Earlier text: HISTORY OF TRINE IMMERSIONTHE MARK OF THE BEAST AND COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.
By Uriah Smith
It will not of course be claimed that the mark of the beast is a literal mark impressed upon the hand or forearm, any more than that the seal of the living God is a literal impression, Rev. 7, or the Father's name a literal writing, Rev. 14:1; 3:12, or the law written in our hearts a literal writing. 2 Cor. 3:3; Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10. But the forehead being the seat of the mind by which we receive or reject all theories presented to us, the seal and the mark there located, must evidently signify some prominent doctrines which distinguish the worshipers of the beast and the worshipers of God. What then is the mark of the beast? That the beast of Rev. 13, with seven heads and ten horns designates the Papacy, no Protestant will quarrel with us for believing. By considering the characteristics of this beast in verses 5-7, we find that the same power is prophesied of in Dan. 7; and it is there said (verse 25) that he should think to change times and laws. What times and laws are these which the Pope should think to change? Evidently not the laws of men or nations; for any power which has control of these, is able, and has a perfect right, to change them; and it is neither a mark of arrogance nor of blasphemy for it to do so; and that the Papacy has had all these in its control is a fact which need not be mentioned. But here are laws which he shall not be able to change though he shall think to do it; and for doing this, the prophets designate him as speaking great words against the Most High, and blasphemies. It must be the law of God which in his arrogance he should think to control. Let us then take God's law, the ten commandments, and compare it with the precepts enforced by the Papacy. We find that the Roman Church omits in its catechisms the second commandment, and to supply the deficiency, divides the tenth. Moreover in enforcing the fourth, which is the third in her decalogue, she commands us to keep Sunday which is the first day of the week, instead of the seventh day which is enjoined by the law of God. With all this before us, we read in Rev. 13:4, that "they worshiped the beast." What is it to worship the beast? The following may be considered a universal rule on this point: "Whenever any civil or ecclesiastical enactment conflicts with the requisitions of Jehovah, that power is worshiped which is obeyed in preference to the other. 'Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?' Rom. 6:16." Men worship the beast, therefore, by obeying his institutions in preference to those of Jehovah; and the observance of such institutions becomes a mark or sign between him and his worshipers. And as Sunday-keeping, which directly conflicts with the plain requirements of the law of God, is an institution peculiar to the Papacy, a fact which can be clearly proved, we are unavoidably held to the conclusion that it is the mark of the beast; and we are further confirmed in this view, when we learn from the very message of the third angel, itself, that the issue between beast-worshipers and the saints, is on the commandments of God. "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God," etc. This is one class; and on the other hand it is said, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." We need not be told more plainly, that if we worship the beast and receive his mark, we do not keep the commandments of God; and if we do keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, we do not worship the beast, nor receive his mark. Now what is the difference between the requirements of the beast and the commandments of God? Chiefly this: the one enjoins the observance of the human institution of Sunday, the other commands us to keep holy the true Sabbath, the seventh day. Hence we necessarily551come to the conclusion that a false Sabbath is the mark of the beast. We now see the import of the solemn message of the third angel. Viewed in connection with the work which called it forth, we see also its fitness and adaptation to the wants of the world. The closing work of the Sanctuary commences. That work brings to view the ark and commandments of God; but there has been an alarming and wide-spread apostasy from these commandments through the influence and work of the man of sin, and a fearful blindness still rests upon the world on this subject. All Christendom, almost, is yielding homage to an institution of an anti-Christian power, in direct conflict with the law of God. Their attention must be aroused to their condition. The third angel comes forth upon his mission. If any man worship the beast or his image, he shall drink the unmingled mixture of God's displeasure. Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. On the other hand, the dragonic voice of earthly power is raised, saying, that all who will not worship the image of the beast shall be put to death. On this point the issue comes between the powers of light and darkness. These are the principles involved in the controversy. Obedience to God or obedience to men. Reader, which will you yield? Will you bow to the throne of Jehovah, or to the scepter of Baal? Will you reverence the commandments of God, or the institutions of men? Will you brave the threat of temporal death from the arm of the civil power, or the threat of fire and brimstone, and eternal death from the arm of Jehovah? This is the warning before the world. This is the question upon which they must decide and that for eternity. The very next event in this line of prophecy is one like the Son of man coming on the white cloud, having in his hand a sharp sickle. May the Lord move upon many hearts to make haste to become subjects of his mercy that they may not fall beneath the vials of his wrath. U. S. FAITH AND REPENTANCE NOT ALL OF RELIGION.
