Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 4, 1881
General Articles. (I)
By Mrs. E. G. White
GOD'S JUSTICE VINDICATED.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
The course of Israel, after the death of Gideon, is thus described by the sacred historian: "The children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side. Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel."
When men cast away the fear of God, we need not be surprised to see them departing from the path of honor and integrity. They are following another guide. They hurry on in the journey of life, heedless, presumptuous, yet ever fearful and dissatisfied; for they have left the only one who can give them rest and security. When once started in a wrong path, many press on as if infatuated, although every step leads them farther from the Source of light and the Tower of strength.
The great sin of Israel had ever been that of departing from God, forgetting his matchless love and his mighty power as revealed again and again in their deliverance. An appreciation of the Lord's mercy and goodness will lead to an appreciation of those who, like Gideon, have been employed as instruments to bless his people. The cruel course of Israel toward the house of Gideon was what might be expected from a people who manifested such base ingratitude to God.
The calamities which had constantly threatened them being past, the selfishness of Israel now became apparent. The men so grateful after that glorious victory over Midian, now forgot their offer to place Gideon and his sons upon the throne. They had been filled with wonder and admiration by the noble, unselfish, unambitious spirit which prompted him to refuse the honor, both for himself and for his sons. But the impression wore away as other influences were brought to bear upon them. Gratitude died out of their hearts, and after Gideon's death, the people treated his sons with the basest neglect and cruelty. The human heart is fickle. It is not to be trusted. All who rely upon the favor or support of men will sooner or later find themselves leaning upon a broken reed.
Yet Gideon himself had sowed the seeds for that baleful harvest, when he performed that one wrong act by which Israel were led away from God. Now they had become blinded by the sophistry of Satan, and they were wandering away from Him who was their light, their strength, and their glory. The Lord withdrew his restraining Spirit from them, and gave them up to their own base passions.
According to the evil custom of those days, Gideon had taken numerous wives, and at his death he left no less than seventy sons. Besides these, there was another, Abimelech, "the son of a strange woman." This person had no right in the inheritance with Gideon's lawful children, and his debased character rendered him still more unworthy to be numbered with the descendants of the illustrious leader. The sons of Gideon had concurred in their father's refusal to accept the throne of Israel, but Abimelech determined to secure the position for himself. Being a native of Shechem, where his mother's relatives dwelt, he induced them to influence the Shechemites in his favor. He endeavored to advance his own interests by basely misrepresenting his brethren. He accused them of designing to seize upon the government and unite in its administration, and he sought to convince the people that it would be much better for them to be ruled by one of their own number than by such a band of tyrants.
Had the Israelites preserved a clear perception of right and wrong, they would have seen the fallacy of Abimelech's reasoning, and the injustice of his claims. They would have seen that he was filled with envy, and actuated by a base ambition to exalt himself by the ruin of his brethren. Those who are controlled by policy rather than by principle are not to be trusted. They will pervert the truth, conceal facts, and construe the words of others to mean that which was never intended. They will employ flattering words, while the poison of asps is under their tongue. He who does not earnestly seek the divine guidance will be deceived by their smooth words and their artful plans.
There are many who would scorn the appellation of policy men, yet who will stoop to concealment, evasion, and even misrepresentation, to accomplish their purposes. He who, in a matter of right and wrong, remains noncommittal that he may retain the friendship of all; he who seeks to secure by evasion of truth what should be won by courage; he who waits for others to take the lead, when he should go forward himself, and then feels at liberty to censure their course,—all these are in God's sight numbered as deceivers.
Abimelech was successful in his schemes, and was accepted, at first by the Shechemites, and afterward by the people generally, as the ruler of Israel. But while thus exalted to the highest position in the gift of the nation, he was utterly unworthy of the trust. His birth was ignoble, his character vicious. The higher and nobler qualities,—virtue, integrity, and truth,—he had never cherished. He possessed a strong will and indomitable perseverance, and thus, by the most unscrupulous measures, he accomplished his purposes.
The Israelites, blinded by their own sinful course of apostasy, were acting directly contrary to God's express commands, and he left them to reap the results of their own folly. It was not God's will that Israel should have a king. But in case they desired to be thus governed, the Lord, understanding the pride and perversity of the human heart, had reserved to himself the right to appoint a king over them. God had brought Israel out from Egypt to be a peculiar people, especially devoted to himself, and unlike any other people. Israel's great ambition to imitate the idolatrous nations around them was the result of separation from God.
