Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 23, 1883
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
Luther Before the Diet.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
On the day following his arrival at Worms, Luther was notified to appear in the afternoon before the emperor and the members of the diet. This was the day that he had long desired; but to human appearance there was great danger before him.
On that day came a letter from a courageous knight, whispering in the Reformer's ear the words of an ancient prophet: "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; send thee help out of Zion; grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel."
He added: "O beloved Luther, my venerated father! fear not, and stand firm. The counsel of the wicked has laid wait for you, and they have opened their mouths against you, like roaring lions. But the Lord will arise against them, and put them to flight. Fight, therefore, valiantly the battles of Christ. As for me, I, too, will combat boldly. Would to God that I were permitted to see how they frown. But the Lord will purge his vineyard. . . . May Christ preserve you!"
At the appointed hour a herald appeared to conduct Luther to the presence of the diet. The streets were so thronged as to be impassable, and it was only through back ways and gardens that the Reformer and his attendants reached the town-hall. The roofs and the pavements, above, beneath, on every side, were covered with spectators. When they arrived at the hall, the crowd was so great that the soldiers were obliged to clear a passage. Within the outer inclosure every place was crowded. More than five thousand spectators, German, Spanish, and Italian, thronged the ante-chamber and recesses.
As Luther approached the door which was to admit him to the audience-room and the presence of his judges, an old general, the hero of many battles, touched him upon the shoulder as he passed, and shaking his head said to him kindly, "My poor monk, my poor monk, thou hast a march and a struggle to go through, such as neither I nor many other captains have seen the like in our most bloody battles. But if thy cause be just, and thou art sure of it, go forward in God's name and fear nothing! He will not forsake thee."
The doors are thrown open, and Luther enters. Never had any man appeared in the presence of a more imposing assembly. An emperor whose kingdom extended across both hemispheres; his brother, the archduke; the electors of the empire, most of whose successors were crowned heads; dukes, among whom were those fierce and bloody enemies of the Reformation, the Duke of Alva and his sons; archbishops, bishops, and prelates; the ambassadors of foreign nations; princes, counts, and barons; and the pope's ambassadors,—in all two hundred persons. Such were the judges before whom Martin Luther was to answer for his faith.
A signal victory was won for the truth, by the very fact of Luther's appearance before that princely council. That a man whom the pope had condemned should be judged by another tribunal, was virtually a denial of the pope's supreme authority. The Reformer, placed under ban, and denounced from human fellowship by the pope, had been assured protection, and was granted a hearing, by the highest dignitaries of the nation. The pope had commanded him to be silent; but he was about to speak in the presence of thousands assembled from all parts of Christendom.
In the presence of that powerful and titled assembly, the lowly-born Reformer seemed awed and embarrassed. Some princes who were near him, observing his emotion, approached him kindly and one of them whispered, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." Another said, "When you are brought before kings, it shall be given you, by the Spirit of your Father, what you shall say." Thus the words of Christ were brought by the great ones of earth to strengthen the Reformer in his hour of trial.
Luther was conducted to a position directly in front of the emperor's throne. All eyes were fixed upon the man who had dared with pen and voice to resist the authority of the pope. A deep silence fell upon the crowded assembly. Then an imperial officer arose, and in a clear voice addressed the Reformer thus:—
"Martin Luther, his sacred and invincible Majesty has cited you before his throne, acting on the opinion and advice of the States of the holy Roman Empire, to require you to answer two questions: First, Do you acknowledge these writings to have been composed by you?" and the speaker pointed with his finger to about twenty volumes placed on a table in the center of the hall, immediately before Luther. "Secondly, Are you prepared to retract these works and the propositions contained therein, or do you persist in what you have therein advanced?"
