p. 540 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 45. (11/29/1883)

Temperance.

By W. N. Glenn

Beef and Alcohol.

RATHER an astounding editorial appeared in the San Francisco Bulletin of the 17th inst., entitled "Beef, Brawn and Victory." Referring to an address of Prof. Hilgard, of the State University, who "seems inclined to the vegetarian theory," and to the fact that "a vegetarian colony had recently settled down in California," the premise is laid down that "the physical forces which have conquered the world, and which will conquer it hereafter, have not and will not be nurtured on an exclusive vegetable diet." It is further represented that the fighting qualities of the German army are maintained by bacon, beef, and beer; and that the British soldier is kept in fighting trim by a diet of beef, mutton, ale, and port. Now, people who desire to have savage dogs around their premises, or keep such animals for fighting purposes, usually feed them on raw meat, and as the lecture referred to by the Bulletin was upon the subject of cookery, the editor, to be consistent in his theory, should have advocated an uncooked flesh diet.

Admitting that the ferocious propensities claimed for the conquerors of the world are engendered and sustained by a diet of flesh and malt and alcohol, it is very questionable if it be better to have the world conquered and held in subjection by such a power. If this is the element that is goading the dominant powers of the earth to vie with each other in the production of munitions for the destruction of human life, is not this fact a sufficient reason to call for reform in diet? If it is better to feed the human race upon such food as will, from generation to generation, tend to the propagation of combativeness, then many good men have mistaken the design of the Creator. To argue that flesh and alcohol are the proper articles of food for man, in view of his welfare and happiness, is to impugn the wisdom of Providence, which the Christian editor of the Bulletin would not wittingly do. We have only to turn to the book of Genesis (which many Christians still hold to be good authority) to learn the original design of the Creator in this regard. That he permitted them to become meat-eaters, and even designated what should be clean and unclean unto them, is not more surprising than his permitting Israel to have kings over them, against his will, even pointing out the men whom his prophets should anoint—and often very bad men.

As to the question of physical endurance, a notable example is found in the exode of Israel from Egypt. When the Lord started his people across a wilderness country, upon a journey requiring both endurance and faith, intending that they should conquer a land densely populated with meat-eaters, he gave them a simple diet and purposely kept flesh from them. When they wickedly lusted for it, he gave it to them, but they would have been better off without it.

With reference to intellectual power, as well as physical, no better example could be found than that of Daniel. The story is too familiar to need repeating. Suffice it to say that, when carried to Babylon a captive in his youth, he, with three others, was selected by the king to be educated and fed at Government expense. These captives refused to take any food excepting a purely vegetable diet, and they came out not only fairer in flesh, but intellectually superior to all their fellow students. Daniel rose to be head of the wise men of the nation, and prime minister of the Government—the grandest that ever existed upon the earth, embracing 127 provinces.

The Bulletin alludes to the Franco-German war, and asserts that the result of that conflict could not have been as it was had the Germans been vegetarians. Inasmuch as the French are also great flesh-eaters and wine-drinkers, we can with fully as much show of logic, assume that had Napoleon's army been vegetarians, the result would have been different. But on this point of physical endurance, the following extracts from Health and Long Life are to the point:—

"The animal kingdom depends for support on the vegetable kingdom, and that is the reason both animal and vegetable food contain the same life sustaining properties; hence it is that man can live on vegetable food alone, or wholly on animal food. The vegetable-eater gets his nourishment in all its purity from the original source, and converts it for the first time into his own flesh and blood; whereas the flesh-eater gets his from a second-hand source, and reconverts into his own flesh that which has been used by another animal."

"The brave Spartans, who, for muscular power, physical energy, and ability to endure hardships, perhaps stand unequaled in the history of nations, were vegetarians. The departure from their simple diet was soon followed by their decline. The armies of Greece and Rome, in the times of their unparalleled conquests, subsisted on vegetable productions. In the training for the public games in Greece, where muscular strength was to be exhibited in all its varied forms, vegetable food was adhered to; but when flesh meat was adopted afterward, those hitherto athletic men became sluggish and stupid."

