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Review and Herald, Vol. 21, No. 8.

Strange Developments in a Family of Episcopalians

Review and Herald

Jan 20, 1863

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 20, 1863

Strange Developments in a Family of Episcopalians.

By Uriah Smith

[No cause but Spiritualism could survive the revolting developments described in the following, which we take from the Banner of Light. Should such manifestations occur in connection with the cause of truth, the end of it would never be heard. It would be thrown into the teeth of believers everywhere. It would be heralded by its opponents from one end of the land to the other, and justly, too, as sufficient reason for consigning the cause to everlasting reproach, while all wherever its sound might come, would shun it as they would a contagion. But these things are performed by spirits, and it is coolly and unblushingly published as a most powerful and convincing manifestation. So completely do some people seem to yield themselves up to be dupes of the Devil, that the more absurd, ridiculous, and blasphemous the manifestation, the more weight and importance are attached to it as an evidence of the truthfulness of their cause. Let the reader consider, as illustrated in the following cases, the infernal influences to which mediums are subjected, and to which all Spiritualists are exposed, and beware.—U. S.]
In the quiet little town of Glastenburg, about five miles from the city of Hartford, Ct., each member of a family of eight persons, were simultaneously seized with what the people and the doctors thought to be raving insanity, for which they could divine no cause. The family consisted of Mr. Geo. L. Ford, wife, and two children, Mr. Talcott and wife, the father and mother of Mrs. Ford, and a man and woman servant—eight in all. Mr. and Mrs. Ford are in good standing in society, and in full communion with the Episcopal church in that place, and neither had any knowledge of, or sympathy with, Spiritualism. Mr. Talcott was a free-thinker, and only Mrs. Talcott had any knowledge of modern Spiritualism.
On Wednesday, the first day of last October, Mrs. Ford was suddenly seized with strange motions and actions, gestures, and contortions, was violently exercised, alternately manifesting great joy and great agony. Mr. Ford was greatly alarmed at such new and unaccountable manifestations of his wife. Soon, however, it was announced through the lips of Mrs. Ford, "This is the control of spirits; and this control shall be a stepping-stone to a new belief in the Old Church. Fear nothing. All is well. Be not alarmed at what shall happen."
Mrs. Ford continued to be severely exercised by, and give communications from, what purported to be a great many spirits, both happy and unhappy, until Sunday. The family was kept up with her day and night, excited, alarmed, and anxious for her safety.
On the Sunday following Mrs. Ford's first manifestations, just as the people were coming out of the church, which is immediately by the door-yard of Mr. Ford's house, Mrs. Ford rushed into the yard, as if driven by some determined power, and at the top of her voice screamed, "Water! water!" Mr. Ford was seized by the same power, and with his wife ran into the same yard, and screamed "water," too. Mrs. Ford's father and mother were moved by the same power, and did the same as Mrs. and Mr. Ford; then the two children, and the two servants—making eight persons in all, that were in Mr. Ford's yard, right in view and hearing of the congregation coming out of the church—all of them screaming as loud as they could, "Water! water! water! water!" This screaming continued for about fifteen minutes, accompanied with the most ridiculous gestures, contortions, grimaces, and expressions of joy and of suffering. It seemed as if all the noises ever heard, and motions ever made, were imitated by them. Nearly the whole of the congregation drew near and looked upon the strange phenomenon with wonder and amazement. It appeared evident that there was no volition exercised on the part of any member of this frenzied family. Each was moved to make these curious demonstrations before the public in such a time and place, by some power over which they held no control.
After about fifteen minutes, by the aid of some friends who came from the crowd of witnesses, Mrs. Ford was conveyed into the house, and was followed by the other members of her family. She then fell into a trance, and lay, to all appearance, dead, for about one hour; after which she was controlled by a spirit that made her utter the most terrible oaths and curses. It may be proper here to say that Mrs. Ford has ever had a great horror of profane language, so much so that she desired never to have a man in her husband's employ that used a profane word. In fact, Mrs. Ford, in her conduct and life, has been a faithful Christian and a devoted wife. Here she is moved by some power that she cannot keep off, to do that which is most repulsive and revolting to her desires and practices. Mr. Ford, the same as his wife, was made to utter oaths and curses, which in his normal condition he had never done, and had a great disgust of hearing.
Both Mr. Ford and his wife stand before the world in their moral and Christian lives without a blemish; but here comes upon them a power, to show to themselves and to the world that their own will does not control their lives, but that there is a wisdom and a power above human will and human desire. No matter if this revelation be made by scenes that are ridiculous and revolting, whereby the mighty, unrecognized, unacknowledged truth shall be made more impressive. Mr. Ford, his wife, and all the family, affirm that in these strange manifestations they had no control over their actions. Mr. Ford says that during this scene of affliction, he observed that his nearest friends stood the furthest aloof, while the poor and more oppressed, came nearest to him and his family, and were first to give them friendly aid. A doctor was called, and pronounced the whole scene the manifestations of insanity.
Mrs. Ford continued to be under spirit influence. She would perform the most beautiful and difficult airs in music, of which airs she had no knowledge. Then she would use the most horrible oaths. She would utter in a clear and intelligible manner the most heavenly strains of thought; then her utterances would be jumbled, confused, and unintelligible. Spirits seemed to hold perfect control of her, and all grades seemed to have equal access to the use of her organism. In the course of a few hours all the family except Mrs. Ford, her father and mother, entirely recovered from this fit of "possession."
A consultation of doctors was held on the cases of Mrs. Ford, her father and mother, the decision of which was, that each was positively insane. Accordingly, the selectmen of the town caused them, on the ninth day of October, to be carried to the Insane Hospital. This was done against Mr. Ford's will, he being held, by order of the selectmen (it being claimed by them that he was still insane), while his wife was removed from the house.
Eight days after Mrs. Ford's father's removal to the Hospital, he died, and his death was calm, happy, beautiful. Mrs. Ford's mother was discharged from the Hospital on the tenth of November. Mrs. Ford is still in the Hospital, and is still under spirit control. Mr. Ford is most devotedly attached to his wife, but he has not been permitted to see her since she was carried to the Hospital, it being thought best by the Hospital physicians to keep her for the present excluded from all her friends.