Pride and ambition similar to that which cursed ancient Israel, exists in the church of God to-day. They are unwilling to be a peculiar people, distinct and separate from the world. To reach the Bible standard requires self-denial, a crucifixion of the affections and lusts. The unsanctified heart reaches out for forbidden things, but these very objects of desire will prove now, as anciently, a source of weakness and corruption. Christ "gave himself for us, that he might cleanse us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Those who seek the honor which comes from men are ever ready to adopt the customs and practices of the world. They gain their position by the exercise of traits of character which should lie dormant. If only those were exalted who had gained their position by fidelity to God and to man, the standard of morality and religion among the people would be elevated. The sin of which we are guilty in acting contrary to God's expressed will is as much greater than was that of ancient Israel, as our light and privileges have been greater than theirs.
The Shechemites sealed the compact with their new king by presenting him with a sum of money from the treasure which had been dedicated to their god, Baal-berith. By accepting the gift, Abimelech covenanted, at the very commencement of his reign, to use his influence and authority to promote the worship of this god. Thus he publicly pledged himself to counteract, as far as possible, the work which Gideon his father had done in overthrowing idolatry. Such has ever been the history of the world since the fall of man. God will use those who give themselves wholly to his service. And Satan not only marshals his host of evil angels and arrays them against God, but he employs men to execute his plans and to defy the King of Heaven.
Abimelech now proceeded to execute his power as suited his cruel character. With the money he had received, he hired a set of unprincipled men who were ready for any crime. At the head of this company he marched to Ophrah, where Gideon's family still dwelt, and basely murdered them all, except one brother, Jotham, who escaped. Abimelech well knew that these men were far better qualified than himself to stand at the head of the kingdom; and he felt that while they lived, his throne would not be secure. Hence he conceived and executed this fiendish crime, that he might undisturbed enjoy the coveted honor, being the first who had borne the name of king among the descendants of Jacob. Returning in triumph to Shechem, Abimelech was immediately anointed king.
When Jotham was informed of this, he immediately repaired to Shechem. Burning with a sense of the horrible injustice and cruelty heaped upon his family, he determined at all hazards to present it before the people in its true light. While the multitude were engaged in festivities in honor of their king, celebrating the occasion with hilarious mirth and sensual gratification, Jotham ascended Mount Gerizim to a position where he could be seen and heard by all the people, and addressed them in words of keen reproof.
In a most fitting and beautiful parable, he presented before them the folly and injustice of their course. He represented the trees as seeking to make one of their number king over them. But the olive refused to leave its oil, the fig-tree its fruit, and the vine-tree its wine. The worthless bramble, however, readily appropriated the honor and at once stated the conditions of its acceptance: "If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon."
The unselfish, unambitious conduct of Gideon and his sons was then forcibly portrayed, and also the ingratitude of the Shechemites. Jotham then concluded in words which proved to be a prophecy: "If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech."
338After delivering this speech, Jotham, fled and dwelt in a part of the country beyond the power of Abimelech.
The transaction of making Abimelech their king, shows how low Israel had fallen. What a contrast between their humble, God-fearing leader, Moses, who had felt wholly unworthy to occupy his position, and this upstart king, who had secured the throne by treachery, and established himself by violence and bloodshed. It should send terror to our souls when we reflect to what lengths men may go in crime, when they have rejected the influence of God's Spirit. A despot, a murderer, was placed as commander-in-chief of Israel. Satan was now exultant. He had gained control of the mind of Abimelech, and through him he hoped to rule the people.
Truly what a striking contrast between the self-sacrificing, devoted leader whom God appointed, and the monster of ingratitude and cruelty whom Israel had now placed upon the throne. By the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine, in Jotham's parable, were represented such noble, upright characters as Moses and Joshua, who had been a living illustration of what a leader of Israel should be. Such men claimed no kingly honors. It was their work to bless their fellow-men, and they did not aspire to rank or power.
