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Review and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 31.

GOD'S ESTIMATE OF SERVICE

Review and Herald

Jul 31, 1900

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 31, 1900

GOD'S ESTIMATE OF SERVICE.

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE.
Christ gave the parable of the householder that murmurers might not receive sympathy on account of their supposed grievances. Grumblers will always find something to grumble at. Their hearts need to be purified. If the hearts of those first called had been purified, they would have seen only liberality in the action of the householder. Those who are in the service of Christ must have faith in him. The men and women who watch for something in their brethren and sisters of which they can make capital demonstrate before the heavenly universe that to them the goodness of God is an occasion of murmuring.
The disposition to find fault and complain too often finds place among professed Christians. They may be first in enduring hardship, privation, and trial, but the spirit they indulge is unchristlike, and renders them untrustworthy. They think they are entitled to a large reward because of the work they do. Thus it was with the Jews. They depended for reward on the long years of service they had given, believing that a certain amount of work must receive a certain remuneration, and that therefore they would be more highly rewarded than those who had done less.
The gift of God is eternal life on condition of entire obedience. But we should not think selfishly of the reward we are to receive. Of ourselves we have nothing. Our time, our talents, our capabilities, are all intrusted to us by the Lord, to be used in his service, and thus returned to him.
God has given to every man his work. In temporal and spiritual things we are to work for him. Never are we to boast of our endowments. “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” The apostle Paul reached the point where faith in God's word had become assurance. He wrote to Timothy, “Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For 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 appearing.” This is the battle cry of one who had been faithful with his Lord's goods, and who was waiting to receive the benediction, “Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
In the book of Malachi God specifies the reward to be given to those who are faithful. All nations will see the power of God exercised in behalf of those whom he can safely bless as his chosen ones. “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,” he declares, “and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field. . . . And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land.”
There is another class, who complain of God. “Your words have been stout against me,” he says. “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.” These weigh God's actions in human scales. Their words are stout against him, as they strive to vindicate themselves. By their words and actions they dishonor God, and create an atmosphere of evil about their souls.
In strong contrast to the murmurers are the ones of whom God says, “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” The Lord has a people on the earth, and his working with them reveals the supernatural results that are seen when the human will is under the control of the will of God. Of them he says, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
“Many be called, but few chosen.” The Lord's invitation continues from early morning till the last hour of the day. But many who accept his invitation possess only the theory of the truth. They have not that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. They think they are entitled to large wages because of their service. They claim to have served God all their lives, as did the Jews; but they reveal a spirit that is querulous and faultfinding. Thus they show that there is no connection between God and their souls. The indulgence of this spirit of exaltation makes those who might have been first last. They will be placed last because self has not been hid with Christ in God. We are not to esteem our work as worthy of large recognition. God will reward us in accordance with the spirit that has characterized our work.
This parable does not excuse those who, after hearing the truth, assent to it, saying, “That is all true,” and then fail to comply with it. These refuse to walk in the light, because by so doing they would displease their friends or disturb their own satisfied condition of self-righteousness. The parable does not teach that the Lord will vindicate those who, because they wish their own time and their own way, refuse the first call to work. When the householder went to the market and found men unhired, he said, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” And the reply was, “Because no man hath hired us.” None of those called later in the day were there in the morning. They had not refused thecall.
Those who refuse and afterward repent, do well to repent; but it is not safe to trifle with the first call of mercy. God will not be trifled with.
The Lord requires that sacred fire be used in his service. We are to bear the message of the divine householder to our fellow men. This will impress hearts. In whatever part of the Lord's vineyard men and women are working, they need closely to examine their own hearts.
If they are inclined to exalt themselves and disparage others, their hearts need to be changed, till they shall no longer place their own estimate upon their own work and the work of others.
We need a spirit of love and of true dependence upon God. When we have implicit faith in him who is truth, we shall realize that worry and anxiety are unnecessary.
Whatever work we do, we are to do it for Christ. There are many kinds of temporal work to be done for God. An unbeliever would do this work mechanically, for the wages he receives. He does not know the joy of co-operation with the master worker. There is no spirituality in the work of him who serves self. Common motives, common aspirations, common inspirations, a desire to be thought clever by men, rule in his life. Such a one may receive praise from men, but not from God. Those who are truly united with Christ do not work for the wages they receive. Laborers together with God, they do not strive to exalt self.
In the last great day decisions will be made that will be a surprise to many. Human judgment will have no place in the decisions then made. Christ can and will judge every case; for all judgment has been committed to him by the Father. He will estimate service by that which is invisible to men. The most secret things lie open to his all-seeing eye. When the Judge of all men shall make his investigation, many of those whom human estimation has placed first will be placed last, and those who have been put in the lowest place by men will be taken out of the ranks and made first.