God's Dealings with the Canaanites.

By H. L. H.

With such an awful manifestation of divine power and justice as was afforded by the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, we might easily infer that the world, when made acquainted with the facts pertaining to his destruction, would yield at once to the superior claims of God, and cease forever to interpose themselves as obstacles to the performance of his purposes. Such an inference, however, is unwarranted by analogy and unsustained by fact.
Instead of this, those very people who were thus delivered from Egyptian tyranny, were some of them forgetful of the God of their salvation, and rebellious against the rock of their strength. The carcasses that filled the graves of lust, or that rotted in the wilderness during Israel's lengthy sojourn there, are but another indication of the downward proclivity of man, and of his deep-rooted unwillingness to yield appropriate obedience to the God of heaven and earth.
But, leaving Israel for the present, we follow the report of Pharaoh's overthrow, and mark its moral influence upon the inhabitants of adjacent countries. A judgment so terrible as that inflicted upon Pharaoh could not long remain unknown. The tidings of a deliverance like that vouchsafed to Israel could not be kept secret. The knowledge that this emancipated host were destined to inhabit Canaan, was by no means withheld from the parties interested. It was no secret that Canaan was promised to Israel, or that they were coming to possess it. Long before, Abraham had been informed that when the iniquity of the Amorites was full, his children should return from Egypt and dwell in Palestine. "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance—when he separated the sons of Adam—he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." This definite purpose had been announced for hundreds of years. This land, of all the earth, was reserved by Jehovah as his heritage, the abode of his chosen people. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was a virtual notice to the nations of Canaan to leave the territory in which they had only been tenants at will, until the time of the promise should come. The miracles connected with Israel's exode were sufficient to convince any who would reason, that resistance to Israel and Israel's God would be alike impious and futile. But they would not receive the lesson. Thus, when the spies, Caleb and Joshua, went up to examine the land, the King of Jericho immediately sent for them, no doubt on purpose to destroy them. The general impression produced upon any whose minds were open to learn the truth, may be inferred from the words of Rahab to the spies:—"I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard those things, our hearts did melt; neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath."
With such convictions as these, resting upon a basis of such stubborn and recent facts, there was but one reasonable course for the inhabitants of that land. They should submit, or emigrate from the territory to which others had a prior claim. But they would do neither. The only alternative was to resist the power of Almighty God himself. This they undertook, and in the strength of frail mortality, entered the lists, determined to oppose the will and thwart the purposes of Jehovah. But such endeavors were vain. The arrangements of God cannot be modified by the rebellion of a few wrongheaded men. His counsel shall stand. The car of his purpose must rush along its appointed track. Those who resist, resist at their peril; those who acquiesce have peace. The nations of Canaan resisted—they were overthrown. Their judgment was severe, but justly merited.
There is a certain class of men who, for the sake of covering up their own faults, and excusing their non-compliance with Divine law, or for some similar purpose, take infinite pains to make us believe that the Bible is a fiction, its author a cunning knave, and its God a fiendish monster of cruelty. One of their hackneyed objections to the Bible is this:—"Can it be true that a merciful God would destroy the nations of Canaan, as is related in the Old Testament? We don't believe in such a God." Well, let us reason together. Who makes noxious reptiles and venomous insects? The God of nature, is it not? Very well, if venomous insects should drive the inhabitants of a country out of her borders who would be to blame? No one, except the God of nature I suppose! Well, the kings of the Amorites were driven out, not with the sword or the bow of Israel, but by swarms of hornets which infested the land—sent, Moses says, by Jehovah—infidels would say by the laws of nature. Now, what is the difference? These are the recorded facts. If God sent the hornets, then it was certainly right for Israel to possess the land—and if nature sent them, the case is not altered one jot that I can discern. In either case their title is equally good, and the cavil is good—for nothing.
But it is asserted that there were others of the inhabitants of Canaan who afterwards were expelled from its borders by force. This is very true, and to be able to judge of the propriety of the act, we must note a few striking traits in their characters. Among these were the following.
