Signs of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 33. (9/1/1881)

Signs of the Times

Sep 1, 1881

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 1, 1881

General Articles.

By Mrs. E. G. White

WILLING OBEDIENCE.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

God requires prompt and unquestioning obedience of his law. But men are asleep or paralyzed by the deceptions of Satan, who suggests excuses and subterfuges, and conquers their scruples, saying as he did to Eve in the garden, "Ye shall not surely die." Disobedience not only hardens the heart and conscience of the guilty one, but it tends to corrupt the faith of others. That which looked very wrong to them at first, gradually loses this appearance by being constantly before them, till finally they question whether it is really sin, and unconsciously fall into the same error.

We should not look in the face of duty and delay meeting its demands. Such delay gives time for doubts, unbelief creeps in, the judgment is perverted, the understanding darkened. At length the reproofs of God's Spirit do not reach the heart of the deluded person who has become so blinded as to think that they cannot possibly be intended for him or apply to his case.

The precious time of probation is passing, and few realize that it is given them for the purpose of preparing for eternity. The golden hours are squandered in worldly pursuits, in pleasure, in absolute sin. God's law is slighted and forgotten, yet every statute is none the less binding. Every transgression will bring its punishment. Worldly love of gain desecrates the Sabbath, yet the claims of that holy day are not abrogated or lessened. God's command is clear and unquestionable on this point; he has peremptorily forbidden us to labor upon the seventh day. He has set it apart as a day sanctified to himself.

Many are the hindrances that lay in the path of those who would follow in obedience to the commandments of God. There are strong and subtle influences that bind them to the ways of the world; but the power of the Lord can break these chains. He will remove every obstacle from before the feet of his faithful ones, or give them strength and courage to conquer every difficulty, if they earnestly beseech his help. All hindrances will vanish before an earnest desire and persistent effort to do the will of God at any cost to self, even if life itself is sacrificed. Light from Heaven will illuminate the darkness of those who, in trial and perplexity, go foward, looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of their faith.

In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouths of prophets and apostles. In these days he speaks to them by the testimonies of his Spirit. There was never a time when God more earnestly instructed his people concerning his will, and the course that he would have them pursue than now. But will they profit by his teachings, will they receive his reproofs and heed the warnings? God will accept of no partial obedience nor sanction any compromise with self.

Through Samuel, God commanded Saul to go and smite the Amalekites and utterly destroy all their possessions. But Saul only partially obeyed the command; he destroyed the inferior cattle, but reserved the best, and spared the wicked king. The next day he met the prophet Samuel, with flattering self-congratulations. Said he, "Blessed be thou of the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord." But the prophet immediately answered, "What meaneth then the bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?"

Saul was confused and sought to shirk responsibility by answering, "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed." Samuel then reproved the king, reminding him of the explicit commands of God, directing him to destroy all things belonging to Amalek. He pointed out his transgression and declared that he had disobeyed the Lord. But Saul refused to acknowledge that he had done wrong; he again excused his sin by pleading that he had reserved the best cattle to sacrifice unto the Lord.

Samuel was grieved to the heart by the persistency with which the king refused to see his sin and confess it. He sorrowfully asked, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath rejected thee from being king."

God has given us his commandments, not only to believe in, but to obey. The great Jehovah, when he had laid the foundations of the earth, and dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and filled it with things useful to man, when he had created all the wonders of the land and sea, instituted the Sabbath day and made it holy. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day because he rested upon it from all his wondrous work of creation. The Sabbath was made for man, and God would have him put by his labor on that day, as he himself rested after his six days' work of creation.

Those who reverence the commandments of Jehovah, after light has been given them in reference to the fourth precept of the decalogue, will obey it without questioning the feasibility or convenience of such obedience. God made man in his own image, and then gave him an example of observing the seventh day which he sanctified and made holy. He designed that upon that day man should worship him, and engage in no secular pursuits. No one who disregards the fourth commandment, after becoming enlightened concerning the claims of the Sabbath, can be held guiltless in the sight of God. The example of Adam and Eve in the garden should sufficiently warn us against any disobedience of the divine law.

The sin of our first parents, in listening to the specious temptations of the enemy, brought guilt and sorrow upon the world, and led the Son of God to leave the royal courts of Heaven and take a humble place on earth. He was subjected to insult, rejection, and crucifixion by the very ones he came to bless. What infinite expense attended that disobedience in the garden of Eden! The Majesty of Heaven was sacrificed to save man from the penalty of his crime.