AMEN

By F. C. Browning

Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day, I joy in these; But I CAN say That I had RATHER walk this rugged way, If Him it please.
I can not feel That all is well, when dark’ning clouds conceal The shining sun; But then I know God lives and loves; and say, since it is so, Thy will be done.
I can not speak In happy tones: the tear-drops on my cheek Show I am sad; But I can speak Of grace to suffer with submission meek, Until made glad.
I do not see Why God should e’en permit some things to be, When he is love; But I can see, Though often dimly, through the mystery, His hand above.
I do not know Where falls the seed that I have tried to sow With greatest care; But I shall know The meaning of each waiting hour below, Sometime, somewhere!
I do not look Upon the present, nor in Nature’s book, To read my fate; But I do look For promised blessings in God’s Holy Book; And I can wait.
I may not try To keep the hot tears back—but hush that sigh, “It might have been;” And try to still Each rising murmur, and to God’s sweet will Respond “Amen.” — F. C. Browning.

THE TRUTH AS IT IS IN JESUS.

By W. S. Chapman

W. S. CHAPMAN.
When Jesus told Pilate that he came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and Pilate asked, in astonishment, “What is truth?” (John 18 : 33–38); and when Jesus told the believing Jews that if they continued to follow his teachings, they would understand truth, and so be free from the bondage of sin (John 8 : 31, 32), he was, in both instances, speaking of the truth as it is in him—the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes it. This truth, like the grace, or righteousness, of God, was brought to man by the Saviour (John 1 : 17), who in himself was that which he presented. Verse 14.
John says that Christ’s name is “the Word” (John 1 : 1, 2), and the Word—the Truth—was made flesh, that man might be sanctified, and so be saved. John 17 : 14–19. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1 : 4), because the words he spoke were spirit and life (John 6 : 63); and this is the only light the world has ever had.
One of the Bible synonyms for “truth” is the law of God. Ps. 119 : 142. As all truth came to man through Jesus Christ, this one was revealed by him. “It was Christ who, amid thunder and flame, had proclaimed the law upon Mount Sinai. . . . Jesus, the express image of his Father’s person, the effulgence of his glory, the self-denying Redeemer, throughout his pilgrimage of love on earth was a living representation of the character of the law of God;” and his mission was to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.” He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far-reaching principles, and to make plain its eternal obligation. “The law given upon Sinai was the enunciation of the principle of love.” Matt. 22 : 34–40. “Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God; and ‘God is love.’ It is conformity to the law of God; for ‘all thy commandments are righteousness,’ and ‘love is the fulfilling of the law.’ Righteousness is love, and love is the light and life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving him.”
The life of Jesus here upon the earth was, then, the love of God illustrated in the flesh, and this life of love was therefore the truth as it is in Jesus.
“Christ himself was the Word, the Wisdom, of God; and in him God himself came down from heaven, and clothed himself in the habiliments of humanity. He engaged in the mysterious conflict with Satan and his hosts that man might understand elevated themes of truth. He rescued the truth from the companionship of error, and sent it forth free to the world. He caused it to shine in its own native clearness and purity; for he designed that it should illuminate the dense darkness [of misapprehension of God] of the earth, and the gross darkness of the people. All his work in its many lines was to make man meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; his words of life were given that the darkness which prevailed might pass away, and the true light shine forth. . . . The light from the cross of Calvary, reflected back upon the Jewish age, gives character and significance to the whole Jewish economy; and on this side of the cross, in a special manner, we have the truth as it is in Jesus. Truth communicated through our Redeemer becomes indeed present truth.”
The truth, then, as it is in Jesus—present truth—is not the prophecies, the doctrines, or the signs of the times,—all important in their sphere and place,—but the truth for the people of God to-day—present truth—truth “as it is in Jesus”—is the light that comes to us from the life of Jesus.
“Search heaven and earth, and there is no truth revealed more powerful than that which is made manifest in works of mercy to those who need our sympathy and aid. This is the truth as it is in Jesus. When those who profess the name of Christ shall practice the principles of the golden rule (Matt. 7 : 12), the same power will attend the gospel as in apostolic times.”
The power to come is the Holy Ghost, who will distribute the gifts. Joel 2 : 28; Eph. 4 : 11–16, 21. “The truth as it is in Jesus is obedience to every precept of Jehovah. . . . There is a pure and holy heaven in store for those who keep God’s commandments. It is worth lifelong, persevering effort. Satan is on your right hand and on your left; he is before you and behind. He supplies his falsehoods to every soul who is not cherishing the truth as it is in Jesus. . . . But there is a crown of life to be won, a life that measures with the life of God. And those who do not close their hearts and minds to conviction will learn what the love of a holy, righteous God is; for it is an amazing principle, which works in a mysterious and wonderful manner to secure the salvation of the race.”