By Albert Stone
We would earnestly contend for faith and repentance as cardinal points in religion. They are as essential to religion as life is to motion, and bear the same relation to it. But it is not all of life to live, neither does the whole of religion consist merely in repenting and believing. These are only first principles. They are simply generative and initiatory. If Gen. Washington had never been born, he would not have fought the battles of the Revolution. But he might have been born and well trained in military tactics, and yet never fought the battles. Faith, repentance, and love are simply affections of the mind; and we need not be informed that they are, in their own nature, invisible to every eye but that of Omniscience. We cannot look into the heart and see them glowing there. They can be discerned only by the effects they produce, and the external signs which constitute their language. Where their genuine effects are most abundantly displayed, there we conclude they exist in the highest degree. We see them as they exist, not in the fountain, but in the streams; and from the copiousness of the streams we infer the fullness of the fountain. It is by this rule that we are to estimate our Saviour's love for man. His love was great, without a parallel. In itself it was invisible. No one could look into the great heart of Jesus and see it glowing there. The action inspired by love is all that can be seen. Did Jesus act? Then we know that he loved. Otherwise we could not know it. And the intensity of his action was the measure of his love. It is the same in regard to faith and repentance. True faith is known to exist only by the works it inspires. True repentance is known only by the reformation of the penitent. It is a painful fact that the nature of faith is but imperfectly understood by many professed Christians of the present time. By many it seems to be regarded as an abstract principle, meaning no more than to believe in Christ as our Saviour, and to trust in him for salvation; and they think that this constitutes a Bible union with Christ, and entitles us to salvation. Such an attainment once made, we are at liberty to embrace any view of Christian doctrine that lies inside the large circle of church creeds. Said an intelligent Methodist lady the other day, as her attention was invited to the subject of the soon-coming of Christ: "Why, I am a Methodist; my parents were Methodists; they died happy and have gone to Heaven. I am satisfied with Methodist religion." An aged deacon lately made virtually the same reply, when we called his attention to the subject of the sanctuary of the Bible. Said he, "What need have I of more truth? I have truth enough to save me, and have no need to trouble myself with those outside issues." And thus it is generally; the people are satisfied with the religion they have at present, both as to quantity and quality. Being at ease in Zion, they measure themselves, not by the law of God, the proper rule, but by any false standard that happens to have the approval of others, and thus feel that they are safe. They look not for any change of dispensation, or any further development of truth. To many there are no practical duties connected with the advent doctrine; they are prepared for death, and to be thus is the sum total of true religion. They feel quite sure that their experience, in years past, includes faith and repentance, and to these is linked salvation. They realize not on which side they stand in the great controversy between the true and the false, now soon to be ended. They have not been careful to heed the counsel of the apostle Peter, and thus add to their "faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." 2 Peter 1:5-7. Faith that does not add to itself the other graces, is not faith in the Bible sense of the term. What if I do believe there is one God? What if I embrace in my belief the whole system of revealed truth? The devils believe all this, but they do not perform good works. Temperance, patience, godliness, and charity possess value in themselves. But faith is only valuable as it relates us to God, and is the basis of good works, and an incentive to their performance. Thousands make profession of faith. It is cheap to do this. But to keep faith in a condition to bear fruit, costs something. It is a warfare in which few care to engage. It seems as though many were trying to get to Heaven with the least possible outlay of faith; with the least watching, praying, reforming, and enduring hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. There seems to be a tendency at the present time to bind religion within the limits of a dead faith, to cast off restraint, and give license to sin. A defective faith carries rottenness and decay into every branch of Christian doctrine and duty. Constant effort is required to keep this part of the armor in working order. As the apple hangs on the tree by its stem, and requires its support and growth through it, so all the genuine fruit of Christianity hangs on the stem of faith. Hence, "without faith it is impossible to please God." Men may be most persuaded to be a Christian, and yet through neglecting to obey God, grieve his Spirit, "put light for darkness, and darkness for light," and accept "for doctrines the commandments of men." Here lies one of the great dangers of the present time. The world is being enlightened on the fourth commandment. The time has come to proclaim the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The time has come for the church of God to heed the injunction, "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." While many will be obedient to this divine mandate, the great majority will disobey, and by actions emphatically say, "We will not walk therein." It is easy to say, "Lord, Lord," but to do the will of our Father in Heaven requires moral courage and decision of character. "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own souls." "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." James 1:22, 25. Here it seems to me we have both sides. One person is a doer of the word, he continues in the perfect law of liberty, and thus secures the blessing of obedience. Another hears the word, and perhaps trembles under it, but does not obey. He shuns the cross and is made to hope all is well. He confers with flesh and blood, waiting to see the cross removed. WAITING TO HEAR THE OTHER SIDE.
