p. 10 | Review and Herald, Vol. 24, No. 2. (6/7/1864)

Review and Herald

Jun 7, 1864

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 7, 1864

TOBACCO ON HEALTH

Tobacco-Using. No. 4.

TOBACCO ON HEALTH.

In the course of twenty-five years, since entering on the practice of the medical profession, innumerable applications have been made to me for relief in cases of impaired health and broken constitutions, where the habitual use of tobacco evidently lay at the foundation of the whole difficulty. Some possessed discernment enough to see, and honesty enough to confess, the fact. Others had a vague idea that it might be tobacco, yet were unwilling to perceive the truth or admit it, because of their devotion to this appetite. Others still were entirely blind to its deadly agency. In all such cases, medicines, without reform, are worse than useless. Nothing short of an abandonment of the unrighteous habit which produced the disease can effect a cure. The great sovereign remedy in such cases is, CEASING TO CREATE THE DISEASE.

Tobacco destroys health in several ways. One way is, by its immediate attack, as already shown, on the nervous system. It gives an unnatural impetus to its circulation. It excites unwanted speed of action, which it has no power to sustain. In this respect it acts like any other stimulant. Stimulants of any kind are unnatural agents. They push on, but cannot support, the electric forces of the animal economy. They excite temporarily, but exhaust ultimately. They push nature beyond her wonted speed, and then leave her to react and fall back into ultimate exhaustion and debility.

Suppose a gentleman wished to travel a thousand miles by the aid of his horse. The natural gait of the animal is five miles per hour. With this gait he can travel forty miles per day, with proper care, without fatigue, and continue the whole journey. But suppose the rider, extremely zealous of rapid progress, plies whip and spur, and pushes on at the rate of seven or eight miles per hour. In what condition will the poor animal be before the journey is ended? By this kind of speed men are pushing themselves through life. Not content with letting nature take her own speed of five miles per hour, they goad her on at the rate of seven or eight, and force themselves into an early grave. They ply whip and spur, under the popular names of mustard and pepper, tea and coffee, alcohol and tobacco, till nature sinks exhausted on her way, before her journey is fully ended.

Besides its stimulating properties, tobacco possesses a powerful narcotic agency. Like opium, after its exciting properties are exhibited, there follows a stupefying quality. This preys powerfully, yet often for a long time imperceptibly, on the brain and nerves. It is often very difficult to get men to perceive this effect. While they keep themselves excited by its stimulus, they cannot easily recognize its stupefying, paralyzing power. But let them cease for a little space to use it, as before stated, and its paralyzing influence will manifest itself.

Tobacco also enters into the circulation, and destroys, as before shown, the healthful properties of the blood. It enters into the secretions of all the glands. Hence are often found, in tobacco-chewers and smokers, diseases of the liver, kidneys, and other glandular organs. The secretions of the mucous membrane which lines the mouth, stomach and bowels, are often severely affected by it. So that, in this way, together with its prostrating influence on the nervous and muscular coats of the stomach, and its agency in producing torpidity of the liver, the very worst forms of dyspepsia have been created. Many a case of chronic indigestion has occurred, even in persons of active habits, where nothing could have produced it but a wicked devotion to this deadly appetite.

A case which came under my care on the steamboat passing up the Ohio river, illustrates this truth. A man was taken in the night with diarrhea and slight vomiting; and his lower limbs were affected with spasms. Under moderate treatment, his immediate symptoms of disease gave way; he became warm, a gentle moisture ensued, and seemed perfectly easy during the forenoon of the next day. But in the afternoon he began to sink, without any return of original symptoms, and died early in the evening.

It was obvious he did not die of the severity of his immediate disease; that, by some previous influence the tone of his vitality had been destroyed, so that under the slightest pressure he sank into the hands of death. On inquiry of his wife, it was found he had been an inveterate chewer of tobacco from very early boyhood. He would chew day and night; often getting up in dead of night to take a quid.

He had been in miserable health for the last four years; was only twenty-nine years old, and looked as though he was fifty; had severe complaints of liver, kidneys, and bowels, during that period, and often severe cramping of the limbs. Here the tobacco had not only destroyed the functions of the glands and mucous surfaces, but had so undermined his electric forces, as to produce severe spasmodic action of the muscles, and leave all his vital functions in such utter prostration, as to yield their hold by the slightest causes.