China’s Potential to Overrun the World

LONDON, June 30.—Lord Wolseley, in an interview published this morning, says: “China possesses every requisite for overrunning the world. She has a population of four hundred million, all speaking the same language, or dialects readily understood from one end of the empire to the other. She has enormously developed wealth, and still more enormous natural wealth awaiting development. Her men, if properly drilled and led, are admirable soldiers. They are plucky, and able to live on next to nothing. Moreover, they are absolutely fearless of death. Begin with the foundation of millions upon millions of such soldiers as these men are capable of being made, and tell me, if you can, where the end will be.”

The Turkish Missionary Indemnity

The Christian Work, urging the forced collection from Turkey by the United States government of the $88,000 missionary indemnity, says: “Our ships and our men have been tried and proved: why not use them now? How can they be made to serve a better purpose? . . . Certainly there has been too much delay in pushing this matter to a conclusion; and in saying this, we observe a moderation that scarcely presents the feeling that exists upon the subject throughout the churches.” Undoubtedly, if the churches could have their way, all the nations would be plunged into the general war against which Turkey is the acknowledged barrier. This has been evident ever since 1895. But how much Christian work is in all that?

LOOKING FOR JESUS.

By J. O. Beard

J. O. BEARD.
(Tune: Marching through Georgia.)
Bring the good old song-books, children, sing the songs once more, Sing them as we sang them when they rang from shore to shore, Sing them with the spirit that we had in “Forty-four,” When we were looking for Jesus.

CHORUS—

Hurrah! hurrah! we sing the jubilee, Hurrah! hurrah! the Lord has made us free; So we’ll sing the chorus now and through eternity, For we are looking for Jesus.
How we shouted “Hallelujah!” as we sang those lays! How, from overflowing hearts, our lips were filled with praise! How my heart still burns as I recall those blessed days, When we were looking for Jesus!
Now I’m getting old and feeble—well-nigh spent my days; Younger voices now than mine must tell God’s wondrous ways; But my heart with rapture glows, and still I sing his praise, While we are looking for Jesus.
Yes, and there are honest ones who’ll weep with joyful tears When they hear God’s word proclaimed as they’ve not heard for years, When they learn our Lord is coming, as foretold by seers, While we are looking for Jesus.
God has made a thoroughfare to Canaan’s goodly land, He has raised his banner high, and by it we will stand; We will follow, for it leads us to that golden strand, While we are looking for Jesus.

Employment of Colored Persons in North and South

AN “Open Letter” in the July Century calls attention to the fact, fully supported by evidence, that “aside from barbers, hotel and domestic servants, and a few isolated branches of labor, colored persons find it almost impossible to obtain employment in Northern States. . . . Of the thousands of miles of railway in the North, with its tens of thousands of manipulators, the only work, as a rule, that is open to negroes is that of porters on trains—the most menial and ill-paid occupation within the gift of a railway corporation. . . . And so it is through the entire field of desirable labor in the North—there is no place for the colored man.” It is not so in the South.

“NEITHER DO I CONDEMN THEE.”

