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Signs of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 46.

General Articles

Signs of the Times

Dec 5, 1878

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Dec 5, 1878

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

MARTYRDOM OF STEPHEN.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
WHEN he connected Jesus Christ with the prophecies, and spoke of the temple as he did, the priest, affecting to be horror-stricken, rent his robe. This act was to Stephen a signal that his voice would soon be silenced forever. Although he was just in the midst of his sermon, he abruptly concluded it by suddenly breaking away from the chain of history, and, turning upon his infuriated judges, said, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as you fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers; who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it."
At this the priests and rulers were beside themselves with anger. They were more like wild beasts of prey than like human beings. They rushed upon Stephen, gnashing their teeth. But he was not intimidated; he had expected this. His face was calm, and shone with an angelic light. The infuriated priests and the excited mob had no terrors for him. "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."
The scene about him faded from his vision; the gates of heaven were ajar, and Stephen, looking in, saw the glory of the courts of God, and Christ, as if just risen from his throne, standing ready to sustain his servant, who was about to suffer martyrdom for his name. When Stephen proclaimed the glorious scene opened before him, it was more than his persecutors could endure. They stopped their ears, that they might not hear his words, and uttering loud cries, ran furiously upon him with one accord. "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
Amid the agonies of this most cruel death, the faithful martyr, like his divine Master, prayed for his murderers. The witnesses who had accused Stephen were required to cast the first stones. These persons laid down their clothes at the feet of Saul, who had taken an active part in the disputations, and had consented to the prisoner's death.
The martyrdom of Stephen made a deep impression upon all who witnessed it. It was a sore trial to the church, but resulted in the conversion of Saul. The faith, constancy, and glorification of the martyr could not be effaced from his memory. The signet of God upon his face, his words, that reached to the very soul of all who heard them, except those who were hardened by resisting the light, remained in the memory of the beholders, and testified to the truth of that which he had proclaimed.
There had been no legal sentence passed upon Stephen; but the Roman authorities were bribed by large sums of money to make no investigation of the case. Saul seemed to be imbued with a frenzied zeal at the scene of Stephen's trial and death. He seemed to be angered at his own secret convictions that Stephen was honored of God at the very period when he was dishonored of men. He continued to persecute the church of God, hunting them down, seizing them in their houses, and delivering them up to the priests and rulers for imprisonment and death. His zeal in carrying forward the persecution was a terror to the Christians in Jerusalem. The Roman authorities made no special effort to stay the cruel work, and secretly aided the Jews, in order to conciliate them, and to secure their favor.
The learned Saul was a mighty instrument in the hands of Satan to carry out his rebellion against the Son of God; but a mightier than Satan had selected Saul to take the place of the martyred Stephen, and to labor and suffer for his name. Saul was a man of much esteem among the Jews, for both his learning and his zeal in persecuting the believers. He was not a member of the Sanhedrim council until after the death of Stephen, when he was elected to that body in consideration of the part he had acted on that occasion.
After the death of Stephen the disciples were restrained in their active ministry, and many of the believers who had temporarily resided in Jerusalem now retired to their distant homes because of the violent persecution against them. But the apostles dared not leave Jerusalem till the Spirit of God indicated it to be their duty to do so; for Christ had bidden them to first work in that field. Although the priests and rulers bitterly persecuted the new converts, they did not venture for a time to arrest the apostles, being overawed by the dying testimony of Stephen, and realizing that their course with him had injured their own cause in the minds of the people.
Christ had commanded his disciples to go and teach all nations; but the previous teachings which they had received from the Jews made it difficult for them to fully comprehend the words of their Master, and therefore they were slow to act upon them. They called themselves the children of Abraham, and regarded themselves as the heirs of divine promise. It was not until several years after the Lord's ascension that their minds were sufficiently expanded to clearly understand the intent of Christ's words, that they were to labor for the conversion of the Gentiles as well as that of the Jews.
