p. 406 | Review and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 26. (6/26/1900)

THE STARCH FAMILY.

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

(Continued.)

GRAINS IN THE MILKY STAGE.

If kernels of wheat or corn are eaten when ripe and dry, they will be found to have the same taste as the flour from the barrel, but there was a time earlier in their history when, had we eaten them, we should have found them sweet and juicy. This condition is known as the “milky stage” of the grain. In this stage, instead of finding starch in the grain, we find sugar, just as in the sap of the maple tree or the juice of the sorghum plant. Nature carries the sap up through the green stalk, and, in the form of sugar, deposits it in the kernel of wheat. Later the sugar is changed into starch, so that it may be preserved, starch being one of the permanent forms of the carbohydrate family. Grains while in the milky stage are very easily digested. It was undoubtedly while the grain was ripening, and therefore in the milky stage, that Christ and his disciples, in going through the fields, rubbed it out and ate it. In the garden of Eden, no doubt, grain was ripening at all times of the year. We are given a suggestion of this in the fact that in the new earth the tree of life will bear its fruit every month.

The saliva has no effect whatever upon raw starch. And while it is possible for starch to be digested to a certain extent when it reaches the small intestine, certainly God never intended us to eat our carbohydrates in the form of either raw starch or cellulose; because they are both insoluble forms of the starch family. It is evident that we should take our carbohydrates in the form of dextrin, or sugar as found in fruit; and if we can not get them in this form, we ought to take pains to convert the starch into dextrin, as nearly as possible, by proper cooking.

LESSONS FROM THE MILKY STAGE OF GRAIN.

In the Bible we find the word of God in many different forms,—in doctrine, prophecy, precept, praise, and promise. There is one form of the Word which even the weakest of mankind seem to be able to digest, and that is “the sincere milk of the Word.” 1 Peter 2: 2. If we give the newborn Christian the word of God in the milky stage, as it were, it will usually be readily received into the heart, and quickly acted upon by the faith of Jesus. Some portions of the Word, like the starch of the ripe grain, must be prepared, as it were, in order to become easy of digestion for young Christians; while there are other portions of Scripture, like the grain in the milky stage, which are ready for immediate use by even the weakest. 1 Cor. 3: 1, 2; Heb. 5: 12–14; John 16: 12.

RIPE FRUIT.

In unripe grains we find sugar. As the grain ripens, the sugar is gradually changed into starch. In unripe fruits, on the contrary, we find raw starch; and during the process of ripening, the starch is changed into sugar. At first sight, nature here seems to have made a remarkable contrast. But a closer study will show that it is a most beautiful arrangement. In both grains and fruits, nature is making provision for the next generation. In fruits the most essential thing is the seeds, which are to sprout and form the plants of the next generation. The fruit substance surrounding the seed is intended by nature to decay, and thus help to fertilize the soil in which the fruit seed is to grow; while in the grains the thing essential to the following generation is the little germ which is carefully stowed away within every ripe kernel of wheat, corn, or oats. Along with each of these little germs, nature stores up sufficient starch in an insoluble form, to furnish the little germ, when it has sprouted the following spring, enough to live on until it can get its head above the earth, when it can begin, under the influence of the sunlight, to manufacture starch for itself. In this little lunch basket, nature has placed a small amount of digestive substance called “diastase;” and under the influence of the moisture and heat of the earth, its activity is stirred up, and it soon begins to change a little of the starch of the planted wheat kernel into sugar, and this is a suggestion to the little germ that the time has come to grow; and if it was not planted too deep, it will just about have used up all its inheritance of starch when it reaches the surface of the ground, and turns its face toward the sunlight. Now the little plant is ready to begin the manufacture of starch on its own responsibility.

Thus we see that the two traveling members of the carbohydrate family are sugar and dextrin; while the stay-at-home, or stationary, members, are cellulose and starch.

LESSONS FROM THE SPROUTING GRAIN.

God, by the plan of salvation, has placed within every soul a divine germ,—a spiritual diastase. And as soon as the man is ready to lie down and die; that is, as soon as he is ready to believe God and reckon himself to be “dead in trespasses and sins,” this diastase of the soul begins the mysterious process that results in the sprouting of a new life,—the death of the old man—the birth of the new man.

