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Signs of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 18.

The Georgia Convict Lease System

Signs of the Times

May 12, 1890

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 12, 1890

The Georgia Convict Lease System

THE New York World has been unearthing the iniquities of the convict lease system in Georgia, under which those convicted of crimes are leased out by the State authorities to contractors, the State always furnishing with the men a "whipping boss." The tale of the World's reporter, Mr. J. C. Klein, reveals a dark picture. In speaking of this cruelty the World says:—
"It belongs to the system, which is barbarously wrong and utterly violative of every principle of penitential punishment for purposes of reformation. Apart from its irresponsible cruelty, the existence of the system gives the State a speculative interest in the conviction of as many able-bodied laborers as possible, and induces long sentences, because the contractor does not want a short-term man. It leaves reformation utterly out of the account. It degrades prisoners instead of building up their characters. It makes no provision for protecting the less hardened from the influence of the worst. It is not reformatory in any sense even by accident, but merely an inhuman traffic in human flesh. It is slavery, stripped of the kindliness that softened the relations of master and servant—slavery, upon purely speculative terms, a thing regarded with abhorrence in the South in the days of a more humane servitude. It is a curse which the World would aid Georgia to cast off."

GOD'S REQUIREMENT IN GRACE, THE SAME AS IN PARADISE.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
WHEN our first parents were placed in the beautiful garden of Eden, they were tested in regard to their loyalty to God. They were free to choose the service of God, or by disobedience to ally themselves with the enemy of God and man. If they would abstain from that which God had forbidden, they might keep possession of their beautiful Eden home, and remain in the favor of God, but if they disregarded God's commands, and listened to the voice of Satan, as he spoke through the serpent, they would not only forfeit their claim to Eden, but to life itself. The penalty for sin had been set before them, and they were informed as to the tremendous issues depending on their action in obeying or disobeying the requirements of God.With what intense interest the whole universe watched the conflict that was to decide the position of Adam and Eve. How attentively the angels listened to the words of Satan, the originator of sin, as he placed his own ideas above the commands of God, and sought to make of none effect the law of God through his deceptive reasoning! How anxiously they waited to see if the holy pair would be deluded by the tempter, and yield to his arts. They asked themselves, Will the holy pair transfer their faith and love from the Father and Son to Satan? Will they accept his falsehoods as truth? They knew that they might refrain from taking the fruit, and obey the positive injunction of God, or they might violate the express command of their Creator.
The mildest test was given them that could be given; for there was no need of their eating of the forbidden tree; everything that their wants required had been provided. The special work of Satan was to misrepresent the character of God, and in the first effort at man's overthrow he impeached the veracity of God. God had said to them of the forbidden tree, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" but the enemy of all righteousness declared: "Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Satan represented God as a deceiver, as one who would debar his creatures from the benefit of his highest gift. The angels heard with sorrow and amazement this statement in regard to the character of God, as Satan represented him as possessing his own miserable attributes; but Eve was not horror-stricken to hear the holy and supreme God thus falsely accused. If she had turned her thoughts toward God, if she had looked upon beautiful Eden and remembered all the tokens of his love, if she had fled to her husband, she might have been saved from the subtle temptation of the evil one. One word of repulse would have brought to her the aid that God could give. One word in vindication of her Creator would have caused the accuser to flee, and her integrity would have been untarnished. If she had resisted the first temptation, she would have stood on higher, holier ground than ever before; but she yielded to the flatteries of her enemy, and became a captive to his will.
Our first parents fell through disobedience to God's express command, and this is where thousands fall to-day. The Lord says, "Thou shalt not," but Satan persuades that it is for man's interest to disobey God. There are many who even claim to be sanctified, who do not yield obedience to God's expressed command, and these cannot be sanctified through the truth. They seek to climb up to heaven some other way than the way which has been appointed. They say, "Believe, only believe," and they make a great boast of their faith, but the faith they claim to possess is simply presumption, and they have no knowledge of what constitutes genuine faith. The Jews cast aside Christ, and rejected the idea that faith in him would be efficacious in saving their souls; but they trusted in their works as a means of salvation. Genuine faith in Christ works by love and purifies the soul. Faith and works go hand in hand, for faith without works is dead. God requires of every soul to-day what he required of our first parents in Eden,—perfect obedience to his law. There must be found in the life unswerving allegiance to God, righteousness without a flaw in the character. We must be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and stand without blemish before God. The requirement that God has made in grace is the requirement that God made in Paradise.
It is a dangerous theory that leads men to declare that all that is necessary to salvation is to simply believe in Christ, while disregarding his plain commands. The gospel is not the Old Testament standard lowered, it requires faith that works righteousness, that keeps the commandments of God. Says the apostle, "This is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." When men claim to be saved while living in violation of God's law, they claim that to which they have no right. Their salvation is not assured, but they are deceived by the falsehood of the evil one. The same sophistry is indulged, the same lie repeated by men, as was first spoken in Eden through the mediumship of the serpent. Though the medium is changed, the sentiment is the same.
God's law appeals to man as an intelligent being; he possesses a mind to understand its demands, a conscience to feel the power of its claims, a heart to love its requirement of perfect righteousness, a will to render prompt and implicit obedience. God does not compel men to render obedience to his law. If man purposes to defy God, and transgress his law, as did Adam, he may do so, but he must suffer the terrible consequences. If he chooses to obey God, he may attain to the experience of the psalmist when he says, "I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold."