Their minds were particularly called out to this part of the work by the Gentiles themselves, many of whom embraced the doctrine of Christ. Closely following the death of Stephen, and the consequent scattering of the believers throughout Palestine, Samaria was greatly stirred. The Samaritans received the believers kindly, and manifested a willingness to hear concerning Jesus, who, in his first public labors, had preached to them with great power. Anything in regard to Christ was heard by them with intense interest. Here the disciples began to more fully understand that the gospel was not in any wise to be confined to the Jews; for conversions occurred among all classes, without any difinite, special effort on the part of the Christian teachers. Many converts to Christ among the Gentiles demonstrated to the Jewish believers that they were not the only ones embraced in the message of Christ.
The animosity existing between the Jews and Samaritans decreased, and it could no longer be said that they had no dealing with each other. Philip left Jerusalem, and preached a risen Redeemer in Samaria. Many believed, and received Christian baptism. Philip's preaching was marked with so great success, and so many were gathered into the fold of Christ, that he finally sent to Jerusalem for help. In answer to this petition, the church sent Peter and John to his assistance, who labored in Samaria with wonderful results. They now perceived the meaning of Christ, when he said, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Among the converts in Samaria was one Simon, who, by the power of Satan, through sorceries, had gained great fame among the people. "To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries." But when he saw a greater power manifested by the apostles in healing the sick and in converting souls to the truth, he thought that by uniting with the believers in Christ he might do wonders equal to those accomplished by the apostles. He hoped thus to add greatly to his fame and wealth, for he made merchandise of his sorceries and Satanic arts, pretending to impart their secrets to others.
His darkened mind could not distinguish between the power of the Holy Ghost and that of Satan. He went to Peter and offered him money if he would give him power to heal the sick, and impart to men the Holy Ghost, by laying his hands upon them. Peter was filled with horror at such a proposal, and severely rebuked the presumption of Simon. Said he, "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity."
The magician trembled with fear as his sin was presented before him in this vivid manner. He began to perceive his own wicked audacity, and entreated Peter to pray that the wrath of God might not come upon him for his presumptuous sin. Peter had, with startling force, shown Simon that he was yet untouched by the grace of God; for if his mind had been thus enlightened, he would have known that the sacred power of the Holy Spirit could not be bought or sold for money. Christ, at the infinite price of himself, had obtained for his people the power of the Holy Spirit, to be given only to his chosen instruments, whose lives must be free from selfishness and sin.
The Lord now sent his angel to Philip, directing him to cross the desert and go to Gaza. "And he arose and went. And, behold a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot, read Esaias the prophet." The eunuch, in his blindness, had been groping for light. He believed the Scriptures, but could not fully understand them. He therefore went a journey to Jerusalem to the temple. Hungering and thirsting for knowledge, he laid his perplexities before the priests and scribes; but he was still more mystified than before by their interpretation of scripture. He prayed fervently for light and knowledge, and God heard his prayer, and sent his angel to Philip, bidding him go to Gaza for the purpose of preaching Christ to a single soul that hungered and thirsted for the truth.
The eunuch had heard at Jerusalem various conflicting reports in regard to Jesus of Nazareth. His mind was troubled upon the subject. He had a copy of the Scriptures with him, and was diligently studying the prophecies in reference to the Messiah, when Philip met him. They were strangers; but the mind of Philip was impressed that this was the man who needed his help. Philip, walking by the side of the chariot, inquired of the eunuch if he understood the prophecies he was reading. He answered that he needed instruction, and invited Philip to take a seat beside him.
The scripture he was studying was Isaiah 53:7. Philip understood the desire of his heart, and preached unto him Jesus Christ revealed in prophecy, and his mission to the earth to save sinners. He showed him the steps necessary to take in conversion—repentance toward God because of transgression of the Father's law, faith in Christ as the Saviour of men, and baptism in the likeness of his death. The eunuch's heart was all ready to receive the light and truth, and he accepted with gladness the gospel preached by Philip.
"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." The answer of the eunuch was prompt and decided. He commanded the chariot to be stopped, "and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing."
In this instance we have an illustration of the care of God for his children. He called Philip from his successful ministry in Samaria, to cross the desert and go to Gaza to labor for a single inquiring soul. The promptness with which the eunuch accepted the gospel and acted upon its belief should be a lesson to us. God designs that we should be prompt in accepting and confessing Christ, prompt in obeying him, and in answering to the call of duty. The eunuch was a man of good repute, and occupied a high and responsible position. Through his conversion the gospel was carried to Ethiopia, and many there accepted Christ, and came out from the darkness of heathenism into the clear light of Christianity.