By A. S. Hutchins
MANY persons on hearing the evidences presented for the Bible Sabbath, and seeing the force of argument so clearly as to remove every reasonable objection to the perpetuity and obligation of this ancient institution, excuse themselves from obedience on the plea of "waiting to hear the other side." Well, if there is another side, if this subject presents a "yea and nay," it is proper to find it. If, as a minister recently said in vindication of Sunday-keeping, "truth presents many phrases, so to speak," it is best to bring all sides to the light. But in the outset, it may be well to raise the question for the consideration of those who believe the Bible argument sustains the seventh day, Do you suppose Sunday-keeping can be proved also from the Bible? The apostle who exhorts to "prove all things," also commands, "hold fast that which is good." And again he says, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest any time we should let them slip." Men may listen to the overwhelming arguments for the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, their conscience may be aroused, conviction settle upon them, and their judgment be fully convinced as to duty; they may like Felix tremble, and like Agrippa be al- ARE YOU READY?
By R. F. Cottrell
THE crisis of this world's history is at hand. The angry nations are preparing to act their part in the concluding scene. The world seems ripe in wickedness. The spirits of devils are controlling men's minds, leading them to depart from the faith, and go over to infidelity; and the cup of iniquity is filling to overflowing. On the other hand, the last warning from God is being heard in the third angel's message, proclaiming the day of unmingled wrath at hand; proving that the time in which men can find pardon through Christ is very brief. And who is prepared for the close of probation? Who are agonizing and laboring that they may be approved of God, and save some of their fellow-men? Awake, O sleeper! The day is at hand. The effect of every vision will soon be seen. Very soon shall each receive according as his works shall be. Am I ready? Are you ready? Are we striving to be ready? Are we victors over sin? Are we perfected in patience? Are our passions subdued, so that we are truly meek? Have we done, and are we doing, our duty to our fellow-men? to our families, and friends, and neighbors? Do they see nothing in us but good works? Do we reflect to others the image of Christ? Thank God we have a little time left in which we may work! Oh! let us improve it! Our case is urgent. It is court week. A little while longer pardon may be found. Mercy waits but a little longer. O sinner, come to Jesus before it shall be said, "Jesus of Nazareth has passed by!" before it is said, "The harvest is passed, and the summer is ended!" Get ready! get ready, while it is called to-day. R. F. COTTRELL. ENGLAND'S RELIGIOUS CONDITION.