The First and Second Adam

By R. R. Meredith, D. D.

THE first Adam, created pure, was placed in a garden; there the tempter came to him, and he fell into sin, and was driven forth into the wilderness. The second Adam, coming to redeem, though without sin, consents to be treated as a sinner, enters the wilderness to meet the tempter, and conquers him, that he may bring man back to the garden. —R. R. Meredith, D. D.

Universalist Baptism and Unity

At the Universalist Convention recently held in this city, four ladies were "baptized" by effusion, the administrator using the following formula: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and into the Spirit of his Son, and into the fellowship of the Universal Brotherhood." The pastor of the Unitarian Church delivered an address in which he said that the Universalists and the Unitarians were moving on converging lines, and would eventually unite.

Catholic Mission Contributions

THE Catholic association for the propagation of the faith of that church gave to poor dioceses in the United States $41,000, but received from this country only $52,000, $11,000 being the aggregate that the 10,000,000 of Catholics in the United States paid last year for foreign missions. France contributed $800,000. Two dioceses in Europe—Metz and Strasburg—gave $52,000, as much as the entire amount given by the Catholics in this country. It appears that American Catholics are not very generous.

Socialism and Its Cure

By Editor

THERE is truth in the following from Prince Bismarck, uttered in a recent interview on socialism: "If the political parties who oppose socialism do not unite in defense of their independence and the welfare of the citizens and family, they must succumb to socialist domination until such time as socialism in its turn is overthrown by excess and misery inherent in it as in slavery, for a socialistic system of government is a species of slavery, a sort of penitentiary system for its intended victims." We are the friend of the poor and the laborer, but we are not the friend of the anarchy and tyranny which are manifested in modern socialism. The cure is as bad as the disease.

The Bennett Law in Wisconsin

By Editor

THERE has been much discussion in the newspapers of late regarding the "Bennett law" of Wisconsin. This law, enacted during the past winter, is an amendment of the old compulsory education law, which has been on the books for twelve years. The amendment provides that the common branches and United States history shall be taught for twelve weeks in the year in English in every school; and no child shall be sent to a school outside his own district, without the school board being satisfied that the school to which he is sent is enforcing the law. As there are extensive foreign settlements in the State, the law is aimed at enforcing them to adopt the English language; hence the bitter feeling, and the charge that the law is too "paternal" in its nature.

God’s Thoughts Toward His People

The psalmist said: "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me." This is a consoling thought; and so again we read: "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." Ps. 139:17, 18. What a wonder that the God of the universe, the Creator of heaven and earth, should bestow thoughts innumerable upon those who, in comparison with him, are less than nothing, and vanity! But the crowning piece is the assurance of the Lord himself to ancient Israel, which applies no less to his people to-day: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jer. 29:11. The Christian who meditates upon this truth until he realizes it, makes God's thoughts his own, and so can say, "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul." Ps. 94:19.

IN THE SHADE.

