Signs of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 45. (11/30/1882)

Signs of the Times

Nov 30, 1882

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 30, 1882

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

Bible Sanctification.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE.

MANY who are sincerely seeking for holiness of heart and purity of life seem perplexed and discouraged. They are constantly looking to themselves, and lamenting their lack of faith; and because they have no faith, they feel that they cannot claim the blessing of God. These persons mistake feeling for faith. They look above the simplicity of true faith, and thus bring great darkness upon their souls. They should turn the mind from self, to dwell upon the mercy and goodness of God and to recount his promises, and then simply believe that he will fulfill his word. We are not to trust in our faith, but in the promises of God. When we repent of our past transgressions of his law, and resolve to render obedience in the future, we should believe that God for Christ's sake accepts us, and forgives our sins.

Darkness and discouragement will sometimes come upon the soul, and threaten to overwhelm us; but we should not cast away our confidence. We must keep the eye fixed on Jesus, feeling or no feeling. We should seek to faithfully perform every known duty, and then calmly rest in the promises of God.

At times a deep sense of our unworthiness will send a thrill of terror through the soul; but this is no evidence that God has changed toward us, or we toward God. No effort should be made to rein the mind up to a certain intensity of emotion. We may not feel to-day the peace and joy which we felt yesterday; but we should by faith grasp the hand of Christ, and trust him as fully in the darkness as in the light.

Satan may whisper, "You are too great a sin-ner for Christ to save." While you acknowledge that you are indeed sinful and unworthy, you may meet the tempter with the cry, "By virtue of the atonement, I claim Christ as my Saviour. I trust not to my own merits, but to the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanses me. This moment I hang my helpless soul on Christ." The Christian life must be a life of constant, living faith. An unyielding trust, a firm reliance upon Christ, will bring peace and assurance to the soul.

Be not discouraged because your heart seems hard. Every obstacle, every internal foe, only increases your need of Christ. He came to take away the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. Look to him for special grace to overcome your peculiar faults. When assailed by temptation, steadfastly resist the evil promptings; say to your soul, "How can I dishonor my Redeemer? I have given myself to Christ; I cannot do the works of Satan." Cry to the dear Saviour for help to sacrifice every idol, and to put away every darling sin. Let the eye of faith see Jesus standing before the Father's throne, presenting his wounded hands as he pleads for you. Believe that strength comes to you through your precious Saviour.

By faith look upon the crowns laid up for those who shall overcome; listen to the exultant song of the redeemed, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hast redeemed us to God! Endeavor to regard these scenes as real. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in his terrible conflict with principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places, exclaimed, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." The Saviour of the world was revealed to him as looking down from Heaven upon him with the deepest interest; and the glorious light of Christ's countenance shone upon Stephen with such brightness that even his enemies saw his face shine like the face of an angel.

If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in fighting the battles of the Lord. Pride and love of the world will lose their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon to be our home. Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attrac-tions will seem of little worth.

Let none imagine that without earnest effort on their part they can obtain the assurance of God's love. When the mind has been long permitted to dwell only on earthly things, it is a difficult mat-ter to change the habits of thought. That which the eye sees and the ear hears, too often attracts the attention and absorbs the interest. But if we would enter the city of God, and look upon Jesus in his glory, we must become accustomed to beholding him with the eye of faith here. The words and the character of Christ should be often the subject of our thoughts and of our conversa-tion; and each day some time should be espe-cially devoted to prayerful meditation upon these sacred themes.

Sanctification is a daily work. Let none de-ceive themselves with the belief that God will pardon and bless them while they are trampling upon one of his requirements. The willful com-mission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit, and separates the soul from God. Whatever may be the ecstasies of religious feeling, Jesus cannot abide in the heart that dis-regards the divine law. God will honor those only who honor him.

