Earlier text: General ArticlesIN the common acceptation of the word, the term scape-goat is applied to any miserable vagabond who has become obnoxious to the claims of justice; and while it is revolting to all our conception of the character and glory of Christ, to apply this term to him, it must strike every one as a very appropriate designation of the devil, who is styled in the Scriptures, the accuser, adversary, angel of the bottomless pit, Beelzebub, Belial, dragon, enemy, evil spirit, father of lies, murderer, prince of devils, serpent, tempter, &c. In Rev. 20, there is something that bears a striking analogy to the action of the High Priest in regard to the scape-goat, and is doubtless, a fulfillment of that type. This scripture, ushering in the first resurrection—the resurrection of the just, who are raised at the coming of Christ,—certainly refers to a period beyond human probation, and therefore after the sanctuary is cleansed. An angel is seen to come down from Heaven, and bind the dragon, which is the devil, and cast him into the bottomless pit, where he is shut up a thousand years. By reference to the Scripture use of this term abyss (rendered bottomless pit) we find the very idea of Lev. 16:21, 22 carried out, for it is literally a desert waste, void, or land not inhabited. In every place where the term is used in such a manner as to determine a locality, it is connected with the earth, or a part of the earth. In Rev. 9, at the sounding of the fifth trumpet, the abyss was opened, and locusts came out, &c. This describes the action of the Mahometan power. In chap. 11, the beast that ascends out of the abyss is said to make war against the two witnesses and to kill them. By careful expositors of prophecy this is referred to the French Revolution. In chap. 17, the seven-headed and ten-horned beast is said to ascend out of the abyss. Chap. 13: 1-10 refers to the same beast in another phase of its existence, and these chapters clearly point out European powers. Thus far we find it confined to the earth. Paul, in Rom. 10:7, uses this term in the same manner. "Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." The abyss, here rendered deep, in other places rendered bottomless pit, refers to the grave, or, at most, to the state of death. In Gen. 1:2, "and darkness was upon the face of the deep," the abyss points out a void, waste, or uninhabitable state of the earth; and in no case, where it is possible to trace its connection, has it any other location but the earth. Two facts only need notice to show the perfect fulfillment of the types in the scripture under consideration. (1) Satan is called the prince of the power of the air. By his creation as an exalted angel he has the power of traversing the air as well as the earth. To deprive him of that power and confine him to the earth would fulfill Rev. 20. (2) When Satan is bound, at the coming of Christ, the earth will be desolated, and left without an inhabitant. As a very brief summary of the proof on this point, the following facts and scriptures are offered:— At the coming of Christ the saints will ascend to meet the Lord in the air, and be taken to those mansions which he has gone to prepare for them. "For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come; so now I say to you." "Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterward." "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 13:33, 36; 14:1-3. Compare Rev. 4:6, and 15:2. The wicked will all be destroyed from the face of the earth at that time. "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2 Thess. 1:6-9. Most decisive proof to the same point is given in Rev. 19: 11-21. The King of kings, and Lord of lords, who in righteousness judges and makes war, appears to smite the nations and to tread the wine-press of the wrath of God. An angel calls to the fowls of heaven to come to the supper which the great God has prepared for them; "that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great." The armies of earth are then gathered against the Conqueror, and the beast and the false prophet, and their worshipers are slain. "And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth." And so Paul speaks of "that wicked" at the coming of Christ: "Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." 2 Thess. 2:8. God, whose voice once shook the earth, when he spoke his law on Sinai, will speak again with a voice which will shake both earth and heaven. Heb. 12:25, 26. And we learn that "a great voice out of the temple of Heaven, from the throne," will be heard when the last plague is poured out, as Jesus says, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth." Rev. 16:12-21. Jeremiah describes the drinking by the nations of the wine-cup of God's fury, which "all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth," shall drink; and they shall all "fall, and rise no more," because of the sword which the Lord shall send among them. The Lord has a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh. "And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground." Jer. 25:15 to the end of the chapter. Note on these texts: Paul says the voice of the Lord will be heard but once from Heaven. John says this is just before Christ comes as a thief. Joel says it is in the day of the great battle, and the treading of the wine-press of the wrath of God. See also Rev. 14:14-20. Jeremiah says all the nations shall drink of the wine-cup of God's fury, and "all the wicked" be given to the sword. Now when the righteous are taken away from the earth, and all the wicked slain, the earth will be left empty, and without inhabitants. Therefore the following scriptures refer to that time. Jer. 4:19-29. Verse 23 says the earth was without form and void; in the same chaotic state in which it was when first created, before the Spirit of God, in formative power, moved upon the face of the deep—the abyss. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." Isa. 24:1; the entire chapter is on this subject. "I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. . . . The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation. . . . Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land." Zeph. 1:2, 14-18. Thus the Scriptures clearly prove that the earth is yet to be desolated, without an inhabitant, broken down, without form and void, even as it was when first created, before man was made to dwell upon it. In this condition it was called "the deep," "the abyss," which in our version is rendered "bottomless pit." He who has been "the prince of the power of the air," will be confined thereon during the thousand years. Rev. 20:4, to behold the desolation which his rebellion has caused. And thus the antitype of the scape-goat will be sent away, with the sins of God's true Israel upon his head, "to a land not inhabited." Lev. 16:22. Of all that God has revealed by his holy prophets, nothing else fulfills, to the letter, the type of the scape-goat upon whom the high priest placed the sins of Israel after the atonement was fully made,—when he came out from the presence of God to pronounce the benediction of Heaven upon his waiting people. Some have been troubled over Lev. 16:10, where the scape-goat is reserved also "to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scape-goat into the wilderness." While, in general, the definition of the original is, to cover, expiate, or forgive, Gesenius gives as one definition, "to do away, or obliterate." Now we have constantly insisted that the forgiveness of sin was relative; not absolute, as most writers on the atonement affirm. Forgiveness in probation, in our being justified by faith, has reference to the decisions of the future Judgment. And in the final remission, in the Atonement, sin is not so "blotted out," as to be counted as no more existing. Sin is a terrible stain upon the fair universe of God. It is not a matter to be passed over lightly. When it is fully forgiven to the penitent ones, and altogether removed from God's people, it still has an existence, and falls somewhere else; in the type, on the scape-goat; in the antitype, on the devil. And when he is destroyed, sin perishes with him; it is, in his extinction, literally "done away, or obliterated." But he has nothing to do with the Atonement. As soon as the sins of Israel are removed from the most holy—the place of judgment—the work is finished for the people, judgment being rendered in their favor; and the priest no longer represents them as a people in danger of condemnation; no longer bears sin as their sin, but only to place it on the head of its originator. Practically, as far as the people of God are concerned, it would not make a particle of difference whether laid on Satan, or disposed of some other way; they are secure when the blood on the mercy-seat has procured release for them, as they are acquitted at the throne of judgment. Though the conclusion seems unavoidable that Satan is the antitype of the scape-goat, in whose person sin is finally destroyed or obliterated, we cannot yield to the assertion that Satan thereby takes part in the work of atonement for man, or bears sin in the sense of suffering the penalty of our transgressions. It has been affirmed, and we think correctly, that a voluntary substitute is necessary to meet the demands of justice. This position our Saviour133occupied; but neither Scripture nor reason lead us to suppose that Satan will ever consent to die for us, or for our sins; he is never spoken of as a ransom; never said to die for us; never represented as a means of redemption. And, as quoted by Mr. Beecher, the scape-goat was not considered as a sacrifice. Whatever may be ultimately done with our sins under the appointment of God; whatever may be done with or to Satan in the closing up of the great rebellion against the throne of Heaven; the bearing of our sins, and dying for us, and meeting in his own person the demands of the violated law for our sakes, is clearly and distinctly set forth in the divine word as the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and in this work he stands alone—no one shares it with him to any extent whatever. And to him shall be the glory, and honor, and praise forever. But what is the part that Satan performs? Simply that of receiving upon himself the infinite weight of sins which he has instigated, and being sent away under their intolerable load. And here we would ask, What could be more fitting than that the author and instigator of all sin should receive the guilt of those transgressions which he has incited mortals to commit, but of which they have repented, back upon his own head? And what could be a more striking antitype of the ancient ceremony of sending away the scape-goat into the wilderness, than the act of the mighty angel in binding Satan and casting him into the bottomless pit at the commencement of the thousand years? This is a point of transcendent interest to every believer. Then the sins of God's people will be borne away to be remembered no more forever. Then he who instigated them, will have received them back again. Then the serpent's head will have been bruised by the seed of the woman. Then the "strong man armed" (Satan) will have been bound by a stronger than he (Christ), and the house of the strong man (the grave) spoiled of its goods, the saints. Matt. 12:29; Heb. 2:14. Then will the work of the enemy in sowing tares among the wheat (Matt. 13:24-45), be forever remedied, and the tares will have been gathered into bundles to burn, and the wheat gathered into the garner. Then our great High Priest will have come forth from the sanctuary to pronounce the everlasting blessing upon his waiting people. Then shall we have come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. Then will the redeemed, placing the foot of triumph upon the world, the flesh, and the devil, raise their glad voices in the song of Moses and the Lamb. Oh, glorious day! May the Lord hasten it in his good time. Who would not in view of this, take up the petition of the beloved John, "Even so, come Lord Jesus!" "And Call the Sabbath a Delight."