The titles of the books having been read, Luther answered, "Most gracious emperor, princes, and lords! his imperial majesty puts to me two questions. As to the first, I acknowledge the books just named to be mine. I cannot deny them. As to the second, whether I will maintain all these or retract them, seeing it is a question of faith and of one's salvation and of the word of God, which is the greatest treasure in Heaven and earth, and deserving at all times our highest reverence, it would be rash and perilous for me to speak inconsiderately, without reflection. I might affirm either more or less than is consistent with truth; in either case I should fall under the sentence of Christ. 'He that denieth me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven.' Therefore I beg of your imperial majesty time for reflection, that I may be able to reply to the question proposed, without prejudice to the word of God or to my own salvation."
In making this request, Luther moved wisely. His course convinced the assembly that he did not act from passion or impulse. Such calmness and self-command, unexpected in one who had shown himself bold and uncompromising, added to his power, and enabled him afterward to answer with a prudence, decision, wisdom, and dignity, which surprised and disappointed his adversaries, and rebuked their insolence and pride.
The different orders of the diet withdrew for consultation, and when again assembled, they agreed to grant the Reformer's request, on condition, however, that his answer be returned by word of mouth, and not in writing.
As Luther was conducted to his lodgings, a rumor was circulated through the city that the pope had triumphed, and the Reformer would be brought to the stake. Both threats and expressions of respect and sympathy greeted him as he made his way through the crowded streets. Many visited him at his lodgings, and declared themselves ready to defend him with their lives. In the midst of the excitement, the Reformer alone was calm. A letter written by him at this time reveals his feelings:—
"I have just made my appearance before the emperor and his brother Ferdinand, and been asked whether I would retract my writings. I answered, The books laid before me are mine; but concerning the revocation, I will say what I will do to-morrow. This is all the time I asked, and all they will give. But Christ being gracious to me, I will not retract an iota."
The next day he was to appear before the diet to render his second answer. At times his heart sunk within him as he contemplated the forces that were combined against the truth. His faith faltered as his enemies seemed to multiply before him, and the powers of darkness to prevail. In anguish of spirit he threw himself with his face upon the earth, and poured out those broken, heart-rending cries which none but God can fully interpret. In his helplessness, his soul fastened upon Christ the mighty deliverer. It was not for his own safety, but for the success of the truth, that he wrestled mightily with God; and he prevailed. He was strengthened with the assurance that he would not appear alone before the council. Peace returned to his soul, and he rejoiced that he was permitted to uphold and defend the word of God before the rulers of the nation.
As the time for his appearance drew near, he approached a table on which lay the Holy Scriptures, placed his left hand upon the sacred volume, and raising his right hand to Heaven, he vowed to adhere constantly to the gospel, and to confess his faith freely, even though he should be called to seal his testimony with his blood.
CHRIST'S APPEAL
I AM standing outside thy door to-night,
Seeking thine heart to win;
The world for awhile has withdrawn its light—
Wilt thou open and let me in ?
I have traveled far on a lonely road,
In sorrow and agony;
I have borne sin's heavy, crushing load,
All, all for the sake of thee !
I am standing to plead with thee to-night,
While the dews of evening fall;
O'er the moaning and surging waves of life
Dost thou hear my yearning call ?
I would free thy soul from the chains of earth,
From its care, its sorrow, its sin;
I would give thee joy, for its hollow mirth—
Wilt thou open and let me in ?
From the glorious heights of Heaven I came
To seek thee and to save;
But the world, it gave me a cross of shame,
And a lonely, borrowed grave.
I left my radiant home above,
All for the sake of thee;
I have died to prove my deep, deep love,
Wilt thou open the door to me?
Thou hast wandered far in the paths of sin,
Thou art weary, and sad, and lone;
But my blood can cleanse, and my love can win—
May I make thine heart my own ?
The world, it has given thee care and pain,
Often famine and misery;
I offer the treasures of priceless gain—
Wilt thou open the door to me?
—Helps by the Way.