God will not more lightly pass over any transgression of his law now than in the day when he pronounced judgment against Adam. The Saviour of the world raises his voice in protest against those who regard the divine commandments with carelessness and indifference. Said he, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven."

At the very beginning of the fourth precept, God has said "Remember," knowing that man in the multitude of his cares and perplexities, would be tempted to excuse himself from meeting the full requirements of the law; or in the press of worldly business forget its sacred importance. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work:"—meaning the usual business of life, for worldly profit or pleasure. These words are very explicit, there can be no mistake. How dare any one venture to transgress a commandment so solemn and important? Has the Lord made an exception, by which some are absolved from the law he has given to the world? Are their transgressions omitted from the book of record? Has he agreed to excuse their disobedience when the nations shall come before him for judgment?

Let none for a moment deceive themselves with the thought that their sin will not bring its merited punishment. Their transgressions will be visited with the rod, because they have had the light, yet have walked directly contrary to it. "He that knoweth his Master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."

God has given man six days in which to do his own work, and carry on the usual business of his life. But the Lord claims one which he has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to man as a day in which he may rest from labor, and devote himself to worship and the improvement of his spiritual condition. What a flagrant outrage it is for man to steal the one sanctified day of Jehovah, and appropriate it to his own selfish purposes!

It is the grossest presumption for mortal man to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty, in order to secure his own petty, temporal interests. It is as ruthless a violation of the law to occasionally use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it; for it is making the Lord's commandments a matter of convenience. "I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God," is thundered from Sinai! The Lord requires willing sacrifice. No partial obedience, no divided interest is accepted by him who declares that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him, and that he will show mercy unto thousands that love him and keep his commandments.

THE BLESSED TASK.

I SAID : "Sweet Master, hear me pray ; For love of Thee the boon I ask ; Give me to do for Thee each day Some simple, lowly, blessed task." And listening long, with hope elate, I only heard him whisper, "Wait."

The days went by, but nothing brought Beyond the wonted round of care, And I was vexed with anxious thought, And found the waiting hard to bear : But when I said "In vain I pray !" I heard Him answer gently, "Nay."

So praying still and waiting on, And pondering what the waiting meant, This knowledge sweet at last I won— And Oh, the depth of my content! My blessed task for every day Is humbly, gladly to obey.

And though I daily, hourly fail To bring my task to Him complete, And must with constant tears bewail My failures at my Master’s feet, No other service would I ask Than this my blessed, blessed task.

Dwelling in the House of the Lord

"ONE thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."

Salvation Through Christ

THE way to be saved is to come to Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and it is all vain to look elsewhere than to him for true hope and solid peace. Nothing should be put between the soul and Jesus. "He that believeth on him is not condemned."

The man who bids the sinner look elsewhere—to morality, the church, or the ordinances—in the hope by that of gaining life, commits a grievous blunder, and is a blind leader of the blind. "Ye are complete in Him."—Bible Banner.

IS SIN ETERNAL?—NO. 15.

By John Norton Loughborough

BY ELD. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, OF SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND.

ST. PAUL in his letter to the Hebrews says, "If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. 10 : 26, 27. If there is no remaining sacrifice in their behalf it then follows that they have no longer an interest in the blood of Christ, and "there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4 : 12).

Such are undoubtedly reckoned by St. Paul among that class of whom he says, it is impossible to "renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame." Heb. 6 : 5, 6. This is undoubtedly the sin against the Holy Ghost of which our Saviour has said that one who commits it "Hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." Mark 3 : 28, 29.

In opposition to the Canon's theory of mercy after death, and final mercy to all, we urge these Scriptures as positive proof that there are persons who leave this world for whom there is no hope, and who have no interest in the Saviour. It is well to bear in mind the words we quoted, in a former article, from the prophet Ezekiel, that the sinner who committed iniquity, and dies in it (that is dies a sinner) for his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die. See Eze. 18 : 26. The death threatened for their personal sins is "the second death." Rev. 20 : 14. But this second death is executed upon them in the lake of fire, after the resurrection, after the Judgment, as will be seen by reading Revelation, chapter twenty.

When the time of executing judgment comes, a solemn decree will have gone forth in Heaven, forever fixing, between the righteous and the wicked, an impassable barrier, as impassable as that illustrated in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Our Lord Jesus Christ, now in the Heavens as a priest, is soon coming as "King of kings, and Lord of lords." When he is about to thus come, as represented in the book of Revelation, he says, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22 : 11, 12. This seems to say, as plainly as need be, that when Christ comes to give unto all their due, there will be no longer opportunity for the ungodly to become holy. His work at that time is not that of bridging the gulf over which they "cannot pass," but of giving to every man according as his work may be.