In the first place, they were gross and abominable idolaters, who would not worship, obey or serve the Most High God, having perhaps views and conceptions of his character in accordance with those of their modern sympathizers. Second: they were firm believers in the essential elements of modern "spiritualism," and practiced necromancy, or pretended to divine and reveal secrets by means of intercourse with the departed; and were thus guilty of the abominable practice of leaving the living God to consult dead men. Third: there were many of them who were fully developed "spiritual mediums," or in ancient phraseology "consulters of familiar spirits," "diviners," and "wizards," who like the "medium" at Endor, professed to bring up dead men for the accommodation of backsliders and God-forsaken rebels like king Saul. Fourth: they were, as it became idolatrous heathens and "progressive" spiritual believers to be, freed from the restrictions which God had placed upon the lustful propensities of their nature, and were consequently at full liberty to develop their ideas of "free love" and "passional attraction." Fifth: their principles of "free love" not only allowed adultery and fornication, but also incest, and all nameless licentious practices of the most revolting character; and quite as free as ever I heard of being advocated in any modern spiritual newspaper, or by any speaker in a spiritual convention. Sixth: they not only begot children in shameless and promiscuous debauchery, but those same children were murderously burned in the fire by their ungodly parents.
These were some of the precious traits of character belonging to that reprobate and besotted race which God destroyed. A race scarcely possessed of one solitary recorded virtue, and not exempt from one single imaginable vice. A race debauched, polluted, licentious, and idolatrous. A race progressive, but progressive toward perdition. This was the race of whose presence God purged the world, when their iniquities were full. These the men whom the land vomited forth. And if Israel had imitated their examples, the reddest bolts from Sinai, or the most lurid fires of Sodom, would have been tame compared with the retributive vengeance which would have been visited upon them. But these men—who would have suffered capital punishment in any land where there is to-day the semblance of a decent law—these men, who had forfeited their lives a dozen times—those men who had done ten times more mischief than their necks were over worth—these men who had seized on one of the fairest spots beneath the sun, and turned it into an ulcerous brothel of whoredom and a den of crime and blood—these ancient murderers of their own children—these heathenish "spiritualists" and "free lovers" of olden times—these are the men for whom the gentlemen infidels, spirit-rappers, and Bible haters of the present day, generally, plead. Ah! they pity the poor Canaanites. They blame Moses. They find fault with Joshua. They rail at God. They plead for these villains, cut-throats, and Sodomites. They palliate the stinking lecherousness of these unholy scoundrels! They, who have learned all they ever knew of God or goodness at their mother's knee, or from the Bible, the hymn-book, or in the Sabbath-school, rail at Jehovah for wiping out such a plague-spot as this from the universe. Why is all this sympathy? Are they partial to such courses? Are they spiritualists and necromancers? Are they "free lovers" too? Is it "a fellow feeling" that makes them so "wondrous kind"? If so, I excuse their indecent assaults upon God, and truth, and righteousness. But if not, I ask some reason why men speak evil of the things that they know not of.
To return, these were the men that entered into a controversy with Almighty God. Their efforts were idle. The waters of Jordan receded before their approaching foes; the ramparts of Jericho fell in utter ruin at their presence; the sun and the moon stood still that the work of retribution might go on; the hail from heaven battered their routed legions in the dust; the stars in their courses fought against the enemies of God: all elements combined to effect their overthrow; the ancient river Kishon swept away the fleeing fugitives; and the sword of a righteous avenger exterminated the race. Thus closed the controversy which God had with the nations of Canaan. It closed as all others have closed, not by submission, arbitration, or accommodation; but by stern judgments which punished the rejection of unnumbered mercies and the vilest prostitution of the best of temporal blessings and favors, and which left on record the same awful lesson which the world had previously refused to learn, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It taught man that God's providence would move upon the appointed path of divine purpose and promise, and that those who opposed, opposed to their own destruction. It taught them that a warfare with Jehovah was a most unequal strife, and that man must submit to the divine will or perish in disobedience. This was the lesson written for their instruction—alas that, to the present hour, men should have failed to learn it, and refused to obey it.
Great Controversy by H. L. H.