By G. D. Ballou
Not long since I had a conversation with a young lady who, with her friends, had but a few months before begun to keep the Sabbath "according to the commandment." The family had received no particular instructions touching the proper observance of the Sabbath, and at the time of which I speak the conversation was bearing somewhat on that point, when she remarked that the Sabbath seemed so pleasant to her that she always rose an hour earlier Sabbath morning, so as to make the day as long as possible. I have reflected much on that remark, so earnestly made. The Sabbath must be a delight to such a soul, and such an example of love and reverence for the Sabbath of the Lord must be a good index of a Christian life. A life which has for its motive power such a reverence for God and for his law cannot fail to be a power for good. The cause of God everywhere needs such examples to-day—examples which are the natural outgrowth of a living sense of honor and love for God dwelling within. Forced service—service in which there is no heart—will be a sorry apology for true obedience in the last great day. I question with myself, Can the Lord delight in, and at last honor with eternal life, any who do not take delight in obeying his commands, and who do not honor him with the service of their lives? Ah that there were more praise and joy and gladsome delight in the service of all who are trying to exalt the down-trodden Sabbath of Jehovah. God will honor those who honor him; he will joy in them that rejoice in him; he will exalt those who exalt him; he will love them that love him; and save them that put their trust in him. The Noble Mind and the Liberal Mind.
THE sacred writer in speaking of the Bereans says, "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Those of Thessalonica, to whom reference is made, in the blindness of bigotry and prejudice rejected the word of truth, raised a mob, and set the whole city in an uproar. And when they found that their intended victims had escaped their fury, they sought to satisfy it upon the innocent Jason. Those two communities may be taken as representative ones, illustrating the manner in which the truth is received at the present time. Some listen to the truth with hearts open to conviction; other minds are darkened by prejudice, and the most powerful evidence only exasperates them and awakens a spirit of vindictive persecution against those who proclaim the truth of God. The results of such a course are sad. The Spirit of God is grieved, the innocent suffer and perishing souls are deprived of saving truth. The nobility of the Bereans did not consist in a readiness to accept all that was told them, just "because the minister said so." It was not in the fact that "many of them believed," that lay the result of their noble course. It was in their willingness to receive that which was evidently the word of God, and especially that they "searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." This disposition is just as noble to-day as ever, and prejudice, its opposite, is just as ignoble upon our part as it was in the Thessalonian Jews, and leads to the same sad results. It is a noble quality of mind which enables one to receive the candid presentation of another's faith, and compare it with the best authority on such matters. This authority is not the decisions of councils, the creed, or manual, or discipline, it is the word of God. We need have no fears that such a course will mislead us, especially if we seek wisdom from above. Such a spirit cannot be too highly commended. But there is an extreme in this direction that is found in the prevailing Liberalism. While professing this, men hold themselves amenable to no principle or guide, but drift in their belief wherever the tide or their own inclinations may take them. They boast of their freedom, and mock at restraint. Under the control of their evil imaginations they become the victims of their own folly, and commit the same mistake that Paul charges upon those who refuse to glorify God, "but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Rom. 1:21, 22. The difference between this class and the noble Bereans is this: the latter acknowledged the wisdom of God above their own, and received his word as their guide and counsel. The former do not. The Liberalist claims to be able to decide for himself between truth and error, while the Bereans let God decide. It is not belittling to confess our dependence upon a wisdom which is above ours. Learning from the experience of others is no weakness. Judging of the nature of God's word by its power manifested in the world, is not a mistake. There is no folly in learning our weakness from others' failures. Heeding the teachings of divine wisdom is profitable, and profiting by all these things does not bring us into bondage. "Free-thought" may boast its liberty, but it is the liberty of unrestrained passion and ruin. It is the freedom of a flood which has broken its barriers, of a horse which has thrown its master and rushes to destruction. He that sinneth against wisdom "wrongeth his own soul." If you merely want to make yourself a social favorite, and to be always ready with surface conversation on any and every topic which may come up in a miscellaneous company, it may be well for you to skim a little of everything in your reading, and to catch a point on one subject here, and a point on another subject there, and a half-dozen points on a half-dozen other subjects in a half-dozen other directions. You will have to look over the newspapers and the magazines, and the new books of every kind, as