The worthless bramble, grasping for honor, and destroying that which was better than itself, was a fitting symbol of the vile and cruel Abimelech. Millo was the name of the senate-house, or town-hall, and by the house of Millo are meant the chief men of Shechem, who had united in making Abimelech their king, but who, according to Jotham's prophecy, were to destroy Abimelech, and to be destroyed by him.
For three years this wicked man's reign continued, and then the Lord sent trouble among those who had united in an evil course. The very men who had made Abimelech king became disgusted with his demoralizing rule, and his heartless tyranny. By treachery he had gained the throne, and now by treachery they determined to remove him. The words of Jotham were fulfilled. Discord, strife, and hatred prevailed between Abimelech and his subjects. The king's cruelty had not ended with the sons of Gideon. Every one who opposed his will was summarily put to death. But the time of retribution, both for Abimelech and for the Shechemites who had sustained him, was at hand.
The city of Shechem having rebelled, it was attacked by the king's forces, the inhabitants were slain, the city itself was reduced to ashes, and the ground was sown with salt, as a token of perpetual desolation.
A neighboring city united with Shechem in the insurrection, and Abimelech proceeded next to attack this place also. Having gained possession, he determined to burn the inhabitants with the tower, as he had done at Shechem. But the wicked king had passed the limits of divine forbearance. He had been permitted to execute the vengeance of God upon Israel, and his career of crime was now to be cut short.
As they were about to burn the tower, the king approached too near for his own safety. A piece of millstone hurled by the hand of a woman, struck and fatally wounded him. To avoid the disgrace of dying by a woman's hand, he was, at his own request, immediately slain by his armor-bearer. Thus ended the career of Abimelech. A vile murderer no longer lived to execute his tyranny.
Thus the justice of God punished both Abimelech and the Shechemites. This terrible history should teach us the lesson that sin will never go unpunished, and it should impress upon our minds the danger of entering upon the path of disobedience.
All true greatness of character, all peace and joy of soul, must come from entire conformity to the will of God. The path of cheerful obedience is the path of safety and happiness. Messages of mercy are sent from Heaven, to teach us the right way. Strength for the conflict of life is ever awaiting us. With the help of God we may gain the victory.
LIFE'S RECORD.
By Mrs. Melissa F. Gould
BY MRS. MELISSA F. GOULD.
I HAVE read that an angel from glory
Is standing by my side,
And is ever faithfully writing
A record that will abide.
A record I'll soon be called to meet
When standing before the Judgment-seat;
I wonder sometimes as the day slips by
What record to-night is borne on high.
Have I followed my blessed Saviour
Let whatever else betide?
Have I learned the blessed lessons
From him who suffered and died?
Ah! the answer the record bears to-night
Far, far away to the realms of light,
And the answer I shall surely meet
When standing before the Judgment-seat.
IS SIN ETERNAL? — NO. 11.
By John Norton Loughborough
By Eld. J. N. Loughborough, of Southampton, England.
FULKE makes reference to the Catholics seeking to maintain their doctrine by the Fathers, particularly Augustine, but he quotes from him in opposition to their ideas of a hell with one part of it a
paradise, as follows: “I could never find the word
hell in the Scripture, taken in good part, which
if it be never read in the divine authorities, verily that bosom of Abraham, that habitation of quiet rest, is not to be believed to be any
part of hell.” He then says, “But Bede, no
doubt out of more ancient Fathers, peradventure
out of Athanasius, whose judgment of this text
also he citeth, thus interpreteth these words of
Peter, — ‘He which in one time coming in the
flesh preached the way of life to the world, even
he himself came before the flood, and preached to
them which then were unbelievers, and lived carnally. For he even by his Holy Spirit was in
Noah and the rest of the holy men which were at
that time, and by their good conversation,
preached to the wicked men of that age, that
they might be converted to better manners.’”
“You see, therefore, that our exposition is not
new, which so many hundred years ago was delivered by Bede, who, though in some things he
were carried away with the error and corruption
of his time, yet had he a care to interpret the
Scriptures, as near as he could, according to the
writing of the elder Fathers that were before him.