"His servants ye are to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey." If we indulge anger, lust, covetousness, hatred, selfishness, or any other sin, we become servants of sin. "No man can serve two masters." If we serve sin, we cannot serve Christ. The Christian will feel the prompt-ings of sin, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; but the Spirit striveth against the flesh, keeping up a constant warfare. Here is where Christ's help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims, "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

If we would develop a character which God can accept, we must form correct habits in our relig-ious life. Daily prayer is as essential to growth in grace, and even to spiritual life itself, as is temporal food to physical well-being. We should ac-custom ourselves to often lift the thoughts to God in prayer. If the mind wanders, we must bring it back; by persevering effort, habit will finally make it easy. We cannot for one moment sep-arate ourselves from Christ with safety. We may have his presence to attend us at every step, but only by observing the conditions which he has himself laid down.

Religion must be made the great business of life. Everything else should be held subordinate to this. All our powers, of soul, body, and spirit, must be engaged in the Christian warfare. We must look to Christ for strength and grace, and we shall gain the victory as surely as Jesus died for us.

We must come nearer to the cross of Christ. Penitence at the foot of the cross is the first les-son of peace we have to learn. The love of Jesus —who can comprehend it? Infinitely more tender and self-denying than a mother's love! If we would know the value of a human soul, we must look in living faith upon the cross, and thus begin the study which shall be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. The value of our time and our talents can be estimated only by the greatness of the ransom paid for our redemption. What ingratitude do we manifest toward God when we rob him of his own by withholding from him our affections and our serv-ice. Is it too much to give ourselves to Him who has sacrificed all for us? Can we choose the friendship of the world before the immortal hon-ors which Christ proffers,—"to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne?"

Sanctification is a progressive work. The suc-cessive steps are set before us in the words of Peter: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge; and to knowl-edge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Here is a course by which we may be assured that we shall never fall. Those who are thus working upon the plan of addition in obtaining the Christian graces, have the assurance that God will work upon the plan of multiplication in granting them the gifts of his Spirit. Peter ad-dresses those who have obtained like precious faith: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." By divine grace, all who will may climb the shining steps from earth to Heaven, and at last, "with songs and everlasting joy," enter through the gates into the city of God.

Our Saviour claims all there is of us; he asks our first and holiest thoughts, our purest and most intense affection. If we are indeed partakers of the divine nature, his praise will be continually in our hearts and upon our lips. Our only safety is to surrender our all to him, and to be constantly growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

The apostle Paul was highly honored of God, being taken in holy vision to the third heaven, where he looked upon scenes whose glories he was not permitted to reveal. Yet this did not lead him to boastfulness or self-confidence. He realized the importance of constant watchfulness and self-denial, and plainly declares, "I keep un-der my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to oth-ers, I myself should be a castaway."

Paul suffered for the truth's sake; and yet we hear no complaints from his lips. As he reviews his life of toil and care and sacrifice, he says, "I reckon the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be re-vealed in us." The shout of victory from God's faithful servant comes down the line to our time: —"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than con-querors, through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Though Paul was at last confined in a Roman prison—shut away from the light and air of heaven, cut off from his active labors in the gos-pel, and momentarily expecting to be condemned to death—yet he did not yield to doubt or de-spondency. From that gloomy dungeon came his dying testimony, full of a sublime faith and cour-age that has inspired the hearts of saints and martyrs in all succeeding ages. His words fitly describe the results of that sanctification which we have in these columns endeavored to set forth. "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appear-ing."

"Walk in the light! so shalt thou know That fellowship of love His Spirit only can bestow, Who reigns in light above.

"Walk in the light! and thou shalt own Thy darkness passed away; Because that light on thee hath shown, In which is perfect day.

"Walk in the light! and thine shall be A path, though thorny, bright; For God, by grace, shall dwell in thee, And God himself is light."

THANKSGIVING.

By Theodore Bayling

I THANK Thee for the present, with its light; For daily labor, and for answered prayers; For all sweet thoughts, and fancies softly bright, That soothe mine earthly cares.

