Your ShelfYour Projects

Signs of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 27.

With Our Inquirers
Earlier text: With Our Inquirers

The Moral Warfare.

By John Greenleaf Whittier

When Freedom, on her natal day, Within her far-rocked cradle lay, An iron race around her stood, Baptized her infant brow in blood; And, thru the storm which round her swept, Their constant ward and watching kept.
Then, where our quiet herds repose, The roar of baleful battle rose, And brethren of a common tongue To mortal strife as tigers sprung, And every gift on Freedom's shrine Was man for beast, and blood for wine!
Our fathers to their graves have gone; Their strife is past,—their triumph won; But sterner trials wait the race Which rises in their honored place,— A moral warfare with the crime And folly of an evil time.
So let it be. In God's own might We gird us for the coming fight, And, strong in Him whose cause is ours In conflict with unholy powers, We grasp the weapons He has given,— The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven. —Whittier.

The Law Revealed In Christ

By Ellen G. White

By Mrs. E. G. White
IN the prayer of Christ for His disciples, He said concerning them: "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one [in spiritual union]; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me."
The glory of Christ is His character, and His character is an expression of the law of God. He fulfilled the law in its every specification, and gave to the world in His life a perfect pattern of what it is possible for humanity to attain unto by cooperation with divinity. In His humanity Christ was dependent upon the Father, even as humanity is now dependent upon God for divine power in attaining unto perfection of character. God's law is an exponent of His character, an expression of His holiness; but, viewed by him who was fallen thru sin, it is a voice of condemnation, a ministration of death. It is not in the province of the law to pardon the transgressor; for "by the law is the knowledge of sin." "By . . . the law there shall no sin be justified." No ray of hope shines forth from the law to the sinner, and its transgressor can find no answer from the law to his anxious inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" "How shall I be just with God?"
But thru Christ a way of escape has been provided. Our Redeemer came in the flesh to condemn sin in the flesh, to lay hold of the repenting soul with an unyielding grasp, and at the same time to grasp the throne of God, becoming the connecting link between humanity and divinity, between earth and heaven. He is the only refuge for the guilty soul. In searching to know God, man is directed to Christ, who lived out the law of God, and manifested to the world the attributes of the Father. In the Son of God the inexpressible goodness of God is revealed; for in Him mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ in the flesh, condemning sin in the flesh, was a perfect revelation of God to the world. Christ declared: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."
In answer to the request of Philip, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,"
Jesus said: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works."
The Lord Jesus is the embodiment of the glory of the Godhead. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. God has revealed Himself to men; He stooped to take upon Him our nature, and in His Son we see the glory of the divine attributes. Those who see not in Christ the divine character are in the shadow of Satan's misrepresentation of divinity. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." "Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." "In whom we have redemption thru His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature."
In Christ Jesus is a revelation of the glory of the Godhead. All that the human agent can know of God to the saving of the soul, is the measure of the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, to which he can attain; for Christ is He who represents the Father. The most wonderful truth to be grasped by men is the truth, "Immanuel, God with us." Christ is the wisdom of God. He is the great "I Am" to the world. As we contemplate the glory of the divine character as revealed in Christ, we are led to exclaim, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" This wisdom is displayed in the love that reaches out for the recovery of lost and ruined man.

O Wonderful Love.

By Flora E. Yergin

O WONDERFUL Love of Heaven, So beautiful, full, and free; The progress of men and nations Is found alone in Thee! And all who drink of Thy Fountain Shall the glories of Heaven see.
As high as the highest heaven Thy golden glories shine; The depths of the deepest ocean Can not drown such Love divine. No tongue its worth can utter; None measure with any line.
Yet it lives in the Father's bosom; It dwells in the tiny flow'r; It fills the pearly raindrop; 'Tis found in the passing hour; 'Tis small as the life-germ hidden; 'Tis great as Heaven's power.
FLORA E. YERGIN.

Majority-Rule Not Always Liberty.