‘They that take these words of Christ’s
descending into hell, and add further, that Christ
by his descending delivered the captive souls, are
driven to invent many things, beside the book, of
their own head. The apostle speaketh only of
the unbelieving and disobedient in the days of
Noah, not to show their deliverance, but their
just damnation, affirming that eight persons only
were saved by water, the rest perishing, which is
to be understood both of their bodies and of their
souls. Bede rejecteth the opinion of one man
that thought some comfort should come to them
that had been unbelievers in the days of Noah, as
contrary to the Catholic faith; because ‘Christ,
by his descending to hell, delivered none but the
faithful, neither preached to the souls that are
out of their bodies, and shut up in hell prison for
their wickedness, but in this life, either by himself, or by the examples and words of the faithful, he daily showeth the way of life.’ Oecumenius also, out of Gregory, showeth that their
disobedience and condemnation were testified by
the Scripture, before Christ came in the flesh,
and that salvation was preached to men from the
beginning, but despised, because of their declining unto vanity and pleasure.’”
In his discourse, the Canon made reference to
the words of St. Peter in the fourth chapter of
his first epistle as further proof of Christ preaching to the dead. It is where, in speaking of the
judgment, he uses these words: “Who shall give
account to him that is ready to judge the quick
(living) and the dead. For, this cause was
the gospel preached also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”
1 Peter 4 : 5, 6. Mark well the language; he does
not say, preached to them that were dead, as
though they were dead when the preaching was
done, but it says, “preached to them that ARE
dead.” That is, they were dead at the time St.
Peter wrote his epistle, A. D. 66. This was some
thirty-five years after Christ’s resurrection, and if
they were still dead at that time, they had not
yet been quickened into life, and will thus be
made alive in the resurrection at the last day.
This language, when carefully read, does not
give an intimation that the preaching to these
persons took place after they had died, but rather
that the gospel had been preached to them and
they were then dead. As they in their life-time
had heard the gospel, and had taken their course
relative to it, either agreeing or rejecting, they
would be treated when the Judgment shall come,
just the same as “men in the flesh” — like those
found living, as they will also have received or
rejected gospel truth.
If, as the Canon states, this text refers to those
of Noah’s time, they were not delivered from
hades at Christ’s resurrection; they were still
dead, in St. Peter’s time, and will so remain until
the Judgment.
Hoping for a day of grace after death, because
of St. Peter’s statements, reminds one quite forcibly of what the prophet Isaiah calls weaving spider’s webs, saying, “Their webs shall not become
garments, neither shall they cover themselves
with their works.” Isaiah 59 : 6. Bildad the
Shuhite said of the wicked that their “trust shall
be as a spider’s web.” Job 8 : 14.
Canon Wilberforce, in advocating his theory of
probation and hope for the ungodly after death,
claims that the dead, between death and the resurrection, are in a state of consciousness — are in
paradise. Speaking of the righteous after death,
he says, “Every beauty of character which we have
admired on earth will there be marvelously developed. Every capacity for greatness which we
have recognized, even through the veil of the
flesh, will be unfolded and perfected, every lesser
weakness which has grieved us will be cast away.
Mind, heart, will, spirit, hitherto deteriorated by
contact with sin, will be growing purer in the
light of Christ’s love, attaining rapidly their perfect development, for there, in the kingdom of
calm contemplation, the soul is being purified
with a painless, progressive purification, until in
God’s time the plant is perfected for his garden,
and the full beatific vision of Heaven is attained.”
Speaking of the wicked in the state of the dead,
he says, “Awful must be the sadness, the restlessness, the intensified consciousness, the vivid
remembrance of the unhappy spirits in hades.”
Again, he says, “The action of memory will be
the test of personality — memory, full, free, unclouded memory — the flashing into the imprisoned soul of that intolerable light which makes
all past present. If we but realized the keen torture that this will be, we should hardly dare to sin.
What fire is to the shrinking body, that is memory to the shrinking soul. No words can paint
the torture that remorseful memory can inflict on
this side the grave. A cruel, wicked deed, beyond human power to undo, lying blistering on
the memory like a living coal on the hand, has
burned and agonized many a man till it has
driven him into a suicide’s grave. What must it
be in the silence of the prison of spirits?”
Relative to this state the Canon inquires,
“Where is the dear soul we loved? What are
the present conditions of his existence? Does he
sleep unconscious of the lapse of time? Does he
grieve? Does he pine in loneliness?” Regarding the dead he states: “We surrounded with
the ministrations of love the dying bed; we whispered the last farewell; we pressed the hand for
the last time; we laid them in the grave —
Before decay’s effacing fingers
Had marred the lines where beauty lingers.