I thank Thee for the past with all its loss, Its gentle discipline and needful pain; And for the love that lightened every cross, And loosened every chain.

I thank Thee for the future, with its store Of hope and promise for the coming years; And for the glory shining evermore Through the dim mist of tears.

I Thank Thee for the grace that kept my feet To the old paths wherein my fathers trod; I bless Thee for the loved ones I shall meet Before the throne of God.

I thank Thee for the hours of holy calm, The dear familiar words of prayer and praise; The comfort thou hast breathed in hymn and psalm, On peaceful, holy days.

I thank Thee for the viewless angel bands, Who scatter blossoms on the rugged way, Whose silent care and ministering hands, Are with me night and day.

I thank Thee for the strength that held me up In my dark hour of want and sore distress; When my soul's lips had drained the bitter cup, And I was comfortless!

And oh, I pray that perfect love to Thee May touch and gild each word and deed of mine; That even careless eyes may rest on me, And know that I am Thine.

Let Thine eternal counsel guide me here In ways of holiness—that when the cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh," meets mine ear, I may go forth—my lamp-light burning clear; To meet Thee joyfully. —Theodore Bayling.

Transcendentalism Defined.

TRANSCENDENTALISM is a long word, and those who use it most can't give any very precise definition of it. Twenty-five years ago it came into great vogue under the lead of Mr. Emerson, and got into the language of young women and students, and the clergymen talked about it; but still the question was, what transcendentalism meant. Well, on one of the Mississippi River steam-boats when a party of eminent divines were returning from a general convention of the Presbyterian Church, they were in high discussion about orthodoxy, and the old faith, and transcendentalism; and a layman who enjoyed their conversation, one of the lay delegates returning with them, still felt a little puzzled about what transcendental and transcendentalism meant, so he ventured to ask the divine in whom he had the greatest confidence:—

"I hear you use this word transcendentalism; now, what does it mean?"

"Well," said the doctor of divinity, "that is more easily asked than answered." They were passing by a bluff on the river; said he: "Do you see that bluff on this side of the river?"

"Yes."

"Do you see how pierced it is with swallows' holes?"

"Yes, I see that."

"Well, now," said he, "you take away all that bluff and leave nothing but the swallows' holes, and that is transcendentalism."—Ex.

The Moral System, and What It Requires.

I now propose a question which the reckless and the heedless may pass by without particular notice; but which the thinking and the candid will admit to be one of immense interest. Will these aspirations, this innate sense of justice, before referred to, ever be gratified? That they are not, that they cannot be gratified in the present state, need not be argued. Is my moral nature, my sense of right and justice, satisfied to see virtue trodden under foot? to see the libertine mocking over the grave of blighted hopes and a broken heart? to see the priceless treasure of virtuous purity, around which cluster the fondest hopes of earth, sported with as a mere toy of little worth? to see honest toil sink unrequited, and hide itself in squalid poverty and a pauper's grave? to see the vain, rolling in wealth accumulated by fraud and oppression? to see vice exalted to the pinnacle of fame? to hear the praises of him whose very presence is loathsome by reason of the filthiness of his iniquities? And when words fail to express the horrors of such and kindred evils, must I smile complacently and say, This is right, in this my soul delights? But this is but a mere glance at the facts as they exist, as they have existed, and are likely to exist in this present state. Is it possible that these aspirations, these discriminations of right and wrong, were placed within our breasts to be mocked—to look and long in vain? Is it possible that the Supreme One, who has so nicely arranged the material world, and subjected it to certain laws, has placed moral balances in our hands to no purpose? that we are to long for, but never see, a vindication of the great principles of justice? Is it not rather reasonable to conclude that he has a moral government, and that our moral sense is evidence that we are within the limits of a moral system? Are not our convictions of wrong proof to ourselves of our amenability to such a system?