PAPERS were read at the Church Congress recently which confirm, in a remarkable manner, the truth of Mr. Bright's epigram "that the working class care as little for the dogma, as the upper classes for the practice, of Christianity." Canon Barry, reporting on "the religious condition of the nation as represented by the upper classes of society," says that "unlimited skepticism, the positive license of a conscious ungodliness, and a resolute self-trust and self-will are their only rule of life." The Bishop of Bedford, who reported on the industrial classes, stated that, without much speculative unbelief or hostility to religion, "the feeling of the masses is that of simple indifference." The speakers had, of course, no intention of vindicating Mr. Bright, and their testimony is all the more valuable on that account. Their gloomy picture of the two extremes of society is hardly relieved by the account given in another paper on the religious condition of the middle classes. They contain, we are told, the religious might of the nation, but they "display deplorable moral weakness in reference to commercial transactions." The admission that the most religious part of the community is deeply tainted with commercial dishonesty is, at any rate, courageous, and if it be true, it complicates the knotty problem which the Church Congress has set itself to face.—Pall Mall Gazette. ONE Sunday morning Mrs. Livingston Guyer walked into church very late, as was Mrs. Livingston Guyer's custom, and at every onward step the drops and bugles on her mantle shook, and the hard ball trimming on her dress rattled, and the beads around her throat clinked, and her hoop ear-rings struck the beads, adding to the clatter, and the dangling ornaments on her bonnet struck like tinkling cymbals. There was a missionary in the pulpit that day, a man browned by foreign suns, who had come to tell the fashionable New York audience of the benighted heathen whom the church of Christ was trying to convert. He told them of the Feejee Islanders who arrayed themselves in fantastic garments covered with curious ornaments, and draped with fringes of beads and balls. He described the rings they wore pendent from their noses, and the bracelets that encircled their arms and ankles. The audience listened attentively, and their sanctimonious faces said, as plainly as words could say it, "From all such folly, good Lord, deliver us!" An old-fashioned fellow sitting under the gallery, one Common Sense, thoroughly unprejudiced, and somewhat unpopular, looked hard at Mrs. Livingston Guyer, and taking into account the fringes, beads, and ornaments, on her dress, and the hoops pendent from her ears, and the bracelets on her arms, thought there was a distinction without a difference between this woman and a Feejee Islander. The missionary told his audience of the Burmese women who colored their faces to make them beautiful, and discolored their teeth by chewing betel-nuts. He gave account also of the Africans who blackened their eyebrows with antimony, and stained their finger nails red. The faces of the audience expressed surprise at such unnatural practices; but the old-fashioned fellow in the corner fell to studying the face of a belle present, whitened by some preparation of chalk, and reddened by rouge, and he regarded attentively the teeth of a man discolored by the use of tobacco. He knew, moreover, there were complexions in that audience bleached by eating arsenic, eyes brightened by the use of belladonna, and masses of hair changed by some decoction from the natural tint to a fashionable hue, and he couldn't for the life of him, see why the heathen were worse in this respect than this people in a high state of civilization. The missionary informed his audience that heathen devotees tortured their bodies by unnatural compressions and painful attitudes, thinking to appease the anger of an offended deity. The faces of the audience indicated pity for such ignorance; but Common Sense glanced over to a man whose boots were instruments of torture to him, and to a woman whose head was poised in an unnatural attitude, shoulders thrown distressingly high, and a waist compressed until her muscles, sinews, diapragm, heart, lungs, and liver, failed to do the work allotted to them by nature; and, reflecting that this bodily contortion was adapted to propitiate the goddess Fashion, he wondered if the missionary might not return to foreign lands with tales of American heathen. The missionary told his audience of heathen mothers who throw their children into the Ganges, and cast them before Juggernaut as offerings to their gods. The audience shuddered convulsively at the monstrous tale, but Common Sense has his eye fixed on a shivering child standing within the cold shadow cast by the church. Its neck and arms were bare, and its little knees, blue with the biting cold, knocked together painfully as the child waited for the nurse who held protracted discussion with a boon companion. Common Sense recognized the child as the representative of a large class given up by their mothers to the absurdities of fashionable dress and the incompetency of servants, until disease and premature death were the result; and he wondered if heathen mothers in their sacrifices were more culpable than American mothers in their neglect. The missionary told his audience of the divisions of caste. He informed them that the higher orders despised inferior grades; and if a person fell to an inferior rank, his old companions in the former caste had a right to subject him to insult, and put upon him every indignity their scorn might conceive. Great astonishment was written on the faces of the audience; but Common Sense looked straight at a fashionable woman who shrank from her poor neighbor in the pew, and that very day had refused to speak to a woman whose social position had once been equal with hers, but who, through reverses of fortune, had sunk to a lower station. He thought, with such examples before him, that the orders of caste in heathen society had a parallel in the social divisions of American communities. The missionary told