they appear, and this without neglecting a fresh glance, now and then, over old books generally. You must flit over the whole field as a butterfly does over the flower-beds. But on the other hand, if you want to gain solid information on any subject, or to improve your mind for your own benefit, or for the benefit of anybody else, you must pursue a very different course from this. You must take up one thing at a time, and devote yourself to an examination of that. You will not have leisure to read newspapers or magazines to any considerable extent, or to examine one new book in a hundred, or one old book in ten thousand. It is true that this is not living a butterfly life; but a butterfly, you know, is not trying to improve his mind; nor has he any real business on hand. A bee's way is very different from a butterfly's. A bee does not "gather honey all the day, from every opening flower," even though Dr. Watts supposed that was the bee's way of doing business. Naturalists inform us that a bee never takes pollen (honey-stock) of more than one kind on any one trip away from the hive. In fact, there is no use trying to do more than one thing at a time in any business line. The choice must be made between the butterfly style and the bee style; and you have already made your choice of method.—S. S. Times. The Reward of Christian Giving
If the cup of cold water is all that can be given for Christ's sake, then it will not lack its reward; but the man who so reads that command and that promise as to make them a limitation rather than an encouragement to Christian giving and Christian helpfulness, woefully misinterprets our Lord's saying, and comes perilously near the mistake of those who wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. Trials as Riches of Mercy
BECAUSE we cannot see just what God is saving us from, we vent our foolish reproaches; if we could see this we would often kneel down and thank God for certain trials as the riches of his mercy. LOVE makes long and hard service short and easy; hence we read of the labor of love (Heb. 6:10). If we know how to value the happiness of Heaven the suffering of this present time will be as nothing to us in comparison with it. "YE are my disciples," says the Master, "if ye do whatsoever I command you." The Sabbath-School.
By Ellen G. White
LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST.—MARCH 9.
ACTS, CHAPTERS 10 AND 11. The Conversion of Cornelius.
“THERE was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.” Though Cornelius was a Roman, he had become acquainted with the true God, and had renounced idolatry. He was obedient to the will of God, and worshiped him with a true heart. He had not connected himself with the Jews, but was acquainted with, and obedient to the moral law. He had not been circumcised, nor did he take part in the sacrificial offerings; he was therefore accounted by the Jews as unclean. He, however, sustained the Jewish cause by liberal donations, and was known far and near for his deeds of charity and benevolence. His righteous life made him of good repute, among both Jews and Gentiles. Cornelius had not an understanding faith in Christ, although he believed the prophecies, and was looking for Messiah to come. Through his love and obedience to God, he was brought nigh unto him, and was prepared to receive the Saviour when he should be revealed to him. Condemnation comes by rejecting the light given. He believed in the one God, the Creator of Heaven and earth. He revered him, acknowledged his authority, and sought counsel of him in all the business of his life. He was faithful in his home duties as well as in his official responsibilities, and had erected the altar of God in his family. He dared not venture to carry out his plans and bear the burden of his weighty responsibilities without the help of God; therefore he prayed much and earnestly for that help. Faith marked all his works, and God regarded him for the purity of his actions, and his liberalities, and came near to him in word and Spirit. While Cornelius was praying, God sent a celestial messenger to him, who addressed him by name. The centurion was afraid, yet knew that the angel was sent of God to instruct him, and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.” Immediately after this interview with Cornelius, the angel went to Peter, who, very weary and hungry from journeying, was praying upon the housetop. While praying he was shown a vision, “and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice; and the vessel was received up again into heaven.” By the vision of the sheet and its contents, let down from heaven, Peter was to be divested of his settled prejudices against the Gentiles; to understand that, through Christ, heathen nations were made partakers of the blessings and privileges of the Jews, and were to be thus benefited equally with them. Some have urged that this vision was to signify that God had removed his prohibition from the use of the flesh of animals which he had formerly pronounced unclean; and that therefore swine’s flesh was fit for food. This is a very narrow, and altogether erroneous, interpretation, and is plainly contradicted in the scriptural account of the vision and its consequences. The vision of all manner of live beasts, which the sheet contained, and of which Peter was commanded to kill and eat, being assured that what God had cleansed should not be called common or unclean by him, was simply an illustration presenting to his mind the true position of the Gentiles; that by the death of Christ they were made fellow-heirs with the Israel of God. It