The Bulletin further avers: "All great reforms involve an element of radicalism. Speech and action go to extremes. It is the excess of another kind of intemperance set over against that which is felt to be a great evil." This is a severe thrust at reform, but all reforms have had to stand such opposition. It is a well-known fact, though, that nothing short of the most radical radicalism ever effectually reformed anything, or ever will. Logically, to ignore the only means of a reformation, is to discourage the reformation itself.

Again: "The noblest kind of temperance is that which can use every good thing without abusing it." This is the grand argument of the liquor traffic, and it is sad to see Christian men attaching it to the use of beer and ale and port, and lauding as "victory" the results of their use. It is not exactly abusing a good thing, it is using a bad thing. The use of the argument might have passed, in connection with beef alone, unnoticed; but it does seem a pity that such an influential journal should use a defense of beef as an excuse for ringing in a plea for alcohol. If the two are inseparable, there is certainly a call for more radicalism.

Downey, Los Angeles Co., Cal.

By E. A. Briggs

SINCE my last report, seven more have signed the covenant here, making fifty-two who are faithfully striving to walk in the light which they have recently received. Many of these have been slaves to the vile habit of tobacco-using; but this evil is fast disappearing, and we trust it will be soon eradicated from among them. One of those who have been received into full church fellowship, is a brother who was a Methodist preacher, and who has just given up the use of tobacco in which he had indulged fifty-seven years. Let none say that they cannot break away from this habit. We have just purchased a lot, and ordered lumber, for the erection of a church building. Pray for the work here.

Nov. 22, 1883. E. A. BRIGGS.

A Chinese Boy.

About fifty miles from Shanghai, in the city of Quin San, there is a little Baptist Church. One of the members is a boy sixteen or seventeen years old now, who before his conversion had formed the habit of drinking wine. He soon saw that this was sinful, so, after asking God to help him, he decided upon the following plan of overcoming the sin which had gotten hold of him. A small wooden box was made, closed all around except a hole in the top, and every day at the usual hour of drinking wine, the "wine man" inside (as he chose to call his appetite), would bite him and want wine. Then he would run to the box and put into it the money he used to spend for wine, exclaiming, "There now! you can't get any wine to-day, for your money has gone into the box." Each day this process was gone through until he ceased to want wine; and when the little box was opened he was surprised to find how much money was there, all of which then was given to the church as a thank-offering to that God who had saved him from a strong and wicked habit.

Let us see how many lessons there are in this true story. First, God will give us power to overcome great sins, if we only ask him and do all we can ourselves. Again, we see that much money that is spent in sinful and unsatisfying pleasures might be made to do lasting good by a little self-denial. But there is still a third lesson our story teaches us, and it is this: The gospel of Christ can do for the little boys and girls of China what it does for those in America. Does it make your home bright and give cheerfulness to every passing day? So it does for other homes. When the Saviour said, "I am the light of the world," he intended that the message of love and pardon which he came to bring should be carried by his people to all nations.—Kind Words.

Training Children in the Home

“Probably there is no greater need of the hour than that our pastors should impress upon the people of their charges, and especially upon those who have the responsibility of a household, the high and sacred obligation of training their children and youth in the ways of the Lord. This obligation can never be delegated to Sunday-school teachers. God has laid it upon parents, and all the instincts of nature should but serve to strengthen the obligation. It can never be rightfully discharged except by the parents themselves. And the proper place, the heaven-appointed place, is the home circle, the household altar, the family fireside. Nothing in this world can take the place of the household influence when that influence begins early and is exerted on Christian principles. What the church needs, and what all her children need, is true religion in all her families.”—Interior.

The Strongest Drink.

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

WATER is the strongest drink. It drives mills; it's the drink of lions and horses, and Samson never drank anything else. Let young men be teetotalers if only for economy's sake. The beer money will soon build a house. If what goes into a mash-tub went into the kneading-trough, families would be better fed and better taught. If what is spent in waste were only saved against a rainy day, workhouses would never be built. The man who spends his money with the public and thinks the landlord's bow and "How do ye do, my good fellows," mean true respect, is a perfect simpleton. We don't light fires for the herring's comfort, but to roast him. Men do not keep pot-houses for laborers' good; if they do, they certainly miss their aim. Why, then, should people drink "for the good of the house?" If I spend money for the good of any house, let it be my own and not the landlord's. It is a bad well into which you must put water; and the beer-house is a bad friend, because it takes your all and leaves you nothing but headaches. He who calls those his friends who let him sit and drink by the hour is ignorant—very ignorant. Why, red lions and tigers and eagles and vultures are all creatures of prey, and why do so many put themselves within the power of their jaws and talons? Such as drink and live riotously, and wonder why their faces are so blotchy and their pockets so bare, would leave off wondering, if they had two grains of wisdom. They might as well ask an elm tree for pears as look to loose habits for health and wealth. Those who go to the public house for happiness climb a tree to find fish.—Spurgeon.