The Canon's theory differs very materially from this. While speaking from 1 Pet. 3 : 19, he says, "I am persuaded that I see in this history an indication of the probable occupation of the blessed in the kingdom of Christ in the next age. . . . The saved, those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, the wise virgins with lamps trimmed, the faithful servants with well-used talents, they shall form his magnificent retinue when he returns. They shall enter into his kingdom with him. What shall be their occupation? . . . . Will it not be the opening of a new sphere of missionary work? Must it not be so? If the future is to be the development, the continuation, the perfection of the present, can you imagine a servant of God working, praying, loving, reforming, saving the souls of men up to the hour of his death, and suddenly finding himself blunted, metamorphosed, callous, with no love for souls, no passionate longing to, *"Feel the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of the voice that is still."* Would they be nearer Christ by pitying less the sinful living or the woeful dead in their helplessness? Would they be nearer Christ were they to love no more the loved who in anguish lie outside the door? Can you imagine a Moses, a St. Paul, a a Savonarola, a John Wesley, a Father Matthew, a Florence Nightingale, a Lloyd Garrison, contenting their large and loving souls with the "endless Alleluia," and gaining satisfaction from the sufferings of the damned? Nay! I can hear them pleading for a respite from the anthem of the seraphim that they might plunge into the caverns of the lost. I can hear them say, 'Thou Lord, hast said, By this shall all men

know that ye are my disciples because ye have love one to another.' And shall man be more just than his maker? Shall the servants of Christ be more compassionate than their Master? Nay. If I mistake not utterly, the whole purpose of the glorious kingdom after the advent, the characteristic of the Messiah's reign, which is to last till he has put all enemies under his feet, will be the winning of the souls that are under-going the aionial punishment, the preaching to the spirits in prison, who in the discipline of the great darkness are becoming conscious of their sins. It will be a work untrammeled by the flesh, freed from the limitations of bodily weariness or infirmity. They rest from their labors—there is no labor there—but their works do follow them; and in all the unwearied vigor of the spiritual body they shall carry on the great work appertaining to them as a royal priesthood in the kingdom of the Son of man until he shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, and then cometh the end."

Of course the above statement will be received as the Rev. Canon's statement of his conceptions, for which he has given no Scripture proof, except that Christ is to "reign until he puts all enemies under his feet." Putting his enemies under his feet is a strange way of expressing their conversion; it is a good term to represent the Scriptural doctrine of their destruction. This reign of Christ until his foes are put under his feet however, is before, and not after his second advent. It is predicted by David, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Ps. 110 : 1. That this language relates to Christ's position as priest in the Heavens, since his ascension, is proved by the words of St. Peter as he quotes this Scripture in his pentecostal discourse. See Acts 2 : 32-36. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, speaks of Christ as at his Father's right hand "from henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his footstool." See Heb. 8 : 1, 2; 10 : 12, 13. In this latter text, he not only speaks of Christ as then in that position at the right hand of the Father, but he says, from henceforth he is "expecting till his enemies be made his footstool." Christ also, at the time of his revelation to St. John on the isle of Patmos, said, "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 on his throne." This position of Christ as a priest, until his foes be made his footstool, is on his Father's throne. His own throne, his own kingdom, he receives when he comes again. This position upon his Father's throne, where he is now ruling "as a priest on his throne" and the council of peace is between them both, was prophesied by the prophet Zechariah, chap. 6 : 12, 13.

This is the kingdom that he delivers up to God the father, not his own kingdom, for it is positively stated there shall be no end to the kingdom, and no end to his reign. "It shall be as the days of the Heaven." See Psalm 89 : 27-37; Luke 7 : 32, 33.

The time when Christ delivers up the kingdom, when all his foes are "subject to him," is not a long period after his coming as the Canon intimates, but at the very time he raises the righteous dead as subjects of his own kingdom, the ungodly having been given into his hand, not for conversion, but for destruction, as stated in Ps. 2 : 8-12, and symbolized in Dan. 2 : 34, 35. Notice in this latter case, the subdued and broken image is being amalgamated to the stone, and becoming the kingdom, but "no place is found for it." It is driven away like chaff, and so, St. Paul says it will be with the ungodly at Christ's coming. "Rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." 2 Thess. 1 : 7-9.

