not completed; but, "everlasting punishment," a completed process, one that is set over against eternal life. One class has eternal life, the other has eternal punishment.
Paul puts it this way: "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life"—the one, eternal life; the other, eternal death. Rom. 6: 23. In another passage: "Who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might." 2 Thess. 1: 9, A. R. V. Explicitly we are told that the "punishment" is "eternal destruction." And Malachi tells us (chapter 4: 1) that the wicked will be burned up root and branch.
In other words, God has given to man life; man has the privilege of so using that life that it may continue forever; if he will not use it to God's glory and his own good, God deprives him of that life. That is just. All Christians will find help, we are sure, in the little tract No. 111 of "The Bible Students' Library," entitled "Tormented Forever and Ever."

3—BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT, MARK 3: 29

By Editor

Please explain the meaning of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. G. A. D.
God has but two agencies for saving men. These agencies are the blood of Christ for the washing away of our sins, and the eternal Spirit by which we are sanctified and made strong to serve Him. If man utterly rejects these, the Lord has no other means of reaching him. He has chosen his own doom. In other words, he has "counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." Heb. 10: 29.
Read the context in Mark 3. Jesus had been among the Jews, and wrought such miracles as they had never known before, or ever seen before. All these miracles were in harmony with their own Scriptures; yet right in the face of the blessed and divine working, these Jews, who should have been a light to the world, declared that He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. In other words, they attributed to the devil the work of the Spirit of God.
The Lord did not arbitrarily cut them off because of that. He does not arbitrarily cut any one off; but when man comes to that place where he will declare that the manifest working of God's Spirit is the devil, he by that act cuts himself off from the very means which God has of reaching him. That is what sin against the Holy Spirit is. It is setting aside the work of the Spirit of God as though it were wrought by the evil one. Doubtless there have been many who have done this in ignorance, and God has accepted them, just as He did the apostle Paul (1 Tim. 1: 13); but he who does that and persists in it, shuts himself off from eternal life, and commits an eternal sin.

SYSTEMATIC BIBLE STUDY

By Editor

WE have just concluded our reading of the book of Isaiah. In the climax to that book we were brought into the new earth, where, from one Sabbath to another, all flesh comes up to worship before God in the glorious New Jerusalem. Our reading in the book of Revelation this week will give us a more detailed account of that beautiful city. As we read the sacred narrative, may our hearts be quickened with the determination to live the life that will enable us to be there.

SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK ENDING AUGUST 15

Read a chapter each week-day in 1 Samuel, and two on the Sabbath. Read a chapter each day in Jeremiah. Read a chapter each week-day in Revelation, and two on the Sabbath.

Confined to Walled-In Yards

By Mrs. Florence White-Oster

Women Who Have to Live in Worse than Jails

The Bondage from Girlhood

By MRS. FLORENCE WHITE-OSTER
BEFORE coming to this country, I had read much about the seclusion of Mohammedan women, and thought I knew something about it; but I have come to the conclusion that no woman of a civilized country can know or comprehend what her poor Moslem sisters must suffer.

NEVER TO LEAVE HER YARD

No woman after marriage is supposed to leave her own yard, or as is usually the case, the yard of her father-in-law. And the yards here are very different from those in America. Every home, whether large or small, is completely surrounded by a high wall, for the very purpose not only of keeping the women in, but also that they may not be seen by their neighbors. In any home, no windows are allowed, save those that open on its own court.
Not knowing this, we had a small window cut into our back wall, opening on the roof of our neighbor's house, that we might have more light, and that we might see the hills beyond. No sooner was our window completed than an observing neighbor covered it with stones and mud, and then boarded it up. Evidently he feared my husband might see into his yard and perhaps catch a glimpse of his wife.

NEVER BUT FOUR MEN SAW HER

I know of one woman whose face, as far as she knows, has been seen by only four men,—her father, brother, husband, and a missionary doctor.
Another woman near has not been outside her own yard since her marriage twelve years ago. And she is only one of thousands. Can you realize what this means? Suppose you, dear reader, could never go to a store, could never run over to see a friend or loved one, could never leave your own yard, nor behold the beauties of nature.