By Mrs. S. M. I. Henry

MRS. S. M. I. HENRY.
When Christ came into the world, he expected to find sin of the vilest types. He followed the law, which had been teaching God’s standard of judgment, and making man know that some one, between whom and himself there was much in common, measured the possibilities of both sin and purity, although the experience of each man revealed the fact that he, of himself, was unable to avoid the one or attain to the other. Imperfection was his lot; Personal condemnation—the mother of despair—was a companion from whom there was no escape.
The mission of Christ was to break this spell which caused despair, and to create hope. To do this he must not tolerate anything which could separate him from man. Sin had done that already, and this he must take out of the way, by putting himself between it and him whom sin would destroy, and he would save. He could not afford to bring with him into the world anything else that would necessarily keep him and man apart.
Nothing can ever be so effectual a barrier between individuals who ought to love and help one another, as a spirit of judgment and criticism. Hence he, the Judge of the whole earth, must empty himself of his eternal prerogative, disguise his knowledge of the sinner and sin, and treat him as a friend. However amenable to the law the culprit might be, Christ must condescend to win him to himself and to love of the law which condemned him to punishment, which punishment this strangely disguised Judge had taken upon himself.
Only the “mind of Christ” could ever have conceived such a scheme. Only those who have “partaken” of that mind can comprehend it. The Pharisees who brought the guilty woman to Christ (John 8 : 3-5) thought they knew the law, and the poor sinner believed they represented it, and was afraid, as well she might be; for, not knowing the mind that framed the law, neither she nor they could comprehend the depths of love of which its most arbitrary power was only an expression. There is nothing so arbitrary as love. It will stop at nothing that can compass the welfare of the loved object.
The sinful woman and the unloving scribes and Pharisees had no foundation for a knowledge of the deep, fatherly tenderness out of which the law had come, with all its penalties, as well as this Christ, who was charged with its fulfillment, and the revelation of the spirit which inspired it. This ignorance not only caused the sinner to despair, but made the scribes and Pharisees arrogant. Christ had to meet both this arrogance and fear with a spirit which was the life of the law; and also teach those to whom he was to leave his unfinished work how, through all time, to meet them as he had, until he should come again with judgment.
By nothing is the work of God hindered more than by a failure to learn this lesson of “no judgment.” “Neither do I condemn thee,” said Christ; because condemnation is fatal to a work of salvation, and he came to save. Whom the
judge condemns is never led away to liberty, to honor, to safety, but to punishment. Condemnation is the seal of doom. The work of salvation and of judgment can never be done at the same time and in the same office. So imperative was it that Christ should observe this necessity, in his work, that he refused to judge those who denied his own words. He said, “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.” John 12 : 47.
In keeping with this he has forbidden the work of judgment to his fellow laborers in the gospel, but has, instead, committed to us the “ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Cor. 5 : 18, 19. The work of the gospel is still to seek and to save those whom the law has doomed, and who, once they know their guilt, must stand overwhelmed with foreboding. Nothing will make a strong man so weak, a proud woman so desolate, as to become genuinely convicted of sin. To be found out by the search-light of the eternal law will turn the brightest and happiest soul sick unto death. Pitiable beyond comparison, even in the sight of one who knows how quickly hope and joy may replace despair, is the condition of such a soul until it has heard the word of Him who said, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
The most terrible mistake which any Christian worker can make, outside of actual sin, is to build up a wall of criticism and prejudice between him and those who ought to receive a message of warning and salvation from him. It is of no use to carry a message if one can not deliver it. Many a would-be messenger has made his message of non-effect, because he has gone first as a judge into the house of sin and the presence of the foolish, where only a Saviour could be tolerated. If any man ever walked the earth who had the right to judge and condemn those who did not look at things from his standpoint, or know what he knew, or believe what he said, it was Jesus Christ; for he had the words which are life. If any man would not receive those words, he must die, and yet Christ said, “I judge him not.” Even if he says to me that I have not told the truth, he said, “I judge him not.”