By Francis Lieber

LIBERTY has not infrequently been defined as consisting in the rule of the majority or, it has been said, where the people rule there is liberty. The rule of the majority of itself indicates the power of a certain body; but power is not liberty. Suppose the majority bid you drink hemlock, is there liberty for you? Or suppose the majority give away liberty and establish a despot? We might say, with greater truth, that where the minority is protected, altho the majority rule, then probably liberty exists. But in this latter case it is the protection, or, in other words, rights beyond the reach of the majority, which constitute liberty—not the power of the majority. There can be no doubt that the majority ruled in the French massacres of the Protestants; was there liberty in France on that account? All despotism, without a standing army, must be supported or acquiesced in by the majority. It could not stand otherwise.—Prof. Francis Lieber, on Civil Liberty and Self-Government (London, 1853), page 15.

Inalienable or Natural Rights.

By Thomas Jefferson

Our legislatures are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power—that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the law ought to restrain him; every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society; and this is all that the law should enforce on him; and, no man having the natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled all their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded that, on entering into society, we give up any natural right.—Jefferson's Views on the Doctrine of Natural Rights, in a letter to Francis W. Gilmer, dated at Monticello, June 7, 1816.

Books and Rational Delight

By Sydney Smith

WELL and happily has that man conducted his understanding who has learned to derive from books a regular and rational delight. There are many consolations in the mind of such a man which no common life can ever afford, and many enjoyments which it has not to give.—Sydney Smith.

Not of This World.

THIS Gospel is not of this world, even as Christ and His servants are not of this world. Christ’s kingdom and theirs is therefore not of this world. John 17: 14; 18:36. They therefore have no right to use earthly methods or means for its advancement. Matt. 20: 25-28. The greatest is the humblest, and the one who will be chief must best serve.
The officers in Christ’s church are not to be those who have the right either to condemn or discipline those without the church (1 Cor. 5: 12, 13), nor to lord it over the faith of those within (2 Cor. 1: 24), but to be helpers of their joy. In this they have the example and words of the Master: “And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” John 12: 47, 48.
To His disciples who thought it was their duty to execute the judgment of God upon those who rejected Christ, He said: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9: 55, 56. To-day we have proud and pompous lord bishops, and spiritual lords, but the apostle declares of the ministers of Christ that they were not to be “lords over God’s heritage,” but “ensamples to the flock.” 1 Peter 5: 3.
The weapons of the Christian are not carnal, but nevertheless mighty thru God to the pulling down of strongholds. 2 Cor. 10: 4, 5. The outward act of man is to rule by regenerating and ruling the inward thought. The whole panoply of the Christian warrior is wrought in the fire and forge of God. Eph. 6: 13-18. Men are not to be compelled or coerced, but besought and persuaded. 2 Cor. 5: 11.

As Sounding Brass.

By Max Hill

TWO brothers roomed together in college. One was always in trouble and mischief, the other was quiet and studious, a member of the church. One day a brother in the church talked long and earnestly with the erring boy. In the course of the conversation, he remarked: “Your brother is a true Christian. I hope you will make as good a one.”
To this the boy replied, with a touch of mingled sarcasm and mischief: “Yes, I have heard that my brother is a Christian.”
His remark brought the conversation to an abrupt end. Not fully comprehending the full meaning of the boy’s thrust, the older man left him, his own mind filled with questions. Was the model young man a Christian, or was his life but a pretension? Did his brother see that in his private life which did not accord with the pretensions of his public life? Did his brother see that which drove him from the Saviour instead of to Him? O, that that Christian brother might know his responsibility!
Truly one’s own family may know, and does know, whether one is a Christian, whether one lives up to his profession. Tho the world is deceived, tho even our loved ones are deceived, there is One who does see and know. Whatever the profession, whatever the outward show, “all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” The Judge of all will award a just sentence in the day which He has appointed to judge the earth, and from that decision there will be no appeal; whited sepulchers will be revealed, filthy garments disclosed. The word of our associates must not be, “I have heard that he is a Christian,” but, “I know he is a true Christian, for he is like Christ.”
MAX HILL.