The City of God.

By V. O. Edson

We'VE no continuing city here, But one we seek to come. Soon will its pearly gates appear, The saints' bright happy home.
That City's far from mortal sight ; By prophets long foretold. Its beauteous gates are pearly white, Its streets are shining gold.
No sorrow there shall dim the eye, No sickness rack the frame, No more be heard the mourner's sigh, In all God's wide domain.
There waves the fruitful tree of life ; There flows life's crystal stream ; Its peaceful waters free from strife, Make glad the blissful scene.
It needeth not the orb of day, Nor yet the queen of night To chase the darkness far away ; For God's its glorious light.
No wickedness can enter there, To mar that peaceful rest, For none but holy ones can share, Its joys forever blest.
There dwells the Lamb for sinners slain, Who washed us by his blood, That with him we may ever reign, As kings and priests to God.
V. O. EDSON. Hubbardsville, N. Y.

Valuable Hints.

1. If a man faints place him flat on his back and let him alone.
2. If any poison is swallowed drink instantly half a glass of cool water, with a heaping tea-spoonful each of common salt and ground mustard stirred into it. This vomits as soon as it reaches the stomach: but for fear some of the poison may still remain swallow the white of one or two raw eggs, or drink a cup of strong coffee, these two being antidotes for a greater number of poisons than any other dozen articles known, with the advantage of their being always at hand. If not, halfpint of sweet oil, or lamp oil, or "drippings," or melted butter, or lard, are good substitutes, especially if they vomit quickly.
3. The best thing to stop the bleeding of a moderate cut instantly is to cover it profusely with cobweb, or flower and salt half and half.
4. If the blood comes from a wound by jets or spirts, be quick, or the man will be dead in a few minutes, because an artery is severed; tie a handkerchief loosely around near the part, between the wound and the heart; put a stick between the handkerchief and the skin, twist it round until the blood ceases to flow, and keep it there until the doctor comes. If in a position where a handkerchief cannot be used, press the thumb on a spot near the wound between the wound and the heart; increase the pressure until the bleeding ceases, but do not lesson that pressure for an instant until the physician arrives, so as to glue up the wound by the coagulation or hardening of the cooling blood.
5. If your clothes take fire, slide the hands down the dress, keeping them as close to the body as possible, at the same time sinking to the floor by bending the knees; this has a smothering effect on the flames. If not extinguished, or a great headway is gotten, lie down on the floor, roll over and over, or better, envelope yourself in a carpet, rug, bedcloth or any garment you can get hold of, always preferring woolen.
6. If a man asks you to go his security, say "No," and run; otherwise you may be enslaved for life, oryour wife and children may spend a weary existence in want, sickness and beggary.
7. If you find yourself in possession of a counterfeit note or coin, throw it into the fire on the instant; otherwise you may be tempted to pass it, and may pass it, to feel mean therefor as long as you live; then it may pass into some man's hands as mean as yourself, with a new perpetration of iniquity, the loss to fall eventually on some poor struggling widow, whose "all" it may be perchance.
8. Never laugh at the mishaps of any fellow-mortal.
9. The very instant you find yourself in a passion shut your mouth. This is one of the best precepts outside of inspiration.
10. The man who always exacts the last cent is always a mean man; there is no "evacuant" in all the "Materia Medica" efficient enough to "purge" him of his debasement; he is beyond druggery.
11. Never affect to be "plain" or "blunt;"] these are the synonyms of brutality and boorishness, such persons are constantly inflicting wounds which neither time nor medicine can ever heal.
12. Never be witty at another's expense. True generosity never dwelt in such a heart; it only wants the opportunity to become a cheat or a rogue.
13. If the body is tired, rest; if the brain is tired, sleep.—Hall's Journal of Health.

Parents and Children.