SOMETIMES God leads his own— So prone to linger in the blinding glare Of earthly good—through narrow ways of care And loss and hindrance heretofore unknown, And in the shadow gives them space for thought; But when the discipline its work hath wrought, With thankful joy his children understand The gloom was but the shadow of his hand!
Sometimes he leads his own Far from the throbbing heat and rush of life, Beyond the utmost echoes of its strife, And in green pastures maketh them lie down To rest awhile. O sweet and hallowed shade! What dream of death should make their souls afraid? The passing dimness that its presence flings Is but the healing shadow of his wings.
—Selected.

LEO'S LATEST LETTER.

THE recent encyclical letter which His Infallibility Leo XIII. has addressed to the ordinaries in peace and communion with the holy see is a remarkable document. Every Protestant preacher who wishes to understand the relation in which Romanists stand to the pope, and the claims which are put forth by the head of the Roman Church, ought to read this document very carefully. It is described by its author as a letter on the principal duties of Christian citizens.
After referring to the state of society, and to the abundance of evils which prevail, and which lead to the result that no wise man can bear the present without keen anxiety, or look forward to the future without fear, the writer says that the time warns us to look for remedies where they are to be found; that is to say, to restore the principles and practices of Christianity in private life and in all parts of the social organism. The true remedy seems to the pope to be easily found. His simple recipe contains one direction,—"Obey me." He tells his readers that the man who has embraced as he ought to embrace the Christian church, becomes by that very fact subject to the church, his mother, and a member of the highest and most holy society which it is the special office of the Roman pontiff to govern with full power under Jesus Christ. In cases where the Roman pontiff gives directions which are opposed to the laws of earthly sovereigns, the Catholic need not doubt which is to be obeyed.
"It is an impious deed . . . to transgress the laws of the church under the pretext of obeying the civil law." "If the laws of the State . . . command anything prejudicial to the church, . . . or violate in the person of the supreme pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ, then, indeed, it is a duty to resist them—a crime to obey them."
Those who imagine that the pope claims to be obeyed only in matters of vital import to the life of the believers or the church, will be surprised to find that Leo has made the limits of required obedience co-extensive with the limits of possible activity. What man ought to believe and what he ought to do are alike to be decided by the supreme pontiff. It is incumbent on him to point out what is moral and what is immoral.
"The union of minds requires with perfect obedience in the same faith perfect submission and obedience of will to the church and the sovereign pontiff as to God himself."
In exercising the privileges which they enjoy as citizens, Catholics are required "always, and in the first place, to serve as far as possible the interests of Catholicism." If these are endangered, all the Romanists in the particular country where the danger exists must take the same side and defend their religion. No one is to receive the vote or the support of a papist who is known to be hostile to "the church," or who openly refuses to respect its rights.
The pope does not hesitate to give exact directions with reference to men's political conduct, for, as he says, the supreme pontiff "has not only to govern the entire church, but also to order and regulate the actions of Christian citizens." It is indispensable that "the faithful should always religiously take as the rule of their conduct the political wisdom of the ecclesiastical authority."
No one can mistake the meaning of such statements as these. Henceforth no one will be excusable who asserts that a Romanist can be a good British citizen. He is bound to obey a foreign potentate. He is threatened with eternal loss if he acts the British citizen rather than the Roman subject. Only when he may be doing nothing to endanger the power, the prosperity, and the progress of popery, can he be perfectly free to vote as his British instincts and affections may impel him to do.—Christian Commonwealth, England.

THE LOGIC OF THE LOTTERY.