Now let us quote St. Paul's testimony concerning the delivering up of the kingdom in harmony with the Bible testimony adduced. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming. Then [at Christ's coming, when they that are his are raised from the dead] cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father [past tense, relating to a work not still to come, but already done] when he [the Father, Ps. 110 : 1, "Till I make thine enemies thy footstool"] shall have put down all authority and power. For he [the Son] must reign, till he [the Father] hath put all enemies under his [Christ's] feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he [the Father] hath put all things under his [Christ's] feet. But when he saith all things are put under him [Christ], it is manifest that he [the Father] is excepted, which did put all things under him [Christ]. And when all things shall be subdued unto him [Christ], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." 1 Cor. 15 : 22-28.

Indeed a time is coming when in the whole universe of God sin will no longer exist, when every creature in existence will be praising him. Rev. 5 : 13. This glorious time doubtless filled and inspired the mind of David when he said, "Let the sinner be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more; Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord." Ps. 104 : 35.

CHRIST AND THE HUMAN HEART.

ALL the attacks and phases of infidelity cannot change Christ and the human heart and their mutual relation. Christ and the heart are predestinated for each other. There is a pre-established harmony between the Saviour and the aspirations of our inmost soul. As long as the heart is as it is, it will need just such a Christ as is presented to us in the canonical gospels as understood by the Christian church in all ages. And Jesus remains the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.

We are placed by divine Providence in a world of sin and death; we are made in God's image, endowed with the noblest faculties, destined to be the prophets, priests, and kings of nature, filled with unsatisfied longings and aspirations after truth, holiness, and peace; yet bound to this earth, ever drawn away from our own ideals by our sensual passions, selfish desires, and surrounded by temptations from within and without. We who are born to the freedom of the sons of God are slaves of sin; we who are destined for immortality and glory, must suffer and die; descended from Heaven, we end in the tomb, and return to dust.

Who solves this mysterious problem of life? Who breaks the chains of darkness? Who removes the load of guilt? Who delivers us from the degrading slavery of sin? Who secures peace to our troubled conscience? Who gives us strength against temptation, and enables us to realize our noble vocation? Who inspires our soul with love to God and man? Who in the midst of abounding corruption and depravity, upholds our faith in man, as the image of God and special object of his care? Who keeps up our hope and courage when earthly prospects vanish, the dearest friends depart, and the future looks dismal and threatening? Who dispels the terrors of the tomb, and summons us to a higher and better world where all the problems of earth are solved in the light and bliss of Heaven?

To all these questions which may be hushed for awhile by the follies of passion, the intoxication of pleasure, the eager pursuit of wealth or knowledge, but which sooner or later irresistibly press themselves upon the attention of every serious mind, there is but one answer: "Lord where shall we go but to thee? Thou alone hast the words of eternal life, and we know and believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Apostles and evangelists, martyrs and confessors, Fathers and reformers, profound scholars and ignorant slaves, mighty rulers and humble subjects, experienced men and innocent children—all, all point, in this great and all-absorbing question of salvation, not to Moses, not to Socrates, not to Mohammed, not to philosophy, art, or science, but to Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He and he alone has a balm for every wound, a relief for every sorrow, a solution for every doubt, pardon for every sin, strength for every trial, victory for every conflict. He, and he alone, can satisfy the infinite desires of our mind.

Out of Christ, life is an impenetrable mystery; in him it is gloriously solved. Out of him there is nothing but skepticism, nihilism, and despair; in him there is certainty and peace in this world, and life everlasting in the world to come. Our hearts are made for Christ, and they are without rest until they rest in Christ.—Sel.

Wait on the Lord

"Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart."

REMEMBER THE POOR.

LET us be mindful of the poor. We need not go far to find them; for the children of want are in every place. Speak a kind word, stretch forth the open hand of charity, and you will not lose your reward. Some there are whose poverty comes through misfortune. Business is dull, wages are small, there is sickness in the family, and death takes away the husband and the father, on whom the others leaned for support. Hard is then the struggle to provide bread for the table and fuel for the stove. Harder still, and more bitter far is it for such to beg for help. Those who most deserve help are those who cannot ask for it in loud and importunate tones; but they suffer in silence. Blame not too harshly the sensitiveness of those who will suffer rather than beg. Call it not pride, for it may spring, often does spring, from self-respect. Try to find such out, and help them with a sympathetic, Christ-like spirit.