Are We Free?

By Ina D. Coolbrith

(From a Fourth-of-July poem by Ina D. Coolbrith of Oakland, Cal.)
ARE we still thine, O Freedom? Join Thy voice to mine, and utter clear Thy truth; lest, cowardly, I coin The lie to lull the rising fear.
Speak thou the blame we shame to own; What tawdry despot rules the hour! How, servile, at a tinsel throne, We bow to pelf, we bow to power.
We drain the ore from nature's veins, And festering fetters forge, to bind Our cringing souls in mammon's claims— Slaves! Slaves!—in limb, in will, in mind!
We sleep, while Cain's uplifted hand With crimson drops befouls the sod; Crime writes across the shuddering land Its awful blasphemy of God;
And wrecks of men drift to and fro, And Dives feasts in jeweled state, And dreams to melody, while, lo, In thousands, Lazarus at the gate!
The sons of patriot sires, we dare The bribe to give, to take the bribe! And sit beneath the Old World's sneer, The king-ruled nations' jest and gibe.
Like theirs shall leisured lords of lands Mock the tired tiller of the soil With scanty harvest! Toiling hands Gain as their guerdon only toil!
O, for the loyal faith of old! The simple dignity and truth! The law that was not bought and sold! The clean soul of the nation's youth!
Heed! lest our banner mock the arch It mimics—heaven's starry home! The music of our pageant march Be Nero's play to burning Rome.
There is no slavery like sin; Where wrong is, freedom can not be; By right alone her crown we win; In honor, only, are we free.

Honest Dues.

“MRS. SMITH said you were the best laundress she ever had, Norah,” we remarked as dainty muslins were taken from the rack.
“Did she, ma’am?” The woman looked up for a moment, but her face expressed no particular pleasure at the praise. “’Twas meself she should have said it to, then, long ago, but she never did. All the months I worked for her she never said if things pleased her or no; she just looked at ’em and said nothing. I’d do my best for her, but all the time I did be feeling she wasn’t satisfied. I thought she was an honest woman.”
“Honest, Norah?” we questioned. “Why, she paid you, didn’t she?”
“She paid me the money, ma’am; but if she liked me work, ’twas no more than me dues for her to say so,” was the answer, with a touch of indignation. “She kept that back.”
Norah was right, and we went away thinking how many of us are guilty, either carelessly or wilfully, of withholding dues of that sort. From the sermon which uplifts the soul to the humblest task in the household, the one who faithfully ministers to our needs has earned the meed of acknowledgement as truly as the compensation in coin.—Wellspring.

Opportunity.

OPPORTUNITY! opportunity! Daily some are saved by improving opportunity; daily some are lost by permitting opportunity to slip by unimproved!
One watched, he seized, clung to, and won; The Saviour called, the work is done. Another dreamed; he heeded not the call; The day slipped by, and he lost all.
This day salvation came to or passed by this house, because he improved or neglected his opportunity.—Religious Telescope.

Boast Not of Tomorrow

"BOAST not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Prov. 27:1.

Equal Justice for All

By Thomas Jefferson

EQUAL and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.—Thomas Jefferson.