Just as the grain of wheat must abide alone, except it fall in the ground and die (John 12: 24); so man, until he is willing to yield up all to God,—confess his utter helplessness,—fails to come into the possession of the realities of the new life. Christ is the “true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1: 9. This “true light” is the divine germ which is placed within every soul; and when we begin to reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin,” then will the true light begin to act. And as there is enough starch in every grain of wheat to nourish the little sprout until it can get up into the sunlight, just so God has placed within every soul enough of the “true light” to lead that soul “out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Every soul has enough of the true light within to enable it, if willing, to turn its face toward the Sun of righteousness. There is enough faith, enough of the desire to do right, in every man, if not smothered, to enable him to turn his face toward Jesus; and his continued growth and prosperity will depend upon the steadfastness with which he continues to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. Just as the little wheat plant, when it once gets above the ground, into the sunlight, can begin to manufacture starch from the substances it finds in the surrounding air and soil; so the soul, when it has begun to look up to the Sun of righteousness, can begin to take of the elements in the spiritual atmosphere and soil where it exists, and transform them into spiritual character. And as the trees spread out their foliage, to be seen and admired by the world, so this soul, planted as a tree of righteousness by the rivers of water, will spread out its character to the glory of God and the good of man.

LESSON FROM THE GRAIN THAT WAS PLANTED TOO DEEP.

You have no doubt often heard of persons who were “buried in their business,” “buried with home cares,” etc., etc. God has put into the grain of wheat enough starch and life to enable the little sprout to get up into the sunlight, if it is not buried too deep. And so, in every soul, he has put enough of the “true light” to enable that soul to get up into the light of life, provided that soul does not persist in burying itself beneath those things that pertain to self and the world. But if, by deception or indifference, we allow the enemy to bury us deeply beneath the soil of selfishness and worldly pleasure, sooner or later we shall exhaust the supply of the “true light” that is within us, which was put there by God to enable us to get out of the darkness of sin into the light of liberty; and thus, like the grain that was planted too deep, the day of our opportunity will be past. “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the Word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.” Matt. 13: 22.

LESSONS FROM THE SPROUT THAT RAISES A CLOD.

There is a great spiritual lesson in that wonderful phenomenon of a little sprout raising a clod of earth half a million times its own weight. No doubt many persons remember that when they were first converted, God did some wonderful things for them, which they have not since had repeated in their experience. Many of these wonderful experiences occur but once, and so, like David, these persons may long for the time when they had “songs in the night.” When the new life of the soul first peeps up through the clods of sin and selfishness, and gets its first glimpse of the sunlight of heaven,—of Christ’s saving grace,—an experience then comes to the soul that never again comes in just the same way. We may long for it, and mourn for it, but none of these things will bring it. The experience of lifting the first clods of sin and bondage is an experience that comes but once. The experience that afterward comes to the child of God is that of progressive and incessant growth, day by day absorbing the rays of light as they shine upon him from the Sun of righteousness.

The plant, after this remarkable feat of clod-lifting, must grow along quietly day by day without any ado. God works a miracle in the saving of the soul, as in the sprouting of the grain; in leading the soul out of darkness into the light, as in enabling the tender sprout to push the heavy clods aside; but after the first remarkable experience the soul, like the plant, must send its roots down deep, and thus prepare for the winds of temptation and the storms of adversity which the future will bring.

Again: there are those who are living conscientious lives, who are unable to look back to any special phenomenon or experience connected with their conversion, or their entrance into the service of God. Perhaps they were brought up Christians, and hardly know just how or when they were converted. The absence of an unusual experience should not be a source of discouragement to any one; for do not many plants find their way up into the sunlight without forcing aside great clods? Many souls have not been bound by evil habits, nor been subject to practices that have necessitated the working of a remarkable outward miracle, as it were, to free them from the bondage of habit or vice. Their experience was one of gradual growth. So let not those in whose lives these great experiences have failed to appear, become discouraged, and doubt their conversion or their acceptance with God. It was their blessed privilege to come up into the rays of the Sun of righteousness through a soil that had been well raked and harrowed,—a soil that was comparatively free from the clods and obstructions of hereditary and cultivated sinful tendencies.

“I AM THE VINE, YE ARE THE BRANCHES.”