Where to Send Drunkards

A prominent citizen of Lincoln County, Ill., having fallen a victim to intemperate habits, became so unfit for business that, as a last resort, he fled to Kansas to escape temptation. After being there a while he writes a letter from Ottawa, Kansas, to a friend, as follows:—

“John, I have seen over a dozen men who had been confirmed drunkards and who came here to reform; all have succeeded. One man told me he came here two years ago, had been drunk twenty years and came here drunk, but has never touched liquor since. The fact is, when a man gets here he is bound to reform; he can't get whisky if he wants it.”

Mrs. Staples' Silk Dress.

A THANKSGIVING STORY.

"I WISH to goodness Mrs. Brown would bring home my dress," said Mrs. Staples as she set the breakfast on the table and took her place behind the coffee-pot. "No signs of it yet, and here it is almost Thanksgiving."

"Don't fret, Hannah," said her husband, "you can do without it if it don't come, can't you?"

"Do you suppose I want to wear that old gray alpaca again?" demanded Mrs. Staples, a little irritably. "I've worn it every Thanksgiving day for three years, and I'm about tired of seeing myself in it. And I don't want Giles to be ashamed of me before his sweetheart."

"O well, like as not the dress'll be here on time," said Mr. Staples soothingly. "Don't cross a bridge before you come to it, Hannah."

At this moment a timid, hesitating knock sounded on the kitchen door, and Mrs. Staples rose from her seat to answer it.

A small, delicate-looking woman, with a sweet, fair face, came in. She was dressed in deep mourning, which had long since lost its freshness, and carried in her arms a large bundle. There were lines of care on her face, and the melancholy look in her large brown eyes deepened perceptibly as Mrs. Staples exclaimed:—

"So you've come at last! I thought you'd forgotten me; and I'd set my heart on wearing that dress Thanksgiving day."

"O Mrs. Staples," cried little Mrs. Brown, looking ready to burst into tears, "I don't know what you'll say to me. The skirt of the dress is done, but the basque—"

"Well, what of the basque?" asked Mrs. Staples sharply, as the dressmaker hesitated.

"I—I—spoiled it," faltered Mrs. Brown. "But I thought perhaps you had some more material, and I could make another if you would let me."

For a moment Mrs. Staples said nothing. Her indignation was too great for words. When she at length found her tongue, however, she delivered the poor culprit such a lecture as she had never heard before.

"I know I deserve scolding, Mrs. Staples," sobbed Mrs. Brown. "But my little Ruth has been sick, and what with nursing her, and losing sleep, and seeing to the housework, I got so confused that I cut the basque all wrong. I never made such a mistake before, and if you can give me only two yards more I can manage to get another basque out in time for you to wear day after to-morrow."

"There's no more material to be had," answered Mrs. Staples. "I took the last yard in Dickson's store. No, the dress is ruined. I might as well have thrown my money in the street as spent it on stuff for you to spoil. I ought to have known better than to have trusted you with the silk—common sense ought to have told me you'd ruin it."

"I never ruined one before," pleaded Mrs. Brown, still weeping.

"And I'll see to it that you never ruin another—in this village, anyway. It's my duty to let people know that you aren't what you profess to be, and know about as much of dressmaking as your baby does."

Mrs. Brown said no more, but pulling her veil over her face to conceal the traces of tears on her cheeks, she left the kitchen with a slow and weary step, while Mrs. Staples went back to her seat at the table, too angry to touch the breakfast she had put upon her plate before Mrs. Brown's entrance.

The little widow had come to Barton only three weeks before, and, hiring a three-room cottage, had put out a humble sign to the effect that she would do dressmaking on reasonable terms. Mrs. Staples, though well off in this world's goods, was always ready to economize where economy was possible, and as soon as she saw the sign she determined to entrust her new silk, the only one she had bought within five years, to the new-comer.