How can the Lord withhold judgment when he knows so perfectly? some one may ask. Because “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved,” would be his reply now as then. John 3 : 17.
“But,” says one, “did not the Lord say that ‘by their fruits ye shall know them’? Is not that equivalent to judgment?”—Not to the mind of Christ, which must be in us if we are in him. He knew what was in man better than man himself knew. But that knowledge moved him to pity and brotherly love, to that sort of tenderness which will keep it all a secret between himself and the poor, vile heart. This is a matter, says this Lover of our soul, that must not be bruited abroad. It must be kept between us; since he (the sinner) knows it of himself, he will have all that he can endure from the law, which has already condemned him. I must make him know me as well as the law. “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.” John 5 : 45.
Then notice how this Lover of the soul begins to excuse the poor sinner, and lay out his work for his relief. I know where the trouble is, he says, in effect; you have not believed. Something is wrong that we, together, must set right, so that you may be able to believe the law first, and then me, and the love which I am. If you can not believe the one, how can you the other? “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” Verses 46, 47. I, as your Advocate, must see that you have sufficient evidence to force conviction of truth. I must gather it, and pile it up before you. My love is great enough to wait for this evidence and the witness to do their work. “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.” John 14 : 26. “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” John 15 : 26. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” John 14 : 20.
The witness has done his work; the testimony has been received; and the result, even to the one who was waiting for condemnation, is knowledge that brings assurance and joy; and also a commission to take the same testimony and carry it farther on, with the requirement to avoid anything that would spoil its effectiveness.
So great was the necessity that those messengers should be fully qualified, that Christ himself prayed for them; not alone for his disciples, but for us, that we might be kept “from the evil”—that particular evil—which would injure us as bearers of the testimony of the gospel. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” John 17 : 20. This brings his prayer down to our own time, and to you and me. “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” Verse 21. The supreme gift given of God through Christ is the power of the Holy Spirit; and this is given for one purpose,—thoroughly to qualify a true witness, one who will bear unimpeachable evidence of the truth.
“Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me.” Acts 1 : 8. It would be assuming a most terrible responsibility for one called to be a witness, as every Christian is, to cultivate, or even tolerate, anything in himself which would destroy the effectiveness of this power in his work, or make it impossible for him to lodge that testimony where it would tell in establishing the truth, and secure the salvation of a soul. And yet just that thing is done every day by the critical spirit of judgment which is abroad in the church.
We must, of course, know the evil as well as the good in the lives of men, but we should know it as Christ did; that is, we must recognize the sinner’s lack, and his need of that radical change which shall make it possible for the wild olive to bring forth good fruit. By such knowledge only shall we be able to apply what we know of Christ. We must cultivate that sort of acquaintance with men that will arouse tenderness and not judgment; concern, not criticism; that will make us realize the desperate need of the poor sinner, so that we shall be ready to live for the same purpose for which Christ died; that will beget in us the instincts of the good physician and nurse combined, which produces that motherly nature, as it came out from God, by which alone the world can be won to him.
The time will be when Christ will judge men; when men will be made judges of one another; but then salvation will have become a history without a future. Let us fear to anticipate that time by one thought concerning any human soul.
In my work with the most unfortunate classes of sinners, I have come to believe more and more that only God, who knows the heart, is capable of estimating the proportion of good or evil in any man, or of measuring out his responsibility. God was wise to reserve judgment unto himself, and his own set time; and he was good to us with a great benevolence, in that he gave us a message of pure, unadulterated truth to carry abroad to our fellows. Happy is he who does his part faithfully, and leaves God’s part carefully alone.

SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson & W. S. Sadler

STRUCTURE BUILDERS,

or THE PROTEIDS.
In the human body the proteid substance is principally used in the work of forming the tissues, such as muscles, the blood, etc., and hence it might be called the structure builder, while the starches, sugars, and fats might be regarded as the fuel that is burned up in the bodily structure. It is a remarkable fact, illustrating a wise Providence, that the common grains, which can be grown so universally, contain very nearly the proper proportion of starch and proteids. Wheat contains about one part of gluten to seven parts of starch, which has been quite generally accepted by various authorities as the proper combination of these two most important food elements.

HOW THE PLANT MANUFACTURES PROTEIDS.

"If the root of a grain of corn be placed in a chemical solution containing nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, potassium, sodium, magnesium, lime, and iron (or, in other words, all the mineral elements that are required for its construction), while the upper parts project into the air, the plant, when placed in the light, grows well, develops into a large stock, flowers, and produces seed, with which the experiment can be repeated."—Verworn's General Physiology, page 139. No growth can take place in a plant unless carbon is furnished it; but, as the preceding solution contains no carbon, it is evident that the plant utilizes the carbon found in the air. For if a bell-jar filled with carbon dioxide (the poisonous gas thrown out from the lungs of man and animals) is placed over the top of such a plant which is exposed to sunlight, in a few hours it will be found that all the carbon dioxide has disappeared from the bell-jar, and that an equal quantity of oxygen has taken its place. This proves that under the action of sunlight the plant secures its carbon (the one element it does not secure from the earth) from this noxious gas, which is everywhere present in the air, and which becomes very detrimental to health if allowed to accumulate to any considerable quantity above four parts of the carbon dioxide to ten thousand parts of air.
The Scriptures teach us that the breath of all mankind is in God's hand. Job 12:10. And divine wisdom is certainly seen in that wonderful arrangement whereby the plant breathes in the poisonous air that man breathes out, and breathes out purified air for men to breathe in again. So every green plant is a purifier of the atmosphere. For the Christian there is a significant lesson in this purifying work of the plant-world; for we are told, in Isa. 61:3, that we should be called "trees of righteousness." Does that not suggest that we should be able to neutralize the poisonous spiritual miasma that is given out by our wicked associates, and return a purified, holy atmosphere that would be life-giving to them?

HOW MINERAL SUBSTANCES AND PRODUCTS OF DECOMPOSITION ARE USED IN MAKING PROTEIDS.

The essential difference between starch and proteids is in the fact that the latter contain the element of nitrogen, which is nowhere to be found in the starch family. And, strangely enough, while the plant in making starch does not have the ability to use the large amount of carbon that is found in the soil, but chooses to receive it from the air, so, on the contrary, the same plant in making proteids refuses to utilize the immense volume of nitrogen that is found in the air (nitrogen composes about four fifths of ordinary air), but selects the same from the soil.
The wisdom of the Creator is very distinctly manifested in this process. Decomposing bodies contaminate the air with carbon dioxide, while they leave behind, to be absorbed by the earth, various poisonous products containing different forms of nitrogen, which are utilized by the plants to manufacture proteids. Thus nature takes the elements of death in the air and in the earth, and transforms them into pure food substances calculated to sustain and nourish life.

WHERE AND IN WHAT CONDITION THE PROTEIDS ARE FOUND.

Proteids are found in some form in almost all plants. For food purposes our proteids are to be chiefly found in the grains, legumes, nuts, flesh foods, milk, and eggs.
1. Grains.—The proteid element makes up from ten to twelve per cent of the common grains. This may be readily demonstrated by subjecting ordinary dough made from wheat flour to the action of running water, which will wash away all the starch, and leave an elastic substance, which is called "gluten."
2. Legumes.—Peas, beans, and lentils contain about twenty-five per cent of this important food element, which is a larger proportion of proteids than is contained in any form of flesh food. As some of the legumes can be grown in almost any part of the earth, and with a little careful study can be made into a variety of palatable dishes, there is but little excuse for seeking our proteids from the animal kingdom.
3. Nuts.—Some of the more common nuts, such as peanuts, almonds, etc., while they contain about fifty per cent of fats in a condition easily assimilated, also contain about twenty-five per cent of proteids, thus emphasizing very clearly their immense food value.
4. Flesh Foods.—Practically three fourths of every pound of meat is simply water, containing various waste products and soluble salts. Almost the entire food value of flesh foods is made of proteids and fats.
5. Milk.—Milk contains about four per cent of that form of proteids known as casein. This is the substance that forms the curd of milk, and from which cheese is made. The cheese ordinarily found in the market is entirely unfit for food, owing to the fact that it is swarming with microbes, and is saturated withthe various poisonous products that these germs have manufactured while feeding upon its proteids, which are especially prone to putrefactive changes.
6. Eggs.—The white of eggs is a good example of an almost pure form of albumen, and is one of the most easily digestible of any of the animal products.

PROTEIDS, THE BODY'S BUILDING MATERIAL.

The proteids are the most important food element; for this substance is largely used in building up the structure of the various tissues of the body. They contain one chemical element,—nitrogen,—which the other food substances do not contain; therefore it can be readily seen how useless it would be to attempt to live upon a diet composed entirely of starch and fat. Experiments have demonstrated that an animal fed upon food-stuffs from which nitrogen was absolutely excluded would die almost as soon as would those that received no food at all, and in some cases sooner. Proteids enter into the construction of every cell in the human body. (See Bunge's Physiological Chemistry, page 501.) Experiments have demonstrated that life may be sustained by proteids alone, which could never be true of a diet of starch and fat.