By Ellen G. White

I HAVE been shown that while parents who have the fear of God before them restrain their children, they should study their dispositions and temperaments, and should seek to meet their wants. Some parents attend carefully to the temporal wants of their children; if sick, they kindly and faithfully nurse them, and then think their duty done. They mistake here. Their work has but just begun. The wants of the mind should be cared for. It requires skill to apply the proper remedies to cure a wounded mind. Children have trials just as hard to bear, just as grievous in character, as older people. Parents do not always feel alike. Their minds are often perplexed. They labor under mistaken views and feelings. Satan buffets them, and they yield to his temptations. They speak irritably, and in a manner to excite wrath in their children, and are sometimes exacting and fretful. The poor children partake of the same spirit, and the parents are not prepared to help them, for they were the cause of the trouble. Sometimes everything seems to go wrong. It is fretfulness all around, and all have a very miserable, unhappy time of it. The parents lay the wrong upon their poor children, and think them very disobedient and unruly, and the worst children in the world, when the cause of the disturbance is in themselves. In this manner some parents raise many a storm, by their lack of self-control. Instead of kindly asking the children to do this, or that, they are ordered in a scolding tone, and at the same time a censure or reproof is on their lips which the children have not merited. This course, pursued toward children, destroys their cheerfulness and ambition. They do your bidding, not from love, but because they dare not do otherwise. Their heart is not in the matter. It is a drudgery, instead of a pleasure, which often leads them to forget to follow out all your directions, which increases your irritation, and makes it still worse for the children. The fault-finding is repeated, their bad conduct arrayed before them in glowing colors, until a discouragement comes over the children, and they are not particular whether they please or not. A spirit of "I don't care" seizes them, and they seek that pleasure and enjoyment away from home, away from their parents, which they do not find at home. They mingle with street company, and are soon as corrupt as any of the worst.
Upon whom rests this great sin? If home had been made attractive, had the parents manifested love and affection for their children, and with kindness found employment for them, in love instructed them how to obey their wishes, they would have touched an answering cord in their hearts, and their willing feet, and hands, and hearts, would have all readily obeyed them. Parents, by controlling themselves, and speaking kindly, and praising their children when they try to do right, encourage their right efforts, make them very happy, and throw a charm into the family circle which will chase away every dark shadow, and bring cheerful sunlight in.
Parents sometimes excuse their own wrong course because they do not feel well. They are nervous, and cannot, they think, be patient and calm, and speak pleasantly. They deceive themselves in this thing, and please Satan. He exults that the grace of God is not allowed by them as sufficient to overcome natural infirmities. They can, and should, at all times, control themselves. God requires it of them. They should realize that when they give way to fretfulness and impatience they cause others to suffer. Those around them are affected by the spirit they manifest, and if they in their turn act out the same spirit, the evil is increased, and everything goes wrong.
Parents, when you feel fretful, you should not commit so great a sin as to poison the whole family with this dangerous irritability. At such times set a double watch over yourself, and resolve in your heart not to offend with your lips. Nothing but pleasant, cheerful words should escape from your lips. Say to yourself, "I will not mar the happiness of my children by a fretful word." By thus controlling yourself, you will grow stronger. Your nervous system will not be so sensitive. You will be strengthened by the principles of right. The consciousness in your heart that you are faithfully discharging your duty, will strengthen you. Angels of God will smile upon your efforts, and help you. When you feel impatient, you too often think it is all in your children, and you blame them when they do not deserve it. At another time they might do the very same things, and all be acceptable and right. Children know, and mark, and feel these irregularities, and they are not always alike. Sometimes they are better prepared to meet changeable moods, and at other times they are nervous, and fretful, and cannot bear censure. Their spirit rises up in rebellion against it. Parents want all due allowance made for their state of mind, yet do not always see the necessity of making the same allowance for their poor children. They excuse in themselves that, which if they see in their children, who have not their years of experience and discipline, they would highly censure. Some parents are of a nervous temperament, and when fatigued with labor or oppressed with care, do not labor to preserve a calm state of mind, but manifest to those who should be dearest to them on earth, fretfulness and lack of forbearance, which displeases God, and brings a cloud over the family. Children, in their troubles, should often be soothed with tender sympathy. Mutual kindness and forbearance will make home a paradise, and attract holy angels into the family circle.