Not only is dyspepsia, with its train of thousand ailments, produced by its effects on this continuous mucous membrane which lines the mouth, stomach and bowels, but piles of the severest character are often suffered from this cause. Such is the sympathy of this membrane, one portion with another, that the paralyzing influence due from tobacco on the membrane of the mouth, is transmitted to its opposite extremity, and develops itself in the form of piles.

Cases have not unfrequently come under my observation, where men have seemed as yet to enjoy health in all respects, except that of extreme suffering of this kind; and this from no other apparent cause than the use of tobacco. In such cases, all attempts at cure without removing the cause, would be like trying to prevent a man's hand from blistering while he was holding it in a flame of fire.

A case came under observation while in St Louis, Mo. A young man had, from very early life, been addicted to chewing and smoking. At best he had only a slender body. He had, for a long time, been utterly unable to attend to business, and was now confined to the house from the prostrating influence of chronic and severe diarrhea. He had been under care of a physician for a great length of time, with very faint signs of recovering. His physician had sanctioned the continuance of his tobacco, notwithstanding the patient's suspicions and inquiries as to its unfavorable influences.

After listening a while to common-sense argument on the deadly properties of his idol, and appeals as to the comparative value of life and the gratification of this fatal habit, he finally determined to quit this self-destruction, and throw himself upon Nature's resources for recovery. The mucous coat of the whole length of the digestive organs had lost its tone by the use of this narcotic drug. Nature had resisted this, till her power to resist was gone. The last account of him gave encouragement of rapid recovery.

Another case, strongly marked, came under observation while in Kentucky. A gentleman, by occupation a planter, had been to Louisville for medical advice, and was returning. He had spent several hundreds of dollars in trying to obtain relief from a broken constitution and much suffering. He labored under diseased liver and kidneys, under a dyspeptic stomach and constipated bowels, and his whole aspect denoted a prostrated nervous, and torpid glandular system. His physician at Louisville, when asked by the patient about the influence of tobacco, told him merely that he thought well of his using less of it, or leaving it altogether, if he chose. He would not advise him to quit it suddenly, but by degrees. Such is the obtuseness of many of the faculty on this matter.

After listening to my advice, he finally came to the conclusion to cease marring the vitality of his constitution, and give Nature the best chance possible to recover herself. Almost every day new cases appear of similar character, produced by the same general cause.

This poison disturbs the natural tone of all the solid parts of the body. Its essence is diffused throughout all the matter composing the system. It so disturbs the natural secretion and deposit of healthy matter, that where the flesh sustains an injury by cuts or bruises, it cannot as readily heal as in cases of healthy flesh. The more perfectly healthy the habits of the person who has sustained the injury of wounds, the more easily and rapidly will they heal. But where a morbid state of the fluids, and consequently of the flesh, by such a powerful agent exists, the healing of wounds is liable to be greatly retarded.

The same rule obtains also in the healing of bones. Bony matter is supplied from the blood; and if that blood is carrying a foreign substance, and one adapted to produce in every case a morbid state of that

fluid, the secretion of bony matter necessary to the healing of fractured bones is retarded, and rendered unhealthy. Those who have accustomed themselves to being saturated with alcohol, have found sometimes great difficulty in obtaining a sound healing from a broken bone, for the reason that the alcohol, by diffusing itself through the circulation, has disturbed the health of the fluids, and consequently the healthy formation of solids. Being saturated with tobacco essence, is certainly no less destructive.

(To be continued.)

Till He Come.

"Till He come"—Oh! let the words Linger on the trembling chords; Let the little while between In their golden light be seen; Let us think how heaven and home Lie beyond that—"Till He come."

Clouds and conflicts round us press; Would we have one sorrow less? All the sharpness of the cross, All that tell the world is loss, Death and darkness and the tomb, Only whisper—"Till He come."

The Secret of Life.

"Nellie, don't put your spoon into your cup in that way. Drink your milk as your mother has always told you to do."

"No; I'd rather dip it up;" and little Miss Independence raised her black eyes saucily to her aunt's face, and went on as before.

"It is no matter what you had rather do; do as you are bid, or you shall leave the table," rejoined her young aunt sternly.

"Don't speak so cross to the dear child, Emma," interposed the grandmother from behind the tea-tray; "you'll spoil her temper. Nellie, darling, drink your milk for grandma, wont you?"

"No," said the child, stoutly, encouraged to her willfulness; "I lite to dip it up so best, and I'm doin to do it."

"But, pretty, you're spilling it on your apron."

