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Signs of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 42.

The Resurrection of Christ
Earlier text: Justification and Obedience

Our Financial Condition.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

WE have never reached a year when there was such marked evidence that the providence of God was opening the way before us, and giving success to the truth, as the present year. There are two features which show this. First, a class of humble men that God is raising up throughout the country, who are acting as missionary workers in the cause of present truth; and secondly, a willingness on the part of the friends of the cause to make great sacrifices to carry forward the work. This is shown by a disposition to free our institutions from embarrassment, and place them upon a substantial basis, which will be a guarantee against any financial crisis which may occur. Not only has this last feature been manifest in reference to our institutions at Battle Creek, Mich., but also upon the Pacific Coast. For this we thank God, and feel grateful to our brethren for their liberality.
A few years ago the Publishing Association at Oakland, Cal., was paying as high as twelve per cent. for money, and this to parties who had no interest in the truth. And, notwithstanding the educational work in California has cost the friends of the cause in that Conference over $30,000, yet, at the same time, the interest paid by our institutions has been reduced by money being loaned to them without interest, or at a low rate, by the friends of the cause and by donations to the various enterprises, so that the average rate of interest now paid is less than seven per cent. We know that this will be encouraging to all of our friends; and now we are prepared to make another advance move in this direction. Our institutions ought not to pay any interest, unless it be to those who have but little of this world's goods and are dependent upon the earnings of their money for their livelihood. Such individuals should ever be specially regarded.
We have decided to reduce the rate of interest between now and Jan. 1, 1884, to five per cent., unless it be in some special cases. It has ever been found that investments in any of our institutions are safe. During the entire history of the work not one dollar has been lost which has been loaned to, or deposited with, any of our institutions. The cause has passed through the various financial crises in the country, but its friends have ever stood ready at such times to give both their moral and financial support. This has been truly remarkable. Stocks have had their ups and downs. Banks which have been considered perfectly safe have failed.
Notwithstanding our work is a purely missionary work, and to carry it forward has called for an increased amount of means each year, we can understandingly say that God's special providence has been over every enterprise connected with the promulgation of the truth of the Third Angel's Message of Rev. 14:9-12. As the work has advanced, there have been men like Zaccheus, Luke 19:8, 9, and a few like Barnabas, who made a surrender of his possessions, see Acts 4:36, 37, and then like him gave themselves to the work. Such men have provided themselves with "bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens which faileth not, where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth." God would not have his people distressed for want of the comforts of life, and this is unnecessary to sustain the cause of God.
We now invite all our brethren and others who have money loaned to our institutions on the Pacific Coast, and are drawing interest therefrom, to reduce that interest to five per cent. Those who do not feel free to do this, except it be some special cases as above referred to, we shall ask them to receive the principal. We appreciate the kindness of those who have thus far aided us in reducing the interest, but feel it a duty to take this step in view of the nature of the work. There are fields to be entered where as yet the living preacher has not gone. Publications should be sent out in larger quantities than we have yet been able to do. Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean are sending forth the Macedonian cry, "Come over and help us," and we cannot feel that it is right, while these fields are calling for help and our brethren are liberally donating to carry the truth to them, that so much of the earnings of our Publishing Association should be paid for the use of money.
And the school, if it fills the design God would have it in educating men and women to act as missionaries, will never become a source of income. All can readily see that, should the school continue to pay large interest, it would consume the capital stock which our brethrenhave freely subscribed. With the increasing demand for our publications, it is evident that the day is not far distant when the printing presses and the talent at our Publishing House will be more fully employed in printing present truth. As this is the case there will be less profit arising from the labor performed. In proportion as our brethren create a demand for our publications, those at the SIGNS Office will cheerfully turn their attention more exclusively to this work. And it will yet be seen that the obtaining of the various power presses and increasing the faculties to do job work has been all in the providence of God, to educate workers and to give an experience which it will soon be necessary to devote exclusively to the work of present truth. It is evident we are fast approaching the end. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and the Lord would have his people act, not from impulse but from principle, realizing that what we do to advance the truth of God must be done quickly. The judgments of God are already in the earth, and we believe that those who are interested in the promulgation of the solemn truths we profess, will cheerfully co-operate with us in this move.
S. N. HASKELL.

