Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 21, 1881
A WISE REPLY.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
AFTER the overthrow of the Midianites, the tidings spread swiftly far and wide that Israel's God had again fought for his people. No words can describe the terror of the surrounding nations when they learned what simple means had prevailed against all the power and skill of a bold, warlike race.
Wherever the news spread, all felt that the victory must be ascribed to God alone. Thus the Lord's name was glorified, the faith of Israel strengthened, and their enemies were brought to shame and confusion.
It is not safe for God's people to adopt the maxims and customs of the ungodly. The divine principles and modes of working are widely different from those of the world. The history of nations presents no such victories as the conquest of Jericho or the overthrow of the Midianites. No general of heathen armies had ever conducted warfare as Joshua and Gideon had done. These victories teach the great lesson that the only sure ground of success is the help of God, working with human effort. Those who trust to their own wisdom and their own skill will surely be disappointed. The only safe course in all the plans and purposes of life is to preserve the simplicity of faith. Humble trust in God and faithful obedience to his will are as essential to the Christian in waging spiritual warfare as they were to Gideon and his brave associates in fighting the battles of the Lord.
God's commands must be implicitly obeyed, irrespective of the world's opinion. This lesson should not be disregarded by those who occupy positions of responsibility among their fellow-men. Such persons above all others should neglect none of the Lord's ordinances or commands. He who conforms to the customs and practices of the world separates himself from God. All should earnestly improve every religious privilege, and inquire of God daily to learn his will. The life and words of Christ must be diligently studied, and his instructions cheerfully obeyed. He who will thus gird on the armor of righteousness need not fear the enemies of God. He may be assured of the presence and protection of the Captain of the Lord's host.
It is a sad fact that the simplicity of true faith has, in a great measure, departed from the church of Christ. Many who occupy responsible positions are in constant danger of separating themselves from God by neglect of the means of grace. They do not drink daily at the fountain of wisdom and righteousness, and do not acknowledge God as the right arm of their power.
The Lord is willing to give his people a precious experience. He would lead them to confide in his wisdom, his power, and his love, instead of trusting to themselves. He would teach them to submit their judgment and their will implicitly to him. Then will they see and know that of themselves they can do nothing; that God is all and in all. His love will dwell in their hearts, and his praise will be continually upon their lips. God works for his people by agencies which the proud and worldly-wise will despise; but the grace and power of God are the only hope of sinful men.
After his glorious victory over the Midianites, Gideon was subjected to another test, differing widely from those already given, but unexpected and peculiarly severe. He must now meet unjust accusation and censure. When, at his call, the men of Israel had rallied against the Midianites, the tribe of Ephraim had remained behind. They looked upon the effort as a perilous and doubtful undertaking, and as Gideon sent them no special invitation, they availed themselves of this excuse not to join their brethren. But when the news of Israel's triumph reached them, the Ephraimites were dissatisfied and envious because they had not shared it.
Gideon was not anxious to secure the honor to himself, for he knew that it belonged to the Lord alone. As soon as the Midianites were routed, Gideon had sent swift messengers, desiring the Ephraimites to seize the fords of the Jordan that the fugitives might not escape. A large number of the enemy were slain, among whom were two of the chief princes of Midian. Thus the men of Ephraim followed up the battle, and helped complete the victory. Nevertheless, they were jealous and angry, as though Gideon were governed by his own will and judgment. They did not discern God's hand in the triumph of Israel, and this very fact proved that they were indeed unworthy to be used as his instruments on that occasion. They would have taken the honor to themselves, instead of ascribing it to God. The wicked spirit manifested toward Gideon shows that they were not men who could be trusted, and who would appreciate God's mercy and power in their deliverance.
The wisdom of God, as displayed in the methods and instrumentalities employed to carry forward his work, is foolishness to the boastful and self-confident, because they know not the mystery of godliness. The Lord would teach his people at the present day the lesson of simple dependence upon that mighty arm which can overthrow the strongholds of Satan. The prayer of faith, offered by God's humble, obedient, trusting people, will bring them the victory.