Christ said: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” John 15: 5. He is the connection between the divine roots and the human branches. Christ Jesus is both God and man. He is the channel through which things divine may be communicated to, and worked out in, human character. It is through Christ that we may take the sinless things of heaven, and, like the spreading foliage of the tree, live them out before the fallen world. Through Christ the riches of God deposited in the roots are so transformed that they can be utilized by the branches. The Lord intends that Christians shall be as the “cedars of Lebanon”—evergreens. He compares the believer to a tree whose leaves do not wither. He is to yield fruit of Christian character and conduct, all the time. The spiritual sap must be continually ascending in the tree of Christian experience. Day and night, in sunshine and darkness, this living connection and vital circulation between the vine, the branches, and the roots, must be maintained.

At any time when a soul in need shall come to the Christian, as the farmer does to the maple tree in the spring-time, to tap him, as it were, that hungry, thirsty soul must not be disappointed. He must be able to obtain the water of life, with which to feed and satisfy his soul. It is written of the Christian that “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” He should be like an overflowing well,—one that never ceases to give forth the water of life. Ps. 23: 5. Christ imparts to him the divine sweets,—the sap of heaven,—and in his character he is constantly to maintain its circulation, that all who come to him may “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Unless he has in him the sap that comes moment by moment from the roots deep down by the well of salvation on the inner side of the wall (Gen. 49: 22), it is of little use to try to help his fellow men or to endeavor to satisfy the hungry, thirsty souls of those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

Copyrighted, 1900, by David Paulson and W. S. Sadler.

A NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM.

The latest Catholic catechism “prepared and enjoined by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, and issued by Flynn and Mahoney, of Boston, Mass.,” gives the following instruction concerning Sunday and other “holy days of obligation” in the Catholic Church:—

Question.—How are we to worship on Sundays and holy days of obligation?

Answer.—We are to worship God on Sundays and holy days of obligation by hearing mass, by prayer, and by other good works.

Q.—Are the Sabbath day and the Sunday the same?

A.—The Sabbath day and the Sunday are not the same. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and is the day which was kept holy in the old law; the Sunday is the first day of the week, and is the day which is kept holy in the new law.

Q.—Why does the church command us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath?

A.—The church commands us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath because on Sunday Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday he sent the Holy Ghost upon the apostles.

Q.—Why were holy days instituted by the church?

A.—Holy days were instituted by the church to recall to our minds the great mysteries and the virtues and rewards of the saints.

Q.—How should we keep the holy days of obligation?

A.—We should keep the holy days of obligation as we should keep the Sunday.

What Is a Natural Death?

PROF. R. A. PROCTOR, in an article in the Cosmopolitan, quotes an eminent physician as follows: “In all the wide experience of the long practice I have known only one person to die a natural death. A natural death is when death results from the simultaneous decay of all the organs. But men die mostly from the decay of one—heart, lungs, liver, brain, kidneys. This is not a natural death.”

A PRAYER.

By J. G. Whittier

SUFFER it that I to Thee As a hired servant be; Let the lowliest task be mine, Grateful so the work be thine; Let me find the humblest place In the shadow of thy grace; Blest to me were any spot Where temptation whispers not. If there be some weaker one, Give me strength to help him on; If a blinder soul there be, Help me guide him nearer thee. Make my mortal dreams come true With the work I fain would do; Clothe with life the weak intent: Let me be the thing I meant; Let me find in my employ Peace that dearer is than joy; Out of self by love be led, And to heaven acclimated, Until all things sweet and good Seem my natural habitude. —J. G. Whittier.

THE CHINESE SITUATION.

New York Times, June 15, 1900.

There is a curious analogy between the situation now existing at Peking and that which for twenty years has existed at Constantinople. The Turkish situation is chronic, and at intervals becomes acute. It is not to the interest of civilization that the Chinese situation should become chronic. But, curiously enough, here is the same power offering to put an end to the Chinese entanglement which has been all these years offering to put an end to the Turkish entanglement; but now, as before, “for a consideration.”

