Review and Herald, Vol. 37, No. 7.
OUR FAITH AND HOPE; Or, Reasons Why We Believe as We DoPage 1
OUR FAITH AND HOPE; Or, Reasons Why We Believe as We Do.
By James White
NUMBER SEVEN.—SIGNS OF THE TIMES. “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?”—DISCIPLES. “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.”—JESUS. Matt. 24:3, 33. CHAP. 25:1–4. “Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” The twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Matthew are one connected discourse. The parable of the ten virgins of chapter 25 is a further illustration of the great subject of the second advent, treated in the previous chapter, especially of the action of the wise and the evil servants, given in the closing part of it. “Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened [compared, Campbell’s translation] unto ten virgins.” At the very time when both these classes of servants are manifested, may the kingdom of Heaven be compared to an eastern marriage. The parable, then, does not have a general application; but illustrates the kingdom of Heaven at a particular time. There can be no mistake on this point. Some have desired to obtain a correct account of an eastern marriage, that they might better understand this parable. But let it be understood that our Saviour has here given the desired history, and testifies that the kingdom of Heaven shall be likened, or compared, unto it. The kingdom of Heaven is not the future kingdom of glory. The parable can in no wise illustrate that kingdom. The term here, as in many other places in the New Testament, applies to the work of grace; or, more definitely expressed, it refers to the great second advent movement, caused by the power of the word and Spirit of God upon the minds and hearts of men. The ten virgins illustrate those who professed faith in the evidences of the soon coming of Christ, based upon fulfilled and fulfilling prophecy, and the signs of the times. Their lamps represent the word of God. Ps. 119:105; 2 Pet. 1:19. The oil may illustrate abiding faith, produced by a thorough work of the word and Spirit of God upon the hearts and lives of men. The difference, then, between those illustrated by the foolish, and the wise virgins, is that one class rest in that faith which alone is the result of theory, while the other class have that abiding faith which results not only from theory, but also from the work of grace wrought by the word and Spirit of God. And in the great advent movement, these two classes have been clearly manifested. Verses 5–7. “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.” The bridegroom in this parable represents Jesus Christ, and the tarrying of the bridegroom clearly shows a disappointment on the part of those looking for his second coming, and a consequent delay. The first point of expectation, as expressed in the title page of Wm. Miller’s nineteen lectures, was “about the year 1843.” This time passed, and believers, for a time, sank into a position which is well represented by the words, “They all slumbered and slept.” In the summer of the year 1844, it was seen that those evidences which had been relied upon as proof that the 2300 prophetic days of Dan. 8 would end in the year 1843, proved that they would terminate in 1844. The entire body of believers had been united, agreeing with Wm. Miller that the 2300 days dated from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, B. C. 457. This point settled, the figures 1843 were readily found: From ........................................ 2300
Take ........................................... 457
And there remain ........................ 1843 But it was seen that it would require 457 full years before Christ, and 1843 full years after Christ, to make 2300 full years; so that if the 2300 years commenced with the first day of B. C. 457, they would reach to the first day of A. D. 1844. It was also seen that this prophetic period did not commence with the year 457, in the spring, but in the autumn of that year; consequently, 2300 full years would terminate in the autumn of 1844. In connection with this view of the subject, a most forcible application of the parable of the ten virgins, and other scriptures, was made, and a most solemn, searching cry went forth to Adventists everywhere, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” This appeal to professed believers went with astonishing rapidity and power, and all were aroused to search the Scriptures with greater care and deeper interest, fully represented by the words, “Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.” Verses 8, 9. “And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you; but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.” Those who had no part in the great advent movement can scarcely form any idea of that work. But those who took part in that work know that the burden of testimony to believers everywhere was that the preparation was an individual work. All were faithfully warned to look to God, and obtain an individual experience. The urgent requests for help from those in whom the work had been superficial, and the faithful responses of those who had the work at heart, are well illustrated by the above conversation between the foolish and wise virgins. THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB.