And now it was spoiled, and she must wear her old gray alpaca on Thanksgiving day, when Giles, her only son, was to be at home, and was to bring a stranger with him, too! Could anything more provoking have happened?

"Seems to me you were rather hard on her, Hannah," ventured Mr. Staples, as he glanced at his wife's angry face.

"Hard on her!" repeated Mrs. Staples. "I didn't say half as much as I ought to have said. What will Mrs. Pettigrew think to see me in that old gray alpaca again? Giles, too!"

"Giles won't notice," said Mr. Staples. "He'll be so glad to see you, he won't care what you have on."

"But I care. Do you think I want to look like a scarecrow before that lady he is going to bring!"

"Couldn't you match the silk in Liscom?" asked Mr. Staples. "There's half a dozen big dry goods stores there, you know."

"Liscom! Eight miles off! And all the baking and cleaning to be done, too! And s'pose I had it, who's to make it up! Miss Smart's just run to death."

John Staples got up and went out to the barn, giving up the argument in despair. He felt sorry for Mrs. Brown, whose sweet, sad face had touched his heart to pity, and he wished Hannah had not said quite so much to her. But then, of course, it was provoking to have the new dress spoiled. Sitting down on a bench by the barn door, the farmer drew from his pocket a letter, received the day previous, and read it over and over again, as if he would fain impress every word on his memory. It was from his son, and ran as follows:—

"DEAR FATHER: I have a great surprise for you and mother. I have found my dear little nurse again. You know that when I recovered from that terrible illness, through which Miss Emily Ray nursed me so tenderly and nobly, stranger to her as I was, I would have made her my wife had she not been promised to another, whom she loved. I have told you how terribly I felt when I learned this fact, and that I have never forgotten her, nor ceased to love her. Well, yesterday I learned from a friend that she is living in Bannock, only forty miles from Barton, and that circumstances have so changed that there is now a chance for me. I have written to her, telling her just what I feel, and that on my way home for Thanksgiving I will stop at Bannock to get her answer. I want both you and dear mother to know her, for you could not fail to love her, and if her answer is what I trust it will be, I shall persuade her to accompany me to Barton to spend Thanksgiving with you. I know that, if she comes, she will receive a warm welcome, for, but for her, I should be in my grave now. Expect me early on Thanksgiving day."

While the farmer was reading this letter at the barn, his wife was giving Mrs. Drew, a near neighbor who had dropped in to borrow a cup of molasses, a full history of the ruined dress.

"I am so glad you told me," said Mrs. Drew, as she concluded. "For I was calculating on having her make over three or four dresses for the girls. Of course, I shan't trust her with them now."

As soon as her visitor had gone, Mrs. Staples began to make preparations for the Thanksgiving day feast. And as she worked, sifting flour, weighing sugar, and stoning raisins, her anger against the little dressmaker cooled; she forgot about the ruined silk, and allowed pleasant thoughts to occupy her mind—thoughts of Giles, the son who was so dear to her, and of the woman he hoped to bring home with him as his promised wife.

"Giles' heart is just bound up in that girl," she muttered. "He's never been the same since he met her. I do hope she'll not disappoint him this time. She'd never find a better husband if she looked the world over. And of course I'll give her a warm welcome. He can be sure of that, for I can never forget that I owe her my boy's life. I've got the letter in my trunk now, telling how she nursed him day and night as his own sister might have done."

When dinner was over farmer Staples put old Brag to the light wagon, and started off to a neighbor's to buy a leg of mutton for the impending feast. Turning into the Liscom road when he had traveled about a mile, he came suddenly upon little Mrs. Brown, who was toiling along in the snow as if already weary.

"Can't I give you a lift?" he asked, drawing old Brag up with a jerk.

"O if you only would," she answered. "I am so tired, and have yet a long distance to go."

He helped her over the wheel of the wagon to a seat by his side, and talked to her pleasantly until they reached Mr. Jackson's,—where he was to buy the mutton,—of everything that occurred to him; told her of Giles, and how proud he was of him, and rehearsed his many virtues, as only a loving father could.

"She's a good little woman," the old man said to himself, as, after helping her out of the wagon, he watched her walk off down the road. "She seemed to be real interested in all I said, and yet she never saw Giles. I wonder where on earth she's bound this cold day."