his audience of the heathen belief in oracles and omens, and their practice of consulting jugglers and priests in important affairs of life. The audience smiled contemptuously at their folly; but Common Sense thought of the multitudes who consult fortune-tellers and clairvoyants in important affairs, and saw before him men and women who believed in signs and old witches' fables, and latterly had even put faith in a board called Planchette, and he pronounced them not one whit less heathenish than the nations in foreign lands. The missionary horrified his audience by his account of heathen parents who sold their beautiful daughters into slavery, and for a consideration doomed them to a life worse than death. The audience wept over wickedness like this; but Common Sense remembered a marriage ceremony in that Christian church, where the bride was young and beautiful, and the bridegroom old and ugly. He remembered the smiles of the bride's parent as he gave away the fair girl to the cruel-visaged foreigner, and the disgust on the bride's face as she shrank away from the man who claimed her as his wife. "Gave her away" were the words the parent used; but they were not true. Sold her away, he should have said; sold her into slavery for money and position. That parent sat within the house of God that day, and in his heart condemned the heathen bargain; but Common Sense saw, with his clear-sighted vision, that the Christian contract was alike criminal. The missionary told his audience of the heathen festivals, with the offerings of gold, fruits, and flowers, and some times human lives. He described the attendant drunkenness, debauchery, and immorality, in language that made the Christian audience before him shudder. Common Sense beheld the shudder with a sarcastic smile. He knew of festivals in America with offerings of gold, fruits, flowers, and not unfrequently excesses that were suicidal in their nature. He knew that debauchery and drunkenness often marred these social feasts, and that the tone of morality was exceedingly low. He could look around the Christian audience, and see men who, in their club-houses, were no better than the degraded heathen; and women who, in the excesses of fashionable society, violated their marriage vow of love and honor, and sacrificed true, pure womanliness in the dance and wine-cup until they could not cast the stone of condemnation at their heathen sisters. The missionary told his audience of the abject condition of many foreign tribes who herded together and live in miserable huts in an atmosphere of filth and degradation. The refined Christian audience sickened at the description, and on their incredulous faces was written questioning if such things could be. Common Sense frowned at the incredulity, and wished they might take a step only a little out of Broadway, where the New York poor huddled in cellars and crowded tenement houses, breathing an air of filth and contamination, and living lives of lowest degradation and crime. It was easier to believe in foreign heathen with such a sight of American heathen at home. The missionary talked of the nations who bowed to idols and gods of their own making. The Christian audience devoutly thanked God that they were not like those poor heathen; but Common Sense was picking out of that Christian audience men and women who bowed to Mammon, Fashion, Pleasure, Ambition, and a thousand gods of their own making. At the close of the service, the missionary made a powerful plea for foreign missions, and solicited a contribution for ameliorating the condition of the benighted heathen. The audience responded liberally, for their hearts had been touched, and Common Sense smiled approval. His smile was followed by the suggestion that another contribution double the previous sum be taken for ameliorating the condition of American heathen, and advancing the cause of home missions. The audience was utterly confounded, and highly indignant. They did not understand Common Sense at all.—Harper's Bazar. Bro. J. M. Ellett, writing under date of Nov. 1, says: “I have just returned from this place. Those who had embraced our views are firm in the faith, some new ones are keeping the Sabbath, and a great many others are interested. This is a Baptist community, and the church, alarmed at the prospect of losing so many from their fold, are preferring charges against those who keep the commandments of God. One of their deacons has been tried for keeping the Sabbath, and for not forbidding his family to observe it.”
With the above report Bro. Ellett sent a “Confession of Faith,” which a sister had drawn up to be read before the Baptist Conference, which was to assemble October 29, 1880, for the purpose of excluding from that church all who persisted in keeping the Sabbath of the Lord instead of Sunday. We give a condensed statement of this sister’s “Confession,” and our readers may judge for themselves of the spirit which would exclude from church-fellowship one whose sole offense is that she is humbly striving to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. We are glad that some are not afraid to meet trials for the truth’s sake. Of her Christian experience and present views, sister C. says:—
“I was taught the commandments of God when I was quite young, and also that it was my duty to keep them. This I tried to do, but I did not fully understand them all. I felt that I was a helpless sinner, and often tried to pray. By listening to Baptist and Methodist preaching, I learned that I ought to seek the Saviour. This I tried to do, but did not understand the way. All looked dark to me.
“When about fifteen years of age, I attended a Methodist meeting, and went forward for prayers. I heard the shouts of many who had just been made free in God, and I felt that Jesus was near, but there was something that kept me away. In answer to earnest prayer, I was shown that it was a lack of faith that kept the Saviour out of my heart. I prayed for faith, and was made to553rejoice in pardoning love. I had thought before that I loved God and his people, but now I knew that I loved him with all my heart.