Verse 10. “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut.” There are two things which the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments illustrate by marriage: First, the union of God’s people in all past ages, as well as at the present time, with their Lord; second, Christ’s reception of the throne of David, which is in the New Jerusalem. But union of believers with their Lord has existed since the days of Adam, and cannot be regarded as the marriage of the Lamb. It is supposed that Isaiah (54:5) speaks of the church when he says, “Thy Maker is thine husband;” but Paul, in Gal. 4, applies this prophecy to the New Jerusalem . Says John, speaking of Christ, “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.” John 3:29. That Christ is here represented in his relation to his followers by a bridegroom, and his followers by a bride, is true; but that he and they are here called the bridegroom and bride, is not true. No one believes that the event called the marriage of the Lamb took place eighteen hundred years since. Paul, in writing to the church, 2 Cor. 11:2, says, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” But does this prove that the marriage of the Lamb took place in Corinth? or, did Paul only wish to represent by marriage, the union which he had effected, through the gospel, between Christ and the church at Corinth? He also says, Eph. 5:23, “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.” But please turn and read from verse 22, and it will be seen that Paul’s subject is the relation and duty of man and wife to each other. This is illustrated and enforced by the relation of Christ and the church. Those who suppose that Paul is here defining who the Lamb’s wife is, are greatly mistaken. That is not his subject. He commences, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands.” Verse 22. “Husbands, love your wives.” Verse 25. The marriage of the Lamb does not cover the entire period of probation, in which believers are united to their Lord, from Adam to the close of probation. It is one event, to take place at one point of time, and that is just prior to the resurrection of the just. Then what is the bride in the marriage of the Lamb? Said the angel to John, “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Rev. 21:9. Did the angel show John the church? “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God.” Verse 10. The New Jerusalem is also represented as the mother. “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Gal. 4:26. Christ is represented (Isa. 9:6) as the “everlasting Father” of his people; the New Jerusalem, the mother, and the subjects of the first resurrection, the children. And, beyond all doubt, the resurrection of the just is represented by birth. How appropriate, then, is the view that the marriage of the Lamb takes place in Heaven before the Lord comes, and before the children of the great family of Heaven are brought forth at the resurrection of the just. Let those who are disposed to cling to the old view that the church is the bride, and that the marriage is after Christ comes, and the saints are caught up to Heaven, answer the following questions: - Who are illustrated by the man found at the marriage, Matt. 22, not having on the wedding garment? Will any be caught up by mistake, to be bound hand and foot, and cast down to the earth again?
- If the church is the bride, who are they that are called to the marriage as guests?
- Jerusalem above is the mother of the children of promise; but if the church is the Lamb’s wife, who are the children?
The marriage of the Lamb is Christ’s reception of the throne of David, or his own throne, which is the New Jerusalem above. That city is finally to come down upon the new earth, to be the capital of the everlasting kingdom. The event illustrated by the coming of the bridegroom in the parable, is thus described by the prophet: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him.” Dan. 7:13, 14. This language describes a grand transaction in Heaven between the Father and the Son. The Son, at his second advent to this world, does not approach the Father. So far from this, the apostle represents the Father as remaining in Heaven, and sending his Son. “And he [the Father] shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” Acts 3:20. The words of the Psalmist are to the point: “Ask of me [says the Father to the Son], and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Ps. 2:8, 9. Before the Son makes his second advent to this world, he receives from the Father “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.” After the coronation of the King of kings, or the marriage of the Lamb, the opening heavens will reveal him coming in grandeur and in glory, leading on the armies of Heaven to the last great conflict with the beast, the false prophet, and the kings of the earth. See Rev. 19. “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.” “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” His mission then will be to “judge and make war.” He will then destroy his enemies, and redeem his people. The marriage is over, and his people are still waiting his return. The true position of the waiting ones is thus described: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning: and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding.” Luke 12:35, 36. SELF-EXAMINATION
By The Churchman
When shadows of the night surround
My solitary hours, O Lord;
And hushed is every earthly sound,
I seek the comforts of thy word. Each secret thought is known to thee;
Naught can escape thy searching sight;
Thou dwellest in eternity;
With thee the darkness is as light. Alone with thee, I would confess
My fault, and aid from thee implore;
My heart is weak, and, in distress,
I seek thy image to restore. Visit my heart and make it pure,
Pardon my sin, remove its stain;
With heavenly hopes my soul allure,
And draw me to thy side again. So shall I, strengthened by thy grace,
Be filled with love for things divine;
E’en in this hour behold thy face,
And find a gracious Saviour mine.
—The Churchman. The Bible in Rome.