Discipline
By John Stuart Mill
Discipline.—I do not believe that boys can be induced to apply themselves with vigor, and, what is so much more difficult, perseverance, to dry and irksome studies, by the sole force of persuasion and soft words. Much must be done and much must be learned, by children, for which rigid discipline and known liability to punishment are indispensable as means. It is, no doubt, a very laudable effort in modern teaching to render as much as possible of what the young are required to learn, easy and interesting to them. But when this principle is pushed to the length of not requiring them to learn anything but what has been made easy and interesting, one of the chief objects of education is sacrificed.—Mill.
Chalmers on Romans.
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Rom. 6: 3, 4.
The original meaning of the word baptism is immersion, and though we regard it as a point of indifferency, whether the ordinance so named be performed in this way or by sprinkling, yet we doubt not that the prevalent style of the administration in the apostle's days was by an actual submerging of the whole body under water. We advert to this for the purpose of throwing light on the analogy that is instituted in these verses. Jesus Christ by death underwent this sort of baptism, even immersion under the surface of the ground, whence he soon emerged again by his resurrection. We, by being baptized into his death, are conceived to have made a similar translation. In the act of descending under the water of baptism, to have resigned an old life, and in the act of ascending, to emerge into a second, or a new life, along the course of which it is our part to maintain a strenuous avoidance of that sin which as good as expunged the being we had formerly; and a strenuous prosecution of that holiness which should begin with the first moment that we were ushered into our present being, and be perpetuated, and make progress toward the perfection of full and ripened immortality.
"Baptized into his death," or regarding ourselves as if, like him, we had actually been slain and buried, and like him brought forth anew and made alive again, before that God who for our sins had swept us beyond the circle of his favored creation. This would have been had not Christ died; and though he, by pouring out his soul for us, has kept us in the favor that else would have been forfeited, and that forever, yet the argument is the same, if prevented from going down into the pit, as if after being cast headlong into it for our sins, we had again been extricated therefrom. How shall we whom sin had at that time blotted out from the family of life, now that we are readmitted, again indulge in it? How shall we run counter to those holy antipathies of the divine nature, of the strength and irreconcilableness of which we already, in our own persons, have had so fell a manifestation? How shall we, rescued from destruction, again welcome to our embraces the destroyer? Or, living anew under the eye of that God who could not endure the presence of sin, and so consigned it to the exile of death everlasting, shall we live again in that very course which made our former existence so offensive to him, and so incompatible with the whole spirit and design of his government? Has he changed his taste or his character? or makes it any difference to the argument that a mediator interposed and took upon himself the whole weight of that avenging arm which was lifted up for our extermination? Is not the exhibition of God's hatred and hostility to sin just as impressive, that the stroke of jealousy fell upon the head of his own Son, as it would have been had it fallen on the guilty millions whom this mighty Captain shielded from the vindictive discharge that else would have overwhelmed us? And whether these billows of wrath have all been broken on the Rock of our Salvation, or first made to pass over us, we had again been summoned from the depth and caused to emerge anew into the sunshine of God's reconciled countenance, does it not equally prove that he, the everlasting enemy of sin, will, in any new economy that he may institute, still evince it to be that hateful thing for which he has no taste, and can have no toleration?
So much for the application of the phrase "dead unto sin," when understood forensically. We trust that however imperfectly we may have illustrated this part of the argument, you have been made to perceive that there is in it the force and the power of a most impressive consideration; and you have have seized upon it or not, be at least very sure of this, that, such is the fact of the matter, there is no indulgence for sin under the dispensation of the gospel. It is a restorative dispensation, by which you are alike kept from the penalty of sin and cured of its polluting virulence. It restores you to the favor of God, but it restores you not to the liberty of sinning; and the argument wherewith we would arm and fortify the principles of all who now feel themselves alive in Christ Jesus, is, shall we continue in that hateful thing which would have brought me to the death, had not my Saviour, for my deliverance and preservation, bowed down his head unto the sacrifice?
