Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 33. (8/13/1901)

Review and Herald

Aug 13, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 13, 1901

TO MY BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN THE FAITH, NIGH AND AFAR OFF.

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

Letters have come to me, asking in regard to the teaching of some who say that nothing that has life should be killed, not even insects, however annoying or distressing they may be. Is it possible that any one claims that God has given him this message to give to the people? The Lord has never given any human being such a message. God has told no one that it is a sin to kill the insects which destroy our peace and rest. In all His teaching, Christ gave no message of this character, and His disciples are to teach only what He commanded them.

There are those who are always seeking to engage in controversy. This is the sum of their religion. They are filled with a desire to produce something new and strange. They dwell upon matters of the smallest consequence, exercising upon these their sharp, controversial talents.

Idle tales are brought in as important truths, and by some they are actually set up as tests. Thus controversy is created, and minds are diverted from present truth. Satan knows that if he can get men and women absorbed in trifling details, greater questions will be left unheeded.

He will furnish plenty of material for the attention of those who are willing to think upon trifling, unimportant subjects. The minds of the Pharisees were absorbed with questions of no moment. They passed by the precious truths of God's word to discuss the traditionary lore handed down from generation to generation, which in no way concerned their salvation. And so to-day, while precious moments are passing into eternity, the great questions of salvation are overlooked for some idle tale.

I would say to my brethren and sisters, Keep close to the instruction found in the word of God. Dwell upon the rich truths of the Scriptures. Thus only can you become one in Christ. You have no time to engage in controversy regarding the killing of insects. Jesus has not placed this burden upon you. “What is the chaff to the wheat?” These side issues which arise are as hay, wood, and stubble compared with the truth for these last days. Those who leave the great truths of God's word to speak of such matters are not preaching the gospel. They are dealing with the idle sophistry which the enemy brings forward to divert minds from the truths that concern their eternal welfare. They have no word from Christ to vindicate their suppositions.

Do not spend your time in the discussion of such matters. If you have any question as to what you should teach, any question as to the subjects upon which you should dwell, go right to the discourses of the Great Teacher, and follow His instructions. Study the counsel He gave the lawyer regarding the keeping of the law.

“Behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said, What is written in the law? how readest thou?” The lawyer answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” “Thou hast answered right,” Christ said; “this do, and thou shalt live.”

The lawyer felt annoyed by the Saviour's reply; for he knew that he had not fulfilled the requirements of the law, and he asked, “And who is my neighbor?” In answer, the Saviour related, in the form of a parable, an incident which had lately taken place. He spoke of a man who, going from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, who robbed and wounded him, leaving him to die by the wayside. “And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.” They knew the precious lessons of mercy and compassion which from the pillar of cloud Christ had given to Moses to give to the children of Israel; but in utter disregard, they refused to help their suffering brother.

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.”

Then Christ asked the lawyer, “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?” So interested had the audience become in the narrative that many voices united with the lawyer's in saying, “He that showed mercy on him.” Then said Jesus, “Go, and do thou likewise.”

Do not allow anything to draw your attention from the question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This is a life and death question, which we must each settle for eternity. Let the mind be weighted with the importance of the solemn truth which we possess. Those who allow the mind to wander in search of cheap, unimportant theories need to be converted.

The sixth chapter of John is full of elevating, ennobling instruction. “Labor not for the meat which perisheth,” Christ said, “but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. . . . I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . . . Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. . . . It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Read and study these words, instead of engaging in controversy regarding matters of little consequence. The character is built up from the food given to the mind. Let us, then, feed upon Christ. Let the mind dwell upon the subjects which are of eternal consequence. Let the people of God dig deep into the mines of truth, that they may secure the treasures of righteousness. Christ has the richest gifts of heaven to bestow on those who believe in Him. He has been intrusted with the greatest of all gifts,—the gift of eternal life. And to all He gives the invitation, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek

and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This is the instruction which the people need. As we go to Christ in our helplessness, studying His word, applying it to our own experience, asking, “What saith the Master?” His word is made unto us life and strength, comfort and joy, hope and assurance. This is feeding on Christ.

Jesus offers himself for the life of the world. He stands before the Father, bearing the sins which man commits. To Him every believing soul may transfer his burden. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Innocent of all sin, He bears the guilt of the sinner, that to the sinner may be imputed the merits of His righteousness.