By Editor
SURELY something has happened to the pope’s power, when such scenes as described below can take place in Rome: It may not be uninteresting to say one word with regard to one of the most liberal institutions that entered through the breach made at the Porta Pia. This institution is world-famous under the title of the Bible Society. It has begun its labors; it has become an establishment here; it has opened a shop in the Corso, where Bibles of all sizes, of all prices, may be had. You may read the Scriptures in Chinese and in four volumes for six francs; you may become acquainted with the Old and New Testaments in Syrian-Chaldaic for a mere trifle. If you are poor and half-blind, the largest of print, and the cheapest of books, are at your disposal. If you can see well, and can afford to pay, you can have a Bible here that you can easily put in your waistcoat pocket, where it will seem to the ignorant gazer nothing more than an extensive snuff-box. If you will neither buy large nor small Bibles, you may get portions of the Scriptures for nothing. Every one who passes are occasionally treated to these little books, containing, by a curious selection, the Gospel of St. John, and the Epistle of St. Paul, to the Galatians—and these you get for nothing! Cabmen, flower-dealers, passers-by, models for painting, and all the queer personages that form the population of a Roman street, are treated to these little portions of the Bible,—homeopathic doses of the Sacred Scriptures. These are published in choice Italian, and printed in the Crystal Palace, London. Every one gets them—except priests! I suppose these propagators of the Bible-in-bits, think the priests are too far gone in Catholicity to be moved by such measures. The above is from the special correspondent of the Pilot, at Rome, and was not written for Protestant readers, but we take it as a proof from Rome and from a Roman Catholic authority that old things are passing away, and the truth, even in bits, is circulated in the city of the popes. “TAKE heed to your spirit.” This passage is also found in verse 15. It is a solemn warning against allowing the thoughts to range at large, without control. Take heed to the heart, the thoughts, the motives, the desires, the affections. Be very jealous of yourself. Watch closely this fountain of thought. Recollect the heart will instruct the tongue. Keep this heart, regulate the affections, purify the motives. Then there will be no temptation to hypocrisy, no desire to do wrong. Take heed to thy spirit. Do this, and your tongue and hand will move in harmony with your well-kept heart; and all will be harmony, peace, love, and obedience. JOS. CLARKE. Cows in the Meadow and the Barren Heath
Many a cow stands often in the green meadow, and looks wistfully at the barren heath. TELL me, my dear friend, are you an earnest, growing, blessed Christian? “That is more than I dare say. I hope I am a Christian. Sometimes I am conscious of some degree of earnestness. I am afraid I don’t grow much. I don’t know about being a blessed Christian.” But you should know; for Christ has stated who the blessed Christians are. He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit; they that mourn; the meek; they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; the merciful; the pure in heart; the peace-makers; they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Does this describe you? “I am afraid not. The question is always coming up, Am I meek? Do I hunger and thirst? Am I pure in heart? Am I a faithful Christian? I can’t pretend that I am persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” And so the whole matter is left in uncertainty. This is far from being satisfactory to you; you have hoped that it would not always be so; that something more favorable might turn up. My dear friend, you are indulging a delusive expectation. This state of uncertainty is most criminal; it is by no means a mere misfortune. The way out of it stands wide open. Here is God’s message to you by the mouth of his apostles:— “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” It is simply through failing to comply with this invitation that you are so uncertain about yourself. You wait for something to turn up, but here is something to be done. “I am sure I would do anything in the world to be sure.” Then you will not remain uncertain. Now let us look carefully at what is required. It is not often that princes stoop to entreat what they might command; but here the King of kings utters a most courteous and tender appeal to you; and I beg you to notice what is asked:— It is the total gift of yourself to God; a living sacrifice. It is indeed a peculiar gift; one altogether unique; it has no parallel. You may give a ring, a dollar, or a fortune, and dismiss it from your mind. “I have done with it,” you might say; “henceforth it is nothing to me.” Not so with this gift; it is the devoting and consecrating of yourself to God for any and every service in your power to render; it is the gift of a hearty will for every such service. Such a gift is never made of one’s own motion or one’s own strength,—the impulse is from God; the strength is his. He moves the heart, awakens and invigorates love, and produces an insatiable desire to do all we can for Him who so loved us. In ancient times, God required of the Jewish people sacrifices, sufferings, burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings, without number; not because of any inherent worth in them; not because he was in any way dependent upon them; for when he called the Jews to account for their unfaithfulness, he said he would not reprove them for any deficiency in their sacrifices: “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. . . . Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High.” And so David, when brought to a right understanding of God’s will, exclaims, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; . . . I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” You see it is a heart matter, and God’s demand is for your heart, and your whole heart. It is no new demand, but the same which he has urged from the beginning; namely, this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.” So when God calls you to present your body a living sacrifice, he calls for the surrender and consecration of the entire man—for body, mind, and heart—not only for what you now have and are, but for all that you may acquire, for all that you may become. And you are not only to do, but also to be, and to suffer, for him. You are to undertake a hundred things of which the natural man will say, That I can never do; and not merely submissively, as one yields to an inexorable necessity, but cheerfully, heartily, like the first disciples, who “rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.” All this you are entreated to do by the mercies of God. Let us see if the motive is equal to the demand. What are the mercies of God? It is in vain to attempt to answer this question to any careless or superficial mind. True, it may be said, even to such a one, that he owes all that he is and has to God; that as a sinner, he has forfeited every claim on God that, if innocent, would belong to him as a creature of God, and that therefore all that he is and all that he has is of God’s mercy. This statement, though quite true, can carry to the careless man but a vague and misty impression of some few of God’s mercies. The heart of man, like the photographer’s plate, must be prepared before it can take a just impression of all that is offered to it. Listen to David’s testimony: “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbered;” and yet he does not refrain from the frequent mention of God’s works and thoughts of mercy. In the very psalm from which we have quoted, he commences thus: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.” These are the mercies of God upon which the apostle rests his appeal. Consider his mercies to you. Once you were without God and without hope. There was for you only the fearful looking for of judgment. Through fear of death, you were all your life subject to bondage. God often called; but you refused. He stretched out his hands; but you disregarded. You did not believe on the Son of God; you were condemned already. Now behold the goodness and mercy of God. He sent his only-begotten and well-beloved Son, by his life and precepts to instruct you; by his sufferings and death to ransom and ennoble you; to raise you from the condition of a condemned criminal to that of a son and heir. He gave you the indwelling Comforter to guide you into all truth, to take of the things of Christ and of God, and show them unto you, to witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, to help your infirmities, to make intercession for you with a sublime and unutterable earnestness, to follow you in all your innumerable departures from the narrow way, from the commencement of your pilgrimage up to the celestial city, to warn, to entreat, to persuade, and finally to secure for you an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of God’s dear Son. This is in truth but a feeble outline of the mercies of God. Only a loving heart can fill up the picture. And such a heart is ever struggling so to do, but always under the conviction that his mercies can neither be numbered nor measured. It seeks relief in the ever-repeated and never-exhausted tribute, “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake I am still with thee.” Vain is the attempt to make a record of the mercies of daily life. Added to the thousand delights incident to mere existence, with its ever-opening vistas into the boundless realms of knowledge, are the ten thousand minute providences, which, like a starry firmament, both over-arch and canopy the whole; while they are forever speaking of the hand and heart which made and controls the whole. And what language can express the mercy which permits a redeemed sinner, walking in the footsteps of his Saviour, to be a messenger of mercy and a son of consolation to all within his reach! Remember how intolerable life often is to him who is ignorant of that wonderful specific, “It is more blessed to give than to receive;” remember how your own happiness has been ransomed from the grave by your reception of it; remember, too, that God thrust this grace upon you when you were reluctant, or indifferent; and tell me, are not the mercies of God such as to make your giving yourself a living sacrifice to God your most reasonable service? But you are saying, What need to beseech? I am sure I recognize the justice and reasonableness of the demand. I did so when I became a Christian. It was my endeavor then to give myself wholly away to God. Certainly, if I had held back anything which I knew God to require of me, I could have no reason to regard myself as his child. And from this you infer that you must have “presented your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him.” It is the common estimate of the first step in the new life; but how commonly it is a mistaken estimate, appears in the history of the great majority of all those who call themselves the disciples of Christ. Admit that in the beginning of the new life they gave to God all that they knew to be required; what estimate shall we put upon their knowledge? Shall we reckon it the true and reliable standard of what