We have already tried to set forth in your hearing the forensic interpretation that might be given of the phrase "dead unto sin"—dead for sin—not that the sentence was inflicted, but that the sentence was pronounced; and the argument why they should not continue in sin is as strongly applicable to those who are delivered from a doom that was impending, as to those who are recalled from a doom that was actually executed. There were a most direct force in the consideration—should a revived criminal press it upon his moral feelings—how can I recur to that which is so odious in the sight of my country's government that I had to suffer a death for it, from which I, by a miracle perhaps of mercy, have been restored? And it ought to be as powerful a consideration with a reprieved criminal, whose sentence has been suspended, and perhaps by the intercession of a mediator been finally withdrawn. The recurrence to that which brought down the sentence were just as monstrous a violence done to the whole spirit and object of the administration under which I live, in the one case as in the other; and be assured that there were the very same violence done to the spirit of Heaven's administration, should those who are redeemed from death under the economy of the gospel live in that which had sunk them under so fearful a condemnation. For sin we were ready to die. For sin we would have died had not Christ interposed, and undergone in his own person that shedding of blood without which remission is impossible. The demonstration given of God's antipathies to the power and existence of sin in his kingdom is as strong by the falling of the deadly blow upon the head of a Mediator as if it had fallen directly upon the head of those for whom he died. And shall we, from whom the stroke of vengeance has been averted—shall we who are still in life but virtually in a life from the dead—shall we who in Christ may so read what but for him would have happened to ourselves, as to be baptized into his death and to be planted together in the likeness of it—shall we, kept from falling into the abyss of condemnation, and therefore as good as if summoned again from its depths on the platform of God's favored and rejoicing family—continue in the hateful thing which but for Christ would have destroyed us, and of God's abhorrence to which the atoning death of Christ gives so awful and impressive a manifestation?
The Whole Bible or None.
By Pharallus Church
CHRIST is the soul of the Old Testament as well as the New. The account of Samson, Jonah, Elijah, and all the most objectionable things of the kind are merged into Christianity. Heb. 12: 32; Matt. 11: 14; 12: 39; et. al. The creation in the first chapter of Genesis analogically reflects, both in language and doctrine, Christ as the beginning and creator of his redeemed church, whatever conclusions geology may come on the subject of its applicability to the framework of nature. Rev. 3: 14; 10: 6; 2 Cor. 5: 17; Gal. 6: 15; Col. 3: 10, 11. A new creation is the favorite idea of redemption in the New Testament. And what is Eden but the Paradise of souls in whom God rules through their higher faculties? And what is the fall of man but the dominance of his lower nature bringing on the corruption and misery ending in the flood? And so onward the whole record is made by the apostles a shadowy representation of Christianity. That I do not mistake in making the whole Bible contain Christ, we have the most conclusive evidence. Peter speaks of the prophets as "searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." 1 Pet. 1: 11. Here it is affirmed that Christ spoke through the prophets; that he through them foreshadowed his sufferings and ensuing glory, and that they did not fully comprehend the meaning of their own predictions. And their ignorance seems to have been pardonable, till after the resurrection of Christ, which was the key to unlock the whole Old Testament, leading him to rebuke the remaining unbelief of his disciples, saying: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?" Luke 24: 25. Christ affords further evidence that the Hebrew Scriptures are not to be judged of as we judge of Grecian and Roman literature. The
latter never rises above what is human, but the former derives all its glory from the divine. The latter are scintillations of genius, the former, of the insufferable glory of the great white throne. The one is on the plane of natural sense and reason, but the other that of moral government, divine law, and immortality. The one is from the intonation between gifted minds and nature, the other the inspiration of God. As Christ's whole career while on earth was made up of what he said and did to men, and they to him, so the Old Testament is a record of what were of like relations between God and men. Hence, "beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Luke 24: 26, 27. This all includes just what we have in the Old Testament. The things concerning Christ were its supreme subject matter. How, then, can we set aside a part?