How important are these lessons! Yet how few seek to understand them. How many, forgetting them, stoop down to gather up small trivialities, which are not of the least importance. The life of Christ, His ministry and teachings,—this is the theme upon which we are to dwell. We have no time for empty, foolish talk. The keeping of God's commandments is to be the subject of our conversation and the highest aim of our lives. Heaven is worth everything to us.

In our search for the gifts of heaven, we are directed to do one thing, and this includes all others. We are to believe on Him whom God has sent as His commissioner to reconcile man to God. The attributes of Christ are to be studied and earnestly sought for, that we may be complete in Him, revealing His beauty of character. As through Christ man returns to his loyalty and draws nigh to God, rest and peace and security come to him.

To believe in Christ, we must come to Christ and follow Him. Repentance toward God means the confession and forsaking of all sin. It means laying hold of Christ as a personal Saviour, and continuing to hold fast to Him as the chief good. He is our Prince, our Saviour. Only through Him can we approach the Father. Loving Him day by day and hour by hour, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, taking Him as the man of our counsel, living by every word that proceedeth out of His mouth,—only thus can we reach heaven.

To us has been given the high privilege of living as Christ lived. Our life is to be hid with Christ in God. Then we shall have the richest blessings of heaven to impart to those in need. From the indwelling Saviour we shall receive each day a fresh supply of grace and power. Reveal Christ in your willing obedience, your meekness and lowliness of heart, your self-sacrificing devotion. Thus you will let your light shine, and God will be glorified. Preach the gospel; for it brings salvation to those who accept it. Live the gospel, in the highest, most sacred sense. Doing this, you are laborers together with God, carrying out the plans of the wonderful Counselor.

Erroneous theories, with no authority from the word of God, will come in on the right hand and on the left, and to weaklings these theories will appear as truth which makes wise. But they are as nothingness. And yet many church-members have become so well satisfied with cheap food that they have a dyspeptic religion. Why will men and women belittle their experience by gathering up idle tales and presenting them as matters worthy of attention? The people of God have no time to dwell on the indefinite, frivolous questions which have no bearing on God's requirements.

God desires men and women to think soberly and candidly. They are to ascend to a higher and still higher grade, commanding a wider and still wider horizon. Looking unto Jesus, they are to be changed into His image. They are to spend their time in searching for the deep, everlasting truths of heaven. Then there will be nothing frivolous in their religious experience. As they study the grand truths of God's word, they endure the seeing of Him who is invisible. They see that the most uplifting, ennobling truths are those most closely connected with the Source of all truth. And as they learn of Him, their motives and sympathies become firm and unchanging; for the impressions made by the All-wise are substantial and enduring. The living water, which Christ gives, is not like a surface spring, which babbles for a short time, and then dries up. The living water springs up unto everlasting life.

Let us follow the revealed will of God. Then we shall know that the light we receive comes from the divine source of all true light. Those who co-operate with Christ are on safe ground. God richly blesses them as they consecrate their energies to the work of rescuing the world from corruption. Christ is our example. By beholding Him we are to be changed into His image, from glory to glory, from character to character. This is our work. God help us rightly to represent the Saviour to the world.

TRUSTING IN JESUS.

By E. R. Colburn

E. R. COLBURN.

(Ashland, Ore.)

Cheer up, sad heart, Though sorrow fills thy cup, e'en to the brim. Though trials press thee sore, Look up, and trust in Him.

The way seems dark, Black clouds are gathering thick and fast. Cheer up, sad one, The night will soon be past.

God hears thy sigh, And when thy heart is sad, and filled with grief, He loves thee still, And He will give relief.

Then trust thou Him, And though thou canst not always see the way, Still trust in faith, And He will lead to everlasting day.

THE SANCTUARY QUESTION FROM THE STAND-POINT OF THE BOOK OF HEBREWS.

By Stephen N. Haskell

Importance of the Subject.

ELDER S. N. HASKELL.

We cannot overestimate the importance of the sanctuary question: “The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to exercise that which is essential at this time, or to occupy the position God designs them to fill. . . . All who have received the light upon these subjects are to bear testimony of the great truths which God has committed to them. The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ’s work in behalf of men. It concerns every soul living upon the earth. It opens to view the plan of redemption, bringing us down to the very close of time, and revealing the triumphant issue of the contest between righteousness and sin. It is of the utmost importance that all should thoroughly investigate these subjects, and be able to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them.”