How To Find God.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

"THE fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Ps. 14:1. The holy Bible, in which Christians believe, teaches that there is one living God, who is almighty, infinite in every perfection, eternal in his nature, the Creator of everything which exists, and the Father of all. This Bible claims to be a revelation of his will to man. It teaches that those who do his will shall be rewarded for it, both in this life and also eternally in the life to come; and that those who disobey him shall be punished.
But what evidence have we that the Bible is what it claims to be—the word of God, a revelation from our Creator? Infidels pretend that there is not sufficient evidence to justify this claim. We affirm, and shall show, that there is an abundance of evidence that the Bible is the word of God. Indeed, there is so much evidence in proof of this, that many volumes would not suffice to contain it all. However, we shall state only a few of the plainest evidences for Christianity. Our acquaintance with infidels has thoroughly convinced us that it is not merely evidence which is needed to convince them, but that the difficulty lies far back of that.If an overwhelming amount of evidence could cure infidelity, the disease would long since have ceased to exist.
"Well," says the skeptic, "if there is a God, why don't he show himself? If he will appear in mid-heaven, if he will come personally and talk with me, then I will believe. I will stand in the door and call upon him to cause it to thunder out of a clear sky, to flash his lightnings where there are no clouds, to make the earth shake in answer to my questions—let him do this, and then I will believe."
"Suppose God should take as much of his nature as we can understand, and bring it to us in the way of adequate personal manifestation to the senses. Could we endure the exhibition? Why, we can hardly bear such sights and sounds as we ourselves can produce. We can kindle such glory of conflagration, can detonate such might and majesty of sound, as will destroy sight and hearing, and even shock the weakly out of life. And surely if God should come upon our senses with such imperialism of sights and sounds as would appropriately represent the utmost power and knowledge we can conceive—as would worthily express our ideas of Eternity and Almightiness and Omniscience—that moment would be our last.
"Even now, when the common lightning shoots before our eyes, how they quiver back from the blinding flame; and when the common thunder comes upon us in some great crash, how our ears and hearts quail under the terrible bass! And were God himself to come flashing and pealing on the world in all that outward majesty that rightfully belongs to him, and fitly signifies to sense the presence of a virtually infinite being, who of us would see another moment in the body? We should straightway be dazzled out of life. Our frighted senses and hearts would give one leap, and then become motionless forever—and this though they were a thousand-fold stronger than they are. . . . The men who ask that God should personally manifest himself to their senses as God, know not what they ask. . . . Should a being of virtually infinite glory and majesty come on our senses, or our thoughts, with any but the most inconsiderable fraction of his greatness, our feeble souls would infallibly go into unhingement." Pater Mundi, pp. 122-124.
Foolish man, you have no right to thus put tests to your God, to say just how he must prove himself to you. Do you know that God himself has given many tests by which he offers to prove to any man that he does exist; and that he will manifest himself to all who will put him to the proof? Now if you despise the way that God has chosen, and demand some other test, of your own invention, do not expect God to come to your terms and change from what he has declared he will do. You would better first try the tests which God submits. If you will do this thoroughly, we are willing to warrant that the results will be perfectly satisfactory. They have never failed and they never will fail in the case of any individual who will put them to thorough trial.