By Editor

THE Louisiana Lottery was chartered in 1868 for twenty-five years. Its charter expires, therefore, in 1893. The next Legislature meets in May. It will be urged to pass a bill submitting to popular vote a constitutional amendment making the charter of the lottery perpetual. If the amendment is adopted, it will probably become law in 1892, and the lottery will continue.
The lottery has been a curse, not to Louisiana alone, but to the entire nation. It inculcates the gambling fever, which, once fairly started in a man or women, overrides all restraints of law and morality, and defies the claims of honor and honesty.
A widespread effort is being made to prevent the rechartering of the lottery either in Louisiana or elsewhere, and failing that, to prevent by act of Congress its use of the Federal mails. The daily press of the country are taking up the question and thundering anathemas at the evil. But in Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans, the daily press are, almost without exception, silent as the grave, or if they speak at all, it is in extenuation. What is worse, if reports can be credited, the church and its ministry are, with some noble exceptions, halting and stammering or altogether silent on the question. Rev. Mr. Canadine, of the Methodist Church in New Orleans, says:—
"The lottery is gagging and silencing the Christian church in this city and surroundingcountry. It long ago silenced the Legislature, and in ways that each legislator who has lost his condemning voice can best tell, and must answer to his conscience. It has silenced the newspapers. . . . Here is a gambling institution that is the natural enemy of the church, and yet, mournful to relate, it is not found in antagonism with it, but is in good fellowship and amity, and is seen pouring its gifts into its bosom. And the church has dropped its head upon the shoulder of the lottery, and says, 'You are so nice and good that I can't say anything against you, to save my life.'"
One reads this with a feeling akin to horror. What possible palliation can be offered for such connivance on the part of decent citizens? Oh, there are many! In the first place, the lottery pays $40,000 each year to the Charity Hospital. In the second place, as long as people will gamble anyhow, why not license the evil and get a revenue of $250,000 from it for the State? In the third place, if Louisiana doesn't license the lottery, some other State may, or at any rate it can go to Mexico and carry on operations. In the fourth place, the lottery already exists, and one must be willing to take a step at a time, and a big fee like $250,000 is a step toward its eradication. As a member of the Dakota Legislature said when the lottery bill was up for discussion there a few weeks ago:—
'It is a necessary evil, and why should not the State derive some benefit from the traffic? . . . With this amount of money placed at our disposal, we could relieve all destitution, pay a large amount of our annual expenses for running the government, and derive financial profit from the evil which we are powerless to prevent.'
In the fifth place, "personal liberty" requires that a man have a right to spend his own money as he pleases. The lottery doesn't require anyone to purchase its tickets. All these reasons are freely advanced.
What is the matter with these reasons? Are they not wise, judicious, and prudent?—No, they are false as hell itself, from which they emanate, and even the editor of a daily paper can see their falsity when they are applied to a lottery several thousands of miles away. There isn't a vice so low and base that it could not plant its feet on these same reasons and hold up its head in the light of day. But let these same reasons be applied to the saloon, to something that is here on our own thresholds, and good men and able editors support them as God's own fundamental verities, which none but a fanatic would call in question.—N. Y. Voice.

CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CHARITIES.

By Northwestern Christian Advocate

The Roman Catholic consideration for the poor is proverbial—among those who are never called upon to test it experimentally. The critical examination of its charities would, we are quite confident, reveal that even where the chiefest of graces was supposed to preside there was under the garb the same hard, narrow, bloodless indifference to the real welfare of humanity which characterizes the church in all its ostentatiously benevolent activity. An instance of the undisguised animus has recently come to notice. An aged mother in the church died, and the family were left in only moderate circumstances. The fidelity and liberality of the good woman in her church relations were well established, and yet, because of inability to satisfy sacerdotal rapacity, she was denied the poor privilege of "high" mass, and her family any words of consolation from the appointed ministry. For inquiring readers we quote the schedule: Low mass, $5.00; high, $10; additional consolation, $15. We suppose that family rates, where a sufficiently large number is assured, are subject to a slight discount. If it is said that this is an exceptional case, we have only to reply on good authority and from personal observation that it is a characteristic example of the spirit with which that church's whole system of reputed benevolence is carried on.—Northwestern Christian Advocate.

AN ASTRONOMICAL VIEW OF OUR FATHER'S HOUSE.