Remarks upon Zechariah 9:9-17.

By John Nevins Andrews

THIS prophecy consists of two parts: 1. The entrance of Christ into Jerusalem as the king of Israel. Verses 9, 10. 2. The triumph of the Jews in their conflict with the Greeks. Verses 11-17. As the Grecian kingdom gave place to the Roman kingdom before the first advent of Christ, the prophecy concerning the conflict of the Jews with the Greeks must have had its accomplishment before the Saviour presented himself to the Jews as predicted in verses 9, 10.
The entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, as predicted in Zech. 9:9, took place near the close of his ministry, and only a few days before his crucifixion. Matt. 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-46; John 12:12-16. The Jews had had the most ample proof that he was the Messiah, the heir to the throne of David. The prophecies he had fulfilled, the miracles which he had wrought, and the absolute purity of his life and of his doctrine, left no chance to doubt that he was the Son of God and the king of Israel. To crown all, he had just raised Lazarus from the grave, who had been dead four days. John 11:1-45.
The entrance of Christ into Jerusalem seated upon the ass, marked the time when the fate of the Jews as a nation was to be decided. He presented himself as their king; if they received him as such they would be treated by the Romans as in rebellion against Cæsar, and must suffer terrible chastisement from the Roman army, unless protected by the power of Christ, their king. But if they rejected Christ, and denied that he had the right to call himself their king, they must seize him as a rebel against Cæsar, and deliver him to the Romans to be put to death. Luke 23:1-3. They decided to do this to save their city from being destroyed by the Romans. John 11:47-53. But God punished the terrible crime of the Jews by employing the Romans to destroy their city and their nation. Dan. 9:26; Matt. 22:6, 7; Luke 19:41-44.
When Christ presented himself to the Jews as their king it was in their power to decide the fate of their city and of their nation. If they received him as their king he would protect them from all their enemies, and make them the honored head of all the nations. If they rejected him, and delivered him up to die, God would send against them the Roman army; their city would be destroyed, and their nation would be made a reproach in all the earth. It was indeed necessary that Christ should die for the sins of men, but it was not necessary that the Jews should take his life. He said that he had power to lay down his life without the participation of any man. John 10:15, 17, 18.
In the book of Zechariah we have the prediction of a miraculous preservation of Jerusalem from the attack of all the people of the earth; Zech. 12:1-9. We have also the prediction of the destruction of the city by the united forces of the nations. Zech. 11:1, 6; 13:8, 9; 14:1, 2. It was for the Jews in receiving or rejecting their king to choose their own lot, whether the miraculous preservation of their city, their temple, and their nation, or the terrible destruction by the avenging hand of God of all that they held dear upon earth.
Before Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, God told the Jews that if they would hallow the Sabbath their city should stand forever; but that if they profaned the Sabbath their city should be utterly destroyed. Jer. 17:24-27. They chose to persist in disobedience, and they brought upon themselves a terrible destruction when they might have secured the perpetual protection of God, so that their city and their temple should neither have been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar nor by Titus. Jeremiah also said that when the prophets predicted good or evil concerning any nation, it was in the power of that nation to reverse that prediction by changing their conduct. Jer. 18:7-10. We have a remarkable example of this in the mission of Jonah to Nineveh. Jonah 3:1-10. Even Zechariah told the Jews that his prediction of their prosperity would be fulfilled only on condition of their obedience. Zech. 6:15.