WHEN PROTEIDS BECOME POISONS.

While the proteids have such a possibility for good in the human body, yet if they are allowed to decompose, or decay, whether due to the action of microbes in the alimentary canal, or to the fact that the food had begun to decay before it was eaten, they become far more dangerous and destructive to life than any other food element. A child may eat a decayed apple, and suffer only temporary inconvenience as a result; but if he be so unfortunate as to eat spoiled canned salmon or tainted meat, unless prompt medical attention is secured, there will probably be a funeral in that child's home. The deaths frequently mentioned in the newspapers, resulting from the eating of corned beef, tainted ice cream, and overripe cheese, are all due to virulent poisons produced by the decay of proteids found in these substances.
For every ton of coal that is burned up in a furnace, there is a certain amount of ashes left behind. So for every pound of proteids that is taken into the human system, there will be a certain amount of waste matter to be eliminated in the form of carbon dioxide, water, urea, uric acid, and other minor products.
The urea is carried off in solution by the secretion of the kidneys. For every ounce of proteids eaten, there will be eliminated in this way about one third of an ounce of urea.
Uric acid is another waste product that results from the breaking down of tissue in the system. There is normally eliminated about one thirty-fifth as much uric acid as urea. The uric acid, when it is allowed to accumulate in the system, is deposited in various parts of the body, such as the joints, muscles, etc., producing rheumatism, gout, and a train of other evils. Leading physicians have been forced to the conclusion that uric acid is one of the most serious and dangerous of all the poisons formed in the human system, and that the health of the body is absolutely dependent upon its prompt elimination. The amount of uric acid that has to be carried off is enormously increased by the use of various food substances containing either uric acid or other substances that are practically regarded as such by the body.
Uric acid is naturally found in the muscular tissues of animals. According to Dr. Haig, the eminent English authority, for every pound of roast lamb that is eaten, three and one-half grains of uric acid is taken into the system. A pound of meat juice contains fifty grains of uric acid. There are seventy grains of dangerous substance in a pound of coffee, which is eliminated by the body as uric acid: likewise, there are one hundred and seventy-five grains of a similar substance in a pound of tea. From this we can readily see the folly of seeking to cure a rheumatic patient without carefully regulating his diet, so as to exclude from his daily bill of fare such poisonous substances.

“WHERE WILL IT END?”

By R. M. Kilgore

R. M. KILGORE.
It would seem that the Powers have rendered their decision, and China must not only be divided, but its people must be slaughtered. From a short article in the St. Louis Republic, by special cable from London, dated July 14, I quote the following:—
“China must suffer for her crime against Christendom.” “Western world against the Eastern.” “Everywhere it is preparation for war on a grand scale. Europe is arming for a crusade. The blood that has been shed in Peking is crying aloud to heaven, and such a revenge as the world is preparing for China has never been dreamed of before.” “To some nations a world-wide war seems inevitable; to others it is only a revenge for slaughter.” “You can not get an official statement from one high in authority, but the wires are humming with orders to arsenals and dockyards.”
“Lord Salisbury says the concert of the Powers is like a steam roller—hard to get started, but terrible and all-crushing when it once gets moving.”
“The steam roller is about to move. And the oldest empire in the world must crumble to atoms under its crushing weight.”
“The crime of the Yellow Dragon of the East has roused the chivalry of the West as nothing has roused it since the Crescent flew above the Cross in Jerusalem.”
“Lion and Bear and Eagle are rushing their cohorts to kill and burn and lay waste and devastate and desecrate; for they know that only a campaign of ruthless slaughter will bring China to its senses.”
“Europe’s troops can not reach the scene of slaughter before September; but when they do reach there, the rivers of China will run with blood.”
“Never since the Thirty-Years’ War have the war offices of Europe been so wrought up.”
“Rulers and cabinet ministers of every nation in Europe are up late to-night, and one question is upon every tongue: Where will it end?”
Only the student of prophecy can answer the question. Are we ready for the fearful catastrophe? “Get ready.”
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