“I now felt it my duty to unite with some church. I loved the Methodists, but could not agree with them on the subject of baptism. I put my trust in God, and prayed to him to direct me, and I believe he heard my prayer, and led me to seek a home in the Baptist church. I have been a member of that church forty years, and still feel it my duty to keep the commandments of God, trusting in the merits of Jesus for salvation. I know that my Redeemer liveth; I love God, and love to serve him. Believing that I ought to keep the ten commandments which God wrote with his own finger on tables of stone, I find it my duty to keep holy the seventh-day Sabbath. I do not think to be justified by the law; for when we have done our duty, we are unprofitable servants, and it is only in and through our Lord Jesus Christ that we can be saved. I believe that Jesus died for me, and on this fact I base my hope. And, praise the name of the Lord, I love my Saviour, and believe that he will soon come to convey me to the mansions he has gone to prepare.
“I have been a Baptist forty years, and did not know until lately that it was contrary to the faith of that church to keep the commandments of the decalogue. I cannot find that in the Bible there are any blessings pronounced on commandment-breakers; but I find the following precious passages in reference to those who observe them sacredly: ‘Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.’ Rev. 22:14. ‘By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.’ 1 John 5:2, 3. ‘Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.’ Eccl. 12:13, 14. ‘Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in him.’ 1 John 2:2, 5. ‘Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.’ Matt. 5:19.
“And now, if you are not willing to retain me in the church, believing these great truths, you are at liberty to exclude me from your fellowship; for I am determined, by the help of God, to keep his commandments and the faith of Jesus as long as I live.” WORKERS WITH GOD.
By R. F. Cottrell
THE Lord is doing a great and marvelous work in the world; and who will take part in the work? That soul, professing to believe the truth, that can look on with indifference, not being anxious to have a part in the work, must be in a sad condition, indeed. Brother, sister, is your soul stirred and fired for action? Is the truth like fire shut up in your bones? Or have you concluded calmly to look on and see how the cause will move, while you do not lift a finger to forward it? We are being tested, my brethren. If we remain lukewarm, we shall be cast out. As I see the magnitude of the work and the wants of the cause, my soul is stirred, and I anxiously desire to do something to forward the cause. Well, there is something for me to do. I cannot put in my hundreds for missionary work in the foreign fields, but will do what I can in my humble sphere in my proper field of operation; and I am glad to know that small gifts and humble labor will be esteemed in Heaven, and accepted according to the motive of the heart. No one is required to do more than he can; but how much we may do if fully consecrated to the work, who can tell? Arouse brethren and sisters, and let us try. Let us have all upon the altar, and let it be the sincere cry of our heart, here am I, send me. There is no discharge in this war. None may leave the harvest till the sheaves are all bound, and joyfully borne from the harvest ground. We are enlisted during the war. No furloughs, no honorable discharge, till the war is ended, and the day of triumph comes. Here is my hand and heart too, to press onward to the end. What do you say, friends, shall we move on? Victory is sure to the valiant. Forward, then, forward! the prize is sure to the faithful. Let us work with God, and be very thankful that he will accept the service of the true and faithful heart. TEMPERANCE ideas and policies may be promoted either by the method of antagonism — denouncing the whole trade — or by the method of attraction and sympathy — seeking to unite and consolidate all its friends. These different methods are as much the opposite of each other as are positive and negative electricity, or as light differs from darkness. To antagonize the drink trade and whatever may affiliate with it, is a first and principal duty in temperance. We are not better than Christ. As he denounced the evils of his day and the persons who practiced them — the scribes and pharisees — so must we antagonize and denounce the infamous drink trade and all its agents and abettors. No fellowship with the great crime, but hostility and eternal hostility, is the motto of the real temperance reformer. To establish bonds of sympathy and work among all temperance reformers, is as much a duty and obligation as it is to antagonize the evil itself. We need not disturb individuality in demanding this harmony. Whoever has a temperance truth to proclaim, let him speak it; but let him accord the same right to another; and then let the two stand together as advocates of a common cause. There is common ground on which they may stand, and yet retain diversity of plans and views. — Advance. Give Now
By Sunday School Times