We have an application of this principle by Zechariah to the case of Jerusalem, at the time when Christ should ride into that city as the king of Israel. In Zech. 11:4-14 the prophet, as a shepherd, personifies the ministry of Christ to the Jews. To do this he took two staves, Beauty, and broke it to signify that his protection would be withdrawn. We know when it was that Christ thus withdrew his protection from the Jews and gave them up to destruction. He did this when they refused to receive him as their king at his entrance into Jerusalem. Luke 19:41-44. The staff which the prophet broke in giving up his flock to destruction represented the promise of protection to Jerusalem in case the Jews received Christ their king, which promise was withdrawn when they rejected him.
This promise, which is given at length in Zech. 12:1-9, is briefly stated in Zech. 9:9, 10. God promises to cut off from Ephraim and from Jerusalem the chariots and horses and battle bows. But it must be remembered that when Christ presented himself as the king of the Jews, they were wholly in the power of the Romans and had no munitions of war belonging to themselves. The chariots and battle bows which were to be cut off from Israel in case they received Christ as their king, were those of the Romans against whom they were to be miraculously defended, as is more fully set forth in Zech. 12:1-9. Then Christ as the king of the Jews would by his judgments establish peace among the nations in all the earth, as is shown in Zech. 14:12-21. But though the disciples of Christ received him with shouts of joy when he came as king, the nation being unconverted did not love his character and scorned one so lowly. Luke 19:37-44. He came to his own [things], the city, the temple and the throne of David, and his own [people], the Jews, received him not. John 1:11. The staff Beauty, was broken to signify that Christ had annulled his promise of protection to the city and the nation.
The declaration of Zech. 9:11, concerning the deliverance of the captives of Zion from the pit, is in the original in the past tense, though some translators use the future, evidently supposing that the prophet used the past for the future, as is the case in many instances. The deliverance of Israel from captivity among the heathen must be intended, for in that captivity they were in danger of perishing for lack of instruction in the word of God, as a prisoner would perish in a pit where there was no water. The first covenant under which the Israelites were delivered from captivity was dedicated with blood. Ex. 24:7, 8; Heb. 9:18-20.
In verse 12 these prisoners are exhorted to seek God. The prophet says: "Turn you to the stronghold [the word is singular], ye prisoners of hope." This signifies that they had need to seek God, and that they would find him if they sought him aright. They are also assured that they shall be doubly recompensed for all that they have suffered in their captivity. In verse 13 the prophet shows that his counsel is of the utmost importance, for a terrible conflict was coming between the people of Israel and the kingdom of the Greeks under Antiochus. In our study of the chariots and horses of Zech. 6:1-8, we have seen this set forth in the most impressive manner. The city of Jerusalem was protected by the angel of God from the army of Alexander the Great, as predicted in Zech. 9:8. But in the reign of his successors in the Grecian kingdom, the Jews were to contend in battle with the Greeks, and were to overcome them by the miraculous interposition of the Almighty. This took place when Antiochus attempted the destruction of the Jews, and was vanquished by Judas Maccabeus and his brother. See the history in the books of first and second Maccabees, and in Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, book 12.
In verse 14 God is represented as going out with his people to the battle in a visible manner, and as sounding the trumpet before them, by which language the prophet sets forth the greatness of the miracle that enabled a few men poorly armed to vanquish many mighty hosts. Their signal triumph is still further set forth in verses 15-17. This prosperity continued while the people of God continued to walk humbly before him, and it ceased when they forgot God. Let us remember the lesson. Our strength is in God alone, and when we forget him he will leave us to ourselves to learn our own insignificance and our own weakness.