The sun rose clear and bright, the air was just cold enough to be bracing, and the snow was in splendid condition for sleighing on Thanksgiving morning. Hannah Staples was up by daylight, anxious to have her house in perfect order before the arrival of her guests, for, besides Giles and his sweetheart, she expected Mr. and Mrs. Pettigrew, distant relatives. She could not help giving a glance into the pantry every now and then, so well satisfied did she feel with her preparations for the feast. Such an array of good things had seldom graced those wide shelves. Pumpkin, apple, and mince pies, flaky doughnuts, cream and jelly tarts, golden cake, iced an inch thick, loaves of golden-brown bread, a big plumb pudding all ready for the pot, three glass moulds filled with ruby cranberry jelly, and in fact, everything calculated to make up a royal Thanksgiving dinner.

"Now, I s'pose I must go and put on that hateful gray alpaca," muttered Mrs. Staples, as the clock in the corner of the kitchen struck nine. "Father'll be back with Giles and his sweetheart before I'm ready if I don't hurry; the train comes in at nine."

She was about to leave the kitchen when a knock on the door arrested her. Opening it, little Mrs. Brown came in, looking nervous and agitated.

"I've brought you another basque, Mrs. Staples," she said. "I sat up all last night to get it done, and now you can wear the silk dress to-day, after all."

"Another basque!" repeated Mrs. Staples, in a bewildered manner.

"Yes, I matched the silk at Duncan's, in Liscom, and—"

"How did you get to Liscom?" interrupted Mrs. Staples.

"I walked part of the way and rode the rest," was the answer.

"And how did you get back?"

"I walked. But indeed, Mrs. Staples, I didn't mind it much. I felt so sorry about the dress that I would have walked as far again rather than have you wear your old dress to-day when you were so anxious to have the new one."

Hannah Staples couldn't speak for a moment. Something rose up in her throat and choked her.

"I'd rather have done without the dress a hundred years than have had you—" she began, but stopped suddenly, as the sound of a manly step rang on the walk outside.

"It's Giles!" she cried. "My own dear boy."

"Your son!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, letting her bundle fall to the floor. She sprang toward the door to make her escape, but too late! Giles Staples threw it open as her hand was on the knob.

One instant he gazed at her in astonishment; the next, he sprang forward and caught her in his arms.

"Emily, dear Emily!" he cried in a voice deep and intense with emotion. "Have I found you again? And in my own mother's house?"

Little Mrs. Brown did not answer. Her face was hidden on Giles' breast, and she was sobbing hysterically. The young man bent and whispered something to her. Her answer was only a faint pressure of

the hand he held; but it seemed to satisfy him.

"Mother," he said, in a tone of such love and pride as Hannah Staples had never heard before, "This is Emily—once my nurse, now my promised wife."

"That Emily Ray?" exclaimed Mrs. Staples, completely at sea. "O Giles, it can't be."

"Yes," he said. "This is Emily—Emily Ray Brown. I stopped at Bannock this morning to bring her on with me, and found that she had moved to Barton, and that my letter had been forwarded to her. She has just given me her answer to the question I asked in it, mother, and I have cause to consider this the happiest Thanksgiving day of my whole life."

One moment did Hannah Staples hesitate. It took her that long to conquer her pride; for seldom indeed had she craved pardon from any one. But the recollection of the great injustice she had done this woman, to whose unselfishness she owed her son's life, overcame every other feeling at last, and she ran forward and folded the little widow in her arms.

"Forgive me," she whispered. "Oh, my dear, my dear, I didn't know."—The Household.

The Home Circle.

By E. A. Smuller

THANKSGIVING.

Oh, the glorious Thanksgivings Of the days that are no more! How, with each recurring season, Wakes their mem'ry o'er and o'er; When the hearts of men were simpler, And the needs of life were less, And its mercies were not reckoned By the measure of excess. Heaven send the glad Thanksgiving Of that older simpler time! Tarry with us, not in fancy, Not in retrospective rhyme; But in true and living earnest May the spirit of that day, Artless, plain, and unpretending, Once again resume its sway! —E. A. Smuller.

News and Notes.

—During last week 1,200 immigrants arrived in San Francisco overland.

—The next Congress will probably take the trade dollar from circulation.