Religious Liberty in America

Whence It Came

It is generally recognized that in America, of all countries, religious liberty has found its fullest and widest scope. Where did America obtain these principles? From Jefferson? From Madison? From Paine? In part, directly. But where did these men obtain their knowledge of these principles?
Sometimes it is thought that these principles were born with American independence. Not so. They are older than America, older than the Reformation, older than the Dark Ages, older than Constantine.
Nineteen centuries ago Jesus Christ announced the doctrine of religious liberty in these words:
"If any man hear My words, and believe not, I JUDGE HIM NOT; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him IN THE LAST DAY." John 12:47, 48.
This utterance needs no extended comment. It grants the fullest liberty to believe or not to believe. It places non-acquiescence in religion on the basis, not of privilege, but so far as man is concerned, of indefeasible, unalienable right,—the right to differ, the right to believe or not to believe, the right to worship or not to worship. And it is the positive declaration of Him who could read all hearts that He would not judge or condemn the unbeliever. Have His followers the right to go beyond this? Furthermore, He declares that whatever condemnation there is will be at "the last day" when God shall judge men for just what they are. Have His followers the right to judge now?
On another occasion Christ drew a distinct line of demarcation between the duty we owe to civil government and the duty we owe to God. When asked by one who sought to ensnare Him whether it were lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not, Jesus said:
"Show Me the tribute money. And they brought unto Him a penny. And He saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto Him, Caesar's. Then saith He unto them, RENDER THEREFORE UNTO CAESAR THE THINGS WHICH ARE CAESAR'S; AND UNTO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD'S." Matt. 22:19-21.
Here is divine guidance to him who would know. What stamp, whose image, whose signature? Is it a State tax?—It is paid by the money coined by the government for that purpose. Is it a religious duty we owe to God? Is it the Lord's Supper, Baptism, the Sabbath?—Each and all of these bear the stamp of God in their origin and law; render them to Him; civil government has nothing to do with their observance or non-observance. The observance of religious duties does not come within the purview or jurisdiction of the State; and whenever the State assumes such authority, and interferes as to their observance or non-observance, it is the right and duty of the Church emphatically to protest, and bid the State to remain within its own sphere, as it is the right and duty of the State to tell any ambitious religious body or combination of religious bodies to keep the place assigned by the Master. To do otherwise is to justify every religious persecution ever instituted.
These glorious principles of religious liberty were grafted into the fundamental laws of the Federal Government of the United States. On the reverse side of the great seal of the United States was placed this inscription, "Novus Ordo Seclorum," meaning

"A New Order of Things."

This new order was especially manifest in these two ideas: Government is of the people; and government is, if right, absolutely separate from religion. George Bancroft, the great historian, remarks as follows on these guarantees of religious liberty:—
The Constitution establishes nothing that INTERFERES WITH EQUALITY OR INDIVIDUALITY. It knows nothing of differences by descent, or opinions, of favored classes, or legalized religion, or the political power of property. It leaves the individual alongside the individual. . . . Religion was become avowedly the attribute of man and not of a corporation. . . . Vindicating the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all, THE NEW NATION DARED TO SET THE EXAMPLE OF ACCEPTING IN ITS RELATIONS TO GOD THE PRINCIPLE FIRST DIVINELY ORDAINED IN JUDEA. It left the management of temporal things to the temporal power; but the American Constitution, in harmony with the people of the several States, WITHHELD FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THE POWER TO INVADE THE HOME OF REASON, THE CITADEL OF CONSCIENCE, the sanctuary of the soul; and, not from indifference, but that THE INFINITE SPIRIT OF ETERNAL TRUTH MIGHT MOVE IN ITS FREEDOM AND PURITY AND POWER.—History of the Constitution, Book V, chapter 1.
Under these guarantees of equity and liberty, during the succeeding century, both government and genuine religion prospered as under no other government. And this was expected. Said James Madison at that time:—
Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT WILL BOTH EXIST IN GREATER PURITY the less they are mixed together.—Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822.
On this the compiler of "American State Papers" well remarks:—
How different is this from the constant opposition of so many Christians to-day against every application of the doctrine. . . . If State chaplains are not hired, the early destruction of the State is predicted; if Sunday laws are not enforced, anathemas are pronounced against the whole nation;—and all this, too, when religion in America has prospered better, far better, under the secular principles of government than ever it did in any nation with all its religious teaching by the State. The words of General Grant should ever be remembered by the American people, "Keep the Church and State forever separate."—American State Papers, p. 77.
"God is no respecter of persons" is a great Bible truth. "One is your master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren" is the utterance of Jesus. "Choose ye" is God's appeal to man, and even Deity will not enter the sacred circle of man's freedom to compel choice. "Not that we have lordship over your faith," is the declaration of the great apostle to the Gentiles. The evidence is conclusive that from the great Book of Christianitythe founders of this free land received the glorious principles of liberty which have made America great. They are divine. Reader, cherish them forever.