A Preacher’s Sermon Plagiarism

By Editor

QUITE a sensation has grown out of the fact that Rev. J. B. Boner, pastor of the Congregational Church at New Medford, Conn., has been preaching as his own the sermons of Dr. Parkhurst, of New York City. He had been well liked as a pastor, and consequently was allowed to resign on the ground of ill-health; but the act has been extensively condemned by both pulpit and press.

The Missionary.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

A Varied Experience.

At the close of seven months' constant fighting, in the year 1651, a treaty of peace was signed between Philip of Savoy and the deputies of the valleys. The people returned from their caves and places of retreat in the mountains to the valleys, to exchange their weapons of warfare for the spade and the pruning-knife. With tottering steps the feeble, and aged, and infirm, came once more to sit at noon or eve beneath the shadow of their vines and ancestral chestnut trees. Imagine their feelings when desolation and ruin had deformed everything that for months before was so smiling and green. Villages, in some cases, were only a heap of ruins. Years would pass before these deep scars could be effaced, and the beauty of the valleys be restored.
Before this treaty of peace was signed, the time of sowing was passed, so in the autumn there was scarcely anything to reap; and their destitution was further aggravated by the fugitives returning from Calabria, who began about this time to arrive in the valleys. They had escaped from the persecution that had come upon them with nothing but their lives. They themselves were in hunger and nakedness. Their brethren with open arms received them, and proposed, as one common family, to share the same fate which seemed inevitably to await them. The tale of their sufferings reached other countries, and the sympathy of their Protestant brethren was drawn out in their behalf. Calvin made collections for them at Geneva. The Protestants of France, Switzerland, and Germany, also made free contributions to assist them in their great destitution.
In process of time the harvests were restored to the valleys, and, with the blessing of God, houses and villages began to dot the sides of the mountains, and to rise upon the banks of the rivers. The misery of the past campaign was passing into oblivion, and they again began to rejoice that God was bringing them into a prosperous condition. But their vexations were soon renewed by others coming into power that planned evil against them, and began to restrict their liberties which had been granted them by the treaty of peace. A deputy Governor, Castrocaro, a Tuscan by birth, was the author of much perplexity and evil to this confiding people. He ordered the dismissal of certain pastors, and when the congregations refused to comply, began to fine and imprison them. He sent false reports to the court of the duke, and introduced soldiers into the country, on the pretext that the Waldenses were breaking out into rebellion.
In their extremity they sought help of the Protestant princes of Germany, and their cry found a responsive echo from the German plains. Frederick, Elector of Palatine, indited a letter to the duke that was remarkable indeed for a letter written during the middle of the sixteenth century: "Let your highness," says the Elector, "know that there is a God in Heaven, who not only contemplates the actions, but also tries the hearts and reins of men, and from whom nothing is hid. Let your highness take care not voluntarily to make war upon God, and not to persecute Christ in his members. . . . . Persecution, moreover, will never advance the cause it pretends to defend. The ashes of the martyrs are the seeds of the Christian Church. For the church resembles the palm-tree, whose stem only shoots up the taller the greater the weights that are hung upon it. Let your highness consider that the Christian religion was established by persuasion, and not by violence; and as it is certain that religion is nothing else than a firm and enlightened persuasion of God, and of his will as revealed in his Word, and engraven in the hearts of believers by his Holy Spirit, it cannot, when once rooted, be torn away by tortures."
What effect this letter had we do not know. This deputy Governor, who had planned the overthrow of the Waldenses during the sixteenth century, was finally arrested and carried to Turin, and there perished in prison. Famine, persecution, and war, had come upon this people. The brethren of the Reformed Church in France and Spain and Italy were perishing by massacre, or dying at the stake, while at this time these individuals were being guarded from harm; but a new calamity arose.
On the 23d of August, 1629, a cloud of unusual blackness gathered on the summit of one of the prominent mountains. It burst in a waterspout, or deluge. This swept away many of their houses, and the inhabitants barely had time to save their lives by flight. In September of the same year there came an icy wind, accompanied by a dry cloud, which destroyed the crop of the chestnut tree. There followed a second deluge of rain, which completely ruined the vintage. The Vaudois pastors, as was usual in their calamities, assembled together to humble themselves and lift up their voices in prayer to God. Soon after this a plague showed itself in the valley of Perosa. From this it spread to the northern valley, San Martino, and finally throughout all the valleys. In July and August the heat was excessive, and the malady raged yet more furiously. Four pastors were carried off by the plague; soon seven others died, and the following month the twelfth was mortally stricken. Only three pastors now remained, and they belonged to three valleys. They wrote to their Geneva brethren, requesting that other pastors might be sent to take their places.
The plague subsided during the winter, but in the spring of 1631 it rose again with renewed force. Of the surviving three pastors, one died. With the heat of the summer the pestilence waxed in strength. In Le Torre alone fifty families became extinct; and the most moderate estimate of the numbers cut off by the plague was two-thirds of the entire population of the valleys, which was said to be at least 10,000. The corn remained uncut, the grapes rotted on the bough, and the fruit dropped from the tree. Strangers that visited the valleys to regain their health in the pure mountain air, obtained from the soil nothing but a grave. Parents were without children; patriarchs who had gathered their families around them, with their numerous grandchildren, had seen them sicken and die. Ministers from Geneva and other places hastened to the valleys, lest the old lamp should go out. Up to this time the Italian language, in its purity, had been spoken by this people; but the French ministers spoke the French language, so the French as well as the Italian dialect, or rather a sort of a mixture of the two, from this time began to be spoken.
S. N. HASKELL.