Try the following test: The Lord says, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John 7:17. Now, skeptic, here is a chance for you to try an experiment. Commence to walk carefully according to the light you already have on matters of duty, and see whether faith in the Bible, and the God of the Bible, does not spring up in your heart. Begin to act upon the Bible as a rule of life, and see if it does not harmonize with your better nature. Promise this hour, that for the next six months you will go once a day, and, upon your knees, alone, humbly ask that if there is a God he will help you to the light, will help you to find him, will help you to know the truth; if the Bible is his word that he will help you to believe it, and open it to your understanding so that you may see it is the truth. My skeptical friend, do this and your infidelity is gone.
"Who cannot put God and the Scriptures on the test of this actual experiment? Who so poor, so weak, so ill-informed, so uncultured, so busy, that he cannot try these things by his liberality, by his prayer, by his conscientious living? Such a variety of easy practical methods enables all the world to become critics in religion." Pater Mundi, pp. 20, 21. But I have little hope that any skeptic will try this test. And why? Because he is not so willing or anxious to believe as he pretends. God must come to his terms or he will have nothing to do with him. The trouble, my friend, is not in the head; it is deeper than that, in the secret springs of your heart. Yours is a corrupt, sin-loving heart, which does not desire communion with a holy sin-hating God. However loudly you may talk and prate, the judgment will show that this was the trouble.
"There are persons who would as soon be without God as not; nay, there are those who could hardly hear pleasanter news than that the whole Theistic argument has been fairly overturned from the foundation, and the impossibility of a God proved beyond all possibility of denial. Oh, how scoffing Voltaire, and licentious Rousseau, and bloated Paine would have clapped their hands and shouted, could they have fallen on some wonderful geometry which by its rigid demonstrations could compel even the most unwilling to give up their last plea for Deity! Oh, how the high-handed evil-doers of every name, sinning and impetuously bent on sinning, would congratulate themselves, could it be made as plain as day that such a machine as a thinking, embodied man was created by chance; that chance fitted up the earth as his convenient home, and hung out the heavens above him with the blazon of stars and suns!"
"But as soon as a sinner has made up his mind conclusively against sin, and has fully committed himself for endless war upon it in all its forms, then he ceases to be averse or indifferent to the divine existence; then he begins positively to like the idea, as including that of a righteous, divine government; then he begins to cling to it, to bless it, to feel that he cannot do without it; and as he goes on to higher and higher grades of virtue, the feeling in behalf of God gradually deepens into a profound hunger and thirst. He says, 'My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.' To him an offer to disprove God would be an offer to make the universe an awful solitude and desert." Pater Mundi, pp. 203, 204.
It is neither impossible nor difficult to find God to the entire satisfaction of your mind, if you are really in earnest about it. If you will humbly study the word which God has given, and try the many tests there proposed by God himself, you will soon lose all your doubts, and receive in exchange firm faith in God.