And the silence of eternity seems to have dropped
between us. Yes, and it is God’s silence; it is
not to be broken by the desire or curiosity of
man. There have been mortals whose favored
eyes have beheld the deep and rapturous repose
of paradise, and who for the benefit of others
have been recalled to this earthly sphere. They
might have told us much, but the finger of God
has closed their lips in an iron silence. The
blessed apostle, St. Paul, was caught up into paradise and tasted of the rest that remaineth for the
people of God. Thus was he strengthened for
the life of exceptional trial that awaited him, but
it was forbidden him to speak of the mysteries of
disembodied life. He simply declares that what
was there revealed to him ‘it is not lawful for a
man to utter,’ and he never did utter it. It was
his personal experience of the peace of paradise
which drew from him that saying of unspeakable
consolation, ‘I reckon,’ I pronounce my deliberate conviction, ‘that the sufferings of this life are
not worthy to be compared with the glory that
shall be revealed in us;’ and it was his experimental knowledge of that perfect rest where
tears and sorrows never come, that wrung from
him that yearning cry, ‘I desire to depart and be
with Christ.’ Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, the
brother of Martha and Mary, was recalled from
paradise, and though tradition says he never
smiled again, there is no record of his divulging
the secrets of Abraham’s bosom. Many bodies of
the saints which slept arose and came out of their
graves after the resurrection of Christ, but there
is no intimation that any communication was
made to mortal ear of what they had experienced
in the world of disembodied spirits.”339
If these persons said nothing of the “world of
disembodied spirits,” may it not be because they
knew of no such world? The Bible writers have
used the word that is rendered spirit, eight hundred and twenty-seven times, but in not one single instance have they called it immortal spirit,
deathless spirit, or disembodied spirit. They
have told us in plain language of the state of the
dead, and that God only hath immortality; that
man is a mortal being; that if he is faithful in
obeying God he may, in the resurrection, obtain
immortality. In no place in the Scriptures have
these writers stated that man is now possessed of
a nature or entity capable of a conscious existence
without the body.
We must look a moment at the scriptures the
Canon presented, as quoted above. St. Paul was
“caught up into paradise.” 2 Cor. 12 : 4. He
was not dead. He was in vision. He was no
more dead while in that condition than were
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, or St. John when they
had their visions and revelations from God.
Then his case of going to paradise has no bearing
on the condition of the dead. In the record of
Lazarus, and those raised after Christ’s resurrection, there is not a word said about “the world of
spirits” or coming from the land of “disembodied
spirits.” Of Lazarus, it is said, “He that was
dead came forth” (St. John 11 : 44), not that he
came forth who did not die. In the other case,
“Many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and
came out of the graves after his resurrection.”
Matt. 28 : 52, 53.
Hear Both Sides
NEVER condemn your neighbor unheard, however many the accusations preferred against him; every story has two ways of being told, and justice requires that you should hear the defense as well as the accusation, and remember that the malignity of enemies may place you in a similar position.—Sel.
INFIDELITY.
By Rev. G. C. Lorimer, D. D.
HUMANITY is left hopeless and helpless by infidelity. If we are in sorrow, it has no comfort; if we are in sin, it has no deliverance; if we are in perplexity, it has no message; if we are in darkness, it has no light. The virtue it preaches, is without foundation; the heroism it inculcates, is without inducements; and the immortality it whispers, is without evidence. Its loftiest sentiments are borrowed from the religion it affects to despise; the liberty which it claims to champion, it has sacrificed but little to secure; and the sweet charities it commends, it has done nothing to secure. The garland of eloquence wherewith it clothes itself, is the adornment of a corpse, every flower sheathes a worm in its bosom, and every breath of fragrance is mingled with death. Its oratory smells of the tomb, and the symbol of its hope is an eyeless, tongueless skull, grinning in mocking insolence at everything that dignifies and ennobles life. It brings no benefaction, it pronounces no benediction, but casts its baleful shadow on all that is fair and sacred. From its cold lips there comes no grand and full rounded “Yea” to match its piercing, blighting and destroying “Nay.” It is simply a huge negation, seeking with one hand to stop the mouth of religion, and with the other to write on human aspirations and beliefs a bitter and derisive “No.” It has no gospel of salvation even for this world, but only an evangel of destruction. Let us then turn from it, and proclaim Him in whom is life, and who came “that we might have life and have it more abundantly.” Let us in realizing the insufficiency of all other answers, repeat to those who ask “What must we do to be saved?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” saved from sin, saved from despair, saved from uselessness and misery, and saved forevermore in the kingdom of his glory.—Rev. G. C. Lorimer, D. D.