The most complete and perfect system which men have ever devised, apart from the power and wisdom of God, will prove a failure; while the humble means which God sanctions must succeed. The simple act of blowing a blast upon the trumpet, by the army of Joshua around Jericho, and by Gideon's little band about the host of Midian, was made effectual, through the power of God, to overthrow the might of his enemies. Deep are the counsels of God, and the finite mind seeks in vain to comprehend them.
The bullock standing between the altar for sacrifice and the plow in the furrow,—ready for either,—fitly represents the position which God's people should occupy. The Lord has no place in his work for the indolent and self-indulgent. Like the men of Ephraim, there are many at the present day who are ready to work diligently to secure honor to themselves; but unless they can do this they will not work at all. And not only will they do nothing themselves, but by their example and influence they will discourage others.
The men of Ephraim, returning from the fords of the Jordan with the trophies of victory, addressed Gideon in terms of angry reproach: "Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites?"
Gideon knew that he had acted by the divine command, and though harshly censured by those who should have commended, he restrained all feelings of anger or indignation. How easily the spirit of jealousy and discontent might have been fanned into a quarrel that would have caused division, bloodshed, and ruin! By his self-control, Gideon showed himself a hero. He proved the truth of those words written so long afterward, "A soft answer turneth away wrath." In his reply to the Ephraimites he modestly threw a veil over his own success, but spoke in the highest praise of their achievements: "What have I done now in comparison of you?" Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and what was I able to do in comparison of you?" He repented the victory gained by himself and his army of three hundred men as little in comparison with their taking the princes of Midian. And he further showed that the glory belonged neither to him nor to them, but to the Lord.
Gideon's modest and prudent answer appeased the anger of the men of Ephraim, and they returned in peace to their homes. How much of the trouble that exists in the world to-day, springs from the same evil traits that actuated the men of Ephraim, and how many evils might be avoided if all who are unjustly accused or censured would manifest the meek, self-forgetful spirit of Gideon.
FAITH.
By Mary M. Buckland
BY MARY M. BUCKLAND.
I CAN look beyond the darkness,
I can see the farther shore;
And by faith I see that country
Where the weary weep no more.
And it is but just before us,
Soon, I know we shall be there;
We shall join in singing praises,
And a crown of glory wear.
While I'm here the clouds may gather,
And may hide the heavenly ray;
Over there, 'twill be all sunshine,
Ever one eternal day.
And there'll never be a sorrow,
Never be a single pain,
Never be a single doubting,
And we'll never sin again.
Oh, I long for that bright morning
When our dearest Friend will come,
When he'll gather all his jewels,
And he'll take them to his home;
Then there'll never be a parting,
Never more a care or fear;
For we'll ever be with Jesus,
And his loving voice we'll hear.
Albion, N. Y.
A DEATH-BED SERMON.
A GENTLEMAN died last week at his residence in one of our up-town fashionable streets, leaving $11,000,000. He was a member of the Presbyterian church, in excellent standing, a good husband and father, and a thriving citizen. On his death-bed, lingering long, he suffered with great agony of mind, and gave continual expression to his remorse at what his conscience told him, had been an ill-spent life. "Oh," he exclaimed, as his weeping friends and relatives gathered around his bed, "if I could only live my years over again, I would give all the wealth I have amassed in a lifetime. It is a life devoted to money-getting, that I regret. It is this which weighs me down, and makes me despair of the life hereafter."
His clergyman endeavored to soothe him, but he turned his face to the wall, "You have never reproved my avaricious spirit," he said to the minister, "you have called it a wise economy and forethought, but my riches have been only a snare for my soul! I would give all I possessed to have hope for my poor soul!" In this state of mind, refusing to be consoled, this poor rich man bewailed a life devoted to the mere acquisition of riches. Many came away from his bed-side impressed with the uselessness of such an existence as the wealthy man had spent, adding house to house and dollar to dollar until he became a millionaire. All knew him to be a professing Christian, and a good man, as the world goes; but the terrors and remorse of his death-bed administered a lesson not to be lightly dismissed from memory. He would have given all his wealth for a single hope of Heaven.—From a New York Secular Paper.