"I don't care," was the cool reply; and the young aunt rose impetuously, lifted the child from her high chair, and put her outside of the dining-room door where she stood screaming at the top of her voice.

A sharp discussion ensued, when the two ladies rose at once; the elder to bring back to her place the screaming child, the younger to rush up to her own room, and bury her face in her pillow in an agony of mortification, anger, and injured feeling. It was a sad scene, especially for Sabbath morning; but such scenes were too frequent of late in this once peaceful household. The father and the mother were both absent for a month, and the children had been left under the joint care of the father's mother, and the mother's sister. Each of these had their own views of government, and they differed very widely. A little conciliation on either side would have done much toward making the family machinery work smoothly, but neither was ready to yield her own opinion. Miss Emma knew that a hasty temper was her besetting sin; many a time she was angry with herself for having indulged it, and would pace her chamber to and fro, thinking of the lack of self-control and dignity she had shown.

It was some time in the morning before she could subdue herself to any degree of composure; but at length the sound of the church bell roused her. She bathed her flushed face, put on her bonnet, and joined "the multitude of those who keep holy-day;" for poor Emma, in spite of her faults, was a Christian girl, and loved "the courts of the Lord's house."

The opening services, the earnest prayers, the solemn songs of praise, had a soothing effect upon her troubled spirit; and when the sermon began, she was in a fitting frame to profit by it. It was the story of the woman of Canaan, Matt. xv, 21; and though Emma had heard it over and over again, it came to her that day with new force, and fuller meaning. "Grievously vexed with a devil." And so was she. What was this proud, passionate, hasty temper of hers but an "evil spirit" in truth? An evil spirit that tormented her, and roused others like itself in the bosom of those with whom she dwelt. A little gentleness on her part would have prevented all the sinful scéne of the morning. Oh that she too might be rid of her tormentor. But was she willing to do as this faithful, humble woman of Canaan had done—follow the Master with unfaltering perseverance, in spite of his seeming coldness, his denial? Could she, like her, throw herself at his feet with that imploring cry which would reach his ear? Could she have accepted what seemed such cruel words, with such touching faith and humility? Could she plead for but the crumbs of divine grace?

Ah, there had been the trouble; she had been too proud, too impatient; her very prayers had been impulsive and passionate. She had not truly humbled herself at the Master's feet, willing to wait his own time, and accept his own measure of grace; and hence the evil spirit had only been thrust out of sight for the time, not driven from her breast.

She saw it all now as she listened to the simple earnest words of the minister, bringing home the lesson of his text to her heart; and when the congregation knelt in prayer, it was in truth the cry of the poor woman of Canaan, "Lord, help me!" that went up in humblest pleading from Emma's soul. She knelt again in the solitude of her own apartment when she reached home, and pleaded with her Master as one who would be heard. And she was heard and answered. Not that a miracle was wrought in her; not that she was suddenly and forever rid of her enemy; but grace was given her to overcome it now, and the sweet assurance that larger aid would be given when needed. In learning to "pray aright" she had got the secret of a consistent godly life. From this time forward no one had occasion to bid her "conquer her temper;" for all saw how faithfully and successfully she was striving for that object, and sought to aid, rather than hinder her in the work.

The Firmament.

By Stackhouse

LET us cast our eyes up to the firmament, where the rich handiwork of God presents itself to our sight, and ask ourselves some such questions as these: What power built over our heads this vast magnificent arch, and spread out the heavens like a curtain? Who garnished these heavens with such a variety of shining objects, a thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand different stars, new suns, new moons, new worlds, in comparison with which this earth of ours is but a point, all regular in their motions, and swimming in their liquid ether? Who painted the clouds with such a variety of colors, and in such diversity of shades and figures as is not in the power of the finest pencil to emulate? Who formed the sun of such a determinate size, and placed it at such a convenient distance, as not to annoy, but only to refresh us, and nourish the ground with its kindly warmth? If it were larger, it would set the earth on fire; if less, it would leave it frozen; if it were nearer to us, we should be scorched to death; if further from us, we should not be able to live for want of heat. Who then hath made it so commodious a tabernacle, (I speak with the Scriptures and according to the common notion,) out of which it cometh forth, every morning, like a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course? For so many ages past it never failed rising at its appointed time, nor once missed sending out the dawn to proclaim its approach. But at whose voice does it arise, and by whose hand is it directed in its diurnal and annual course, to give us the blessed vicissitudes of day and night, and the regular successions of different seasons? That it should always proceed in the same straight path, and never once be known to step aside; that it should turn at a certain determinate point, and not go forward in a space where there is nothing to obstruct it; that it should traverse the same path back again, in the same constant and regular pace, to bring on the seasons by gradual advances; that the moon should supply the office of the sun, and appear, at set times, to illuminate the air, and give a vicarious light when its brother is gone to carry the day into the other hemisphere; that it should procure, or at least regulate the fluxes and refluxes of the sea, whereby the water is kept in constant motion, and so preserved from putrefaction, and accommodated to man's manifold conveniences, besides the business of fishing and the use of navigation—in a word, that the rest of the planets, and all the innumerable host of heavenly bodies, should perform their courses and revolutions with so much certainty and exactness as never once to fail, but, for almost these 6000 years, come constantly to the same period, in the hundredth part of a minute—is a clear and incontestable proof of a Divine Architect, and of that counsel and wisdom wherewith he rules and directs the universe.—Stackhouse.