—The yellow fever is again epidemic in Panama and along the Mexican coast.

—Ten persons have been shot for taking part in the recent insurrection in Servia.

—There is said to be an agitation in South Ireland in favor of a complete pillage of landlords.

—Several infernal machines have been found in the house of a leading Socialist in London, named Wolff.

—Hon. James Russell Lowell, U. S. Minister to England, has been elected Rector of St. Andrews University.

—Nelling, the murderer of Ada Atkinson, was lynched at Oxford, Ind., on the 19th inst., by a party of masked men.

—It is claimed in Albany, N. Y., that the introduction of the electric light has decreased crime forty per cent.

—According to the decision of a Baltimore Justice, a husband is liable and can be sued for slander his wife utters.

—Many disasters to shipping are reported on the Newfoundland coast. Several bodies have been washed ashore.

—The Mississippi Valley Bank, at Vicksburg, has failed for $800,000, leaving many poor depositors in distress.

—A. H. Rowland, Clerk of Courts at Pittsburg, has been held for embezzling $47,000 during his two terms of office.

—The Sisters of Mercy report sixty-seven Industrial School girls inmates of the Magdalen Asylum, in San Francisco.

—A 100-year-old carriage, in which President Monroe once rode, went for $7.25 at a Vergennes, Vt., auction the other day.

—A fire at Williams, Colusa County, on the 19th inst., destroyed $50,000 worth of property, including the post-office.

—Four hundred men have been thrown out of employment by the failure of the Novelty Rubber Company of New Jersey.

—A disastrous forest fire is raging at Jack's Mountain, in the vicinity of Mill Creek, Pa., and extends a distance of nine miles.

—The war on freight rates between the Missouri River and Salt Lake continues. The regular rate of $3 has been cut to fifty cents.

—Justice Field, of the U. S. Supreme Court, has issued an order restraining the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. from doing express business.

—O'Donnell, the slayer of Carey, the Irish informer, has been officially recognized as an American citizen by the American Legation in London.

—An attempt was made last week to bring twenty-five Chinese into Washington Territory by means of affidavits. They were returned to Victoria.

—At a wedding in Currituck, N. C., recently, too much wine resulted in the shooting of two of the groomsmen. One was killed and the other mortally wounded.

—The Southern Pacific Railroad Co. will soon commence the erection of extensive salt works at Los Palmos, a station on the desert between Colton and Yuma.

—Harvard College has been disgraced by a cock-fight in one of its halls. Unfortunately both fowls were killed, instead of the abettors of the entertainment.

—Five masked men derailed the Southern Pacific express train, near Deming on the 24th inst., killed engineer Roberts, and secured $700 from the express car.

—The trustees of the National Home for Disabled Soldiers, at Boston, have commenced suit against Governor Butler to recover $18,275, for which he has failed to account.

—The Chinese Government declines to allow American Consuls to inspect certificates issued by Chinese officials to their countrymen who desire to come to the United States.

—Sergeant Mason, who fired at Guiteau while confined in prison for the murder of President Garfield, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, has been pardoned by the President.

—A multitude of fraudulent land claims have been discovered in Dakota. It is estimated that half of the Government land disposed of in any one year is taken in some irregular manner.

—A movement is on foot in New York to raise a permanent fund for the benefit of General Fremont, who is now old and in poor circumstances financially. General Grant heads the list with $1,000.

—In the Los Angeles Superior Court, Mrs. Amadon has been convicted as accessory to the murder of her husband. Her paramour had previously been convicted, and her sister's trial comes next.

—The United States Court, which has been in session at Solomonville, A. T., had to adjourn suddenly last week and flee from the vengeance of cowboys, two of whose comrades had been convicted of crime.

—In St. Louis, carpenters receive $2 to $3 per day; in Dakota, $3.50; in El Paso, Texas, $4 to $5; in Charleston, S. C., the range is from $1.50 to $2.25; in Chicago, $2.75 to $3; in San Francisco, $2.50 to 3.50.

—A cyclone in Izard County, Arkansas destroyed the town of Lacrosse, and did great damage at Melbourne. At the former place, three lives were lost, and four at the latter, besides several injured at both places.