GIDEON'S ARMY
By Roswell F. Cottrell
By Eld. Roswell F. Cottrell
At the sound of the war trumpet, a host of thirty-two thousand rallied to the standard of Gideon to be led against the mighty host of the Midianites. But the Lord said there were too many; he could not give the Midianites into their hands, lest they should take the glory to themselves. So a proclamation was made, by the direction of the Lord, that whoever was fearful and afraid should depart and return home, whereon twenty-two thousand departed, leaving ten thousand. But the Lord said there were still too many; so they were brought down to the water to drink, and there the Lord chose out three hundred only to go to the battle, men that by faith could do the Lord's bidding and give him the glory and praise of saving them from the mighty host of their enemies.
At the sounding of the proclamation, "The hour of his Judgment is come," a mighty host was rallied in expectation of the second advent. But the great disappointment of 1844 came; and the fearful and faint-hearted returned to their former homes. Still there remained a respectable force who would not quit the field. But when they were directed to the waters of truth, and tested by the commandments of God, but a small handful were found to commence the mightiest work in the history of the church—that of proclaiming the last fearful warning of probationary time. May that few ever humbly give God the praise and glory due to his name, and may they live to see glorious victory achieved. And may you, dear reader, and the writer, share in the glory soon to be revealed.
RELIEF BY THE CROSS.
BUNYAN does not set Christian to undo his own burden by arguing—"I have fled from the city of Destruction; I have forsaken house and friends, wife and children; I have resisted temptations to return; I have knocked at the gate and entered in, and am in the narrow path;" but with all this done he brings him to "a place somewhat ascending," where stands a cross; and "just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders and fell from off his back." He did not cast off the burden by a process which could easily be explained, but when he set his eye upon the cross, it fell off of itself; and "it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden."
And so it is to others; but however surprising, do thou, my penitent brother, heed no other direction but that which points thine eye straight to the cross, for pardon, for escape from hell, for rest, hope, purity. Look thither, only thither. If thy burden fall not at once, yet still look; look to the cross, and fall it will far sooner and far more surely, than if thou attempt to untie it by thy arguments.—Baptist Flag.
Lives Before Orthodoxy
It would improve some people very much if they were as careful of their daily lives as they are of their orthodoxy.
BE NOT AFRAID.
CHRISTIANS who are constitutionally timid are apt to suffer keenly from fear of trials and afflictions. As sensitive plants shrink when touched by the human hand, so they shrink from anticipated suffering. This shrinking is natural, but it cannot be pleasing to our heavenly Father, because it implies a lack of faith in his loving care, and disobedience to his commands. Has he not said to his children, "Fear not, for I am with thee"? Did not Jesus say to his disciples in their extremest hour of trial, "Let not your hearts be troubled"? Moreover, the very trials which such souls dread may never come, or, if they do arise, may be the only discipline by which they can gain that purification of the affections which is essential to the highest development of their characters. Hence the fearful disciple needs to heed this maxim of the saintly Molinos: "Be not afraid of those trials which God may see fit to send upon thee. It is with the wind and storm of tribulation that God, in the garner of the soul, separates the true wheat from the chaff. Always remember, therefore, that God comes to thee in thy sorrows as really as in thy joys."
—Zion's Herald.
PATIENCE IN AFFLICTION.