Tithes.

By R. C.

MANY start back with horror at the bare mention of tithes, as much as though the witch of Endor had been evoked, and see in the very name of tithes the frightful ghost of Judaism, with all its types and shadows, and ceremonies, and sacrifices, and offerings, &c.

But such persons may just as well say that we are going back to Judaism when we advocate the keeping of the Sabbath, or any portion of the decalogue. For it remains to be shown that the tithing system which God established in the Old Testament was ever abrogated. It has been shown that it existed long before the Jewish nation came into existence, the same as the law of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was an institution for the race, and not for any particular class or people. It was necessary for the highest well being of the race that a seventh portion of time should be sacred for rest and religious purposes. And so it seems to have been a law for the race that a tenth part of all their increase, or income, should be as sacredly appropriated for religious purposes as a seventh part of their time.

And further, it has been shown that Christ recognized the system. Hence if it cannot be shown that the tithing system was abrogated, then it must be binding on us, and the command in Mal. iii, 10, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," &c., applies to us as a people. And further, God charged them with robbing him, in withholding from him the "tithes and offerings," consequently they were cursed with a curse. And who of us can say how many in our midst are not cursed for withholding from God's treasury what he demands? Men often wonder why it is that they do not prosper better in temporal things even, but do not stop to inquire how much they have robbed God. It is a wonder, rather, that many prosper at all, in temporal or spiritual things, in view of how little they put into the treasury of the Lord. They seem to think that they can cheat and rob God as much as they please, and then expect to prosper.

How many robbers we have in our churches who have been carrying on a system of robbery all their days, so that many who are considered wealthy, if they should attempt to pay into the Lord's treasury what they have withheld from it, would find themselves miserable bankrupts, in dollars and cents. Now can churches which tolerate such a system, or such practices, expect God's blessing upon them? I have no doubt but that spiritual blessings are often withheld from churches on account of their withholding their tithes and offerings from the treasury of the Lord—not supporting those who preach to them, as well as not contributing for benevolent purposes.

The Lord has said, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." See what the Lord has promised here, on condition that the tithes are all brought into his storehouse. How often the force and instruction of this passage have been entirely lost sight of by spiritualizing it, and making the tithes to consist in spiritual offerings instead of dollars and cents, as God means, undoubtedly. What a strange unnatural and forced interpretation this is. Who ever heard of spiritual tithes? We might talk of spiritual offerings with more propriety. But in the Bible, tithes and offerings are to be understood literally.

And it is high time that the church, and every church member, fully understand this, that ministers cannot be supported and the cause of God sustained, merely on spiritual offerings or tithes. We may just as well set upon this principle, "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled: notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body: what doth it profit?"

R. C. in Morning Star.

Affliction and Divine Warnings

God's warnings aggravate our wanderings, and his provision our complaints.

WHEN afflictions rightly affect us, they will soon be removed from us.

Pork Disease—Trichina Spiralis.

Within a few years a new disease has been discovered in Europe, and has come to be quite common, in Germany particularly. The following facts concerning it we take from the American Journal of Medical Science, a quarterly, edited by Isaac Hays, M. D., and published at Philadelphia, also in London and Paris:

It is called Trichina Spiralis, and is caused by persons feeding upon pork infested with parasites, there having been found in half a pound of such meat as many as 300,000 of these little creatures. Upon being introduced into the stomach of a person, these multiply with amazing rapidity. The stomach and intestinal canal of the person may within a few days after eating such a quantity of pork contain 30,000,000 individuals of the Trichina Spiralis. These migrate in vast numbers to the muscles where they become encapsulated, or enclosed in minute cysts, and prove a source of great disturbance to the economy.