It is by this subject that we obtain a clear insight into the mysteries of redemption. The salvation of men is at an infinite expense to heaven, and the sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God. The sanctuary question reveals this. There is no one book in the Bible, except the books of Moses, that can be studied with greater profit upon this subject than the book of Hebrews, which is a divine commentary upon the sanctuary and its services. It was the last general call the Spirit of God ever made to the Jewish people. It was written when the judgments of God were hanging over the city, six years before Titus came with his army. It to them was a special judgment warning.

The Holy Spirit associates this event with the second coming of Christ. “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Heb. 10:35-38.

In the final overthrow of Jerusalem the destruction of the world was symbolized. This book therefore becomes a book written expressly for the time in which we live. It not only presents the manner of giving the sanctuary question, but also the spiritual application of the truths of the sanctuary, its ceremonies and offerings, with the history of the people connected with it. Every offering made in the Jewish economy, every ceremony connected with the sanctuary service, centered in Christ, and it is by an individual faith in its virtue that victory is gained over Satan’s power. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” “Christ being come a high priest of the good things to come, through a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, . . . entered once into the holy places, having obtained eternal redemption by His own blood.” — Whiting’s Translation. In this lies the relation between His work in heaven and His people on earth.

Upon His work rests the salvation of every human soul. “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” It is His blood alone that can atone for sin. It is His work alone in heaven, made manifest in the lives of His people on earth, that connects any soul with God. He not only becomes the central figure in heaven and earth, but He connects heaven with earth, and earth with heaven. It is those whose hearts correspond with the heavenly work who are benefited thereby. None others can be saved in the kingdom of God. To understand this work is of great importance, and it cannot be understood unless thought be given to the subject, aided by the Holy Spirit. As the book of Hebrews was written while the destruction of Jerusalem was pending, it becomes a symbol of the world, hardened in sin, unbelief, and rebellion, hastening to meet the retributive judgments of God.

The prophecy which Christ uttered concerning the destruction of Jerusalem had a twofold meaning. It foreshadowed the destruction of Jerusalem, and also prefigured the terrors of the last great day. The language of Christ in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem has an application to the people of God in the last days. The professed people of God in the present day are in the same condition as were the Jews before the destruction of Jerusalem. They rejected Christ, and because of their rejection of Christ, they were destroyed. The Lord said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee.” The knowledge which they lacked was the spiritual application of the sanctuary question, which centered in Christ. The sanctuary question was to reveal Christ, His work in the heavenly courts, and as it would be carried on in the hearts of His disciples. It is thus apparent that the work in the hearts of the people must correspond with that of Christ in heaven.

There are three temples brought to view in the Bible, and all should be blended into one study. The first one was a typical sanctuary built by Moses in the wilderness, afterward rebuilt by Solomon, again rebuilt by Zerubbabel. This temple and its services shadowed forth the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. The work of Christ in heaven is also to go forward in the living temple of His people on the earth; so while there was a sanctuary on the earth, and still one in heaven, the most important of the three is His people; for the object of the earthly sanctuary was to teach man how to know and believe the actual work done for him in the heavenly sanctuary. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Cor. 3:16. All the work revealed by the typical temple shadowing the real work of Christ in heaven is for the purification of His Church on the earth, and consequently a neglect of a knowledge of these truths will leave men unprepared for the impending judgments of God, as really as the Jews were unprepared for the destruction that came upon them.

(To be continued.)*

THE CHURCH THERMOMETER.

By Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

The true thermometer of a church is its prayer-meeting. Pulpit eloquence may attract crowds to a sanctuary, but crowds do not give spiritual life and force to a church. That life and force comes from direct intercourse with God; and the place where that intercourse is most immediate and effective is the meeting for public prayer. The Sabbath service is, or ought to be, a devotional service, but there one man addresses the throne in supplication. At the social service of the week every disciple may do so. The attraction which draws a thousand people to God's house may be the selfish enjoyment of eloquence or good music or both combined. The only attraction to a prayer-meeting must be the soul's desire to meet and commune with God.

I have therefore observed that a full and fervid prayer-meeting bespeaks a healthy church. But when that thermometer gets “below zero,” the cold wave spreads through the whole congregation. The minister feels its benumbing influence in his pulpit. His sermons lose their propelling power. His arms hang down, and his spirit faints. But let him feel that his whole flock are interceding with God for a blessing, and he is “able to put ten thousand foes to flight.” I have heard of a church whose officers met on every Saturday evening to plead with the Intercessor for a blessing on the next day's work. In that church there was constant unity, vigor, and a perpetual flow of converting power. They did not need a “revival,” because they had not sunk into that cold and comatose condition which requires an awakening. Their prayer-meeting was not an occasional bonfire of excitement; rather was it a steady anthracite glow heated through and through by the love of Christ.

When a church has become frozen up, the true place to thaw it out is the prayer-room. A revival commonly begins there. When the deserted seats begin to fill up, and the empty prayers begin also to fill up with contrition, confession of sin, and appeals for the Spirit's presence, the atmosphere changes at once. Some silent ones begin to articulate. The merchant leaves his ledgers, and the mechanic manages to shut up shop in time to get to meeting. The valetudinarians who are always “catching cold” when they go out-of-doors, bundle up and brave the weather. Everything about the service feels the returning glow. Instead of a few voices pitched to a dull monotone, the whole assembly bursts into a hearty—

“Come, Holy Spirit, come! Let thy bright beams arise.”

No time is lost; and the leader is not driven to the wretched exhortation to “some brother to occupy the time” by a stereotyped homily. Prayer becomes direct, earnest, simple, and full of unction. At such times the largest liberty should be allowed for any one and every one to be heard. If any brother speaks too long, or so often as to deprive others of their rights, a kind word from the pastor should correct an offense which usually arises from lack of judgment.

Simple fervor is not enough to keep a prayer-meeting alive. It ought to be a school for instruction in divine truth and experimental religion. There ought to be frequent use of God's word, in comment and explanation. Personal experiences, when honest, and modestly told, are profitable. They may be thrilling and soul-kindling when they recount “what God has done” by His awakening or comforting power. If any one has a doubtful question of duty that perplexes him, the social meeting is a good place to propound it. If any one has received especial help or light from the last Sabbath's discourse, let him speak of it, for his own good and the pastor's encouragement. A minister who has sense enough to say profitable things will have too much sense to be puffed up by commendation. If any have a burden on their souls, let them ask their fellow Christians to pray for them. Requests for prayer may be as sincere and meaningful as Paul's “Brethren, pray for us,” or they may be careless mummeries. We must expect some tares among the wheat; let them grow till the harvest. It is far better to have freedom and fervor, with all their faults, than the dull decorum of spiritual death.

Good reader, what is the temperature of your prayer-meeting? Is it “below freezing point”? Then do not scold your pastor, or get up and rail at the few who do come to the cheerless room. Go to your knees and your Saviour, for the “baptism of fire,” and you may bring a live coal into the meeting. Others may catch the glow, and very soon the thermometer may rise to “blood heat,” and then may reach the point which made that upper room in Jerusalem a melting furnace of holy affections.

THE POWER OF A WILLING MIND.

By W. S. Sadler

ELDER W. S. SADLER.

(San Francisco, Cal.)

“For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” 2 Cor. 8: 12.

What does “a willing mind” mean? All these years you have struggled; you have prayed; you have purposed in your heart and have said you would never do that wicked thing again; by the help of God, you have vowed you would not do it again; yet on the morrow you found yourself doing that very thing. You have tried every way in the world to overcome it, but the one way that God said was sure to succeed—just being willing to allow Him to overcome it for you. This is where we so often make a mistake. We are willing to overcome our defects, but we must be willing to have God do the thing for us. When you try, you are sure to fail; but if you trust, you are sure to succeed.

If you have a willing mind, it is accepted according to what “a man hath.” If you have a willing mind, it is accepted according to that willing mind; it is accepted on the ground of, and because of, the life and death of Christ, and not according to the power you have to overcome your sins. God says to the struggling soul: If you have a willing mind, I will accept that as the whole thing. Just be like a little child that will do anything it is told to do. Unless we become as little children, we shall in no wise inherit the kingdom. We are to do just what God tells them to do. I am to believe that a willing mind is accepted. If I do not believe that, I shall go about trying to do something else that will make it acceptable. So when it seems to us that the willing mind is not enough, the one thing we have to do is to reckon that it is enough, because God says so.

We have had so much trouble about this question because we have been trying to see something which would, in our eyes, seem to be acceptable, not taking the willingness of our mind as being enough. Then how can we ever succeed in overcoming our sins, when in every effort we make to overcome them we commit sin? No wonder when we tried for a month or a year to lead a Christian life, in that way, we became discouraged, and finally were tempted, some of us, to give it up. Have we any reason to doubt God? Then when God says that a willing mind is acceptable, is not that sufficient? Why not believe that it is so? There is nothing more important than this reckoning what God says as being so, even if we do not see it.

God said to Abraham, You are the father of many nations. And Abraham went about telling everybody he was the father of many nations. Probably the people called him foolish, and made fun of him. They would say, “You are not the father of one child, to say nothing about many nations.” We shall never exactly understand just how a willing mind can save a man from sin; for that is the mystery of godliness. But it is a blessed thing to know that it does it. If you could really see the thing, you would not have to reckon it, and so God would not ask you to reckon it. The very fact that God asks you to reckon it is evidence that you will not be able exactly to see it.

It is of no use to look for a thing that God asks you to reckon. If you wish to see yourself defeated and overcome in the battle with sin, look to yourself; but if you wish to see yourself in God’s plan, triumphant over the enemy’s devices, look to Jesus. By looking at Him, we become changed; and some day we shall be like Him. Not until the resurrection morning shall we be able to see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and feel with our hands,—not till then shall we be able to see things as they are.

The great mistake we make is that we reckon for a while, and then say: “I guess it is about time I saw something.” You will have to go right on reckoning, as Abraham did. The things we reckon are infinite and invisible, and the finite eye can never fully grasp them, and the sinful heart can never fully understand them. Now it is your privilege to begin to reckon yourselves triumphant over sin and selfishness, and to continue to reckon it, in spite of all appearances, until the final day. Don’t give it up. When the day gets dark, reckon that the day is light. When the burden seems heavy, reckon that it is light; because He said so. Matt. 11: 30. When the trial becomes severe, and the temptation fierce, reckon that nothing will come but what you are able to bear, because the Word says so. 1 Cor. 10: 13.

When a thing is so, and God has said so, there is every reason in the world to reckon that thing as so. The more of the character of Christ we get, the worse our own character appears. One evil trait in your character, as you get nearer and nearer God, will look more hideous and sinful than all your heart full of sin did when you were first converted. Do not be discouraged by the fact that you seem worse and worse. Look to Jesus, reckon yourself in Him, and you will find yourself growing more and more like Him, loving Him more and more each day, becoming more and more willing to sacrifice for His truth.

The storm is about to break upon us, and the only chart and compass that will serve us is that of truth. Let us be able to believe God. When He speaks, let us say, Amen.

DOWN-TO-DATE

By Ada D. Wellman

MRS. ADA D. WELLMAN.

(Oakland, Cal.)

EFFORT to be up-to-date in all one's affairs is certainly commendable; but what is sometimes regarded as up-to-date may be, in reality, down-to-date. Not all that is recent is an improvement on what preceded it; and to discard the old for something new but inferior, is surely coming down instead of up.

A current phrase may be terse and pertinent, or it may be as coarse as forcible. The fact that a style of garment is the latest does not indicate whether it is in good taste or otherwise. A prevailing fad may be unique, or it may be witless. Scores of books just from the press might not add as much to one's literary store as would a single volume of established worth. Forms of recreation most in vogue are not always most recreative. To be smart is not always to be wise. Verily, to be down-to-date is not an enviable distinction.

THANKS

By Marianne Farningham

ONE saw that he was healed, and turned To give Thee thanks. How shall I praise, Whose life through all my years of days Has taught, although I slowly learned, The wonder of thy healing touch, My Lord, who has forgiven much?

Thou camest at the door to wait, And the closed heart, for all its sin, Opened to let her Master in. Early it was, and yet too late; And ever since through light and shade Thy gracious love my joy has made.

How can I count thy mercies up? What boisterous sea hast thou made calm, What sad sighs changed to joyous psalm; And what rich wine has filled my cup! My day and night, my work and rest, Even my sorrows thou hast blest.

Thou gavest, and I took my share Of pain and trouble, grief and tears, But ever through the stormiest years My peace was greater than my care. Unworthy I! And yet I pray, O Lord, accept my thanks to-day.

The sunset raptures light the hill, And opals kiss the tranquil sea, And the fair world which I shall see Some day, when it shall be thy will, Draws me to it, although unseen— Lord, be my life as thou hast been! —Marianne Farningham.

A MESS OF POTTAGE.

By Sallie Brown

Sallie Brown, in Baptist Standard.

SHE was a plain, unassuming woman, moderately talented and good-looking. She played on the piano and sang ordinarily well, had painted two or three pictures, assisted by her teacher, that were very good for an amateur.

After she left school, she read a great deal, and at her marriage was regarded as a woman of more than average intelligence. If she surpassed in any one thing, it was her dainty needlework.

When she married John, they were both poor, and their home necessarily modest, though he made a good salary, which sufficed for their needs, besides leaving a margin for the proverbial “rainy day;” so she spent every spare moment at needlework designed to adorn her home. Before this was completed, to her satisfaction, a friend asked that she would do some for her. Other friends came with the same request. She did it first to accommodate them; but as other orders came, there was born within her that human desire to earn something. She thought of the beautiful things she could have in her home, from these earnings, that she could not otherwise afford.

Orders became more frequent, and she had to neglect her music to fill them. Soon she dropped it altogether, and the piano, that she had brought from her old home to her new one, remained closed week after week.

As the absorption grew, her reading began to suffer until she scarcely read at all. She worked even at evening, persuading herself that needlework was no harder on her eyes than reading.

Her social duties soon followed her reading, and beyond her necessary home duties she spent her entire time on fancy work.

She spent all her earnings on her home. Books, pictures, bric-a-brac, china, rugs, all the pretty things that delight a refined woman’s heart, began to accumulate about her. By and by she would rest and enjoy them all, she thought; but there was always something else in view to work for.

Her friends often warned her against ruining her eyes, to which she always declared that the first time she felt any evil effect she was going to stop at once, but she did not really think it would hurt them, for she had unusually strong eyes.

She had been married several years, when one day, about two months before Christmas, there came a dull, tired feeling into her eyes. The next day it was worse, and she took a half day’s rest. She could not rest longer, for she had taken an unusually large number of orders that fall, because the children were both in school now, and she had more time. She had promised to fill them all by Christmas, after that she would take her long-promised rest.

Her eyes began to pain her frequently, then to burn, and her head to ache, but she worked on all the more eagerly, fearing she might be compelled to stop. At last she finished, and put her home in order for the holidays. She expected her eyes to get better as soon as her work was done, but instead they grew worse. The day after Christmas she woke to find that the first rays of the morning sun, coming in at her window, brought a moan of pain to her lips. She drew down the blind, and sat all day in the shadow. It seemed that day would never end. The next was the same, the next, and the next. She called in her family physician; he passed the case on to the oculist. The latter, after a careful examination, told her gravely that she would barely escape with her sight; also that she must spend months in this darkened house.

After he was gone, she wandered disconsolately from room to room. How could she employ her time, she who was miserable if she lacked employment for an hour?

She paused before the book shelves in the hall, which served as library. Now that she could not read, she felt starved without it. She could readily put her hands on her favorite books, but could not read even their names.

She passed on to the tiny parlor; opening the piano, she tried some of her old music, first idly, then in earnest. She remembered little. Covering her face with her hands, she sobbed aloud.

When she was calmer, she glanced about at the things for which she had toiled so unceasingly. Already some of them were broken or looked worn and old. They all suddenly became a burden to her. How gladly she would give them all for her birthright—her strong young eyes.

Daily she spent hours in her easy chair with closed eyes, thinking, thinking. She had ample time to think of her past, narrow, selfish life; of the neighbor who lay sick for days whom she had not found time to visit; of a poor widow who had lived near in actual want, to whom she had intended to carry some of the children’s good outgrown garments. That, too, had stopped with the intention. One old friend’s husband had failed in business, another’s only daughter had married and gone away, another’s baby had been carried, like her own, away to the silent city out on the hill. She could have been a comfort to them all, but she had not. Oh, yes, she had abundant time for reflection now, for few came to cheer her loneliness. How eagerly she waited for the children to come from school; how she enjoyed their childish glee; she even romped with them, told them stories, entered into all their joys and sorrows as she had never found time to do before.

Best of all were the quiet evenings after the children were asleep, when she could sit with bandaged eyes and listen to John, dear, faithful John, read beautiful, helpful things that strengthened her for her next day’s enforced idleness. How beautiful life seemed when she could take her first short walk in the daylight. Her heart overflowed with gratitude when she could again take up her household duties, visit her friends, take her music up and attend to her flowers, but her joy knew no bounds when she could read again.

How near to total blindness she came none but she and the oculist ever knew. Her months of rest were not lost, for she came out a better, broader, wiser woman.

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