By Gamma Beta

"In my Father's house are many mansions." John 14:2. The Revised Version admits the following reading: "In my Father's house are many abiding-places." Continuing this verse, Christ says, "I go to prepare a place for you." The sense of the text is, that in God's house, i. e., in God's universe, are the "mansions," or "abiding-places," in which we are to dwell if we are found worthy of a dwelling-place with God.
This text may be considered an astronomical one, and, like many others, the greater our knowledge of the structure of the universe, the more clearly we will see and comprehend its meaning. While the astronomer himself only faintly comprehends the overwhelming greatness of our Father's house, his conception is vastly above that of the casual reader. While he would be indeed a bold astronomer who would not shrink from the task of explaining this and similar texts, yet he can safely direct the mind of the earnest seeker
into paths that are ablaze with the glory of God.
Ask an astronomer, How large is our Father's house? and instantly he would see, in imagination, unnumbered millions of worlds, systems, constellations, clusters, and aggregations in our, or the visible universe, and beyond this he knows that other universes, universe after universe, infinity after infinity, unspeakable in dimensions and duration, stretch away into unfathomable, endless space, until his imagination is stunned, his mind reels, and his reason cries, Halt!—for the finite mind here meets the incomprehensible, and Nature challenges the astronomer.
We often hear from the pulpit the word "universe." What is our preacher talking about? Evidently something pretty big, for it is usually the grand finishing point when he wishes to impress us with something vast and unlimited. What is the universe? Can we understand it? Let us examine into this matter and see if we can know anything of our Father's house, for surely it is right for us to use the mind he has given us to add to our knowledge of his glory; nay, would it not be sin if we did not use our best endeavors to know all we can of the great Master Builder and his works?
Come, reader, let us, in imagination, go on an infinite voyage, and see for ourselves something of our Father's house, with its many "abiding-places." We have no time for details, but at once select a starting-point. For this the astronomer would naturally turn to the sun as the great center, and from which we receive the light and heat that makes this world of ours habitable. The question of the speed with which we must travel is more difficult; but, assuming that we have the choice in this matter, we will soon settle this most important point. Railroad speed of a mile in a minute is entirely out of the question, for our time is short and the journey long, besides, we want to return in time to tell the SIGNS' readers something of what we see. There is a cannon-ball—that travels about twenty miles a minute! But that, too, is too slow—entirely too slow. But there is light?—Yes, now we have it! We will travel with the inconceivable speed of light itself, for we must travel with infinite speed on an infinite journey, and light travels one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles in a single second of time! This is equal to over eleven million of miles in a single minute! (186,000 × 60=11,160,000.)
Fearing that our unusual performance will produce undue excitement in the worlds we are about to visit, we will send before us a messenger to announce our arrival, and we will select for this purpose a cannon-ball, traveling at the rate of twenty-eight thousand miles a day, and, that it may have plenty of time, we will give it a start of a hundred years! We want to be perfectly fair in all that we do in this wonderful journey, and to "start fair" we will not start from the sun, but from the center of that vast globe. While we are in such a good position, we will find out something about the sun's enormous dimensions. He is over thirteen hundred thousand times as large as our earth! His diameter is so vast that, if he were a shell, the earth could be placed in the center, and the moon could travel in her usual orbit, and then be only about midway between the earth and the surface of our giganticprimary, his diameter being eight hundred and sixty-four thousand miles! We will direct our course toward the nearest fixed star, and see what will be our experiences. Now then, all ready, full speed, ahead!
At the prodigious rate of speed we are going, less than three beats of the clock will find us entirely clear of the sun, and thousands of miles on our way to his nearest planet, Mercury, and in about three minutes we will reach him. Mercury is about thirty-six million miles from the sun, and is about three thousand miles in diameter. His year is equal to eighty-eight of our days, therefore his seasons are only twenty-two days long—if he has any seasons; for you must remember that he receives a vast amount of heat and light from the sun, which to the Mercurials appears two and one-half times as large as to the inhabitants of earth. Our tremendous velocity carries us by the "messenger of the gods" so quickly that we have no time to make a close examination of him, and in less than three minutes we will cross the orbit of Venus.