The mother can and should do much toward controlling her nerves and mind when it is depressed; and even when she is sick, she can, if she only schools herself, be pleasant and cheerful, and can bear more of their noise than she would once have thought it possible. If infirmities, or depression of spirits affect the mother, she should not make the children feel her infirmities, and cloud their young, sensitive minds, and cause them to feel that the house is a tomb, and the mother's room the most dismal place in the world. The mind and nerves can gain tone, and strength, by exercising the will. The power of the will in many cases will prove a mighty soother of the nerves.
Do not let your children see you with a clouded brow. If they yield to temptation, and afterwards see and repent of their error, forgive them just as freely as you hope to be forgiven of your Father in heaven. Kindly instruct them, and bind them to your hearts. It is a critical time for children. Influences will be thrown around them to wean them from you, which you must counteract. Teach them to make you their confidant. Let them whisper in your ear their trials and joys. By encouraging this, you will save them from many a snare that Satan has prepared for their inexperienced feet. But if you treat your children only with sternness, if you forget your own childhood, and forget that they are but children, and try to make them perfect, and make them men and women in their acts at once, you will close the door of access which you might otherwise have to your children, and you drive them to open a door for injurious influences, to affect their young minds, and before you awake to their danger, their minds have been poisoned by others.
Satan and his host are making most powerful efforts to sway the minds of the children, and they must be treated with candor, Christian tenderness and love. This will give you a strong influence over them, and they will feel that they can repose unlimited confidence in you. Throw around your children charms for home, and your society. If you do this, they will not desire so much the society of other young associates. Satan works through young associates to influence and corrupt the minds of each other. It is the most effectual way he can work. Young associates have a powerful influence over one another. Their conversation is not always choice and elevated. Evil communications will be breathed into the ear, which, if not decidedly resisted, find a lodgment in the heart, take root, and spring up to bear fruit, and corrupt their good manners. Because of the evils now in the world, and the restriction necessary to be placed upon the children, parents should have double care to bind them to their hearts, and let them see they wish to make them happy.
Parents should not forget their childhood years, how much they yearned for sympathy and love, and how unhappy they felt when censured and fretfully chided. They should be young again in their feelings. You should bring your mind down to understand the wants of your children. With firmness, all mixed with love, require your children to obey you. Your word should be implicitly obeyed.
Angels of God are watching the children with the deepest interest, to see what characters they develop. If Christ dealt with us as we often deal with each other and with our children, we should stumble and fall through utter discouragement. I saw that Jesus knows our infirmities, and himself hath felt their experience in all things but in sin, therefore he hath proportioned a way and a path to our strength and capacity, and like Jacob, hath marched softly and in evenness with the children as they were able to endure, that he might entertain us by the comfort of his company, and be to us a perpetual guide. He does not despise, neglect, or leave behind the children of the flock.
He has not bid us to move forward and leave them. He has not traveled so hastily as to leave us with our children behind. O no, but he has evened the path to life, even for children. And parents are required in his name to lead them along the narrow way. God has proportioned a way and a path according to the strength and capacity of children.
ELLEN G. WHITE.