The symptoms caused by the presence of this parasite in the tissues of the body resemble very closely those of typhoid or typhus fever. The true nature of the disease was first discovered by Prof. Zenker, of Jacob's Hospital, Dresden, who in 1860 had a case, in the person of a servant girl, who died after five weeks' illness. On post mortem examination numberless trichina were found in the muscles and also in the mucus of the intestines. The Professor became aware of the fact that a few days previous to the sickness of the girl the people with whom she lived killed a pig whose lungs, and meat used in sausages showed, by microscopic examination, a large number of trichina spiralis. This girl had great pain in all her muscles.

In 1860 three individuals of Walbeck, after eating raw meat finely cut and sausage, manifested symptoms of typhoid fever with great pain in the stomach and muscles. These recovered. In 1862 a number of cases occurred in Plauen in Saxony. The physicians of the town hospital examined small pieces of the muscles of these persons, and observed readily in it the trichina moving lively. One-fifth of the number of these cases was very severe, though all got well after some months, except one. A number of cases occurred in 1862 in Kelbe in Prussia, of which eight terminated fatally. In Hettstadt in Prussia the disease broke out last October and was produced by the consumption of sausages. By microscopic examination of small pieces of muscles of the persons affected the trichina spiralis was everywhere detected. Dr. Muller of Hamburg, who treated some of these patients, thus describes the disease:

"The disease begins a few days after eating the meat in which there are trichina, with loss of appetite, and, almost without exception, with diarrhea and fever, œdema of the eyelids, also pain or at least painful sense of weakness in the limbs, œdema of the joints, difficulty in moving the tongue, profuse clammy perspiration; and those patients who do not become convalescent die either unconscious with symptoms of typhus fever, or in a few cases remain conscious to the end, complaining of inability to breathe freely. Previous to my departure from Hettstadt eighteen to twenty persons had died of trichina disease and more than eighty persons were at that period afflicted with the same malady produced by the same cause."

Numerous other instances are given in which single individuals or numbers of persons have had this disease, in which the cause has been traced to the eating of pork. Pork affected by trichina spiralis has nothing unusual in its appearance or taste, and the disease can only be detected by microscopic examination. Neither smoking nor salting nor roasting nor boiling, except these are much more thoroughly performed than usual, nor putrefaction destroys the lives of these parasites. Experiments have been made on various animals,—dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, etc., by feeding them pork infested by these little animals, all of which were poisoned and many of which died, and all upon examination showed the trichina spiralis in their muscles.

Some of our readers will remember reading in the New York papers last winter, the account of the poisoning of a whole family in that city by eating ham which to all appearance was perfectly good. The case was investigated by a Dr. Schnetter, who found the ham full of the trichina spiralis.

Moral.—Persons who do not eat pork are in no danger of having this disgusting disease.

God’s Word Confirmed by Time

Time will prove every word of God's book to be true, and eternity will be an everlasting confirmation of it.

I did not Give Enough for My Bible.

READER do you give enough for your Bible? Do you value it enough? Do you give enough time to it? Do you give it enough thought? Do you strive hard enough to make your life a living illustration of its holy principles and precepts? Read the following statement and ask yourself if you have not as much reason to increase your estimate of the Bible, as had the honest German blacksmith.

A Bible distributer in Germany called upon a blacksmith and urged him to buy a Bible. Being ignorant of the value of the precious volume, he refused to part with his money to obtain it. It was then offered to him gratuitously, but he disdained to receive it upon such terms. A compromise was at length effected by his agreeing to give a fire-shovel for the book. After the labors of the day were over, curiosity prompted him to look into the book which he had purchased; and as he read, his heart was opened, and the character of God was revealed to him. The depravity of his nature; the worth of his soul; his need of a Saviour; the preciousness of Christ, were deeply felt; he was melted to tears; and as he wiped from his cheek the falling drops, he said to himself, "I did not give enough for my Bible!" Early in the morning he went into his shop, finished a pair of tongs, went in search of the Bible distributer, and, finding him, said, "My dear sir, please accept a pair of tongs with the shovel, I did not give enough for my Bible."

I Bless God for All.