Here we will find a world surprisingly like our own in many particulars. She is only twenty-six million miles nearer the sun than we, and, as we are ninety-three million miles distant, this "mansion," with very moderate changes in the condition of her atmosphere, may be as habitable as the earth, to life with which we are acquainted. Venus is only two hundred miles less in diameter than the earth (all distances and dimensions are given in round numbers), and her year is equal to two hundred and twenty-five of our days, and, so far as the astronomers know, life is just as probable on Venus as on any other planet; but if we find out much about her we must be sure to tell the astronomers about it, for they are very anxious to know something of the condition of all the planets. In an instant Venus is left far in the rear, and looking behind us, we note the sun is growing smaller, while ahead we see two brilliant stars—or what appear to be stars—one of which is wonderfully bright, and the other is close beside it. We draw toward them with more than lightning speed, and they soon bid fair to rival the sun himself in brightness, for he is less than half the size we saw him from Mercury, and gives us less than one-fourth of the light and heat he pours out on that planet. In a little over two minutes we reach our two stars, and find this marvelous object to be Earth, and the companion star to be the Moon. We must be careful here, for if we draw too near we may be drawn upon its surface like many a venturessome meteorite (popularly called "falling stars") that has approached too near. But our speed is our safety, and gravitation will not be able to overcome such velocity as ours.
A feeling of reverential awe overcomes us as we draw near this tiny speck in God's great universe that we call Earth. Here is a little world, perhaps, nay probably, the only one in all our Father's house upon which sin ever obtained a foot-hold. It may be absolutely unique in this respect, in all the length and breadth of his dominion. It was here that man fell, and here God's only begotten Son came to die, that the earth might be replenished with beings worthy to be called children of the great Creator, and that his Father's house might again become clean and the universe restored as it was when it came from the hand of the Great Architect.
We leave the earth reluctantly, for here we have the history of the life and trials of God's Son while upon earth; we have his promises, his teaching, his example, we have everything that the heart of a Christian could wish. Here, too, is being enacted the great drama of sin and righteousness, of life and death. We see the struggle of the saints, and wonder why judgment is delayed so long. But all we see is not black and cheerless, for God has a people here on this little world; saints are here, and here are they that keep all the commandments of God.
The eight minutes in which we are allowed to come from the sun to the earth have passed, and we must haste away if we are to see the glorious dimensions of our Father's house. A bright star looms up ahead, and in less than four minutes we find ourselves at the distance of Mars' orbit after passing the earth's. Our (apparent) star proves to be the little planet Mars, with his two little moons of only about five and seven miles in diameter; baby mansions, truly. We will find, if he is in that part of his orbit we are passing, a world four thousand miles in diameter, and the great telescopes that we have left behind can plainly show his seas and continents, his snowy poles and his equatorial regions in which snow never appears—just like our earth. The Martial day is about as long as our own, but his year is as long as six hundred and eighty-seven of our days. The sun appears considerably smaller, and his light and heat are much less.
After hastily noting the above facts, we pass the ruddy planet, and are soon darting through a great number of little worlds called the Asteroids. Nearly three hundred have been discovered, all within this century, and there may be thousands more that have as yet escaped the sharp-eyed astronomers of earth. Their average diameter is only about forty-five miles,—more baby mansions!
But we have no time, however, to look for undiscovered Asteroids, for we are now about to visit the "giant of the solar system," Jupiter. It will take us over a half hour to reach him from Mars, or about forty-four minutes from the sun, so we will have a little time to look out for comets, for we may come across one almost any time now, on its journey to or from the sun. However, comets don't amount to very much, and we only mention them to show we haven't forgotten these erstwhile terrible visitors. But Jupiter is worthy of our greatest admiration. Swinging around in a majestic orbit, requiring twelve of our years for one of his, he pursues his stately path, a real giant. His mean diameter is about eighty-seven thousand miles, and he is as large as thirteen hundred and nine (Young) of such worlds as ours put together. He has four moons, all but one of which are larger than ours; indeed, one of them is larger than Mercury, and rivals Mars in size. In passing, we note that a great change has come over our sun; he appears to be only about one-fifth the size as we see him from the earth, and he gives only one twenty-fifth as much light and heat to the Jovians (assuming that there are Jovians) that we receive. We could find much of interest here if we had time to stop, but our tremendous speed carries us by Jupiter in a twinkling, and before we realize it we are crossing the enormous gulf of over four hundred million of miles that separates the orbits of Jupiter and his big brother Saturn—our next station.