The Imitation of Christ.

It is reported in the Bohemian story, that St. Wenceslaus, their king, one winter night going to his devotions, in a remote church, barefooted in the snow and sharpness of unequal and pointed ice, his servant, Podavius, who waited upon his master's piety, and endeavored to imitate his affections, began to faint through the violence of the snow and cold, till the king commanded him to follow him, and set his feet in the same footsteps, which his feet should mark for him. The servant did so, and either fancied a cure or found one; for he followed his prince, helped forward with shame and zeal to his imitation, and by the forming footsteps for him in the snow. In the same manner does the blessed Jesus; for, since our way is troublesome, obscure, full of objection and danger, apt to be mistaken and to affright our industry, he commands us to mark his footsteps, to tread where his feet have stood, and not only invites us forward by the argument of his example, but he hath trodden down much of the difficulty, and made the way easier, and fit for our feet. For he knows our infirmities, and himself hath felt their experience in all things but in the neighborhood of sin; and therefore he hath proportioned a way and a path to our strengths and capacities, and like Jacob, has marched softly and in evenness with the children and the cattle, to entertain us by the comforts of his company, and the influences of a perpetual guide.
He that gives alms to the poor, takes Jesus by the hand; he that patiently endures injuries and affronts, helps him bear his cross; he that comforts his brother in affliction, gives an amiable kiss of peace to Jesus; we lead Jesus into the recesses of our heart by holy meditation, and we enter into his heart when we express him in our actions: for the apostle says, "He that is in Christ walks as he also walked." But thus the actions of our life relate to him by way of worship and religion; but the use is admirable and effectual, when our actions refer to him as to our copy, and we transcribe the original to the life.
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