IS SIN ETERNAL?—NO. 9.
By John Norton Loughborough
BY J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, OF SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND.
Is the death that men die in Adam a spiritual or a literal death? This must be made plain by an examination of the Scriptures relative to the case of Adam. Adam and Eve after their creation were placed in a beautiful Eden with permission to eat freely of all the productions of the garden, save the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a tree standing in the midst of the garden. The Lord said of it, "Thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2:17. Did this mean simply that in the day Adam should eat of the forbidden tree he should become a sinner? or did it really mean that in that day he would become a mortal being subject to death and dissolution? That he should become a sinner by partaking of the tree, and lose his fellowship with God was a consequence of the transgression, but not the penalty. The penalty (see margin of text) was "Dying thou shalt die." He should become mortal and dying, the death process commencing in his body to result in his final physical dissolution. If there were any doubts in our mind relative to the meaning of the death threatened, it is made plain in reading the record of what transpired after the sin. The Lord having called the guilty parties before him, said unto Adam: "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3:17-19. What was called death before the transgression is now called returning to dust. The same is expressed by the psalmist, "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust." Ps. 104:29. St. Paul, when reasoning on this matter makes a plain distinction between the sin of Adam and the death of Adam. "By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men." Rom. 5:12. Again, "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression."
From these and other similar statements of Scripture it is very evident that the death we die in Adam, or in consequence of Adam's sin is literal death—the dissolution of the body.
Adam's probation was for the purpose of deciding whether he would obey God and live eternally, or disobey and become a mortal being, entailing mortality, suffering and death on all his posterity. He sinned, and so death has passed upon all men. All are born into this world with mortal natures—with the results of Adam's sin, and, in reality, the penalty of Adam's transgression upon them. This is stated by St. Paul in another form, "For the creature was made subject to vanity (death) not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same." Rom. 8:20. The sentiment of this scripture seems to be this: God has subjected the whole race to death ("appointed unto man once to die." Heb. 9:27), not that we individually have willed it, but, in consequence of the course of our father Adam, all are subjected to death. That there may be no ground of complaint by any human being, the Lord proposes that the atonement work of Christ shall so far affect the whole of Adam's race that every one shall have a resurrection from this death which comes upon us in consequence of his sin. At the same time he places before us a hope, if we will but accept it, of eternal deliverance from death and mortality.
We might say, if we were subjected to such a trial as Adam and Eve we would not do as they did. In reality the Lord is giving us opportunity to decide the same question of life eternal or the second death. He promises us a resurrection from the death in Adam, and places before us life and death, good and evil, saying to us, choose life that ye may not die the second death. Alas! how many cast aside the offer of life eternal through Christ, and run more greedily in the way of death than did Adam.
With these remarks let us examine further the words of St. Paul, "Therefore as by the offense of one (Adam) judgment came upon all men to condemnation (death passed upon all men); even so by the righteousness of one (Christ, the second Adam) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. 5:18. By Adam's offense death passed on all the race; by Christ's death all men shall have a resurrection. He says, "They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ." Verse 17. "So might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Verse 21.
In the next chapter we read, "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death (second death); but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:21-23.
We see, then, that the death men die in Adam is a literal death, so being made alive in Christ is to have a resurrection from that death. All shall thus be raised; but a plain distinction is made between the resurrection of the good and that of the evil. Our Saviour said, "For the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John 5:28, 29. This same distinction is also kept up by the apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians, "Even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order." 1 Cor. 15:23. The Greek word tagma, here rendered order, is defined by Greenfield as band, or cohort. McKnight translates it, "His proper band." Dr. Gill says of this text, "There seems to be an allusion to the ranging and marshaling of the Israelites, every one by his own standard; which both the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render, by or according to his own order. . . . The sense is, that every man shall be raised from the dead, according to the head under which he is ranged and marshaled. Christ the head is risen first; next all those that are under him, as an head, will rise from the dead; the dead in Christ will rise first; and then, a thousand years after that, those who are only in their natural head, by whom death came to them, and have lived and died in a natural estate, will rise last."