Russia is the power. She will suppress Armenian massacres. She will equally suppress the interference of the Boxers with foreigners. The consideration in the former case was the possession of Constantinople, which has been the prime object of Russia in Europe since Russia began to be. The European concert has always answered No. The price was too high. What the price is now in China is not known; but it is whatever Russia wants, and Russia’s requirements are large. Happily or unhappily, we are now, and in China, members of the European concert, and it behoves us to have an opinion on the pretensions and promises of Russia. The State Department is trying to postpone the evil day when we must take sides, by pretending that we are acting in China “independently.” This is of course practically nonsense, and the State Department knows it. But it saves time.

There is a suspicion that Russia’s concession to us was coupled with conditions which will enable her to nullify it when it may be to her advantage to do so. In other words, as has lately been suggested, the Russian “open door” is a door with a string to it, whereby it may be closed. There is another suspicion that Russia has created the present situation in China, or fostered it, for her own purposes—her purpose being to create the same situation as that of Constantinople. Neither suspicion will be incredible to a world which will believe anything of the Machiavellian character of Russian diplomacy. The lesson for us is that when we are forced, as we shall shortly be forced, to choose, we should choose Great Britain and Japan, which have the same objects in China that we have, against Russia, which has an object very different from, and indeed incompatible with, ours. And if it is necessary to call in a considerable force of troops of one nation to keep the peace in China, it is to our interest that those troops shall be the troops of Japan rather than of Russia.

HOW SHALL WE KNOW?

By H. W. Greene

How shall we know that what we say Or what we sing Brings peace to souls who go their way In suffering? We know because the gentle word And grateful song Have soothed us when, with hope deferred, The way seemed long.

How shall we know that kindly thought Or breathed prayer Is balm to souls whose paths are fraught With ceaseless care? We know because our darkest ways Unbidden shine With cheering gleams — reflected rays Of light divine.

Go thou, then, forth with song, with cheer; Go forth with prayer; For souls bowed low with woe and fear Are everywhere: And not one thought or act of love Or tenderness But will return a homing-dove Your soul to bless.

— H. W. Greene, in Christian Work.

A BOY FOR A HUSBAND.

Ladies’ Home Journal.

WHEN the American girl defers her choice of a husband until she has had a reasonable opportunity to see something of mankind, and had a chance to compare the good with the bad, she is pretty apt to strike a good average for herself. As a rule, she is a pretty good judge of men, when she gives her judgment time to assist her to a wise conclusion. The point is to get her to wait. It must be said to her credit that she is waiting longer than she did formerly. It is not so many years ago that a girl was considered of a marriageable age when she became sixteen or seventeen years old. If she married then, or shortly afterward, it was not such an unusual thing. Twenty-five years ago girls generally married at nineteen, while to-day the average is closer to twenty-three. The marriage of a girl in her teens causes actual surprise in these days. Out of a list of one thousand marriages recently compiled, just one half the brides were between twenty-two and twenty-five; two hundred were between twenty-five and thirty. Still, there were three hundred under twenty years of age. And nearly all these young girls married men under twenty-two — mere boys, in other words. And this is the fatal part of a girl’s marriage at too early an age. Instead of choosing a man for her husband, she is very apt to choose a boy.

No young man under twenty-five years of age is in any sense competent to take unto himself a wife. It is a far lesser evil for a girl to marry under twenty than it is for a man to marry before he is twenty-five. Before that age he is simply a boy who has absolutely nothing which he can offer to a girl as a safe foundation for life-happiness. He is unformed in his character, unsettled in his ideas, absolutely ignorant of the first essentials of what consideration or love for a woman means. He doesn’t know himself, let alone knowing a woman. He is full of fancies, and it is his boyish nature to flit from one fancy to another. He is incapable of the affection upon which love is based, because he has not lived long enough to know what the feeling or even the word means. He is full of theories, each one of which, when he comes to put it into practice, will fail. For of such stuff are theories made. He is full of positive opinions, each one of which he will live to see change and be proved wrong. It is not that he is to blame. He is a boy, pure and simple, passing through that trying period through which every boy must pass before he becomes a man. But that period is not the marrying time.