What Have I Done for Thee.

By Mrs. L. D. A. Stuttle

Oh, thou who didst for me, Hang bleeding on the tree, On far off Calvary, That I might live, What offering can I make, Dear Saviour, for thy sake, What bounty give?
Thy holy martyrs, Lord, With blood have sealed thy word; Their groanings hast thou heard— Thine eye hath seen The faggot-fire's glare, The dungeon dark and bare, Where saints have been.
Thou'st seen thy prophets die, Thine ear hath heard their cry; And Saviour, what am I Better than they? What can I do for thee, Who didst so much for me, Dear Lord, I pray?
Almighty as thou art, Give me with thee a part, O, God, accept this heart, Nor turn away. Though full of guilt within, O cleanse me from my sin, I humbly pray.
Wilt thou, my blessed King, Accept my offering, The tribute that I bring, A heart so true? Before thy feet I fall, And give to thee mine all, Thy rightful due.
Mrs. L. D. A. Stuttle.

The Seventh Part of Time.

By W. H. Littlejohn

(Concluded.)
TEXT: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” Ex. 20:10.
FIFTHLY, this theory, if carried out, would prove destructive of the highest interests of society.
When we speak of society and the confusion which would be created in it by a general and practical indorsement of the tenet before us, it is not with reference to that temporary disturbance which would arise from a change of views, but it is that permanent disorder which would result from the inauguration of a line of public policy which can never be reconciled with a state of things every way normal and necessary.
With this understanding of the declaration which stands at the head of this division of the subject, we see the weight, which if true, it ought to have in this discussion. For, as God the Creator and God the Lawgiver are one, certain it is that he has not approved in the first capacity that which he has condemned in the last; i. e., if God in his omniscience, has so related us to each other, socially, that a Sabbath which is not fixed would be a curse, then he has never given us such an one. That this would be the case, however, might be illustrated from every walk in life. Take, for example, the commercial world. In it men are intimately connected with, and largely dependent upon, each other for success. So true is this that even the most common transactions are seldom perfected without the joint action of several individuals, and, in many cases, that of a much larger number. Now let a certain portion, say one-seventh, of your business men retire each day from the active scenes of life. A glance reveals the fact that those who are not of this number would find themselves vexed and annoyed at every step, if not prevented from making any progress whatever, by the absence of those whose presence was to them indispensable in order to the accomplishment of their designs. This would be especially true with those more complicated organizations which have been created for the purpose of facilitating an exchange of commodities between cities and nations; such as railroad corporations, which are wholly dependent for success upon the united and timely effort of many individuals, scattered along a line stretching for hundreds, and sometimes for thousands, of miles. In fact, it may well be questioned whether they would not, from the very necessity of the case, perish immediately upon, and as a consequence of, the introduction of the change proposed.
Again, it would prove fatal to our educational system, since it is wholly dependent for success upon classification, and this can never be maintained except through the regular attendance of pupils, a thing which would be altogether out of the question should they or their parents act upon the plan suggested.
But, as we have neither time nor disposition to examine in detail the many institutions which we so much cherish, and which distinguish civilized from barbarous life, in order to trace the effect which will be produced upon each, we propose to show at once that it would prove ruinous to them all, since it would utterly subvert that upon which they must depend for existence; viz., law and order.
While there is much in human governments to be regretted, there is, also, much which is commendable; and it is difficult to see how they could be dispensed with so long as men are either criminal in intention, or liable to err in judgment. Hence we are instructed in the word of God that we should be subject to the powers that be, as they are ordained by him; that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's; that rulers are a terror only to evil-doers. So important was the idea of a well regulated State in the eyes of the Lord that he organized one for his chosen people, the laws of which have furnished a model for the ages which have followed. We unhesitatingly affirm, however, that neither that, nor any other government, can be administered upon the principle of a Sabbath movable at will; for the very idea of a government is that of a condition of society regulated by law; but law enforced implies a judiciary, in some form or other, clothed with power to try cases and inflict penalties. That this, however, would be practically out of the question, with the condition of things alluded to, will be apparent from a moment's thought. We will suppose that the legislature, acting in good faith, and in supposed harmony with the will of Heaven, has enacted that every citizen shall be guaranteed the right of deciding for himself when he will solemnize the Sabbath; and the people, equally ingenuous in lauding the wisdom of this plan, proceed to act upon it. The result is that, from one motive or another, every one of the seven days of the week has been appropriated by a portion of the community to rest. Who does not see that, with this state of things, it would be the idlest nonsense to talk of administering justice through the courts? for the judge, having passed the period of his rest, might, perhaps, be ready to proceed to business at the very moment that the officers of the court are about to lay it aside, so that they may enter upon theirs.