Lange, in his Commentary, says on this text: "It is not possible to prove from our text, nor yet from the whole context, the doctrine of a so-called restoration of all things, which asserts that at last, both good and bad, even the devil and his angels, shall be made partakers of divine grace. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of 'a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.' (Acts 24:15.) . . . . The expression, 'be made alive' might be used to signify the resurrection of both classes. (Rom. 4:17.) It means to be restored to life in general. . . . Christ, as the risen one, is the informing principle, and commencement of all restoration to life in the race on the part of God. In this respect he constitutes a parallel to Adam, who was the informing principle and commencement of all death."
On the word order he says, "The word tagma does not mean series, but a well ordered multitude, a division of the army, a cohort; and only in this sense can it be translated order. Those who are raised at successive periods of time are conceived of as coming forth in troops or bands; in some one of which every one will be found."
This, I am aware, is a very different interpretation of the text from that given by Canon Wilberforce. He says: "This making alive in the passage seems to be spread over the whole succession of the ages, a close attention to the context showing the gradual character of this unfolding—Christ the first-fruits, then, after an interval, the interval of this aon or age, they that are Christ's at his coming—this being as yet unfulfilled. Then followed another prolonged interval of what we call time, and this prophecy reached on to the consummation of the reign of Christ. 'Then cometh the end,' when the Son in his mediatorial aspect shall be, as it were, absorbed into the Father, when all darkened understandings shall be enlightened, and fellowship with the life of God attained through the convincing ministration of fatherly love."
The expression, "then cometh the end," seems from the text to apply to the time when Christ comes and raises those who are his at his coming. It is then that his mediatorial work ceases. The kingdom he has then delivered up, is not his own kingdom, of which "there shall be no end," (Luke 1:33) but his Father's throne on which he sits as a priest (Zech. 6:12, 13). As predicted by the psalmist, "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool." Ps. 110:1. In the Revelation to St. John, Christ speaks of himself as then upon his Father's throne while his own throne was future. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Rev. 3:21.
We have already shown that this making alive relates to the literal raising of the dead by the power of Christ, and not to the change of character of the wicked, and the Scriptures clearly indicate, in other portions, the time when these resurrections shall take place. Those who are Christ's will be raised at his second coming. These are the blessed and holy who come up in the first resurrection, on whom the second death can have no power, while the ungodly who come forth in the second resurrection, at the end of the one thousand years, are to die the second death in the lake of fire. See Rev. 20:4-6.
The promise that all nations shall be blessed in the seed of Abraham is no proof that all men are to be saved. It is proof that the offer of life would be made to all who would accept it, both Jews and Gentiles; but whether the people, as individuals, are benefited is decided by their faith in an acceptance of Christ. Every one, as we have shown, will have a resurrection from the dead by his power, and so far, every individual will derive a benefit from the death of Christ, but their final acceptance before God depends on their own course. Christ has become the author of eternal salvation "to all them that obey him." Heb. 5:9.
If the position of the Canon, in his interpretation of being "made alive" be admitted, it certainly involves some conclusions respecting Christ, contrary to plain Scripture statements. God "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5:21. "He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." 1 John 3:5. The Canon told us, "To be made alive was to be brought into conscious fellowship with God, by the spirit of his love, power, and wisdom." Christ was the "first-fruits" of this making alive. Are we to conclude that Christ was first out of fellowship with God and was brought into fellowship as first-fruits of the final harvest? Such a position is too absurd to occupy the mind, and yet it is involved in the above claim.