The very fact that we discriminate between moral and natural laws, as I have shown that all men do, is a recognition of the fact that there is a moral government. Thus, to look above Nature—to acknowledge God as a moral Governor—is necessary, to be true to our own natures, to the convictions planted in every breast. In this great truth our aspirations find rest. Here our sense of justice takes refuge; for a government is a system of laws maintained, and the very idea of a moral government leads us to look forward to a vindication of the right principles or laws now trampled upon. Why should we pronounce upon the nature or demerit of human actions, if there is no accountability for those actions? Our feelings of responsibility (the movings of conscience) are but the expectation of a great assize, in or by which injustice, fraud, and every wrong, will be requited, and down-trodden virtue and injured innocence be exalted and vindicated. This is, indeed, but a legitimate deduction from the propositions established, and in this we find a sure vindication of the divine government in regard to the anomalies of the present state.

We find some, even among those who acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being, who deny the existence of moral wrong; but the reasonableness of their denial, I cannot perceive. It is founded mostly on the alleged inability of man to act except in a given line. But here, again, we find them false to their own theory, and uniformly so. They will, as readily as others, sit in judgment upon, and condemn, the actions of their fellow-men. They will blame any for encroaching on their rights. But it were surely the height of folly, the grossest injustice, to blame one for doing what he cannot avoid. And how unreasonable to think that God bestows a moral sense, and plants within us the monitor of conscience, to lead us to do right, and yet compels us to do wrong. We count the man immoral and degraded who disregards the distinctions of right and wrong; what, then, could we think of a God who would frame a system wherein these distinctions could not be preserved? And yet such is the case, if man has no freedom to act. We all acknowledge the difference between right and wrong, as principles; that it is right to regard our neighbor's life and property; and hence, he that disregards them does wrong. And all are conscious that the

wrong we do is of ourselves; and no one ever seeks to throw it back to any other cause until his moral sense is perverted by selfishness and false reasoning.

Akin to the above position is the oft-repeated idea that God is so loving, so kind, that he will not mark to condemn our aberrations from duty. This is contrary to, and of course a denial of, the declarations of Scripture. But let me ask the objector, laying the Bible aside. Where is your evidence that God so loves us? You surely do not learn from nature that love is the sole attribute of Deity. How came you by the idea that the Deity must possess love? Reflect on this. Whence do you derive your conceptions of love, and of its necessity in the divine character? Can you tell? Your only answer must be that they are intuitive; that you owe this conception to your own consciousness. You have, in a degree, an innate knowledge of the moral fitness of things; and according to this, you clothe the Deity with such attributes as your moral sense determines to be fitting to him. But, in the idea above advanced, you are only partially true to your higher nature; partially just to your own consciousness, in awarding to Deity only love. For I affirm that our consciousness, our self-judgment of the moral fitness of things, gives us as definite and clear conceptions of justice as of love. All the propositions established in this argument tend to this point. We are apt to lose sight of justice, and to exalt love. This is quite natural with all who have any sense of wrong (and who has not?), for we feel the need of love or mercy, and are ever willing or anxious to screen ourselves from justice. But in this, as before remarked, we do violence to our moral sense, to gratify our selfish feelings. Can any one dispassionately reason and reflect on this subject, and accept the idea of a God of even partial justice? The idea is alike repugnant to reason and to reverence. God must be strictly, infinitely just. I should choose to be annihilated rather than to possess immortal existence in a universe governed or controlled by a being of almighty power, but lacking justice.

But the thought is humiliating that a word of remark is necessary to prove to any that moral wrong exists. What! must I stop to reason with a man, a human being, with all his faculties in exercise, to prove to him that it is wrong to commit adultery, to murder, or to steal? To argue the question seems to insult the sense of mankind. The real question is, how to dispose of the evil with which we meet; how to rescue criminals from the awful consequences of their violations of the law of Him who is infinitely just. I do not ask you to consider whether they might not be suffered to escape by suspending justice, or how they might stand before a being of partial justice; but how they are to stand when justice is maintained and vindicated on the scale of infinity.— Atonement.