This difficulty surmounted, after much delay, the calendar is taken up in order on this, and every subsequent day of the week; but it is found, upon examination, that they cannot come to trial in a single case in the long list, since there is not one of them in which adjudication is not impossible because of absence of either one or the other party, or of one of the counselors, or one or more of the witnesses, or some one of the twelve jurors, whose presence is indispensable, and yet who cannot be compelled to appear, because this would be an invasion of his legally-recognized right to consecrate to the worship of God whatever hours might seem to him good.
The result of such a state of things is apparent. Criminals, perceiving that the hilt of the sword of justice is in their own hands, become defiant, crime becomes rampant—the land is deluged with vice, the flood-gates of iniquity are thrown wide open—and no man can close them until the State is ruined, except by a repudiation of the fatal dogma, the legalization of which has caused all the trouble.
We have now been brought by five distinct processes of reasoning to the same result, viz., that the seventh, or last, day of the week, and no other, has been, and is now, the Sabbath of the Lord our God.
Have you, hitherto, in an unfortunate combination of circumstances, been found desecrating it through ignorance of its true character? Then an humble confession of your guilt will secure you the fullest pardon. But in this case, as in all others, the genuineness of the repentance is determined by the fruits which it brings forth. Should you, for the future, continue in the way of the transgressor, even the sins of the past cannot be blotted out. Is this the first time your attention has been called to the subject? Then your position is, indeed, a critical one. Thousands of staunch vessels have gone to pieces on the identical rock of decision that your bark is now approaching. Perhaps you have never in all your life been placed in a situation where your love for God and his word has been so thoroughly tested as it will be here. On one side of this question stands almost every consideration of a worldly nature. There, perhaps, are your friends. There is the multitude of wise men whose opinions you have been taught to revere. There are the churches with which you have acted so long and so pleasantly. There, it may be, are your property interests. There is your reputation and standing in society, while, on the other side, are the tablets of the law, bearing the inscription, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Do you falter? Then listen to the voice of Him who, while he seeks to deter us from evil by fierce denunciations of wrath, also strives to win us to holiness by promises of future good, as precious as they are incomprehensible: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 58:13, 14.
Can language convey an idea of felicity more perfect than that which is portrayed in the above? If so, it will be found in the following benediction pronounced by our Saviour upon those who are seeking to obtain it: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14. Not the city of an earthly king; not the Jerusalem of the land of Judea; but that of the “King of kings,” the “Jerusalem which is above,” “whose builder and maker is God;” the same which John saw coming down from God out of heaven, shining with a light clear and beautiful as that of a living stone, with twelve gates of pearl, every several gate of one pearl, and each one guarded, not with a grim and frowning soldier, but by a mighty and shining angel of God; with walls of jasper, and twelve foundations, each of precious stone; with a street of gold, like unto transparent glass, through the center of which flowed “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,” and on either side of it was the tree of life, “which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month;” while at the head of the great avenue stood the throne of God and the Lamb, from which proceeded an effulgence so bright that the “city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb was the light thereof.”
Such will be the future and eternal home, not of those who hear, but of those who do, God's commandments. There will be fulfilled to the courageous, God-fearing men of this generation—standing as they do in the last, or Laodicean, state of the church—those most mysterious words of the Lord: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3:21.
Would you be of this immortal number? Then remember that the promise is not to him that is overcome, but to him that overcometh; and that, if you fulfill the conditions named, the combined powers of earth and hell cannot separate you from your reward. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.