St. Paul's own statement is that "Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Cor. 15:20-22. The making alive of Christ was his resurrection from the sleep of death, which St. Paul proves by his literal appearance to Cephas, the twelve, and above five hundred brethren at once. Verses 5, 6.
We conclude, then, that there is no proof of "Eternal Hope" in St. Paul's argument on the resurrection, but rather a clear proof that in the resurrection each will come up in his own band, either in the resurrection to life eternal, or to die the second death.
Religion Claims the Body
RELIGION claims the body. St. Paul constantly insists on the sanctification of “the body.” The “body,” as well as the soul, and spirit, is to be “preserved blameless.” “Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy strength.” Not that some half-grown, sickly boy should imitate the restless labors of a full-grown, firmly-knit, able-bodied man. “All thy strength.” That much—no more—no less. Let lazy, sleep-loving, indulgent Sybarities know that they cannot be followers of Him who bore the cross. As regards the body, the Bible requires that we keep it pure, keep it healthy, keep it at work, keep it under, keep it on the altar. When thou hast loved, and served the Lord with all thy strength, worry not. “It is in vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrow; for so He giveth his beloved sleep.”—Nashville Advocate.
Energy and Determination
The great difference between men—between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant—is energy, invincible determination, a purpose once fixed on, and then death or victory. That quality will do anything that can be done.
A FICTITIOUS SABBATH.
By A Whilom Devotee
BY A WHILOM DEVOTEE.
A GREAT deal of manufactured sanctity obtains among religious people. Fiction is not confined to novel-writing artists, for if we critically examine the beliefs and vague sort of faiths which constitute the phenomena of religion as a whole, we shall find as wild and gratuitous romances as in the works of the Troubadours or the Arabian Tales. It makes but little difference about the reality or truth of an object—it may be as commonplace or void as any secular occurrence—if men through any influence come to think it sacred, or hallowed, they begin to exercise a determined and ferocious guardianship, which makes it dangerous to the happiness and, in some countries, to the life of him who would treat it lightly. A dog, trained to watch, will show his teeth for a stone as quickly as for a diamond. In this fact, philosophers may perceive the cause of religious persecutions. The human mind, matured on the bias, flies back in the face of the one who attempts to bend it straight.
Innovations are peculiarly offensive to so conservative a thing as religion. There is no doubt that men are more punctilious and less discriminating than Christ. It is not the tithe and the tunic border, said he, but the great principles of duty and love.
Among the many things by which men have been attracted from nobler and grander devotions is the unnatural and persevering endeavor to attach holiness to Sunday.
This disposition was specially manifested by the early settlers of New England. What men could feel neither by nature nor change of heart was superinduced upon them by careful and ingenious education, and when that failed they had resort to the "cat," the "stocks," or confiscation. Sunday was made sacred in every injunction of the school-master, the magistrate, and the priest. It was a manufactured sacredness from its very beginning. What is lacked in the nature of things must be made up, if essential, by artificial means. It never had the seal of sanctity from God; it is out of reason to rest on the day the week begins just as much as it is to go to sleep in the morning; and as no example of holding the day sacred can be found in the lives of the great exemplars, it is no wonder that, in these days, when priesteraft has lost its fictitious authority—an authority whose voice used to make trespassers shake with dread—and religious education has been diluted by wide variety, Sunday has lost its former solemnity and strictness.
Now and then some puritan Van Winkle rises, as if from his twenty years' sleep, and delivers his Philippic on the changed and deteriorated customs of the times with regard to keeping the "Sabbath," and with all the deep, sepulchral gravity of an anchorite of the twelfth century, repeats the fourth commandment, not seeming to know how little that part of the decalogue has to do with the first day of the week. One could as well enjoin upon us the Friday of Mahomet by such an authority.