Willits.

By William Ings

IN compliance with the action of the Conference, I spent two weeks with the church at this place. There are here fourteen who believe present truth. They were brought out by the united labors of Elds. Rice and Briggs, and are yet young in the faith. I held a series of Bible-readings with them, on such points of our faith as seemed most necessary for their good.
I was agreeably surprised to see so much earnestness in the study of God's word as was manifested by this company, especially the younger members. It seemed to be just what was needed to bring them back to their first love. There were several from other churches also in attendance, and although some of the sessions were two hours in length, no weariness was manifested.
During the two sessions devoted to the subject of spiritual gifts, all present entered into the spirit of the meeting, and listened eagerly to the evidences produced.
Our last session was spent in considering the tithing system, after which remarks were made by the brethren and sisters, expressing their determination to do their duty, and render to the Lord his due.
My experience here has proved to my satisfaction that Bible reading is just what is needed to develop as a people, and at the same time benefit others. Bro. McElhaney will hereafter conduct Bible-readings with this company, and thus be gaining an experience that will, I trust, prepare him for further usefulness in the vineyard of the Lord.
We held several meetings at a country school-house, and had quite an attentive audience, some of whom became much interested in our views.
I have had some of the Spirit of God during my stay with this people, and feel that the effort here has not been in vain. To God be all the praise.
In company with Bro. McElhaney, I next visit the Latonville church. WM. INGS. October 25, 1883.

Downey, Los Angeles County.

By E. A. Briggs

SINCE my last report, eleven more have signed the covenant; making forty-five in all who have recently embraced the truth in this place. This success of the truth seems to be largely owing to an attack just made upon the Sabbath of the Lord, by a resident minister, and the reply thereto. Two of his best arguments were, in substance, as follows:—
“The patriarchs evidently kept Sunday as the Sabbath; so we should do so. That they kept Sunday is manifest from the fact that they circumcised their children on the eighth day; and the eighth day is Sunday. 2. Jesus plucked and ate corn on the seventh day; by which he evidently meant to abolish the seventh-day Sabbath, and institute Sunday. Our divine Lord could certainly have fasted that day, for on another occasion he fasted forty days. So he must have plucked the corn to show that the Sabbath was changed.”
The first of these arguments might have weight with those who think that there are eight days in a week, and that all babies are born on Sunday! Gen. 17:12; 21:4; the second might be respected by those who can learn from the Scripture that Jesus plucked corn on the seventh day. Mark 2:23. Praise the Lord for the plainness of his truth, and the prosperity of the Third Angel's Message.
E. A. BRIGGS.
November 2, 1883.