Growth of the United States, as Viewed in London.

A LONDON correspondent, in a New York journal, writing on the subject of the growth of this country from an English stand-point, says:—

"In the history of mankind there is no parallel to the growth of the United States, which, at the beginning of the present century, was not much ahead of Portugal, and at present stands before Great Britain, occupying, therefore, the foremost rank among nations.

First let us consider the population and wealth, for men and money are two of the principal factors in all that goes to make up national power:—

1800... 5,300,000... $1,110,000,000... $210 1810... 7,200,000... 1,560,000,000... 215 1820... 9,600,000... 1,950,000,000... 200 1830... 12,900,000... 2,200,000,000... 215 1840... 17,100,000... 4,900,000,000... 230 1850... 23,200,000... 7,400,000,000... 320 1860... 31,500,000... 16,800,000,000... 530 1870... 38,600,000... 31,200,000,000... 810 1880... 50,300,000... 49,800,000,000... 990

It is remarkable that in 1840 the share of public wealth to each inhabitant was not much greater than at the beginning of the century; but in the ensuing forty years, the increase has been more rapid than in any country of Europe. In 1840 Great Britain stood for more than five times

the wealth of the United States (the valuation of the former country in that year being £4,100,000,000), but now you are nearly six milliards of dollars, or £1,200,000,000 ahead of the United Kingdom; for while this country has doubled its wealth in forty years, you have seen yours multiply twelvefold; the highest relative increase in the United States, compared with population, was between 1850 and 1870, while the decade ending 1880 has only added 24 per cent. to the individual share of public capital. Before going further, it may be well to take the chief items of wealth in the United States, to wit:—

Millions of Dollars. Railways... 5,225 Farms... 9,610 Cattle... 1,820 Manufactures... 5,255 Houses... 13,300 Furniture... 5,420 Forests, Mines, Canals... 2,793 Bullion... 720 Shipping... 315 Public works, etc... 5,252 Total... 49,710

The national debt, amounting to $1,650,000,000, should not be deducted from the above, since most of it is held by Americans, and the same may be said of municipal or other local debts. There can be no doubt that the influx of emigrants from Europe has in a great measure tended to the increase of public wealth; but it is no less certain that such a rapid rise of population has kept down the ratio of wealth per inhabitant, and hence the increase per head in the decade ending 1880 has been less than in the preceding ones. It may be interesting to observe that the growth of wealth in the decade just ended would be sufficient to buy the whole Austrian Empire, or to pay for the aggregate value of Italy, Holland, and Belgium. Nevertheless the average of wealth per inhabitant with you is less than in Great Britian or France, as shown thus:—

United States... $49,770,000,000... $990 United Kingdom... 44,100,000,000... 1,200 France... 37,200,000,000... 1,045

As regards the items that make up your wealth, it is comparatively easy to trace their growth, the first on the list being railways. The mileage and cost of railways have increased as follows:—

Miles. R. R. Capital per Inhab. 1850... 9,020... $302,000,000... $13 1860... 30,630... 1,127,000,000... 36 1870... 52,974... 2,410,000,000... 62 1880... 93,671... 5,205,000,000... 104

Not only is the railway capital at present three times as much per head as in 1860, but it has served in a prodigious manner to develop your agricultural resources, and enhance the value of your farms and lands. The increase of public wealth in railways once since 1870 has been over five millions weekly, or very little short of one million dollars a day, deducting Sundays. It is perhaps more in agriculture than in anything else that one can realize the unprecedented rise of industry in the United States in one single generation, which appears by comparing the returns of 1880 with those of 1840:—

1840 1880 1840 1880 Acres, tillage... 44,850,000... 166,140,000... 26... 33 Grain, million bush... 615... 2,643... 35... 52 Value of all crops... $410,000,000... $1,995,000,000... $24... $40 Value of all cattle... 372,000,000... 1,820,000,000... 22... 36

Thus, while population has only trebled, the growth of agricultural interests has been fivefold, and, whether we regard the value of crops or of cattle, the ratio per inhabitant is almost double what it was forty years ago.