Men who profess to common sense should not stultify themselves by reference to the fourth commandment when enjoining Sunday as a day of rest. Its sanctity is wholly fictitious, and a poor fiction at that. Like the worship which finds expression on that day, it is only a social institution which men of the world favor as much as deacons of the churches, or the brilliant corteges of fashion that throng the velvet and tessellated aisles. Christianity, if it is such as it is called, though I claim it to be only a name for an entirely different thing, was never so popular as to-day. This system of socialism is a greater machine than politics. It means nirvana to the individual, and Diana to the institution. It is simply ostracism to oppose it. It is all world, all success, the tout monde of literature and influence and society. Sunday is one of its main pillars. In that universally acknowledged festival of the Papacy meet on terms of agreement, the Roman, the Protestant, and the infidel. It is the religious Fourth of July that commemorates the day when the arch-imposter declared his independence of the ten commandments. How embarrassing it must be to those who feign would be humble Christians indeed, and Protestants, to repudiate the Pope's argument for the observance of Sunday, which is simply his authority, and laboriously shift his ground to false and specious applications of the fourth commandment. This necessity must be as painful to his conscience as it is trying to his intellect. But, as for me, I would not so misuse my reason for fear of deranging it and creating a state of disagreeable hostility between my heart and my mind. Fiction may do for amusement, but it is very demoralizing as an element of faith. This is a peculiar age of the world when Christian professors themselves are preached to as they preach to the unconverted, to change from a course of plain error to the acceptance of truth, to quit following cunningly devised fables, and step into the path of law and reality. Ministers preach love to Christ, and persistently refuse to submit to his ordinance of baptism, and also, while claiming to be obedient to God, deliberately violate his solemn commandment, and, in addition to that, employ it vainly and artfully in the support of something which it in no wise concerns.
Where then, I ask, is the sincerity of religion? Has it not descended to the purest utilitarianism, a purpose which originates in personal selfishness, and which takes advantage of a part of the gospel to render more highly practical the part that is opposed to it? So the whiteness of the artist's lead is used to soften and tone down the darkness of the otherwise unpleasing background. Some religion makes much business thrive.
POETS IN THE KITCHEN.
THERE is a lady living in a little four-room cottage in the environs of Boston, whose name is well known to literary people. She depends wholly upon her own exertions for the support of herself and children, and does all her own house work, yet her cottage is the focus of the best society of the locality. A gentleman calling there recently was received at the door by a daughter of the lady, who told him her mother was too busy to be called, but that he could see her in the kitchen if he pleased; and he followed her to that room. The lady greeted him without the least embarrassment, though she had on a big apron and her sleeves were pinned back to her shoulders. She was cutting a pumpkin into strips for pies; and there sat a venerable gentleman gravely paring the strips to the accompaniment of brilliant conversation.
I was asked to guess who this gentleman was, and after several fruitless attempts, was told that it was the poet Longfellow. While the pumpkin paring was in process another distinguished poet called, and he insisted upon being impressed into the service. It was a dreary day outside, and no one cared to leave the pleasant cottage, so they all stayed to lunch, one of the pies forming the piece de resistance of the occasion. Speaking of the incident afterward, the lady said: “My friends are kind enough to come and see me, though they know I can not leave my work to entertain them. Visiting and work must proceed together, and when I set my callers at work with me we are sure to have an agreeable time.”—Lippincott's Magazine
WHAT A BOY DID.
A Duke, walking in his garden one day, saw a Latin copy of a great work on mathematics lying on the grass, and, thinking it had been brought from his library, called some one to carry it back.
"It belongs to me, sir," said the gardener's son, stepping up.
"Yours," cried the Duke, "do you understand geometry and Latin?"
"I know a little of them," answered the lad, modestly.
The Duke, having a taste for the sciences, began to talk with the young student, and was astonished at the clearness and intelligence of his answers.
"But how came you to know so much?" asked the Duke.
"One of the servants taught me to read," answered the lad; "one does not need to know anything more than the twenty-four letters in order to learn everything else one wishes." But the gentleman wanted to know more about it.