Of course, the boy of twenty, or under twenty-five, will be the first to strongly resent all that I say of him. And this resentment will be based on his belief that he is unlike other young men of his years. He feels, and sometimes expresses the fact, that he is older than his years. And usually that is the excuse which the girl employs in argument when her fancy alights upon a boy of tender years. She will argue, and more often than not, against her own deep conviction, that he knows so much more than other young men of twenty or twenty-two. But, unfortunately for such an argument, there is only one rule to a man’s knowledge. Experience, and experience only, is authority, and this only comes with years. A young man of twenty-two has had just so many years of actual experience. The same number of days are in each man’s years; and while one mind may be quicker to grasp a truth or learn a lesson than another, the real lessons of life are learned only by living a certain number of years. And no young man under twenty-five can by any possibility have opened up within himself those deep wellsprings of experience which are the sources of inspiration to do those little acts of wise self-restraint, of subtle consideration, which make or mar a woman’s happiness in the marriage state.

It is my privilege to know well, and in many instances I have been allowed to come very near to, scores of young men who are now between twenty and twenty-five years of age. Many of them are promising young fellows — far above what we call the average. They are strong, sensible, manly young fellows — precisely the kind of whom girls are apt to say that they are older than their years. But, as a man, I give my honest word to any young girl who may read these words, that into the hands of not a single one of these bright, strong young fellows would I voluntarily place the future happiness of a sister of mine. It isn’t that they are not excellent young fellows. They are, and most excellent. They never talk to me of life, however, as they see it, but I realize how helpless they would be as husbands, how absolutely lacking in the possession of that strong and safe sense of guidance and confidence which a man must give to the woman who is his wife, and for the exercise of which qualities there arise so many little occasions in a wife’s life. Let these young men live five or ten years more, and they will in all probability have come into the possession of these qualities, and they will then make worthy husbands.

No girl can afford, either for her own surest happiness, or for the comfort of mind of him whom she marries, to wed a young man during the formative period of his life, which is between twenty and twenty-five. During that time he is apt to learn some hard lessons, which it is best he should learn alone. He should learn them before he takes up the responsibility of the care and well-being of another. A young man can hardly get too much good common sense knocked into his head before he undertakes the care of a young girl who in her father’s house has known naught but the tender solicitude of wisdom born of experience and mature years. Even at twenty-five he is at a disadvantage in comparison with the greater experience of the father from whose care he takes the girl. But at least the disadvantage is not so decided. It is not so great as it was when he was younger. And a girl who withholds from a young man her consent to marriage until he has reached the first year of the beginning of wisdom is a sensible little body, and acts in a manner that she will never have cause to regret as long as God gives her and her husband life.

There is a keen side, a sad and pathetic side, to the boy-husband which hundreds of girls do not stop to realize nor think about. For instance, no loving wife wishes to see her husband passed by or go unnoticed by other men. She is anxious that her husband shall have the respect and confidence of men. It gives her a keen sense of humiliation when he fails of either. Yet such is the inevitable experience that must come to the young wife. She may see her husband win respect, but it will be the respect that a man gives to a boy. This will disappoint and anger her. Still, it is all that men can mete out to him.

Men who know the world know how little confidence they can repose in a boy under twenty-five, no matter what may be his mental capacity, or have been his opportunities. They know, even if the girl has refused to recognize it, that a man knows thoroughly only what he has experienced. And to their minds it takes more than the first twenty-five years of life to have that experience and be equipped with that clearness of mind and sound judgment which command confidence. These things the young girl who rushes headlong into marriage with a boy must not forget. She will find, unfortunately, that the world will not let her forget them after she is a wife. It would be infinitely better for her and for the young man of her fancy if she realized this before marriage. It would save them both an infinite amount of disappointment. Not that the world is hard. But it expects certain things from a young man who takes unto himself a wife. And one of the things which it expects and demands of him is that he shall know what he is about, which he can not know, so far as marriage is concerned, when he is under twenty-five years of age.

And so, while the number of girls who marry boys is growing perceptibly less each year, the percentage who still make the fatal mistake should ponder well on the step they take. A girl’s future life is a most precious thing, and it ought to be more precious to her than to any one else. The happiness of a lifetime is a serious thing with which to take any chances. A mistake made here will often come back to her, and bring pangs to which no other human suffering is comparable; it is about as close to a living death as a woman can come. All this disappointment and suffering is easy enough to avoid if our girls will only believe the one potent fact,— that until a young man reaches the age of twenty-five, he is absolutely incapable of intelligently receiving into his keeping the care and support of any girl. The least a girl can do when she does marry is to marry a man, and not a boy.

Filipino Children Play American

It is said that when the Filipino children “play American,” they stagger as if drunk.