Besides, the Messianic ancestry, beginning with Eve's promised seed, and reaching to Mary's incarnated Son, are the two ends of a chain, of which Adam, Noah, Abraham, Judah, and David, with his royal line were intermediate links. Along this radiant and ancestral line cluster a host of luminaries whose blended light is dimly visible in the Messianic milky way spanning the ages. All we know of them is their names. They are like the unknown masses in the lines of a great army making the war and its leaders illustrious, but without individualized fame. The genealogical tables are a glorious showing of Christianity as a mountain stream gushing up from the lowest depths of society, and not confined to nor beginning in its higher orders. When it came in the person of its author, it was from a peasant's home, and its first triumphs were in the cottages of the poor and the marts of slaves. But when it ended in the conquest of the Cæsars its decadence began. It could stand the martyrdoms of Nero, but not the golden endowments of Constantine. Conversions by persuasion and not by power are as different as Heaven is from hell. The genealogical tables of Chronicles and other books is a foreshadowing of this affinity of Christianity with the masses, and is the most significant part of the Old Testament. . . . No doubt some of the Old Testament books are more directly in the Messianic line than others. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, and the books ascribed to Solomon are historical sketches, patriarchal reasonings, or prudential maxims, that contain less of Christ than the psalms of David, and the prophecies of Isaiah or Daniel. But though aside from the Messianic track they are so far illuminated by it as to be unlike any other form of ancient literature. Can the theology of Homer be compared with that of Job, the Anabasis of Xenophon with Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, or the maxims of Copernicus with those of Solomon? Or, admitting their unrivaled superiority as literary productions, are they not wanting in the theology which opens Heaven to man, and in the terminology which makes it available? Is not Hebrew literature a visible embodiment in forms adapted to the earlier generations, of the Christianity which at length appeared in unveiled glory as the world's great civilizer, and the ground of heavenly hope to untold millions?
I will add, in conclusion, that the fewer we have of these critical pastors and professors, the better it will be for Christ's church. The apostles had no such acumen in treating the Bible. Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Wesley, Bunyan, Baxter, Whitefield, and all our most reliable modern preachers and evangelists, who have made the Bible so great a power for man's regeneration, wielded all parts of the word with a master hand. If a fact or figure was there recorded, they accepted it as a weapon, without questioning where or how it was forged. If Jesus and his apostles used it without question, that was enough for them, and the most effective sermons I have ever heard have been those of Bible facts rather than finished logic and oratory.
I can but ask, is the vast wealth of this country to be laid at the feet of dilettant preachers and professors, to reward their intellectual acumen in detecting spurious Scripture and captivating the people by their logic or their eloquence? Are men to become famous according as they break down the carved work of God's inspired sanctuary with their lately invented axes and hammers? Must we not look at the building with all its material in place to see its architectural effect rather than as broken into a confused375mass, to examine, brick by brick, stone by stone, and timber by timber? Let us have God's revelation in its entirety, and not in its broken fragments, and then we shall see its architectural design in a glorious Christianity. "If the foundations were destroyed what can the righteous do?"
"Thus saith the Lord. Stand ye in the way, and see, and ask for the old paths—where is the good way, and walk therein."
Pharallus Church, D. D., in Christian at Work.
Traffic in Instruments of Death.
Herman O. Naerger was arrested in New York a fortnight since for attempting to dispose of some fifteen hundred "slung-shots" which he had manufactured in Baltimore and brought to the former city for sale. The laws of the State make the manufacture or sale of slung-shots a misdemeanor, while the carrying of a slung-shot concealed about the person is a felony. The principle of prohibition, as applied to intoxicating drinks, receives illustration and support from this statute; for the law, in either case, strikes at the manufacture and sale of that which is certain to be used to the injury of human interests, or the destruction of human life. The duty of government not only to punish but to prevent crime, is recognized in such legislation. And our law-makers will yet advance to the suppression of other weapons more deadly than the slung-shot. The pistol is an instrument of death for the manufacture and sale of which no good argument can be presented. It is never useful in the chase. Its only purpose is to kill men. It is used for murder ten times where it is once employed in self-defense. Any fool or villain like Guiteau can buy it cheaply and conceal it effectually until the moment for his fatal deed. If the purchase of pistols were rendered impossible at once and forever, none but criminals would regret it; for all good men would gain more in personal security than they would lose in the means of self-defense. The number of murders would be greatly diminished and the stain of blood now resting on our land would lose something of its terrible dye. To provide legislation looking to this end seems an immediate duty of our legislators, and public opinion ought to be educated to demand it.