"After I learned to read," said the boy, "the masons came to work on your house; I noticed the architect used a rule and compasses, and made a great many calculations. What was the use and meaning of that? I asked, and they told me of a science called arithmetic. I bought an arithmetic, and studied it through. They told me there was another science called geometry. I bought the books and learned geometry. Then I found there were better books about these two sciences in Latin. I heard there were still better in French. I got a dictionary and learned French. It seems to me we can learn everything when we know the twenty-four letters of the alphabet."
They are, in fact, the ladder to every science. But how many boys are contented to waste their time at the first two or three rounds, with not pluck or perseverance enough to climb higher. Up, up, up, if you want to know more, and see clearer, and take a high post of usefulness in the world. And if you are a poor boy, and need a little friendly encouragement to help you on, be sure, if you have a will to climb, you will find the way just as this gardener's son found it afterwards in the Duke of Argyll, under whose patronage he pursued his studies, and became a distinguished mathematician. Stone's Mathematical Dictionary—for Stone was that young gardener's name—was a celebrated book published in London some years ago.—Selected.
SHE MEANS NO.
The other day as I passed two little girls who were standing at the gate of one of their homes, I overheard a few words of their conversation.
"Oh! Mary, don't you believe that your mother will let you go?" asked one, anxiously.
"No, Alice, I know she will not, for she said so yesterday."
"But can't you coax her into it? I can almost always get my mother to let me do as I wish by teasing and coaxing until she is glad to get rid of me by permitting me to have my own way. Don't you suppose that you could tease your mother that way—tell her what a splendid time we will have, and that all the other girls' mothers are going to let them go."
"I would do so, Alice, if I thought it would do any good, but I know that it will not, for when mamma says no she means no."
"GOOD MORNING."
Don't forget to say "Good morning!" Say it to your parents, your brothers and sisters, your schoolmates, your teachers—and say it cheerfully, and with a smile; it will do you good, and do your friends good.
There's a kind of inspiration in every "good morning" heartily spoken, that helps to make hope fresher and work lighter. It seems really to make the morning good, and to be a prophecy of a good day to come after it.
And if this be true of the "good morning," it is so also of kind, heartsome greetings; they cheer the discouraged, rest the tired one, somehow make the wheels of life run more smoothly. Be liberal with them, then, and let no morning pass, however dark and gloomy it may be, that you do not help at least to brighten by your smiles and cheerful words. —Selected.
Jumping the Rope
JUMPING THE ROPE.—Dr. Peck of the Surgical Institute, Indianapolis, recently performed a surgical operation on the leg of a young girl sent there for treatment. The bones of both her legs will have to be partially removed, and the little sufferer will have to submit to two painful operations. The cause of her affection is jumping the rope, a pastime engaged in generally by young girls, resulting in necrosis or death of the bone.
The doctor stated to a reporter that similar cases were constantly occurring from this same cause, but more frequently resulting in necrosis of the spine, and that not a month passes but that some cases of this character come to the Institute for treatment.
He says that rope jumping produces continuous concussions on the joints which impinge upon the bone, causing at the first stage periostitis, and finally resulting in the death of the bone. He thinks that parents and teachers should be warned of this dangerous sport, and eradicate it entirely from the playgrounds of children, as it is ruinous in its effects, and is the prime cause of more cripples among the female portion of the community than probably any one cause.
He also added that, during the practice of his profession, deaths had been occurring coming under his observation, which were the result of this pernicious pastime. In conclusion he said: “I would warn children against rope jumping, and would advise parents and teachers to prohibit it under all circumstances.”—Indianapolis Sentinel.
A SCRIPTURE PRESCRIPTION.
Got the "blues," have you?—feel terribly depressed?—scarcely can claim to be a Christian? See prescription, James 1:27. Leave a nice little package of sugar and coffee, or a sack of flour when you say "good-by," and it will leave the "blues" so far behind you that they won't overtake you in a week or a month.