WOMAN'S GOSPEL WORK

“The Lord giveth the word: the women that publish the tidings are a great host.” Ps. 68 11, R. V.

“Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.” Eze. 7: 23.

☞ Do not forget the 12 M. hour of prayer for one another, our work, and for those for whom special requests are made.

Not Running a Keeley Cure

The following story recently appeared in the Woman’s Journal: “At our hotel, where some of us were stopping a little while ago, was a beautiful young girl, educated, clever, thoroughly ‘up to date.’ A handsome fellow was paying her the most devoted attention, whenever he was sober enough to do so, and all of us felt very anxious lest his attractive manners and lavish display of wealth should win the girl. Late one evening she came into my room, and, settling herself among the pillows of the couch, said, ‘John proposed to-night; went down on his knees, said I was the only power on earth that could save him; and if I didn’t consent to be his wife, he should fill a drunkard’s grave.’ ‘What did you say?’ I asked breathlessly. ‘Well,’ she replied, ‘I told him that I was not running a Keeley cure; but if he really wished to be saved, I would give him the addresses of several which I had heard highly recommended.’”

The Slaughter of the Birds.

United Presbyterian.

Fashion seems to be the Moloch of modern civilization. At her imperious behest human beings ruin their own bodies and souls, and thousands of God’s happy, innocent creatures are slaughtered to decorate the devotees who bow at her altar and worship at her shrine. A special dispatch to one of our Cleveland dailies, from a town in Delaware, gives details of the execution of one of the most horrible edicts of this kind. It says:—

“At the order of Dame Fashion a sickening slaughter has begun here, and the butchery will continue for two months. Twenty thousand birds must die within that time in order that an amazing contract may be fulfilled, and that the women of Philadelphia and New York may have stylish hats.

“Throughout the counties of Kent and Sussex has gone the word to kill and spare not. Eight cents for the body of each bird is the inducement which is filling the woods and fields with gunners, and the favorite haunts of the birds with nets and snares of all kinds.

“Of course there is a stringent law against the shooting of song birds and most wild birds. The contract referred to is supposed to be strictly within the law. It calls for owls, backbirds, sea-gulls, red-winged blackbirds, and crows. Upon its face it is irreproachable. But somehow, strange to say, the ‘tip’ has gone out that while eight cents apiece is paid for those birds, higher prices will be in store for the bodies of other birds, which may be found hidden in the hunter’s game string.

“No such wholesale slaughter has ever before been planned. It was only two days ago that a representative of ——, commission merchants of New York, arrived in this town. He began asking about the best-known sportsman, and was finally directed to John ——. Mr. —— is at present chief of police here, but his term expires this week.

“Mr. —— was asked about the possibility of securing twenty thousand birds from this section within sixty days. He believed the project too large to be undertaken singly, and called —— into consultation. After talking with several other good sportsmen in town, —— and —— believed the slaughter could be accomplished, and the contract was signed.

“Word was sent broadcast throughout the country hereabouts, and yesterday the first fruits appeared in the shape of about four hundred birds. The birds were strung upon a long pole, and at a casual glance the string might have been supposed to be made up of crows, blackbirds, and gulls, but close to the pole were what appeared to be a large number of little birds. They were nearly hidden from view by the larger birds on the outside, but the entire string was hurried through the street, and quickly boxed and shipped.”

Is there no way to stop this hideous butchery? Is it not time for legislatures to take the matter up and protect the birds? Or are we to have a silent world after a while?

WISHING

Do you wish the world were better? Let me tell you what to do: Set a watch upon your actions, Keep them always straight and true. Rid your mind of selfish motives, Let your thought be clean and high; You can make a little Eden Of the sphere you occupy.

Do you wish the world were wiser? Well, suppose you make a start, By accumulating wisdom In the scrap-book of your heart. Do not waste one page on folly; Live to learn, and learn to live. If you want to give men knowledge, You must get it ere you give.

Do you wish the world were happy? Then remember day by day Just to scatter seeds of kindness As you pass along the way; For the pleasures of the many May be oft times traced to one, As the hand that plants an acorn Shelters armies from the sun.

—Youth's Companion.