God does require? Do not the young convert’s notions of God’s requirements vary endlessly? Do they not vary with the temperament they have inherited, with the social advantages they have enjoyed, with the religious instruction they have received? Do any two of them agree in their estimate of God’s requirements? And is it not recorded of many such, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” It is plain that many of them, failing to comprehend God’s requirements, do stop very far short of that living sacrifice which is here demanded. And if you would avoid a like failure, see to it that you are not found in either of the following classes of mistaken men:— 1. Those who in the very beginning of the new life suppose that they have a full knowledge of all that God requires of them. 2. Those who make the claims of God upon us to consist mainly in a just intellectual belief. 3. Those who make obedience to God to lie mostly in emotion. 4. Those who make this obedience equivalent to outward activities. 5. Those who esteem the highest heart-service as a species of fanaticism; though it has ample warrant in such scriptures as these: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” 6. There is yet another class, those who believe that the highest heart-service is no fanaticism, but say, or think, This is not for me; I can’t persuade myself that God will admit me to such fellowship. The simple, sufficient answer to all such views may be found in two or three sentences spoken by our Lord himself: “Believest thou that I am able to do this?” “Are ye able to drink of my cup, and to be baptized with my baptism?” Then “ask and ye shall receive.” “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” My friend, be not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind; then shall you prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, and the fellowship which is with the Father and the Son.—Sel. Looking on the Things of Others.
THERE is a wonderful deal of meaning in the apostle’s injunction, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” It exactly meets the most subtle and universal form of selfishness. Few of us, let it be hoped, are in the constant habit of seeing clearly troubles that we might relieve, and doing nothing for them. Yet who of us, on honest self-examination, is not conscious that somehow or other he does very little to make other people happier? There are enough who need help all around us, no doubt, and we cannot believe ourselves really cold-hearted; so why is it that we do so little? The great reason is, that we are so absorbed in our own interests as never to notice the thousand chances to help some one else. The priest and Levite who came and looked on the wounded Samaritan, and then passed on, were, let us believe, worse than most men. If a whole host of people had passed near, some with eyes and ears intent on game they were chasing, some staring with all their might at stars they were studying, so that none of them saw the poor Samaritan, or seeing him, got but a very dim notion whether he was hurt, or drunk, or asleep,—that would have corresponded to the unconscious selfishness that clings to almost all of us. What a startling thing it is to get a sense, as we do sometimes, that every other man’s life is to him just what our own is to us! We look around on our companions, about whom we know and think so little, and feel—each one of these has just such a world of cares, and pleasures, and various experiences, as I myself live in! Under such a thought, the world seems suddenly to become a million times bigger. Most of the time we live in an incessant “I.” I am happy, I am troubled, I did that, I shall do this,—so the song runs, from morning to night, from year’s end to year’s end. And all the while there are people about us whose lives are of just as much account as ours are! The New Testament is full of the spirit of that sweetest and highest goodness which forgets self, and enters into the lives of others. The perfect example is that of Him who “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” The all-including virtue is the charity which “seeketh not her own.” We are bidden to “rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” This spirit, which is the essence of Christianity, can only grow as we learn to “look upon” the things of others; to have our eyes open to what is happening to them, our ears ready to catch the tones of their voices; in a word, to be sympathetic. Sympathy means feeling with others; not feeling for them; not looking out on their pleasure or pain as something foreign and distant from ourselves; but coming side by side with them, so as in a certain measure to make their feeling ours. All sorts of things combine to make this spirit hard to acquire. To scarcely any one does it come as an easy and natural grace. Almost every child is at the outset extremely selfish, bound up in its own little life, and has to be taught to think for others, even in a moderate degree, by endless training. As the deeper experiences of life come on, they at first take such possession of the heart that outside claims are almost forgotten. Young love sees no one in the world save its single beloved. As the cares of life thicken, they seem almost necessarily to shut out for want of room careful thought for those outside. Earnestness itself, earnestness for noble objects, makes men unconsciously selfish, unless they keep close watch against it. Many a man is so absorbingly devoted to science, to benevolence, to the church, that his wife sighs in secret for the little tokens of love; and his children give him but a distant reverence instead of tenderness and confidence. The sin