Principles in the Early Church.

IN absolute freedom from the State, in utter separation from the governments of the world, the apostolic church began its work. It was vouchsafed all the power of God (Matt. 28:18-20); upon it was poured out the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; 2:1-12); its weapons were not carnal, but spiritual, and yet mighty thru God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4, 5). That early church never appealed to the State for support. The apostles never asked the civil power for State aid to establish, promote, or preserve any Christian dogma or institution. They had so much faith in the simple truth of God that they boldly declared, "We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth" (2 Cor. 13:8); and that even the persecutions waged against the Gospel had "fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel" (Phil. 1:12). They died, but truth lived and conquered. Idol shrines melted before truth's glowing love, heathen temples crumbled before truth's intrinsic power, and darkened hearts became the light bearers of the Sun of Righteousness.
It was not until the Church departed from her Lord that her mighty works ceased. It was not until she lost her power that she appealed to the State. The persecution of a Nero or Decius was better for the Church, suffer tho she did, than the "conversion" of a Constantine. Following the union of Church and State thru him, that apostasy rapidly developed, the fulness of which is seen in the persecutions of the Dark Ages; and that persecution not because men were naturally worse, but because they were led by wrong and wicked principles, which transformed them into demons, while at the same time they thought themselves God's ministers. The Dark Ages were but the developments of the first seedsowing in the days of Constantine, and previous. In fact, it began in the days of the apostle (2 Thess. 2:7), when Christ was excluded from the hearts of disciples, and unconverted men began to control the Church.
Some of the Reformers started out in theory on the true Gospel principle of absolute separation of Church and State, but this principle did not long control. It was not until 1776 that a place was found among the civilized governments of earth where Church and State both stood where God designed they should stand, each in its own sphere. That place was the great Republic of the West. Shall they ever remain separate in this republic?

A Higher Liberty.

THAN liberty mortals know nothing more glorious. Life itself were a questionable boon without liberty. Orators have declaimed in its honor. Poets have sung its praises. Dryden says:
"The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven."
Thomas Jefferson declared: "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time." And Patrick Henry voiced the sentiments of the American colonists in his famous speech when he cried: "Give me liberty, or give me death." Men, since the world began, have plead for it, fought for it, bled for it, died for it. They have not only done this for liberty for themselves, but for others.
The highest type of civil liberty has been developed—and abused, we may also say—in America. It is the longing for liberty and freedom which has brought the millions from the cramped territories and narrow laws of the Old World to this large, new land. And we do not from the human view blame a single soul for feeling proud that he is an American citizen, and that the Stars and Stripes—"Old Glory"—is the finest flag ever flung to the breezes of heaven. Patriotic pride has thrilled every orator and schoolboy who has repeated Drake's stirring lines:
"When Freedom from her mountain height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure celestial white With streakings of the morning light. Then, from his mansion near the sun, She called her eagle bearer down, And gave into his mighty hand The symbol of her chosen band."
  • But as Burke truly said, in "Reflections on the Revolution in France:" "What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint." And liberty without wisdom and virtue has been the ruin of every so-called free republic, and the latest is rapidly drifting in the same current.
But, reader, there is a greater bondage than physical slavery. There is a greater tyranny than taxation without representation. There is a greater misery than physical want and hunger, and loss of property. There are greater troubles than persecution and torture and loss of life. The greatest slavery the world ever knew, because the mother of all forms of bondage, is the slavery of sin. The most grievous bondage ever witnessed by angels or men is the bondage of the soul. Out of sin's lordship has grown every evil under the sun, all the world's load of wants, woes, heart-breakings, miseries, tragedies.
But the awful misery of the slavery comes home to the sensitive, longing heart who wishes to break from his chains, and can not do it. He acknowledges a God. He knows that Deity demands perfection. His own conscience, quickened by the Spirit of God, demands it. He knows in his own soul that judgment, the decisions of which are eternal, lies on before; that he must himself give account to the bar of God, as he daily pleads guilty at the bar of conscience. Like one of old, he feels, "I am carnal, sold under sin;" "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?"
Soul, whoever you are, there is liberty from sin and sinning in Jesus Christ. The Gospel message is a message of liberty. He came to give "deliverance to the captives," "to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4:18. The mighty creative power of God in the Gospel will set you free if you will receive it. Impotent you may be in yourself, He says to you as to one of old, "Rise, and walk;" walk in the paths of righteousness, in the way of liberty from sin.
That liberty the world can not give. No country, however beneficent its laws, can bestow it. Praise God, no human tyranny, however powerful, can take it away. It reaches beyond all earth's miseries, beyond the chain-gang and the galley, beyond the prison and the rack, beyond the gallows and the stake. It tunnels the grave by the righteousness and life of Jesus Christ, and gives eternal liberty in immortal bodies in a world of freedom in the ages beyond. So, dear reader, while we rejoice in the civil liberty vouchsafed us, we rejoice more in the Christian liberty granted us in Jesus Christ our Lord, and we wish to assure you by living experience that it is infinitely greater, better, and higher, and that liberty waits every soul in Christ Jesus.