Christian Statesman, June 7.
Peace.
By Roswell Fenner Cottrell
BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
Peace is a quality most excellent. God reveals himself as the God of peace. “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.” “The God of peace shall be with you.” One of the titles of the Son of God is, “The Prince of Peace;” and when the angel announced his birth in the city of David, the heavenly choir responded in full chorus, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men.” And an apostle says of Christ, “He is our peace.” It was the object of his death to reconcile those that were divided, “so making peace.” The disciples of Jesus should be like him; hence he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” We are taught to “follow peace with all men;” that “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace;” and that “if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.” “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” The gospel is called “the gospel of peace.” It is designed “to guide our feet into the way of peace.” The fruit of the spirit is “love, joy, peace;” and an apostle exhorts, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts;” and, “Be at peace among yourselves.” Those who follow these exhortations to peace have the promise, “The God of peace shall be with you.” Real Christians have the Spirit of Christ; and any two that have this spirit of peace can live in peace together. They will both endeavor “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;” and success will attend the efforts of both. If there be a failure at any time with one, the long-suffering of the other will be called into exercise. But where the peace of God is not present, “where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.”
What the Bible Does Not Say.
The Bible is a book with a single purpose; and that purpose is to reveal the sinfulness of the human family, and a method of salvation from that sinfulness. And of course a book that has only one end in view must necessarily be silent with reference to a thousand other subjects. A few years ago a man was galloping on horseback, as if he had seen a specter, down the bank of a New England river in the dead of night. His mission was to inform the sleeping dwellers in a number of manufacturing towns farther down the stream that the great dam farther up the river was about to burst its barriers. The horseman, as he sped along, trampled myriads of flowers under foot, but he had nothing to say of botany. He rushed by hundreds of projecting rocks, rich in stories of prehistoric ages, but he had nothing to say on the subject of geology. Over his head the starry hosts were marshaled as they had been since the foundation of the world, but he had nothing to say on the subject of astronomy. He had just one mission,—to inform the sleeping toilers of their danger, and how they might escape it,—and he had no time to devote to the consideration of any other subject, however important, or however fascinating to other minds. So it is with God's word. Its single object is to tell us of sin and its cure. On this subject it is full and explicit, and infallible.—Selected.
Rules of Courtesy
Never question a servant or child about family matters.
NEVER present a gift saying it is of no use to yourself.
Deliverance and Access by Blood.
By H. Sinclair Paterson
As in Exodus we have deliverance through the blood, so in Leviticus we have access by the blood. And it is in access to God that we enjoy the privilege of worship. I take the words in verse eleven of chapter seventeen as really the key-note of the whole method of access to God. They reveal the foundation on which worship rests, a foundation stable and sure, approved by our Maker and Redeemer himself. What words these are! "I have given you the blood upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls." "I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement by the life."
Blood is the primal, fundamental demand of God in all the approaches of man unto himself. Many do not apprehend this nowadays; they think they can approach God in ways of their own devising without blood. There seems to be nothing so distasteful to the natural and unrenewed man as the idea involved in the shedding of blood. "If we have any self-respect"—so men talk—"we abhor the very idea of sacrificial blood. Why should we not go to God in fairer, nobler terms? Surely we are quite competent to deal directly with God, to have friendship with him, without any such thing as the death of an innocent victim." We are unwilling to admit any necessity for death. Such is the pride of our hearts, we imagine we can dictate to God, and have fellowship with him in our own way. God's primal demand is death, not life; God's primal statement is "The blood, which is the life, must be poured out, and then I can speak with you." Judgment must take place before there can be mercy. There can be no intercourse between God and man save that which is based on judgment executed and sin put away; there can be no communion or fellowship unless judgment precedes mercy.