California T. and M. Society.

REPORT FOR QUARTER ENDING OCTOBER 1, 1883.

Districts No. of Members Reports Returned Members Added Members Dismissed Missionary Visits Letters Written Signs taken in clubs SUBSCRIBERS OBTAINED
Revie Signs Good Health Instructor Other Periodic'ls
No. 1 149 40 13 7 221 165 280 4 28 21 6
No. 2 95 29 2 1 15 172 192 3 1
No. 3 78 43 2 16 112 159
No. 4 27 12 2 1 130 82
No. 5 102 40 1 169 110 145 10 97 22
No. 6 13 8 2
No. 7 126 43 10 50 292 509 4 161 4
No. 8 91 30 9 1 315 165 172 2 5 3 24
No. 9 21 15 12 3 41
No. 10 30 15 30 68 64 8
Ships 170 2 50
Total. 732 275 56 22 971 1219 1694 20 302 24 23 34
Districts READING MATTER DISTRIBUTED CASH RECEIVED
Pages tracts and pamphlets Periodicals
No. 1 26038 3300
No. 2 20796 2000
No. 3 3670 1842
No. 4 1770 845
No. 5 20668 1859
No. 6 1644 313
No. 7 13322 5375
No. 8 42146 2000
No. 9 2500 768
No. 10 7680 712
Ships. 28652 2393
Total. 168886 21407

Temperance.

Temperance Fanatics.

MR. GOUGH SAYS that there are many persons who talk about temperance men as being fanatics. They tell us we are rabid on this subject of temperance. I ask any reformed drunkard if it is not right to be rabid against an evil that has scorched and blasted and scathed and scarred us till we carry the marks of it to the grave?
Young men sometimes have an idea that a man can sow his wild oats and get over it. You put your hand in the hand of a giant and he crushes it. Still it may be healed, and by and by in some sort it may be a useful one, but it is a mutilated hand; its beauty and symmetry have gone forever. We who have passed through this fire know something of its awful scourge, we know something of the terrible struggle to get out of it. I think we ought to be what they call fanatics. They tell us that we exaggerate the evil of drunkenness. Do we? Let me appeal to the intelligent and ask the question, "Do we exaggerate the evil of drunkenness?"
No, sir, we cannot. God never gave a man a mind capable of grasping the extent of the awful evil of drunkenness for time and for eternity. You have a boy, a bright-eyed, beautiful fellow, round in limb, with pearly teeth, ruby lip, and rosy cheek, symmetrical and beautiful. O how you love him, as he springs into your arms in the morning, and puts his face to your cheek! You press him to your heart. How you love him as you say to a visitor, "Have you seen my boy?" and to him, "Come, old fellow." How he will spring into your arms. Oh, how you love him!
What would you do to save that child from curvature of the spine?
"Do anything."
What would you give?
"All my property."
What would you sacrifice?
"Every luxury under heaven."
What would you suffer?
"Try me. That boy, so straight of limb, so beautiful, so perfect, so symmetrical—that boy a poor, crawling cripple, deformed, upon the floor of my house? No, no, do not ask what I would do, give, suffer—anything!"
I was once at the house of a family where there was a crippled child. When four years of age it had fallen out of a swing backward; the child was twenty-three years of age then. The body had developed, but it was a very strange case. Physicians came to see it. The limbs had grown very little, it had a baby's hands and feet. I tell you, to see that little creature working over the carpet like a turtle made me shudder more than I ever shuddered to see a reptile. That child once said to its mother:—
"Mamma, I shan't trouble you much longer."
"Trouble us, my darling? Why you are the light of our home! We are learning lessons of faith and trust and patience from you every day. Why, darling, when God takes you from us it will be a dark day in our home."
"Yes, mamma, but I want to go, because when I see Jesus I shall stand up straight; shan't I, mamma?"
There may be some beauty and glory around a crippled child; there may be something lovely and sweet, something to be desired about a crippled child even, but is there anything about a drunken one? No, not a ray of light but such as comes lurid from hell. There is no comfort, nothing joyous, or delightful, nothing one can love to contemplate. If it be "fanaticism" to try and save our boys and young people from this curse, then let us all become fanatics of the most rabid sort, and it is to be hoped that our disease may be so contagious that we shall give it to everybody, even to those old fogies who are now laughing at us. The sooner they get bit hard and become rabid on this temperance question, the better for all concerned.—Christian at Work.