Labor for Souls

LET labor for souls become a part of your life. Go to the homes of those even who manifest no interest. While mercy's sweet voice invites the sinner, work with every energy of heart and brain, as did Paul, who “ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” In the day of God, how many will confront us, and say, “I am lost! I am lost! And you never warned me; you never entreated me to come to Jesus. Had I believed as you did, I would have followed every judgment-bound soul within my reach with prayers and tears and warning.”—“Gospel Workers,” page 453.

EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE.

We women in our homes doubtless find more time for reading than do our husbands, who are away at work all day. I have found that it is a good plan to make a note of what I read, by markings or clippings, so that when my husband comes home at night and is resting, I can give him the cream of all I have read, reading aloud to him, or telling him what I have discovered.

I find there is great lack among us as a people about getting ready for the Sabbath. There needs to be more thorough preparation on Friday afternoon. In many homes when Sabbath morning comes, there is great confusion. The clean clothing can not be found, buttons are missing, and button-holes are broken, and gloves, caps, and shoes seem to be in safe hiding. These things produce a very unholy atmosphere in the home, and the members of the family reach Sabbath-school after it has begun, bringing with them the atmosphere of hurry and confusion; when, if on Friday afternoon care was taken to put everything in its place, and to see that the clothing was suitable to wear, all this unpleasantness would be avoided.

BIBLE READINGS WITH FAMILIES.

By Mrs. S. N. Haskell

MRS. S. N. HASKELL.

Take up the work anywhere and everywhere. Do that which is the nearest you, right at your own doors, however humble and uncommended it may seem. Work only for the glory of God and the good of men. Let self sink out of sight, while with earnest purpose and solemn prayers of faith you work for him who has died that you might live. Go to your neighbors, one by one, and come close to them, till their hearts are warmed by your unselfish interest and love. Sympathize with them, pray for them, watch for opportunities to do them good, and as you can, gather a few together and open the word of God to their darkened minds. Keep watching, as he who must render an account for the souls of men, and make the most of the privileges that God gives you of laboring with him in his vineyard. Do not neglect speaking to your neighbors, and doing them all the kindness in your power, that you may “by all means save some.” We need to seek for the spirit that constrained the apostle Paul to go from house to house, pleading with tears, and teaching “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”—“Gospel Workers,” pages 336, 337.

MILLENNIUM.

In taking up the subject of the millennium, it is not always best to announce it, but say that you will continue the subject of the second coming of Christ from where you left off last week. At that time we read of the effect his coming would have upon the people living on the earth; now, we will see how the coming of the Lord will affect the earth itself.

The earth will be terribly shaken. Isa. 2 : 17–21.

Every mountain and island will be moved. Rev. 6 : 14.

The wicked seek destruction. Rev. 6 : 15–17.

A mighty earthquake. Rev. 16 : 17–21.

All cities destroyed. Jer. 4 : 26.

Earth in a broken, chaotic state. Jer. 4 : 23.

The heaven (atmosphere) departs. Rev. 6 : 14.

This heaven is where the birds fly. Zeph. 1 : 3; Jer. 4 : 25.

The term “heaven” is also applied to the stars. Rev. 6 : 13.

The third heaven is paradise, where God dwells. 2 Cor. 12 : 2–4.

The first heaven, the atmosphere, is affected by sin, and will pass away; but the second, or starry, heaven, and the third heaven are beyond the reach of sin, and will not be changed at Christ’s coming. The atmosphere extends about forty-five miles above the earth; beyond it all is darkness. The sun’s rays passing through the atmosphere give us light.

When the heaven departs, all is dark. Jer. 4 : 23.

Without atmosphere there can be no animal life. Jer. 4 : 25.

The righteous are with Christ. Rev. 20 : 4.

Satan’s home is on the earth. Job 1 : 7.

He is bound when Christ comes. Rev. 20 : 1, 2.

This will continue one thousand years. Rev. 20 : 7.

The wicked live again after one thousand years. Rev. 20 : 5.

Satan immediately deceives them. Rev. 20 : 8.

They try to take the holy city. Rev. 20 : 9.

This city comes from heaven. Rev. 21 : 2.

The wicked then are all destroyed. Rev. 20 : 9.

The same fire purifies the earth. 2 Peter 3 : 7–13.

Close with thoughts of the new earth, rather than the destruction of the wicked.

Continue reading: THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE