Signs of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 5. (2/1/1883)

Signs of the Times

Feb 1, 1883

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 1, 1883

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

Brotherly Love.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." The more closely we resemble our Saviour in character, the greater will be our love toward those for whom he died. Christians who manifest a spirit of unselfish love for one another are bearing a testimony for Christ which unbelievers can neither gainsay nor resist. It is impossible to estimate the power of such an example. Nothing will so successfully defeat the devices of Satan and his emissaries, nothing will so build up the Redeemer's kingdom, as will the love of Christ manifested by the members of the church. Peace and prosperity can be enjoyed only as meekness and love are in active exercise.

In his first Epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul sets forth the importance of that love which should be cherished by the followers of Christ: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."

No matter how high his profession, he whose heart is not imbued with love for God and for his fellow-men, is not a disciple of Christ. Though he should possess great faith, and even have power to work miracles, yet without love his faith would be worthless. He might display great liberality, but should he from some other motive than genuine love, bestow all his goods to feed the poor, the act would not commend him to the favor of God. In his zeal he might even meet a martyr's death, yet if destitute of the gold of love, he would be regarded by God as a deluded enthusiast or an ambitious hypocrite.

The apostle proceeds to specify the fruits of love: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Charity envieth not." The divine love ruling in the heart exterminates pride and selfishness. "Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." The purest joy springs from the deepest humiliation. The strongest and noblest characters rest upon the foundation of patience and love, and trusting submission to the will of God.

Charity "doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." The heart in which love rules, will not be filled with passion or revenge, by injuries which pride and selfishness would deem unbearable. Love is unsuspecting, ever placing the most favorable construction upon the motives and acts of others. Love will never need-lessly expose the faults of others. It does not listen eagerly to unfavorable reports, but rather seeks to bring to mind some good qualities of the one defamed.

Love "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." He whose heart is imbued with love is filled with sorrow at the errors and weaknesses of others; but when truth triumphs, when the cloud that darkened the fair fame of another is removed, or when sins are confessed and wrongs corrected, he rejoices.

"Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Love not only bears with others' faults, but cheerfully submits to whatever suffering or inconvenience such forbearance makes necessary. This love "never faileth." It can never lose its value; it is the attribute of Heaven. As a precious treasure, it will be carried by its possessor through the portals of the city of God.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace. Discord and strife are the work of Satan and the fruit of sin. If we would as a people, enjoy peace and love, we must put away our sins, we must come into harmony with God, and we shall be in harmony with one another. Let each ask himself, Do I possess the grace of love? Have I learned to suffer long, and to be kind? Talents, learning, and eloquence, without this heavenly attribute, will be as meaningless as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Alas that this precious treasure is so lightly valued and so little sought by many who profess the faith!

Paul writes to the Colossians: "Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness; and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful." "And whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

The fact that we are under so great obligation to Christ, places us under the most sacred obligation to those whom he died to redeem. We are to manifest toward them the same sympathy, the same tender compassion and unselfish love, which Christ has manifested toward us. Selfish ambition, desire for supremacy, will die when Christ takes possession of the affections.

Our Saviour taught his disciples to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." A great blessing is here asked upon conditions. We ourselves state these conditions. We ask that the mercy of God toward us may be measured by the mercy which we extend to others. Christ declares that this is the rule by which the Lord will deal with us: "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Wonderful terms! but how little are they understood or heeded. One of the most common sins, and one that is attended with most pernicious results, is the indulgence of an unforgiving spirit. How many will cherish animosity or revenge, and then bow before God and ask to be forgiven as they forgive. Surely, they have no true sense of the import of this prayer, or they would not dare to take it upon their lips. We are dependent upon the pardoning mercy of God every day and every hour; how then can we cherish bitterness and malice toward our fellow-sinners! If, in all their daily intercourse, Christians would carry out the principles of this prayer, what a blessed change would be wrought in the church and in the world! This would be the most convincing testimony that could be given to the reality of Bible religion.

God requires more of his followers than many realize. If we would not build our hopes of Heaven upon a false foundation, we must accept the Bible as it reads, and believe that the Lord means what he says. He requires nothing of us that he will not give us grace to perform. We shall have no excuse to offer in the day of God if we fail to reach the standard set before us in his word.

We are admonished by the apostle: "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another." Paul would have us distinguish between the pure, unselfish love which is prompted by the spirit of Christ, and the unmeaning, deceitful pretense with which the world abounds. This base counterfeit has misled many souls. It would blot out the distinction between right and wrong, by agreeing with the transgressor instead of faithfully showing him his errors. Such a course never springs from real friendship. The spirit by which it is prompted dwells only in the carnal heart. While the Christian will be ever kind, compassionate, and forgiving, he can feel no harmony with sin. He will abhor evil and cling to that which is good, at the sacrifice of association or friendship with the ungodly. The spirit of Christ will lead us to hate sin, while we are willing to make any sacrifice to save the sinner.

"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling have given themselves unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." The apostle admonishes his brethren, in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that after having professed the gospel they should not conduct themselves as did the Gentiles, but should show by their daily deportment that they had been truly converted.

"Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Once they were corrupt, degraded, enslaved by lustful passions; they were drugged by worldly opiates, blinded, bewildered, and betrayed by Satan's devices. Now that they had been taught the truth as it is in Jesus, there must be a decided change in their life and character.

The accession of members who have not been renewed in heart and reformed in life is a source of weakness to the church. This fact is often ignored. Some ministers and churches are so desirous of securing an increase of numbers that they do not bear faithful testimony against unchristian habits and practices. Those who accept the truth are not taught that they cannot safely be worldlings in conduct while they are Christians in name. Heretofore they were Satan's subjects; henceforth they are to be subjects of Christ. The life must testify to the change of leaders. Public opinion favors a profession of Christianity. Little self-denial or self-sacrifice is required in order to put on a form of godliness, and to have one's name enrolled upon the church book. Hence many join the church without first becoming united to Christ. In this Satan triumphs. Such converts are his most efficient agents. They serve as decoys to other souls. They are false lights, luring the unwary to perdition. It is in vain that men seek to make the Christian's path broad and pleasant for worldlings. God has not smoothed or widened the rugged, narrow way. If we would enter into life, we must follow the same path which Jesus and his disciples trod,—the path of humility, self-denial, and sacrifice.

(To be Concluded.)

THE HEALING OF HATE

By H. Hayne

HATRED within the hearts of men, Lurks like an adder in its den,— Or like a tarn, in blackness hid, Beside a frowning pyramid.

Its sluggish waters foully roll The slush of sin against the soul, And on the mire becomes a clod No hand may break, save that of God.

From heavenly heights a voice is heard, And the dark tarn is strangely stirred:— The hardened mire, by love enticed, Melts 'neath the tender touch of Christ.

—H. Hayne, in S. S. Times.

Avoiding Faults and Seeking Love

THE way to avoid great faults is to beware of lesser faults.

His life is miserable who wishes to be feared rather than loved.

Final Destruction of the Wicked. — Objections Considered.

1. "If final destruction be the doom of all the wicked, this sameness of end, involving all alike in one undistinguishable ruin, seems to do away with the Scripture doctrine of degrees of punishment. , If all are destroyed,, all are involved in the same doom."

To my own mind this appears one of the very strongest of all objections to the views suggested. And it is incumbent on me therefore to consider it, although I am not aware that it has been brought forward by any opponent. But our aim is truth.

Let it be admitted as indisputable that there are, as we easily perceive there ought to be, degrees of punishment. How does the theory I suggest provide for this?

Now suppose I answer frankly that I feel some little difficulty here. What then? Are there no difficulties connected with almost everything we believe? We believe on evidence. And evidence may be sufficient to compel belief, even though there may remain some difficulties unexplained.

Why do I reject the popular doctrine? Not because of the difficulties in which it is involved. But because, first, I do not find it taught in Scripture; and secondly, I think I do find something else taught there very distinctly.

It will be admitted by all who have attentively studied the Scriptures, that we often have there grand outlines of truth, the details of which are reserved. Or, we have vast masses of truth, whose reality is apparent, but the twilight hour of this incipient stage of our existence does not permit us to discern clearly the outlines thereof. "Now we see as through a glass darkly."

One thing however will suggest itself to the reader, on this point, as very obvious. Namely, that it is quite conceivable that the length of time which shall elapse ere the wicked utterly cease to be, and the degree of suffering by which their final dissolution shall be preceded and accompanied, may be exactly proportioned to their various deserts. This idea cannot, at all events, be designated as incomprehensible. Nor is it absurd. And it would meet the case. It would also be in harmony with the universal order of things. There may be latent laws in existence and operation, the natural effect of which would be perfectly to proportion suffering to crime. Many things consonant with this will immediately occur to the mind of the intelligent reader. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

I cannot undertake to affirm that this, to us obvious proceeding, will be the precise mode in which the exceedingly various degrees of criminality will meet their just desert. To the fact of degrees of guilt, we must adhere. And then the consequence is inevitable. The suggestion already made may prove correct. If so, it would perfectly meet the objection.

But now would it not be well just to consider for a moment how the supposed objection affects the popular view? Is it an objection which any advocate of orthodoxy can safely urge against me? Assuredly not. Is it a dangerous weapon for orthodoxy to touch? If any of the believers in eternal torment attempt to employ it against me their brethren may well say, "Save us from our friends." And if I have not hesitated to admit something of difficulty involved in the Scripture doctrine of the less guilty being beaten with few, and the more guilty with many stripes, how intensely ought the holders of the current doctrine to feel themselves pressed with the same difficulty.

It is now my turn to object. And the objection is incomparably more weighty as against orthodoxy. Let us see. You believe that every individual of the human race, who is not born again of the Spirit, no matter for age or other circumstances, "shall be cast into outer darkness, with weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth;" shall receive "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish;" and "shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." You also believe in degrees of guilt. That is, you believe there is the first faint dawn of responsibility; that as people die at all ages, and under all circumstances, they die very soon after becoming responsible agents, and while yet their responsibility, owing either to age, intelligence, education, or other circumstances, is infinitesimally small. Yet the least vicious of the heathen, and the least guilty of the unregenerate in England, they whose advantages were the most scanty, while their disadvantages were the most enormous, are, on the popular theory, all handed over to eternal torment. For them, as well as for the vilest, is there never-ending suffering.

I know very well that many intelligent and pious persons, on whom the almost universal doctrine has taken too deep a hold to permit them altogether to abandon it in words, are in the habit of consoling their minds with the reflection that—as there are these manifestly innumerable gradations of guilt, from the faintest rudimental form thereof, up to its fearfullest maturity,—so the future punishment of multitudes who will fail of Heaven shall be so light in comparison as scarcely to deserve the name. In this way, to my knowledge, do some who are not willing to deny the common doctrine altogether, to relieve their own minds, when they contemplate the futurity of the unsaved. Then why preach an indiscriminate allotment to one common hell? If some of the lost, the least guilty of all, will suffer but little, why does the common doctrine, as taught from our pulpits, keep this out of sight, and reiterate the assertion, that for all who are not fit for Heaven there is eternal "weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth."

But alas! this view, which seems to make some approach to equity, to pay some tribute of respect to the strong instinctive sense of justice and righteousness which man, the product of an all-wise Creator's hand, can never quite lose—will not bear the light. It yields no solid relief to the distracted mind. Only let it be examined, and the objection continues in nearly its original force.

For, First,—This very light punishment—of the more thoughtful of the orthodox—is to be ETERNAL! Nothing can disguise that. Let it be granted that in the case of multitudes the positive inflictions be comparatively light. Give to orthodoxy every advantage. Let it soften and modify at pleasure. Still there is this element of ETERNALITY! And to think of even a light punishment lasting forever, in a world where there is no alleviation, no hope; and this the portion of the least guilty—eternally shut out of Heaven, eternally lost, to live forever, conscious of being forever doomed to despair; denied all pleasant employment—nothing honorable, nothing good, to engage the conscious powers—no possibility of personal improvement, or elevation of character, all the happiness of the saved eternally beyond their reach, and dark, dark despair their everlasting portion?

To think of the punishment of those whose guilt is of the faintest shade, as mere privation, loss of all happiness, forfeiture of all good, and this felt and groaned under forever by spirits that necessarily pine for good, certainly does not bring the lowest degree of punishment down to the first point of criminality in the moral scale. Still it is an infinite punishment for a finite demerit. And thus assuredly the orthodox are not in a condition to object that our theory scarcely consists with degrees of punishment. Their objection however has been replied to; and in addition I have undertaken to show how, while on the views of this volume the difficulty can be met, it remains in all its force against the very parties who would fain urge it.

And, Secondly,—While orthodoxy in its mildest form would exhibit the punishment of some as consisting in privation merely—losing sight of all that this privation necessarily involves—it may be fairly submitted to them that even this poor solace fails them.

For let the least guilty, those who had fewest religious advantages, or who died shortly after their responsibility had commenced, be shut up in hell, in the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Let them recognize that they have lost. Let them recognize that the vilest wretches that ever disgraced humanity, and the fiends that tempted them to evil, are to be their associates forever; that through eternal ages the wrath of God is to rest upon them; and that there is no hope, no not the faintest; and how long will their original disparity in wickedness continue?

Or does orthodoxy dream that there will be no fearful growth of character in hell? We are often hearing how matured the devil has become in the hellish arts of temptation, by the practice of ages. The faculties of the saints also will expand in Heaven. They shall rise from one degree of moral elevation to another. They shall become equal to their present conceptions of what the loftiest angels are. They shall become unutterably more than even this. And this by the laws of their intellectual and moral nature—not by miracle.

Will not then the lost, if immortality be inalienably inwrought into the very essence of their being, as some affirm, continue of necessity in like manner to attain to one enormous growth in wickedness after another; just as here on earth, "wicked men and seducers wax worse and worse?" Will the child in wickedness, by some strange process of mental and moral petrifaction, continue a child forever? How long will they who, on their entrance within the adamantine gates of hell, were the least depraved, and were therefore subjected to the lesser torment, remain thus comparatively unhardened in sin; when they find themselves in a world where there is no chance of struggling back into virtue, no opportunity afforded; but where all their associates are the unutterably vile, and many of them even demons, whose rage and cruelty and abhorrence of God and holiness are beyond the power of tongue to describe? Will they not, themselves, must they not, by dire necessity of nature, become fearfully confirmed in wickedness? Finding themselves irretrievably doomed to woe, for the evil they had done during their brief abode on earth, while their responsibility was but commencing, will they not hate with ever-growing intensity of hatred the God who has thus plunged them into hopeless misery?

But I cannot pursue the thought. The mind turns away, unable to bear the ideal scene. In another sense than the prophet's, "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint." And yet it is almost necessary that we should gird up our loins for the fearful task.

Let the reader however admit, what indeed he ought not for a moment to question, that there will be expansion, development, growth of intellectual power and moral character, in the next state. And this as a matter of course; by virtue of the very laws which the Creator hath stamped upon our being. And then, in one indiscriminate hell, will not all degrees of guilt, all shades of character, be soon confounded? And under the influence of despair, under the promptings of hatred to him who hath thus plunged them into one abyss, and wrought on by the conduct of their fellow-sufferers, and goaded by their torments, and maddened by the hot tumult and hellish strife of those doleful regions, which they are consciously to endure forever and ever,—will not, must not, all the doomed inhabitants of the pit soon attain to a giant growth in wickedness? This, as it appears to us, is the inevitable tendency of the sense of eternal despair.

And if the friends of this tremendous orthodoxy shall object to the representation we have given, it is submitted that, however they may shrink therefrom, it is nevertheless perfectly fair. Fair, do I say? It is a most subdued and faint and feeble intimation of one legitimate consequence of their cherished faith. Exaggeration is utterly impossible. And let them never close their eyes to anything they really believe. There is no merit in refusing to see. Voluntary blindness is no virtue. To acquiesce implicitly in everything the righteous Judge really determines, is indeed the pleasant duty of a child of God, as pleasant to our own minds as it is filially becoming. But

unquestionably to acquiesce in a human and therefore possibly mistaken interpretation of his counsels, is quite another thing. The former is a virtue, the latter a fault. Rather indeed than I should write or speak a word of irreverent reflection on any of the divine proceedings, let my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. I would cheerfully die a thousand deaths, rather than allow the faintest shadow of an unworthy thought of the Most High God, my Creator, and Redeemer, and Father, to harbor in my mind. Let my heart be torn quivering from my wretched bosom ere it become the allowed lurking place of one traitorous suspicion of the rectitude of his decisions, "whose work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

And I pray the orthodox, in their fairness and kindness, not to mistake my remarks on their interpretation of Scripture, for reflections on the divine testimony itself. I trust to be found to "tremble at God's words" as reverently as themselves. But I deem them wrong, fearfully wrong, in their interpretation of "the lively oracles."

And it is their (to my mind) utterly mistaken and terrible injurious doctrine that I speak of thus freely; and not any doctrine of that blessed book which "is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path;" "the joy and rejoicing of my heart," "better unto me than thousands of gold and silver."

But to return to our point, after this brief digression, prompted by a natural solicitude to prevent misapprehension. It was objected that our theory is incompatible with the Scripture doctrine of degrees of punishment. To this it was replied, First, that there was one very obvious method by which, though all that were unfit for existence should be finally destroyed, the sufferings to be endured might yet be proportioned to their guilt. An exact providence might perfectly serve that retributive justice which the Scriptures intimate; or, the silent but sure operation of latent laws might accomplish the result.

And, Secondly, it was submitted that whatever weight there may be in the objection, it lies properly and with tremendously accumulated force against the popular doctrine itself, rather than against our own. For that the orthodox belief, while it holds to degrees of punishment in words, in reality confounds all variety of crime and award, by dooming even the least guilty to endless punishment, and that under circumstances which must inevitably obliterate all traces of original disparity of guilt. And thus the best artillery of our opponents seems to us no longer to play upon our ranks, but, inevitably abandoned by those who brought it into the field, to be successfully turned against them, and to become a frowning rampart to defend the position which it was planted to assail.

2. If a vast multitude of irreclaimable sinners were really to be destroyed, such a fearful catastrophe would surely have been more explicitly announced in the Scriptures.

To which also two replies instantly suggest themselves. First, that this awful consummation is affirmed as plainly as words can teach it, if only we take the language of Scripture in its plain and obvious sense. We need not here repeat the texts so often quoted in the course of this discussion; but what words or figures would convey the idea, if those employed throughout the New Testament on this subject are not allowed to teach it? The wicked are "stubble," "chaff," "tares," that are to be "burned up;" they are faithless servants, or rebellious subjects, that are to be "cut asunder," "slain;" they are to be "punished with everlasting destruction [proceeding] from the presence of the Lord, even from the glory of his power;" to be "cast into a lake of fire," and to be "destroyed both body and soul in hell."

Really the objection seems to me utterly destitute of force. But if the friends who differ think otherwise, let them, Secondly,—consider how the principle, on which their objection is founded, will bear on the popular creed, on behalf of which it is urged against us. Is not the objection much more becoming and reasonable as proposed by us against the common belief? May we not, with incomparably more propriety, urge that if the orthodox doctrine were the true one, it would most assuredly have been set forth in a far different manner than that in which inspired writers have expressed themselves on the subject? If for myriads of God's intelligent, though, alas! rebellious creatures, there were a whole eternity of torment, would the teachers of this appalling doctrine have contented themselves with the few and simple expressions which are usually quoted in its support? Read our popular hymns on the subject, and see how Watts and others have set forth the future. Or, if it please better, read Pollok's description of the torments of hell.

But no, my brethren will properly refuse to ask the poet's aid. And yet the popular doctrine cannot be exaggerated. Come, however, to cool and prosaic divines. Take that mighty and excellent man, Jonathan Edwards. Read his sermons on the subject, and see the manner in which it is natural for the soberest men to express themselves, who really believe the doctrine. But we need not prolong our remarks. If there be any force at all in the objection, it lies really against the popular doctrine, and not against our own.—"Future Punishment," by H. H. Dobney.

The Bible and the Prayer-Meeting.

Dr. James Alexander in one of his published letters expresses regret that the noonday meetings in New York during the great revival of 1858 gave so little prominence to Scriptural instruction. Their great aim seemed to be to kindle or deepen religious emotion, while little effort was made to expound or enforce the peculiar truths of the Bible.

This deficiency still presses itself at times upon thoughtful Christians. We have attended meetings not a few, especially in seasons of religious interest, when the word of God was not read in the opening service, and no direct allusion was made to it any time as the source of authority and the only guide to inquirers. The leader and brethren seemed to rely more on exciting tunes and earnest exhortations than on the inspired word for the salvation of souls. Too often the result of such a work is a notable fulfillment of the prophet's words, "Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy;" and if we mistake not, there is in too many of our ordinary devotional meetings a painful deficiency of Biblical instruction. The formal discourse of the pulpit, it is true, is out of place. Long, rambling, and wearisome talks, which edify none and exhaust the time at the expense of prayer and praise, are even worse. But surely there is a happy mean. Those meetings are most interesting and profitable which give a deeper insight into God's truth, and increase its vital power over the heart. All can recall such seasons in their own experience, when, by a simple paraphrase of the verses read, or a few striking comments on them, an important Bible truth was presented in a new light or connection never to be forgotten. Or when some experienced Christian, whose soul was daily fed on the Bible as the Israelites in the wilderness on manna, as he compared things spiritual with spiritual, taught that the word of God was a treasury filled with things new and old.

Christians talk much about the importance of warm and spirited meetings, and well. But sometimes they mistake forced emotion for genuine feeling. There can be no heat without fire, and the fire of grace in the heart can be kept up only by a constant feeding with the fuel of truth. Those church members who love the Bible most, study it most intelligently, and drink in its quickening spirit, are the best supporters of the prayer-meeting. When the love of others waxes cold, theirs appears the warmer by contrast; when few come to the solemn feasts of Zion, their fidelity is the more unwavering; when others are dumb or despondent, God's statutes are still their song in the house of their pilgrimage.

But to give the Bible more power in the prayer-meeting, it must have a larger place in the closet. Christians cannot talk beyond their experience. They cannot expound what they do not understand, nor speak of truth whose power they have not felt in the heart. The Bible is not read and pondered in our day as it was by our fathers, and we are not nurtured into spiritual strength by its truths as the Puritans of the age of Baxter and Bunyan. Business men find little time for closet reading, and the old-fashioned hour of quiet musing over the page of Scripture is by-gone—the newspaper, with its telegraphic dispatches and its commercial reports, absorbs more time and earnest thought than the word of God. Young people seem to have little taste for an intimate acquaintance with the Bible. The last novel, or volume of poems, or the exciting periodical tale, or, on the Sabbath, the book from the Sabbath-school library, has a more powerful attraction for them than the revealed message from Heaven. Copies of the Bible have been multiplied beyond precedent; they are found in almost every home, and each member of a Christian family must have his own. Popular commentaries and lesson helps are numerous and cheap; and illustrated works, shedding a flood of light on the geography, and customs, and history of Bible lands, are within the reach of all; but we fear there is less true knowledge of the Scriptures than when the helps to study were fewer. The Bible is less talked of at the fireside and in social circles; it exerts less power in meetings for devotion.

One sufficient reason alone can be assigned for all this—it is not meditated upon in hours of rest and quiet. When Christians feel its quickening influence in their private devotion they will carry it with them to the market-place and prayer-meeting alike, as the face of Moses shone when coming from the mount where he had communed with God.—Illustrated Christian Weekly.

Behold, the Judge Standeth at the Door

“BEHOLD, the Judge standeth at the door.”

What You Told.

"Unruly and vain talkers" frequently find that they have told more than they intended to; and sometimes they tell much more than they suppose. You perhaps told the other day an idle rumor of a brother's fault. It was a spicy story, you laughed at your own wit, and others laughed to hear the tale. That was what you told; but you also told more. You told that you were a man of unclean lips; a man who had the tastes of a blackguard, and the dialect of the bar-room. You told that you were willing to smile to a man's face, and sneer at him behind his back; that you would shake a man's hand, and then turn and pick his character; that you were willing to tell a dirty story when you did not yourself believe that it was true; and convey an impression to others which in your heart you believe to be a falsehood. You thought you had told something to the discredit of your neighbor; in fact you told much more to the discredit of yourself. What you told about your neighbor might have been and probably was false, but there could be no possible mistake about the truth of what you told about yourself. You supposed you told your neighbor's affairs, and rehearsed his business, and thus tried to disgrace him in the eyes of others; but you also told that you were a busybody in other men's matters; that you attended to others' affairs rather than your own; and that you possessed not only the disposition of a slanderer, but also the character of a meddler and mischief-maker, who is least welcome where he is best known.

Keep on with your remarks, my friend, and you will not only tell what you know about your neighbor, but also a number of things which you do not know about yourself. Somebody will profit by the disclosure, and learn to keep clear of a man who does not know how to bridle his tongue or mind his own business. They will beware of the talebearer and slanderer. When they hear him talk about others they will say, "perhaps my turn will come next." "A dog that will fetch a bone will carry one;" and it is best to "beware of dogs."—Selected.

Not Ashamed.

JUSTICE McLEAN, of Ohio, heard a minister preach. He had been a skeptic, and this minister spoke to him in such a way as to convince him of the truth and necessity of the Christian religion. He was led to see how Christ had died for him, and was born again. He went home. He had hardly gotten there before he said: "We are going to have family prayer; let us go into the drawing-room and pray together."

"But," said his wife, "there are four lawyers in there; they have come to attend court. Let us go into the kitchen to have prayers." Judge McLEAN replied: "It's the first time I ever invited the Lord to my house, and I don't propose to invite him to the kitchen by any means." He went in to those lawyers, and said: "My friends, I have found out that Jesus died on the cross for me; I have given myself to him, and now I propose to invite him to my house. You may do as you please—go or stay. But I am now to make my first prayer in my own house." They said they would very much like to stay, and did stay. From that day, Judge McLEAN lived a consistent Christian life.

Rescued.

A child stood at the turn of a narrow mountain road, as a stage, loaded with passengers and baggage, came thundering along. It looked up and smiled in the face of imminent death. With great effort the horses were stopped, the driver sprang to the ground, and gently lifted the child out of the road. But then the infant wept piteously. So it is with God’s people, who drift on toward ruin, fancying themselves prosperous, and when their Father which is in Heaven stretches out his hand to save them, they call his help “affliction,” and weep and mourn. Blessed, indeed, are they who at all times can feel that “He doeth all things well.” We must believe it, and “what we know not now we shall know hereafter.”—Christian Advocate.

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