Attention, Sharp!

A FRIEND of mine was in the office of a gentleman in Philadelphia, when a young man came in for instructions with regard to some business he was to transact. The merchant stated the different points distinctly, but in rapid succession, repeating nothing a second time. There were quite a number of items, and the youth took no notes, but gave the sharpest attention, and then put on his hat and walked out.

In answer to an amused smile on my friend’s face, the other remarked:—

"You think that is rattling off business pretty fast, don’t you?"

"Yes, and the only wonder to me is that the boy can remember a single thing you said."

"It is all in training. A boy may just as well learn to attend to what you say the first time and remember it, as to look to have it repeated over and over again, and then quite likely forget half his directions."

There was a great deal of truth in the remark, and it is well worthy the attention of every young person. It is a great disadvantage to any one to acquire the habit of half-listening, when he is told anything of importance. "Attention, sharp!" should be the motto of every wide-awake boy or girl when taking in instructions. It will save many mortifying blunders, and help to win for them a name for ability, which is capital better than bank stock with which to begin life.

The same peculiarities are apt to run all through a person’s character. The inattentive listener is pretty sure to be the inattentive observer. It is an old saying that there are people who "can go through a whole forest and see no firewood."

People of this stamp lose a great deal that might be turned to account by way of personal improvement, and they miss many wayside springs of happiness. Mr. Edgeworth claims that the difference in intellect among men depends more upon the early cultivation of this habit of attention, than upon any marked difference in their original powers.

Any boy of average ability may learn to attend closely to what goes on about him, or the business he has in hand. It may be necessary to go from one thing to another in rapid succession, but for the moment we should give concentrated thought to whatever we are doing. It is by this close attention and sharp following up of facts that Watt made his great discoveries in steam, and that Edison has made for himself such a name in our day. There are more fields yet to be won, and the brave boys are now plodding on their way who are to win them. They are not the boys of lazy minds, nor the boys who are always forgetting, and saying, "I don’t care."—Olive, in Methodist.

Policy of Romanism.

JOSEPH SADOC, C. P., Archbishop of San Francisco, makes an appeal to the clergy and laity of his diocese for the establishment of a theological seminary for the education of Romish priests at the old Mission of San Jose. He announces that “after prudent advice, chiefly from eminent directors of Rome, we have secured the precious services of learned and holy professors to conduct the institution,” and for this purpose he directs an annual collection. Whereupon the Catholic family journal “devoted to the propagation,” etc., says: “Woe to those Catholic parents who rob their children of their religious rights by sending them to Beelzebub's battle-ground—the public school—when they have Catholic schools convenient to their residences. Such parents wantonly fly in the face of God by so doing,” etc. “The Pope commands Catholic parents to send their children to Catholic schools. The bishops have all exhorted parents to the same end. The pastors in every see in the Union have spoken to the people from God's altar to save their children to the faith of their fathers by means of Catholic education.” The church organ admonishes parents that they imperil the souls of their children by allowing them to attend the godless public schools, and advises them to withdraw their children, and send them to private and parish schools, taught by Jesuit fathers and Christian brothers, and by Sisters of Presentation, Mercy, Charity, Notre Dame, Holy Names, Sacred Heart, Saint Ursula, etc. If our public schools are such propagandas of the devil as this slanderous and lying organ of the Romish Church declares them to be, why does not the church, through its pope and prelates, its archbishops and priests, its editors and politicians, recommend Catholics to vacate their positions as school superintendents, teachers, janitors, carpenters, etc.? Why permit good Romanists to live upon the earnings of place in our public-school system, if it is such a wicked thing? Why peril the souls of Catholic school-marms by exposing them on Beelzebub's battle-field? Why are good Catholics so anxious to be elected to our Board of education? Why is a certain Irish Democratic Roman Catholic school-master so persistent in his endeavor to become superintendent of the common schools of San Francisco? If the “Catholic family journal, devoted to the propagation,” etc., is not too busy, we hope it will answer these conundrums.—The Argonaut.