—Egypt has received a severe blow. The grand army of over 10,000 men, under General Hicks, has been defeated,—report says completely annihilated,—by the army of El Mahdi, the "false prophet," at El Obeid, in the Soudan.

—Paschal Coggins, a somewhat noted journalist of Sacramento, and at one time an independent anti-monopoly candidate for Congress, died on the 19th inst., from the effects of a self-inflicted pistol wound, after lingering several days.

—Governor Crosby, of Montana, urges that polygamous Mormons be not only disfranchised, but prohibited entering Government land, thereby checking their spread in the Territories.

—The Natchez Crusader gives some thrilling accounts of political doings in connection with the recent election in Mississippi. One man, aged 68, was given 600 lashes, and another, aged 60, was shot dead in his wife's arms, because they opposed the "Bourbon" ticket.

Religious Notes.

—The Martin Luther statue, to be erected in Washington, will cost $20,000.

—The Christian denominations, in 1881, spent $139,440 for education and missionary work among the Indians.

—A branch of the M'All Mission is to be opened in Calais, where, till lately, there has been no Protestant preaching for 200 years.

—The calculation has been made that every Protestant missionary in the South Seas creates on an average a trade of $50,000 per year.

—Lord Granville is erecting a statue on his Cliffsend estate, to commemorate the landing in England of St. Augustine, on his mission to convert the pagan Saxons.

—Bishop Thorold, of Rochester, England, has expressed his approval of the Moody and Sankey mission, and urges clergymen of the Established Church to help it along.

—The Presbyterian Synod of New York has, by vote, refused to indorse the publications of the National Temperance Society, because they uphold the theory that the wine commended in Scripture was unfermented.

—Dr. Wilson, curate of St. George's Cathedral, Kingston, Ont., and a leading Anglican clergyman, has created a sensation by attending an all-night meeting of the Salvation Army, and partaking of the communion.

—The Pilgrim Baptist Church, recently organized in San Francisco, is mostly composed of members of Dr. Kalloch's old Metropolitan Church, which seceded from the main body of the Baptists. The new organization is in harmony with the denomination.

—The Pacific (Congregational), in noting the arrival of the Catholic coadjutor archbishop on this coast, makes this rather compromising remark: "So far as we have any right to do so, we give him welcome. If he prove to be the sort of man and ecclesiastic called for by the situation we shall be thrice glad for his coming."

—An Irish priest, Father Doney of Loughrea, on removing to another parish, sold his farm to one of his flock named Dervin. The new priest, Father Callahan, fancied it, and the purchaser being unwilling to give it up, large numbers of people collected and stoned Dervin out of the place, shouting that the priest should have the land.

—The Ministerial Union of San Francisco, composed of all the Protestant ministers, has taken a stand for prohibition, State and National. The Advocate (Methodist) stands with the ministers, but the Occident (Presbyterian) seems to favor license. It says: "In the opinion of a large number of the best friends of temperance, East and West, a high-license law is the most effective method of regulating the liquor traffic, and of abating the evils of intemperance. The experiment is now being tried in several States, and so far has given great satisfaction." Satisfaction to whom? Certainly not to the temperance people, judging from the continued agitation.

HOLIDAY BOOKS FOR OLD AND YOUNG.