THERE is a kind of dialogue betwixt one Doctor Thaulerus, and a poor man that lay begging by the highwayside. "Good morrow, poor man," said the doctor. "I never had any bad morrow," said the beggar. "No!" said the doctor; "thou art a miserable poor man; thou art as good as naked, without any clothes on thy back; no friends, nor any one to relieve thee. How can it then be true that thou sayest, 'Thou never hadst any bad morrow?'" "I'll tell you," says the beggar, "whether I am sick or in health, whether it be warm or cold weather, whether I be clothed or naked, rich or poor, I bless God for all." "Oh, but friend," said the doctor, "what if Christ should cast thee into hell?" "If he should," says he, "I would be contented; but I have two arms—the one of faith, the other of love—wherewith I would lay such fast hold on him, that I would have him along with me, and then I am sure that hell would be heaven if he were there." And thus it is that we should bless God at all times, in all places, upon all occasions, and in all conditions, as well for years of dearth as years of plenty; times of war, as well as times of peace; for adversity as well as prosperity; in sickness and in health, in weal and in woe, in liberty and restraint, whether it be that the Lord giveth, or whether he taketh away, still to bless the name of the Lord.

Arabian Maxims.

Death is nearer to us than the eyelid is to the eye.

The little which suffices, is better than the much which disturbs us.

The best possession is a sincere friend.

The eulogium made on the absent, serves to incline our hearts to the present.

The best riches is contentment, the worst of poverty is low spirits.

The man who contents himself to-day with that which he has, will content himself to-morrow with that which he may have.

Three Great Words.

A CHRISTIAN traveler tells us that he saw the following admonition printed on a folio sheet in an inn in Savho, and it was found, he learned, in every house in the district: "Understand well the force of the words—a God, a moment, an eternity: a God who sees you; a moment which flies from you; an eternity which awaits you: a God whom you serve so ill; a moment of which you so little profit; an eternity which you hazard so rashly."

The Starless Crown.

"They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever." Dan. xii, 3.

WEARIED and worn with earthly cares, I yielded to repose, And soon before my raptured sight a glorious vision rose; I thought, whilst slumbering on my couch in midnight's solemn gloom, I heard an angel's silvery voice, and radiance filled my room.

A gentle touch awakened me, a gentle whisper said; "Arise, O sleeper! follow me;" and through the air we fled: We left the earth so far away that like a speck it seemed, And heavenly glory, calm and pure, across our pathway streamed.

Still on we went, my soul was wrapt in silent ecstasy; I wondered what the end would be, what next would meet mine eye, I knew not how we journeyed through the pathless fields of light, When suddenly a change was wrought, and I was clothed in white.

We stood before a city's walls, most glorious to behold; We passed through streets of glistening pearl o'er streets of purest gold, It needed not the sun by day, nor silver moon by night; The glory of the Lord was there, the Lamb Himself, its light.

Bright angels paced the shining streets, sweet music filled the air, And white-robed saints, with glittering crowns, from every clime were there, And some that I had loved on earth stood with them round the throne, "All worthy is the Lamb!" they sang, "The glory His alone."

But fairer far than all beside, I saw my Saviour's face, And as I gazed, He smiled on me with wondrous love and grace, Lowly I bowed before His throne o'erjoyed that I at last Had gained the object of my hopes; that earth at length was past.

And then in solemn tones he said, "Where is the diadem That ought to sparkle on thy brow, adorned with many a gem? I know thou hast believed on me, and life, through me, is thine, But where are all those radiant stars that in thy crown should shine?

Yonder thou see'st a glorious throng, and stars on every brow; For every soul they led to me they wear a jewel now; And such thy bright reward had been, if such had been thy deed, If thou hadst sought some wandering feet in paths of peace to lead."

"I did not mean that thou should'st tread the way of life alone, But that the clear and shining light which round thy footsteps shone, Should guide some other weary feet to my bright home of rest, And thus, in blessing those around, thou hadst thyself been blest."

The vision faded from my sight, the voice no longer spake, A spell seemed brooding o'er my soul, which long I feared to break; And when at last I gazed around, in morning's glimmering light, My spirit fell, o'erwhelmed amid that vision's awful might.

I rose and wept with chastened joy that yet I dwelt below— That yet another hour was mine, my faith by works to show, That yet some sinner I might tell of Jesus' dying love, And help to lead some weary soul to seek a home above,

And now, while on the earth I stay, my motto this shall be, "To live no longer to myself, but Him who died for me!" And graven on my inmost soul, this word of truth divine, "They that turn many to the Lord, bright as the stars shall shine."

Continue reading: BOTH SIDES OF THE SABBATH QUESTION