Experience and Belief.

ONE'S view of Christ is greatly affected by his experience. If there be a man who has never had a fierce fight with his passions, and been conquered; who has never felt self-condemned for sin, or baffled in his efforts after a higher life; who has never shuddered before the broken law of a majestic God, or longed for a mediator who could assure his trembling soul and lift his weakness into strength; if a man has felt none or only a little of this, he is very likely to find Christ only an unselfish friend of the race, and a martyr to the truth, instead of seeing in him the Redeemer and Saviour of souls. One needs Paul's experience in seeking justification by the law, and that triumphant after-experience narrated in second Corinthians, before one is likely to unite with him in the confession that he is "God over all, and blessed forever," and that in him "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
So long as we can maintain a deep and true religious experience we shall be able to keep our hold upon a sound and vital theology. But when our religion becomes one of only superficial sentiment, generous sympathies, and decent behavior, as we find it within ourselves, it will probably be little more than a surface theology, as we imagine it to be in our unstudied Bibles, or as we set it down in our indefinite and uncared-for creeds.—Morning Star.

"Not as the Hypocrites do."

AMONG the various offenses of His day which Jesus condemned, that of ostentation was conspicuously denounced. A very large portion of the Sermon on the Mount abounds in forbidding this sin. "Take heed," said the Master, "that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them;" and he significantly added, "otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." His disciples were not to "sound a trumpet," as the hypocrites did—and still do; alms were to be bestowed in secret; and in place of ostentatious prayers offered in public places, the disciples were commanded to enter into their closet and shut the door. Even in fasting all publicity and conspicuity were to be avoided; and all through the Gospels we meet with the lessons of humility and self-abnegation, followed with the declaration that "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Does it not seem as if the church were largely in danger of forgetting the Master's command—and is there not a marked tendency to offend in this direction exhibited in the various forms of ostentation which characterize many in their utterances and in their acts of benevolence? Very often this offense of ostentation is apologized for by the remark that it is "only a bit of harmless vanity"—yet perhaps nothing more completely demoralizes character, and visits a keener reproach upon religion, than this irrepressible hankering after popular approval, this itching for public notoriety and applause.
Some years ago a noted reformer lived not far from Albany who had a wide reputation as a public philanthropist. The papers often proclaimed his deeds of benevolence. Sometimes it was one hundred dollars to one institution, and fifty dollars to another; but whatever the amount, it was sure to find its way into the newspapers. A minister once going to him for a contribution to a benevolent object, was refused: "I have heard nothing from my contribution of last year," was all the explanation the minister received;—in other words, he had neglected to place the previous benefaction prominently before the public in the newspapers! Nor is it so very surprising to know that although this gentleman was a professed reformer in a certain direction, he allowed his property to be devoted in just the opposite direction, and under the guise of a law-suit which deceived no one. And so careful and exact was he in his financial matters that at his death it was easy to trace nearly every dollar of his disbursements; and it was noticed that scarcely anything had been given to benevolence which had not already found its way into the public press.
At a series of religious meetings held in this city some two years ago, a gentleman not unknown to the public was noticed to be continually appearing on the speakers' platform, constantly going out and returning, yielding to an irresistible propensity for exhibiting himself. In like manner with our Albany friend, this gentleman bestows his benefactions very ostentatiously. His acts of benevolence have been flashed along the ocean cable, and sent by telegraph to all parts of the country. And yet, numerous as his benefactions have been, his means have also been great and his opportunities many. But, and we rejoice to say it, there are those in our city and elsewhere who have given munificently, and although occasionally their benefactions have come to the light when they could not be hid, we know how gladly they would have shunned publicity. In their own quiet way they have given of their means, and relieved distress to an extent little guessed at by the outside world, and which only the last great day will reveal. Between the quiet beauty of such charity and that counterfeit spirit of beneficence which flaunts its gifts like circus posters in the face of the public for every passer-by to read, and which keeps a telephone in its right hand by which the left may be constantly advised what it is about, a mighty chasm intervenes.
In this matter it is to be feared that ministers themselves are by no means wholly free from blame. Quite apart from the fact that they are liable to the foibles and failings of mankind, they not infrequently assist in the development of vanity and ostentation in others whose benefactions they herald from the pulpit. What Mr. So-and-so has generously contributed to the Relief Fund of the church, or what the generous deed which Mrs. This-and-that did on a particular occasion, is not unfrequently announced from the pulpit, and in the face of the parties themselves. Sometimes this spirit of personal exaltation takes the form of servile flattery, uttered in the face of some one only too glad to receive it; indeed, we once heard a minister—a good brother he was—proclaiming at a public meeting, and in the presence of the previous speaker, a layman, to whom he referred, "I feel, standing here in the presence of the brother who has just spoken, as if I ought to take my shoes from off my feet!"—a great many in that audience thought the best thing that speaker could do would be to take his feet off that platform! Alas and alas for those men who make a pulpit-show of their benefactions, and wear their religion on their backs! The world keeps its eyes open, and has long since learned to distinguish between those who stand on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men, and those others who do their alms in secret, and whom, in His own good time, the Father who seeth in secret will reward openly.
Christian at Work.
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