QUIETNESS under God's discipline is simply the willingness to let God have his own way. It is ready to go where he sends us, to bear what he lays upon us, to sit still just where he places us. Why should we desire to get away from his blessed discipline? When you would fill a vessel with water from a hydrant or a rain-spout, you do not remove the vessel while the stream is pouring in. It is filled by setting still. And if God's storms are filling your heart with Heaven-descended graces, why should you seek to move away from beneath its blessed outpour? If God is refining your heart, why seek to be taken out of the furnace? We have seldom met with a finer illustration of this grace of quietness than was presented by an aged lady, who, after a busy life of doing good, was at length laid upon her bed, pain-worn and helpless. A good minister went to see her, and asked if, after her active habits, she did not find her confinement hard to bear?
'No, sir,' said she, 'not at all. When I was well I used to hear the Lord say day by day, “Betty, go here; Betty, go there; Betty, do this and do that,” and I used to do it as well as I could; but now I hear him say, “Betty, lie still and cough.”' Which of these two acts of obedience was the most difficult to perform we leave our readers to testify from their own experience.—Evangelist.
MUSIC IN OUR HOMES.
DR. OSCAR JENNINGS, a noted physician of Paris, writes a discriminating letter to the London Lancet on music as a remedy for disease, and among other things, says; "Whatever may be its mechanism, there is no doubt that music does exert a powerful physical action. Pythagoras held that music might be made serviceable in the treatment of various diseases, and so have many generations of physicians down to our own time. 'Music,' says Esquirol, 'acts upon the physique by determining nervous vibrations, and by exciting the circulation. . . . It acts upon the morale by fixing the attention upon sweet impressions, and by calling up agreeable recollections.' 'In the treatment of mental disease,' says the same author, 'I have constantly used music. It calms and soothes the mind, although it does not cure; it is, however, a precious agent, and ought not to be neglected.' Pinel, who was no mean authority, also gives ample proof of its value in his treatise on Mental Alienation. At the present day, concerts are a standard element of treatment in many lunatic asylums, but, as generally conducted, they may be considered to form a part of the general hygienic and moral treatment, and to differ entirely from the therapeutic selection of various kinds of melody, according to the condition of the patient. The use of music as a remedy may be truly said to date from the very origin of medicine. In one of his odes, Pindar relates that Æsculapius himself so treated some of his patients."—Sel.
WHO MADE THE BIBLE?
WHEN a young collegian said to Dr. Wayland that he did not think it required great wisdom to make such proverbs as those of Solomon, the old man replied, "Make a few, make a few."
The world has been producing literature for ages, but where are the books that infidels themselves would set forth as being fit for companionship with the Bible? Men can make laws, creeds, fashions, disciplines, systems, and theories, but when we think of being shut up to them, how small, how mean, how meager they are. Take any church and deprive it of the Bible, and leave it nothing but its creed, and what a miserable show it would make; but give it the Bible with nothing else, and it would have a collection of law, literature, poetry, and ethics, such as the world could not parallel. Who made this book? It comes down to us from rude and dark ages. Surely the breath of God streams through this volume as through no other book which the world has ever seen. It carries its own credentials, and the world must confess, when listening to the words of Jesus, "Never man spake like this man." -The Christian.
GOLDEN MOMENTS.
By The Sunday Chatter Box
How sorry one would be for a man who, starting out upon a journey, had his pockets full of golden coin which, one by one, had slipped through some unmended hole or rent, so that when he came to the end of his trip he had not one left, but lay down upon his bed a beggar! How strictly we would look to our own pockets after hearing the tale, and make sure that what coin we had should be well spent, or hoarded carefully and not scattered in the roadside dust! Yet we start upon our lives, each one of us, with a store of golden moments of which we keep little account. Rapidly they slip away through the rents of sloth or ignorance. Many a one, rich in all the golden moments of seventy years, lies down at last scarcely able to remember how he has frittered and scattered them, knowing only that he has no more—that all are gone, and that he cannot say that he has purchased anything of use to himself or another with what he might have bought so much.—The Sunday Chatter Box.
Religious Freedom in Spain
A BAPTIST missionary of Alcoy, Spain, was recently stoned by Romanists on the streets, and a priest took pity on him and protected him. For this the priest was summoned before his superiors and severely reprimanded for "protecting Protestants." Spain is just now aspiring to be recognized as one of the "Great Powers" of Europe, but she will never be great until she gets from under priestly rule and establishes religious freedom. All the Congresses of Europe can never make it otherwise.—Ex.
The Righteous Scarcely Saved
"If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"