The Cause of It All.

This fiendish act of religious tyranny, this infamous politico-ecclesiastical crime, and its consequent atrocities, robbed France within three years of one million of the choicest of her population, paralyzed all her industries, and "ruined the best elements of her religious and social life." It is difficult to form a just conception of the extent, the vindictiveness, and the atrocious cruelties that characterized the persecutions to which those exemplary citizens and Christians were subjected at the hands of the authorities both civil and ecclesiastical. But it was all the legitimate fruit of a close union between the Church and the State.
It is safe to say that 50,000,000 persons have suffered death for conscience' sake since the days of Nero. Not one of these would have suffered if the Church and the State had always let each other alone. Small wonder, then, that the choicest spirits of the human race have ever been the uncompromising champions of religious and political liberty. We are not surprised, then, that their Prototype was none less than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Founder of the only religion that can make men free, and keep them free both in time and in eternity.

Taking His Name in Vain.

By Max Hill

GOD is love; it is His nature; it is His desire to bless. The man of God, filled with the love of God, has a character of love. His nature, being transformed by that love, is to bless, and his desire is to bless. He sees good, or possibilities of good, in all; and loving all, he calls upon his God to bless those he loves. That man has not taken the name of the Lord in vain, for it has been used in harmony with the divine will, and the blessing comes.
On the other hand, the profane man who has not within him a spirit of love, not being connected with the Source of love, becomes vexed and angered by adverse circumstances or men, and calls on God, not for blessing, but for a curse upon the offending element. But to curse has no place in the heart of God. The man has therefore taken the name of the Lord in vain, having asked a vain thing of Him.
The sinner, in thus transgressing, brings himself under condemnation, "for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain." Tho he may observe every other command of God, he is a sinner if he breaks one, "for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all." He has broken the spirit of the law by disobedience. His final end is destruction, for "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," "the wages of sin is death." MAX HILL.

Rise by Resistance.

THERE is no way to rise, on earth, except by resistance. It has been pointed out that every stairway is nothing but a series of obstacles, each one of which must be overcome singly, if we would let that stairway serve its purpose and bring us to the top. So with everything in life that seems to oppose us, bear us down, or call a halt. It is not only an opportunity for going ahead, but there would be no way of making gains without these helpful resistances. One has well written, "A world in which there were no labors to be accomplished, no burdens to be borne, no storms to be endured, would be a world without true joy, honest pleasure, or noble aspiration. It would be a fool's paradise." Shall we not think of this as we are tempted to resent to-day's invitations to progress?—Sunday School Times.

Character

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Character is higher than intellect. . . . A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think.—Emerson.
Continue reading: The Declaration of Independence