conveyed to Peter both reproof and instruction. His labors had heretofore been confined entirely to the Jews; and he had looked upon the Gentiles as an unclean race, and excluded from the promises of God. His mind was now being led to comprehend the world-wide extent of the plan of God. Even while he pondered over the vision, it was explained to him, “While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.” It was a trying command to Peter; but he dared not act according to his own feelings, and therefore went down from his chamber, and received the messengers sent to him from Cornelius. They communicated their singular errand to the apostle, and, according to the direction he had just received from God, he at once agreed to accompany them on the morrow. He courteously entertained them that night, and in the morning set out with them for Cesarea, accompanied by six of his brethren, who were to be witnesses of all he should say or do while visiting the Gentiles: for he knew that he should be called to account for so direct an opposition to the Jewish faith and teachings. It was nearly two days before the journey was ended and Cornelius had the glad privilege of opening his doors to a gospel minister, who, according to the assurance of God, should teach him and his house how they might be saved. While the messengers were upon their errand, the centurion had gathered together as many of his relatives as were accessible, that they, as well as he, might be instructed in the truth. When Peter arrived, a large company were gathered, eagerly waiting to listen to his words. As Peter entered the house of the Gentile, Cornelius did not salute him as an ordinary visitor, but as one honored of Heaven, and sent to him by God. It is an Eastern custom to bow before a prince or other high dignitary, and for children to bow before their parents who are honored with positions of trust. But Cornelius, overwhelmed with reverence for the apostle who had been delegated by God, fell at his feet and worshiped him. Peter shrank with horror from this act of the centurion, and lifted him to his feet, saying, “Stand up; I myself also am a man.” He then commenced to converse with him familiarly; in order to remove the sense of awe and extreme reverence with which the centurion regarded him. Had Peter been invested with the authority and position accorded to him by the Roman Catholic Church, he would have encouraged, rather than have checked, the veneration of Cornelius. The so-called successors of Peter require kings and emperors to bow at their feet; but Peter himself claimed to be only an erring and fallible man. Peter spoke with Cornelius and those assembled in his house concerning the custom of the Jews; that it was considered unlawful for them to mingle socially with Gentiles, and involved ceremonial defilement. It was not prohibited by the law of God, but the tradition of men had made it a binding custom. Said he, “Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for; I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me.” Cornelius thereupon related his experience, and the words of the angel that had appeared to him in vision. In conclusion he said, “Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. Many refuse to receive the light which the providence of God sends them, and, as an excuse for so doing, quote the words of Peter to Cornelius and his friends. They maintain that it is of no consequence what men believe, so long as their works are good. Such ones are wrong; faith must unite with their works. They should advance with the light that is given them. If God brings them in connection with his servants who have received new truth substantiated by the word of God; they should accept it with joy. Truth is onward. Truth is upward. On the other hand, those who claim that their faith alone will save them, are trusting to a rope of sand; for faith is strengthened and made perfect by works only. Peter preached Jesus to that company of attentive hearers; his life, ministry, miracles, betrayal, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and his work in Heaven, as man’s Representative and Advocate, to plead in the sinner’s behalf. As the apostle spoke, his heart glowed with the Spirit of God’s truth which he was presenting to the people. His hearers were charmed with the doctrine they heard, for their hearts had been prepared to receive the truth. The apostle was interrupted by the descent of the Holy Ghost, as was manifested on the day of Pentecost. “And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in The Great Controversy. A Child’s Misunderstanding of Goodness
Mrs. Horace Mann tells of being in a mission infant class room once when the general question of "how many of you wish to be good" was put. Every hand except that of a new-comer, a boy of six, went up. The teacher put the question again, in hopes the boy—having, perhaps, misunderstood her—would also hold up his hand. But he refused. She was on the point of scolding him, when Mrs. Mann, begging leave to speak, quietly walked to the child, put her arm around his neck, and asked him if he knew what it was to be good. With a face full of unspeakable infantile woe, and his eyes and throat overrunning and choking, he cried out, "Ter to be whipped." He was the child of a mother who always brought goodness to her children by the rod, and hence the child’s misapprehension. Boys Won to Christ Through Sabbath School