By Editor

	Price.
The Mountains	$5 00
The Bird World	5 00
Sunbeam Stories (3 vols.)	5 00
Sabbath Readings (4 vols.)	2 50
Pillar of Fire	2 00
Leonore's Trials	1 75
Without a Home	1 50
Nanny Davenport	1 50
Vivians of Woodiford	1 50
Tom Bently	1 50
Pen Portraits	1 50
Harry Maitland	1 25
Ellen Dacre	1 25
Gutta-Percha Willie	1 25
The Hard Problem	1 25
Paul Venner	1 25
Jessie Bower	1 25
Sequel to Tim	1 25
Temperance Tracts	1 25
Best Fellow in the World	1 25
No Danger	1 25
Witnessing for Jesus	1 25
Studies of Neglected Texts	1 25
David Livingston	1 25
Within Sea Walls	1 25
The Red House	1 25
Saved	1 25
The Prince of Good Fellows	1 25
Ten Cents	1 25
From Father to Son	1 25
How Could He Escape	1 25
His Honor the Mayor	1 25
Penny Rust Christmas	1 15
Still Waters, or Dreams of Rest	1 00
Frances Morton	1 00
Glen Elder	1 00
Two New Year's Days	1 00
Prohibitionist's Text-Book	1 00
Barford Mills	1 00
White Hands and White Hearts	1 00
Coals of Fire	1 00
Norman Brill's Life Work	1 00
Home Making	1 00
Week-day Religion	1 00
Schönberg Cotta Family	1 00
The Pledge and the Cross	1 00
Palestine for the Young	1 00
The Lost Estate	1 00
Our Coffee Room	1 00
Water-Spouts	1 00
The Old Brown Pitcher	1 00
Ten Lectures on Alcohol	1 00
Paul Brewster and Son	1 00
A More Excellent Way	1 00
Caught and Fettered	1 00
Story of the Bible	1 00
Juno and Georgie	90
Mary Osborne	90
Juno on a Journey	90
Hubert	90
Jessie's Work	90
Fred's Fresh Start	90
Alcohol—Its Nature and Effects	90
The Red Bridge	90
Rachel Noble's Experience	90
The Hard Master	85
Echo Bank	85
Sybil Gray	80
Tiptoe	80
Secret of Victory	75
Rosa Leighton	75
Drops of Water	75
Over the Way	75
Little Blue Jacket	75
Bertie's Present	70
Songs for Little Ones	70
The Brother's Choice	60
Jonas Clare	60
Fanny Lightman's Choice	60
May Covely	60
Talks on Temperance	60
The Model Landlord	60
The Temperance Speaker	50
Dialogue on Drink	50
A Piece of Silver	50
Bible Rule of Temperance	50
Frank Spencer's Rule of Life	50
The Pitcher of Cool Water	50
Sunshine Series (10 books)	50
Golden Grains (10 books)	50
Circled by Fire	40
The Emerald Spray	40
The Curse and the Cup	40
Come Home, Mother	40
The Vow at the Bars	40

To any one ordering $5.00 worth of the above we will give a discount of 10 per cent.

A choice line of Sabbath-school Teachers' Text-books, and a full line of Temperance Text-books constantly on hand.

Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

Spiritualism an Organized Religion.

By Editor

THE "American Spiritualist Alliance" of the City of New York, lately issued a Circular Letter to the Spiritualists and Spiritual societies, asking for co-operation by means of a general alliance of Spiritualists throughout the country. The circular says:—

"The American Spiritualist Alliance is the outgrowth of a society of Spiritualists centered in the City of New York, and was incorporated the 28th day of June, 1881.

"The objects for which it was formed are briefly stated in its charter, to be 'to promote the development and diffusion of Spiritual science and true Spiritual religion, as shown by enlightened reason and the highest teachings of the spirit-world.'"

In the same number of the Banner of Light from which we copy the above, we find the report of an address by Dr. Lyon, in which he outlined the present position and tendency of Spiritualism, as we find them in the lectures of many other speakers. The following will give the reader an idea of his sentiments:—

"The speaker held that those in the church who recognized the Spiritualism of the past, as recorded so fully in the Bible narratives, and refused to acknowledge the Spiritualism of to-day which was present with them—and those others among the Spiritualists, who recognized the angelic ministrations of the present hour, but refuse to give credence or importance in evidence to the testimony of the Bible regarding the Spiritualism of the past, were equally in error; the inspiration that was given to the apostles still lived and worked in the world's midst to-day, and Christian ministers, who were wondering at the diminished power of the church among men, would find the explanation of the difficulty in that church's refusal to comprehend this grand lesson of the age."

We have no doubt that this explanation will be received by the majority of the "Christian ministers," and they will look to Spiritualism for a revival of their lost power. Thus will prophecy be fulfilled.

A Correction.

By Editor

A FRIEND writes from Kankakee, Ill., saying he had written to Grayson, Ky., concerning the report which we copied into our news columns, that a Baptist minister baptized a criminal just before he was hanged. He says he received information from Grayson that the immersing was done by a "Disciple" minister—not by a Baptist. We are always happy to make a correction where it is needed. It has become a common practice for ministers to assure murderers that the gallows is a means of a speedy flight to Heaven; and if that is warranted, there is nothing out of place in baptizing them before they start. But we hold that both are outrages. Christianity is made responsible for many unseemly things.

Continue reading: The Work Reviving