Saturn is the farthest planet easily visible to the unaided eye. His dimensions rival those of Jupiter. His mean diameter is seventy-one thousand miles. While his day is only ten hours in length, his period (year) is twenty-nine and one-half of our years, and his volume is over seven hundred times greater than the world upon which we live. He has eight moons to keep him company in his vast orbit, in addition to his enormous ring system, the outer ring of which is one hundred and sixty-eight thousand miles in diameter. There is nothing like him in the system presided over by that great autocrat the sun, or in the universe as far as we know, and he is at once the marvel and the admiration of astronomers. The sun now seems to be growing alarmingly small, while his light is only about one-eightieth of that received by the earth. We cannot tarry, however interesting this "abiding-place" may be, but we will hasten on to Uranus.
A distance of nearly nine hundred million miles separates these two planets, and it will require over an hour and a quarter to carry us to Uranus, buried in space as he is, nearly one billion eight hundred million of miles from the sun, from which we have so recently parted company. We will just settle ourselves comfortably for our flight across this mighty span, and—whiz! what was that?—Why, it is our messenger, the cannon-ball, that left the sun a hundred years ago! while it is less than one and a half hours since we left on the wings of light. This is very astonishing—to none more so than the astronomers. In a single beat of the clock our messenger is one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles behind us, and we must henceforth go unheralded. When we have crossed this great abyss we will find Uranus to be thirty-two thousand miles in diameter, and as large as sixty-five worlds like ours. He has four moons, and it requires eighty-four of our years to see his age increased by a single one of his years. We have no time to study the wonderfully peculiar axial rotation of this far-away planet—much to our regret and that of the astronomers on earth, who are so interested in him, and who know so little about him.
Another mighty plunge and we will meet the sentinel—the outer guard, so to speak—of our system. We would rest here for a few minutes if we could, for we are on the very frontier of the grand scheme of worlds that comprise the majestic family of the sun. After we leave Neptune, we will have passed the last of the planets, and at most we can only hope to meet one of those celestial tramps, a comet, making his regular pilgrimage to or from the sun, for all comets must visit him at stated times, to report, as it were, that they are still faithful, and have not deserted him for some of his mighty neighbors. We would find Neptune eighty-five times larger than the earth upon which we dwell, and it requires one hundred and sixty-four of our years to equal one of his. His vast orbit is five billion five hundred and eighty-four million miles in diameter.
We do not wish to discourage our friend and messenger, the cannon-ball, but it would take him over five hundred and eighty-five years to cross this mighty chasm, and a railroad train going a mile a minute—no stops—would require ten thousand years to make the same journey. We get thoroughly bewildered in dealing with these vast dimensions, and they cease to have a meaning, and, lest we forget it in dealing with the gigantic magnitudes of the planets, it is well to remember that the sun is over seven hundred times as large as all of them put together. Our sun now gives us much concern, for he no longer shows us a disk, but is only a point of light, and, as a sun, we do not recognize him. Of course he is much brighter than any star that we can see; but his light and heat are only one-nine-hundredth part that we receive on earth. At this rate we fear that we may lose him altogether. About four and a quarter hours have elapsed since we left the sun, and we are so far away that we are getting lonesome, although only on our farthest known planet.
Perhaps, reader, we have traveled too fast for you. May be you regret it, thinking you have seen God's house. What! this God's house! Will we call this worthy of him? Not so; for in our Father's house are "many mansions," and if you think we are near our journey's end, be at once undeceived, for at this point we are still standing upon our own threshold.
GAMMA BETA. (To be continued.)

UNTIL THE DAY BREAKS.

By Fannie Bolton

BY FANNIE BOLTON.
While still the night waits In the silent heavens, While still the watchmen by the turrets stay, O Jesus, Saviour, be thy children's refuge, Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
While still the tears fall And the heart hath sadness, While still the winter blights the bloom of May, While still the thorn hurts, let us find thee, Refuge, Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
While still our loved ones Fade like broken lilies, While still the earth makes graves for them to stay, While still our hopes die, O be near us, Jesus, Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
While still temptation Presses sore the spirit, While still there's evil that we cannot stay, Oh, fold our weak hands in thy palms of power, Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
Thou who hast suffered, Thou who hast loved us, Thou who hast reached down arms from Calvary, Thou wilt not leave us comfortless, unfriended, Like harassed flocks that know not where to flee.
Thou wilt be with us Till the heavenly portal Shines with the effulgence of the eternal day; Thou wilt be with us then, unveiled and lovely, When the glad day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
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