Trials Reveal Strength

WITHOUT trials you cannot guess at your own strength. Men do not learn to swim on a table. They must go into deep water, and buffet the surges. If you wish to understand their true character; if you would know their strength, of what they are capable, throw them overboard. Over with them, and if they are worth saving, they will swim ashore themselves.

The Wreck of a Man.

WHAT wreck is more shocking to behold than the wreck of a dissolute man—the vigor of life exhausted, and yet the first steps of an honorable career not taken—in himself a lazar-house of disease; dead, but by a heathenish custom of society, not buried. Rogues have had the initial letter of their title burned in the palms of their hands. Even for murder, Cain was only branded on the forehead; but over the whole person of the debauchee or the inebriate the signature of infamy is written. How nature brands him with stigma and opprobrium. How she hangs labels all over him to justify her disgust at his existence, and to admonish others to beware of his example. How she loosens all his joints, sends tremors through his muscles, and bends forward his frame as if to bring him upon all fours like kindred brutes, or to degrade him to the reptile's crawling. How she disfigures his countenance, as if intent upon obliterating all traces of her own image, that she may swear she never made him! How she pours rheum over his eyes, and sends foul spirits to inhabit his breath; and shrieks as with a trumpet from every pore in his body, "Behold the beast!" —Selected.

Some of the Wines We Get.

By Gath

"WHAT do you think about the wines of the countries you entered?"
"That is a question well worth your attention," said Mr. Normile. "In Spain I was astonished at the price of sherry wine. It costs from $2 to $10 a gallon at Cadiz, which is the mart for it, and that is the rate when you buy a butt. I was told that sherry in the process of distillation is just as apt to turn into vinegar as into wine, and when a man starts to make it he does not know whether his vintage is to make his fortune or to beggar him. When this wine spoils it is treated with sugar and alcohol, and is the stuff they send to England to be drank as sherry. Nearly all the sherry in the United States is made right here in pretty much the same way, of alcohol and brown sugar."
"What about the claret wine of France?"
"That is also horrible stuff. I changed my view during this trip in Europe about wine-drinking in general. The champagne, for instance, that is sent to England is nearly all branded on the cork for the English market, and is stuff of a quality that could not pass the ocean. Indeed, the wine crop of Europe is pretty well extinct as an honest thing, and has to be doctored and fixed up until it sends an American home with the idea that if there is to be any wine-drinking in the future it must be out of something we can grow in the fresh soil of this continent."
—Gath's Correspondence.

What It Would Do.

“GIVE ME,” said one, “the money that has been spent in rum, and I will purchase every foot of land on the globe. I will clothe every man, woman, and child, in an attire that kings and queens might be proud of. I will build a school-house upon every hill-side, and in every valley over the whole earth. I will supply that school-house with a competent teacher. I will build an academy in every town, and endow it; a college in every State, and fill it with able professors. I will crown every hill with a church consecrated to the gospel of peace, and support in its pulpit an able teacher of righteousness; so that on every Sabbath morning, the chime on one hill shall answer to the chime of another around the earth’s circumference, and the voice of prayer, and the song of praise shall ascend as one universal offering to Heaven.”
This is no voice of enthusiasm, but simple utterance of what is literally true and practicable, as any one else can see who will consult facts and history.
Pass it around, then, ye lovers of temperance, and let the people see where the money goes to that might feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give to all the nations the bread of eternal life. Pass it around, and let all see that intemperance wastes more by untold millions than ambition grasps, or avarice covets; and they that find fault with our benevolence, or our social organization, let them learn that the social disorganizations, crimes, and miseries, which intemperance produces, are a thousand-fold more expensive, and grievous to be borne.—Nat. Temp. Advocate.

Obedience and Mercy

THAT God requires obedience, is not strange; but his mercy and long-suffering are wonderful.

Systematic Benevolence.

THE church of Christ suffers an almost incalculable loss of consecration of power because her members fail to practice systematic beneficence. The treasuries of our various boards would be filled to overflowing if every Christian were only trained to give the Lord one-tenth of his income. What a tremendous and happy change such a law of giving, enforced by voluntary love and intelligent prayer, would work in every branch of the Redeemer's kingdom. There would be no lack of funds to aid young men into the ministry, no unanswered cry from poor churches in the West, no struggling pastor seeking a higher salary in order to get enough without begging to educate his children, no prospective missionaries refused a hearing on account of exhausted means, no spot in all heathendom unvisited by the gospel herald and the offer of eternal life. The results of small but systematic expenditures are mightier far than most persons imagine. For example, in the city of London there are plenty of men who use tobacco systematically; that is, they smoke or chew, or both, every day, and the consequence is that thirteen times as much money is spent for the "vile weed" in that opulent and splendid metropolis as is given by all the churches put together for the cause of evangelizing the world. What a commentary this on the sluggishness of Christian life on the one side, and on the imperious and habitual demands of a factitious appetite on the other! If the boy could only be educated to the habit of setting apart to divine uses a certain portion of each day's receipts, whether bestowed upon him by indulgent parents, or earned by his own hand, all mankind would at no distant day feel the thrill of divine truth that would be proclaimed through the globe.
Nor is the abundant means of doing good the only benefit which would spring from regular giving. The reflex influence upon the giver himself is always ennobling, as it is also a source of happiness. To give spasmodically under a sudden impulse aroused by a piteous and eloquent appeal, involves no great virtue. To coldly neglect our duty until some church debt-lifter comes along to assail our pocket-book with a perfect storm of inflammable oratory, or until some returned missionary flings a few fire-balls of zeal across our darkening horizon, is not exactly the highest method of developing Christian character, nor of obtaining help. The disciple above all others should be a man of principle, of thoughtful, deliberate, persistent, habitual energy in right-doing. His charities should be a subject of constant forethought and prayerful solicitude. He ought to be looking out with conscientious wisdom as intelligent as his love is ardent, for channels through which to bestow a certain amount of his income where it will do the most good. Instead of shirking his responsibilities as a steward of his wealth, nay, of his daily earnings, he ought, on the contrary, to hail every prospect which promises the most fruit from systematic and carefully considered beneficence. In this way, his character would be disciplined, his desires would become broad and unselfish, his spirit catholic and magnanimous, his sympathies wide as the sufferings of his fellow-men, and his purposes akin to those of his self-denying and all-loving Saviour. To give with as much regularity as we partake of God's bounties from every morning's breakfast-table, and to give from motives of lofty principle, is to become even more and more educated in the purest experiences of Christian manhood. Many of our pastors, no doubt, are endeavoring to train their people to this admirable grace of systematic benevolence, but they need encouragement and aid from all parents. The children are to be taught in the household to practice daily self-denial and daily liberality in the cause of the Master, before the millennium dawns. "Many a mickle makes a muckle," says the Scotch proverb. Our Catholic friends understand this. Not long since one of their archbishops said that he would rather have a church of Catholic poor people from whom to draw money, than a church of Protestant rich people. Why? Because, in the Catholic church all give, and give systematically; while in the Protestant Church the gifts, though sometimes large, are too irregular and spasmodic to be very great in the aggregate. Let us awake to the educative influences and splendid results of systematic benevolence.—Christian at Work.
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