of self-absorption is all-besetting! Nature and circumstance and occupation all combine to fasten it on a man; and those are most under its power who are least conscious of it. As this article is being written, a message comes in, “So-and-so is here to see you.” The whole first impulse in reply is of resistance,—“What, stop writing, break the chain of thought, perhaps not to regain it, spoil the article? No; he shall be shortly dealt with!” Ah! but the right thing is, since the visitor was entitled to come, to go to him, listen to his wants as if there were nothing else, and for the time enter wholly into his feeling! Have you seen a good doctor, receiving one patient after another in rapid succession; and, as each in turn comes in, listening to his symptoms, examining his case with closest attention,—oblivious of the one who came before, the one who will come next, and all other things in the world? What that doctor does for men’s bodies, we ought all the while to do for their hearts. What sight known to man is half so beautiful as one who lives such a life of sympathy and self-forgetfulness? Thank God that we know such! Who has not seen some mother, in the midst of a great household, every hour taking upon herself some part of the life of her children? Be it the baby who cries, the boy who has cut his finger, the young man with his love trouble,—all in turn find just the help and comfort they need! Her whole life is parceled out among the lives of others; and if you would find what is that part of it which is her own, private and peculiar, lo, that, too, is unselfish love! Her highest joy, her deepest sorrow, are in the joy and sorrow of her husband and her children. Through such saints God teaches over and over again the lesson of which Christ’s life was the perfect embodiment. And it is for us, following far behind him, to patiently and diligently bring ourselves into his spirit. It is the best possibility that life offers to us, that we should learn, hour by hour, to be thoughtful for others, to be considerately and tenderly sensitive to the lives about us. Every brief conversation, all our work with others, all our interruptions, the relations of mistress and servant, of employer and clerk, of the family and the church and the neighborhood—all give us the opportunity to put the thought for others before the thought for self. And it is by these daily lessons that we are to come into that charity without which knowledge, and faith, and zeal, profit nothing—into that love whose spirit makes Heaven.—Christian Union. How often do we hear the remark about religious books and papers, that “they are dry as a stick; give me a story, no matter what, if it is only interesting.” O friend, if your mind were not perverted, your whole being would tremble at the fact that you are on the road to destruction. Most of the stories that you love so well, are mere fiction or make-believe at the best. They do not follow their heroes and heroines down to the grave. The curtain drops on a pleasant scene. But life and death are stern realities. And you will have to meet reality, whether you will or not. It is all that will interest you soon. It is because you are a poor, wretched, miserable creature, that you take fiction to drown reality. And it will “drown you in perdition,” unless you repent. It is this unnatural stimulus that makes you think religion so dull and dry. Be it as it may with the books and papers, if you will read the Bible, you will find the word of God “quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace.” Then you will find interest enough, all that is noble, tender, and good, in the realities of the past, present, and future. Heroes laying down their lives for the truth, love stronger than death, grappling with the “king of terrors,” and disarming him in his own dominions, and he that “was dead,” living forevermore, and having the keys of hell and of death, warriors overcoming the world, the flesh, and Satan, “by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony,” men, women, and children, by patient continuance in well-doing, seeking for glory, honor, and immortality, waiting for eternal life and a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to all them that love his righteous appearing. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And whosoever will, let him take of the waters of life freely.” THE Springfield Republican says that the general agent of the Board of State Charities, who is superintendent of alien passengers for the port of Boston, reports the number of immigrants arriving there in the year ending October 1, 1870, as 30,069—the largest number ever received there in one year. The greatest number from any one country came from Ireland, 11,321; 8,278 were English; 1,081 from Scotland, 144 from Wales, and 3,668 were from the British provinces; making a total of 24,492, or more than five-sixths of the whole from the British empire. From Germany came 3,481; from the Portuguese islands, 611; from Sweden, 581; from Italy, 271; France, 195; Holland, 149; Switzerland, 77; West Indies, 63; Poland, 49; Denmark, 31; Spain, 21; Africa, 21; Russia, 12; Belgium, 11; other countries, 8. The immigration from Germany has almost entirely ceased since the war. EUROPE once had its “Seven Years’ War,” and even a “Thirty Years’ War,” working their slow changes on the map and in human society. Now a war lasting a few weeks makes even greater changes. In this country also, events move with accelerated speed. Ten years have made wonderful revolutions. The work of centuries is crowded into decades. . . . We need to be quick to discern the signs of the times, and swift to do the appointed work. —Am. Missionary.