GIVE NOW.—How easy it is to be open-handed when it involves no self-denial. When people wish they had wealth in order to do good with it, they commonly mean that they would like to have so much money that they could give freely without feeling it. But what generosity is there in that? The true measure of our devotion to any object is what we are ready to give up for it. Until we make sacrifice for a cause, we furnish no proof that that cause has our heart. We do not even know whether or not we really love a friend, unless we are called on to choose between his welfare and something that we are loath to surrender. For what and to what extent have you really denied yourself to give help or pleasure to others, or to advance your Master's cause, within the past week or month? That is a question to test your generosity and your love. No loving or giving is worth speaking of that does not involve a readiness for sacrifice and self-denial.—Sunday School Times. Submission in Prayer
By William M. Taylor
PRAYERS should always be characterized by entire submission to the will of God. The undertone of every supplication should be, "Not my will, but thine be done." There is a warrant for stretching earnestness up to this point: "Father, if it is possible;" but that must always be combined with the "nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." This is a prayer that is always answered, and the answer to it can bring ultimately nothing but blessing to him who breathes it in sincerity, though in the immediate future there may be betrayal and crucifixion.—W. M. Taylor. THE ABSURDITY OF A LIQUOR LICENSE.
THE old idea of intoxicating drinks was that, in themselves, they are nourishing, strengthening, useful; and injurious only when taken to excess. The effort, therefore, was to guard against the abuse of them; to prevent, if possible, their being taken to excess. To secure this object, the practice was to intrust the sale of them to suitable persons only, and to charge money for the licenses—to secure something out of the traffic for the public chest—and this practice was well enough if the principle on which it was founded was but just. If the danger and evil of the use of spirits was only in the excess, then public caution should be taken to guard against excess; and perhaps no better plan could be devised for this purpose than that of the license. But one of the discoveries of the temperance reformation—perhaps the most important of them all—is, that for persons in health, and to be used as a drink, intoxicating liquors are never useful, they serve only to excite, never to nourish and strengthen; and that the habitual use of them is injurious and dangerous, causing more suffering and poverty, diseases and deaths, than any other cause whatever. This is a late discovery, and a great discovery; and if it be true, as we believe it is, then the practice of selling licenses for the sale and use of liquor loses all its consistency, loses its entire foundation, and becomes one of the grossest and most dangerous absurdities. Perhaps I can best show this by two or three comparisons. Let us apply the principle to other like cases. We learn from the papers that the army-worm, one of the most destructive little pests in the world, has made its appearance in some parts of our country, and is destroying every green thing in its progress. The farmers are much aroused for the destruction of the little vermin, and leave no means untried to be rid of him. Now, suppose the government should insist on tolerating the army-worm; should pass an act for that purpose, and should license a set of men to look after the interests of the poor worm, and take care, at least, that it should not be utterly destroyed; that enough, at least, should be left for seed. Now what would be thought of such an act? Who would approve it or wish its continuance? And yet the army-worm, with all its mischief, is not to be compared with the ravages of intoxicating drinks. The former can destroy only the products of the field, while the latter is destroying the country over, not only property of all kinds, but the health and happiness of individuals and families, and in cases innumerable, life itself. Take another case, of a more ridiculous character. Here is a worthy housekeeper whose home is terribly infested with rats. They have forced their way into every part of it. They are found, not only in the garret and cellar, but in the kitchen, and even the parlor; eating, destroying, defiling everything. Of course she is trying to destroy them, and she is killing a good many. But her heart is touched, and she cannot bear to destroy them all. She pities them, and has a place prepared where she is keeping and feeding a few of the rats, that they may live, and breed, and keep the stock good, and may be ready for service whenever she shall want. Now what would you think of such a woman? Do you believe there ever was such an one? Was ever such a fool seen in woman's clothes? And yet what better do those do who wear the garb of magistrates, and who are selling licenses the country over to sell intoxicating liquors, and thus make drunkards, and ruin families, and hurry thousands upon thousands who otherwise might be useful and happy to a premature death and a drunkard's grave—and eternity! Let the sellers of licenses and their supporters the world over think of this, and say whether the vile practice shall be continued.—Rev. Enoch Pond, D. D., in Christian Union.