So it is in Exodus, judgment executed, then deliverance; and so it is in Leviticus, judgment, then ministry; and so it is with the last great work of deliverance wrought at Calvary—judgment, then deliverance and ministry. Mark the precise words used: "I have given you the blood," not you have given it Me. The blood is God-given; I have no right to kill an animal any more than I have to kill a man. I have no right to take away life—life belongs to God alone. . . . There is a distinction intensely broad and deep between heathenish notions of sacrifice and the teaching of Scripture. The heathenish notion is, that I have freedom of action, and that the animal which is my own I may slay if I choose and bring as my offering. . . . But God says, "I have given you the blood." It is God's divine gift to man, and it sets forth that divine sacrifice which in his own body the Lord Jesus Christ offered in the fullness of time for my sin.—H. Sinclair Paterson, M. D.
DARKNESS AND DAWN
By Frances B. Currie
My life was hard but yestereve,
And dark with clouds of sorrow,
I had no hope that better things
Were coming with the morrow;
And through my tears I could not see
The brighter morning breaking;
My only prayer was for a sleep
From which is no awaking.
O Life, how changeful you can be—
How subtle, how surprising!
To-day the atmosphere is sweet;
The sun-god is arising.
And while the gloom is fast dispelled,
An earnest prayer I’m making,
That after my last sleep I’ll have
So radiant an awaking.
—Frances B. Currie, in Examiner.
Newspaper Honor.
In an address at Fort Wayne, Ind., Col. G. A. Pierce used the following sensible language:—
A short time ago a discussion arose in Chicago as to the relative duties of lawyers and newspapers, and the following query occurred to me: What would be said of any respectable journal that should take a fee for trying to make black appear white—that should undertake the defense of a notorious murderer, for instance? Not secretly, and while pretending to be impartial—that, of course would be intensely hypocritical and dishonorable—but openly and notoriously? The accused party would say, for instance: “I want defenders. I will hire Lawyer Such-a-One and newspaper So-and-So.” What an outcry would go up, and yet what is it that makes such an act highly dishonorable on the part of the newspaper and perfectly permissible and proper on the part of an attorney? Is newspaper honor held too high, or is legal honor held too low? I believe the time will come when a lawyer’s duties will be confined to seeing that murderers and highway robbers have a fair and just trial according to law, and when no amount of money will be allowed to convert them into paid eulogists of dangerous men.
Advice to a Young Man.
By Hawk-eye
AND, then, remember, my son, you have to work. Whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheelbarrow or a set of books, digging ditches or editing a paper, ringing an auction bell, or writing funny things, you must work. If you look around you, son, you will see that the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who worked the hardest. Don't be afraid of killing yourself with work, son. It is beyond your power to do that. Men cannot work so hard as that on the sunny side of thirty. They die sometimes, but it's because they quit work at 6 P. M. and don't get home until 2 A. M. Its the interval that kills, my son. The work gives you an appetite for your meals, it lends solidity to your slumbers, it gives you a perfect appreciation of a holiday. There are young men who do not work, my son, but the world is not proud of them. It does not know their names, even; it simply speaks of them as old So-and-So's boys. Nobody likes them, nobody hates them; the great busy world doesn't even know that they are there. So find out what you want to be and do, son, and take off your coat and make a dust in the world. The busier you are the less deviltry you will be apt to get into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays, and the better satisfied will the world be with you.—Hawk-eye.
Religion’s Enduring Power
By Robertson Smith
A RELIGION which has endured every possible trial, which has outlived every vicissitude of human fortunes, and has never failed to re-assert its power unbroken in the collapse of its old environments, which has pursued a consistent and victorious course through the lapse of eventful centuries, declares itself by irresistible evidence to be a thing of reality and power.—Robertson Smith
Polite Answers
Never fail to give a polite answer to a civil question.