Towards Rome.

AT the installation of Dr. N. Smyth over a Congregational Church, at New Haven, Conn., he distinctly avowed his belief in prayers for the dead. He did not regard it as an obligation, but said, "I believe it should be and is a privilege," a privilege "dear to those who wish to confer with the Lord Jesus in behalf of their departed friends." And a committee of thirty-three pronounced the doctor "satisfactory."

And this is New England orthodoxy! Our eyes open wide with astonishment. Of course those who believe that Jesus preached the gospel in hell (hades) while he was dead, and in probation for the dead, while dead, can easily move on into the "privilege of prayers for the dead." But did we ever hear of this before in America outside of the Mormon and Romish churches? If so, when and where? To us this looks like the English Christian's cut at Puseyism, in the parody—

"And nightly pitch their moving tents A day's march nearer Rome."

But it is alarming. And signs thicken.— D. T. T., in Bible Banner.

Asking a Blessing.

By Dr. J. Hamilton

THERE is nothing which is right for us to do, but it is also right to ask God to bless it; and, indeed, there is nothing so little but the frown of God can convert it into the most sad calamity, or his smile exalt it into a most memorable mercy; and there is nothing we can do, but its complexion for weal or woe depends entirely on what the Lord will make it. It is said of Matthew Henry, that no journey was undertaken, or any subject or course of sermons entered upon, no book committed to the press, or any trouble apprehended or felt, without a particular application to the mercy-seat for direction, assistance and success.

It is recorded of Cornelius Winter, that he seldom opened a book, even on general subjects, without a moment's prayer. The late Bishop Heber, on each new incident of his history, or on the eve of any undertaking, used to compose a brief prayer, imploring special help and guidance. . . . A late physician of great celebrity used to ascribe much of his success to three maxims of his father's, the last and best of which was, "Always pray for your patients." —Dr. J. Hamilton.

Cheek.

By Burlington Hawkeye

No, MY son, cheek is not better than wisdom, it is not better than modesty; it is not better than anything. Don't listen to the siren who tells you to blow your horn or it will never be tooted upon. The world is not to be deceived by cheek, and it does search for merit, and when it finds it, merit is rewarded. Cheek never deceives the world, my son. It appears to do so to the cheeky man, but he is the one that is deceived. Do you know one cheeky man in all your acquaintance who is not reviled for his cheek the moment his back is turned? Is the world not continually drawing distinctions between cheek and merit? Almost everybody hates a cheeky man, my son. Society tires of the brassy glare of his face, the hollow tinkling of his cymbaline tongue, the noisy assumption of his forwardness. The triumphs of cheek are only apparent. He bores his way along through the world, and frequently people give way for him. But so they give way, my boy, for a man with a paint-pot in each hand. Not because they respect the man with the paint-pot particularly, but because they want to take care of their clothes. You sell goods without it, and your customers won't run and hide in the cellar when they see you coming.—Burlington Hawkeye.

The Dangers of Forgetfulness

By John Reid

FORGETFULNESS is one of the broad ways of sin. A ship can be lost by carelessness as well as by design. The evils of life come mainly through inattention. If I mind not, I find not. Souls are lost at no cost. Every man has a weak side; but a wise man knows where it is, and will keep a double guard there.—John Reid.

The Man You Honor

Carlyle says: "Show me the man you honor. I know by that symptom, better than any other, what you are yourself. For you show me what your ideal of manhood is, what kind of man you long inexpressibly to be."

Continue reading: The Foundation of Sabbath and Sunday Observance