NOTHING TO RELIEVE THE MONOTONY

And their indoor life is not as pleasant as yours would be could you submit to the seclusion. The great majority of Persian homes consist of but one room, with no furniture but a rug on the floor, a gun in the corner, a pile or two of quilts and blankets, and a round, deep hole in the ground which serves as stove for both cooking and heating purposes. Living this simple life, they have not the pleasant duties of a real home to occupy their minds and hands, and they can not read to pass away the lonely hours.
O, pray that the Sun of Righteousness may soon penetrate this darkened land, for only the influence of the gospel can free these, our sisters, from their terrible bondage.

Heathen Hearts Yearning for Christ

By Frederick Lee

China Desires an Inspired Bible

THE work at all our stations is going forward as never before, and the prospect for a good harvest of souls is bright. The Lord is going before us, opening doors faster than we can possibly enter.
When we were visiting one of our outstations recently, two men came about thirty-five miles to attend our meeting. They came especially to learn more about our truth, and to appeal for some one to come to their place and teach them, as already there was a company meeting every Sabbath. We have since sent one of our workers there to inquire into this, and he reports a company of about twenty-five earnest country folk who have expressed their desire to take a stand for the Lord. Their only knowledge of the truth was what our colporteur had told them when passing through their villages selling the Chinese Signs of the Times. Some then began to keep the Sabbath.
There is another call from this same territory. We have received two letters from the pastor of a local independent church. He and several church-members express a desire to keep the Sabbath, and to learn more of the truth. We have just sent a colporteur into that territory to stay and study with them for a few weeks. We pray the Lord to call out from among the many a few who will earnestly take a stand for the truth.
Two other letters have been received from a pastor of a church in the southeast of this province, where no work has been done except by our colporteurs. He, with many of his church-members, desires us to send some one to teach them more of the truth. These people appear to be in earnest.

TAUGHT IN MISSION TO DOUBT THE BIBLE

In another place there is an opening which we feel is of the Lord. Last summer two young men who were studying in the Wesleyan mission Bible school came to our chapel to inquire about our belief. At first there seemed no way to reach them, for that which is the great argument for our truth, the Bible, they had been taught to doubt. The faith of these young men had been undermined. Another boy from this same school said to our evangelist, "If what you say about the Bible is true, then what we are taught is no better than the teachings of Buddha." Here he certainly struck the truth concerning a lot of teaching that is given to the Chinese church in the name of Christianity.

WANT A BIBLE BETTER THAN BOOKS OF CONFUCIUS

But the two young men I have mentioned saw the beauty of the truth, and stepped out. After I had given a Bible reading the other day, one of them said, "I have never heard anything like it before." The topic presented was the inspiration of the Scriptures.
The Chinese want an inspired Bible. It appeals to them, and the honest in heart will accept. But if the Bible is not inspired, they would rather keep to their own books of Confucius. These two boys, after studying with us a while, with their wives, left the school and returned to their homes. Now at the home of one is a company of about twenty-five meeting every Sabbath. The Lord is going before us, raising up workers for His truth. We are happy to have a part still in this last message in China. FREDERICK LEE.

M. E. OLSEN

By M. E. Olsen

"CASTING all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." What a blessed thought! We are to lay off our cares and anxieties because He will undertake to carry them for us. How many of us wear ourselves out carrying heavy burdens which it is our gracious heavenly Father's wish to take on His own strong shoulders in order that we, being freed from worldly cares, may serve the Lord with a whole heart! The secret of Christian joy and of Christian strength lies in letting God do things for us.

M. E. OLSEN

Christian Greatness

By Frederick William Robertson

It is not difficult to get away into retirement, and there live upon your own convictions; nor is it difficult to mix with men, and follow their convictions; but to enter into the world, and there live firmly and fearlessly according to your own conscience, that is Christian greatness.—F. W. Robertson.
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