A MICHIGAN superintendent was a railroad station-master. One day he detected four bad boys stealing sugar from a hogshead in a freight car. He locked the boys in, and, as the only condition of releasing them and hushing the matter up, he required them to join his Sabbath-school. They did so, and in a few weeks three of the four boys united with the church. Some other superintendents might have had them in the hands of the police within an hour, without concern as to the moral results. Bring All You Can to the Sabbath School
“Bring all you can to the Sabbath-school.” WOMAN has never been associated with wine without disgrace and disaster. The toast and the bacchanal that, with musical alliteration, couple these two words, spring from the hot lips of sensuality, and are burdened with shame. A man who can sing of wine and women in the same breath, is one whose presence is disgrace, and whose touch is pollution. A man who can forget mother and sister, or wife and daughter, and wantonly engage in a revel in which the name of woman is invoked to highten the pleasures of the intoxicating cup, is, beyond controversy, and without mitigation, a beast. "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Ay, cakes and ale, if you will, but let it be cakes and ale. Let not the name by which we call the pure and precious ones at home be brought in to illuminate a degrading feast. Of the worst foes that woman has ever had to encounter, wine stands at the head. The appetite for strong drink in man has spoiled the lives of more women—ruined more hopes for them, scattered more fortunes for them, brought to them more shame, sorrow, and hardships—than any other evil that lives. The country numbers tens of thousands—nay, hundreds of thousands—of women who are widows to-day, and sit in hopeless weeds, because their husbands have been slain by strong drink. There are hundreds of thousands of homes, scattered all over the land, in which women live lives of torture, going through all the changes of suffering that lie between the extremes of fear and despair, because those whom they love, love wine better than they do the women they have sworn to love. There are women by thousands who dread to hear at the door the step that once thrilled them with pleasure, because that step has learned to reel under the influence of the seductive poison. There are women groaning with pain, while we write these words, from bruises and brutalities inflicted by husbands made mad by drink. There can be no exaggeration in any statement made in regard to this matter, because no human imagination can create anything worse than the truth, and no pen is capable of portraying the truth. The sorrows and the horrors of a wife with a drunken husband, a mother with a drunken son, are as near the realization of hell as can be reached in this world, at least. The shame, the indignation, the sorrow, the sense of disgrace for herself and her children, the poverty—and not unfrequently the beggary—the fear and the fact of violence, the lingering, life-long struggle and despair of countless women with drunken husbands, are enough to make all women curse wine, and engage unitedly to oppose it everywhere as the worst enemy of their sex. Woman, there are some things that you can do, and this is one. You can make drinking unpopular and disgraceful among the young. You can utterly discountenance all drinking in your own house, and you can hold in suspicion every young man who touches the cup. You know that no young man who drinks can safely be trusted with the happiness of any woman, and that he is as unfit as a man can be for woman's society. Have this understood, that every young man who drinks, is socially proscribed. Bring up your children to regard drinking as not only dangerous, but disgraceful. Place temptation in no man's way. If men will make beasts of themselves, let them do it in other society than yours. If your mercenary husbands treat their customers from private stores kept in their counting-rooms, shame them into decency by your regard for the honor of your home. Recognize the living, terrible fact that wine has always been, and is to-day, the curse of your sex; that it steals the hearts of men away from you; that it dries up your prosperity; that it endangers your safety; that it can only bring you evil. If social custom compels you to present wine at your feasts, rebel against it, and make a social custom in the interests of virtue and purity. The matter is very much in your own hands.—Scribner's Monthly. SATAN'S EMISSARY.
By A Victim
BEHIND a latticed portal screened,
There skulks the image of a man,
Whose calling but befits a fiend—
Polluting every soul he can. He garnishes his weird retreat
With pictured walls and sanded floor,
Enchants the air with music sweet,
While flowers perfume his treacherous door. Fresh evergreens adorn his gate,
The youth's unwary eye to win,
And thus allure him to a fate
Which dooms his life to woe and sin. He marks that noble, gifted boy,
Designed to fill an honored place,
And lays his devilish decoy,
To capture, ruin, and disgrace. Astride a keg, he paints a king,
Who holds aloft the tempting bowl,
But ne'er portrays the viper sting
Which smites the unsuspecting soul. How long shall he, thus tempting draw
Th' unwary to his fatal den,
And be protected by the law
In brutalizing youth and men? Will justice hold us guiltless, while
We thus connive at laws that sell
Indulgences to monsters vile
To vend the "beverage of hell,"— And so disgrace the Christian name,
And tempt to wrath the Lord of life,
By tamely cringing 'neath the shame
That legalizes crime and strife? Alas, alas! our faltering hope,
Alternate, yields and clings again,
When we survey the frightful scope,
Through which the rum-fiend holds his reign.
—The Lever.