Some there are whose poverty comes through crime. Vice has brought them to want. Dissipation has thrown them out of a good situation, broken their health, and ruined their characters. Do not, in their wretchedness, oppress them with harsh words. They suffer. Help them first; warn them or reprove them afterward. Show that you have a heart which beats tenderly toward them, and try to win them to a better way by kindness. Oh! think of the power, the redeeming power there is in human sympathy and love. Those who are in trouble can not forget the kindness which is then shown them, but will ever recall it with gratitude. Thus you may have an influence which may lead some to Jesus.

Learn, like good scholars, one of the most useful and joyous of all arts—the art of alms-giving. It is not enough to give to the needy. Give intelligently, so as to not encourage vice or laziness. Give to all, but especially unto those who are of "the household of faith." Give freely and willingly, that you may receive a blessing as well as those on whom your bounty rests. Above all, with the gift, let there be personal sympathy. It is not the value of the gift, but the kindness of the giver, which arouses gratitude. Not money, but love, awakens love. Do good, not that you may be thanked, but because of the promptings of your better nature; and let "the blessing of him that was ready to perish" rest on you. Then, though no trumpet may sound your fame, in the last great day you will hear the Judge say: "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."—The Methodist.

THE CRACKLING FIRE PIT.

By James C. Fernald

WE are just in the crackling picket-fire of one of the most tremendous conflicts of the centuries. America, the Armageddon—and, as yet, the churches don't know what is coming upon them. They are like men suddenly disturbed from sleep around the camp-fire, perplexed, stiff, and uncomfortable, with no enemy so manifest as the sentinel who has stirred them up. They don't know why it is that it seems to them pharisaical to object to Sabbath desecration; why it seems cruel to keep their boys and girls from the opera and (speak low) the theater and card playing, and—in the cities—beaded champaign in cut glass at fashionable weddings. Well, brethren,

WHY IS IT OLD-FASHIONED,

Unpopular, austere, and what not, to object to all this? Simply because we are outnumbered. Like the waters of the great deep, there are coming in to us the long oppressed Irish, whose idea of liberty is resistance to authority; English and Scotch, who decorate the table with great pitchers of ale and dainty bottles of wine at their holy convocations; Frenchmen who live pour s'amuser—to be entertained—and cannot conceive what Sunday is for if not for entertainment par excellence; Germans to whom the Catholic Church “made Christians” and Luther “made Protestants,” and both so long ago that they inherit their religion along with their love for lager, tobacco, and music; Italians, just emancipated from their “bull-dozing” of centuries; Spaniards out of whom the Inquisition crushed thought for five hundred years, and whom misgovernment turned perforce into guerrillas; Russian Nihilists, reveling in sweet dreams of primeval chaos and Pandemonium let loose. But we may not stop to particularize. The Mexican, the Mormon, the Materialist, the Socialist, the Jesuit, “childlike and bland;”—ignorance, folly, vice, infidel-wisdom, ungodliness in infinite variety—outnumber ten to one the old, educated, church-going, law-abiding, God-fearing element. Nothing is more deceptive than our statistics of “NATIVE-BORN AMERICANS.”

Ten years give us millions of them, their fathers and mothers not yet able to speak our language, not emancipated from one error or vice or prejudice of whatever was their “old country;” and the children have them all, with the language and the American sense of freedom, power, sovereignty. They only are native-born Americans who are such in soul—in some true sense “born of the spirit” into that republicanism and Christianity which have made America what it is.

And we are looking coolly on while this explosive mixture is stirred up against the Lord and against his anointed, and proposing to let down all the old restraints of religion in order that our own sons and daughters may be comfortably fused in the undistinguishable mass.

If America is saved, it will be by a “peculiar people,” whether they be called Methodists, Baptists, Dunkers or Quakers—a people who will not buy nor sell, nor travel, and will worship, on the Sabbath—who will be as strict as Paul, non-conforming as John Knox—a people as sharply distinguished from the society of modern America as the Christians of Corinth were from the gay, brilliant, pleasure-loving society of the Isthmian metropolis. It is no harder now than then, and will be just as profitable. The next twenty-five years will tell whether the church shall conquer the hosts for Christ, or whether they shall overwhelm the church, and take from it all that makes it more an æsthetic philosophical society.

If the church is to do this tremendous piece of work—a task far greater than the evangelization of the old Roman Empire—it will need an army of Luthers and Calvins, Wesleys and Whitefields, University men, learned as the proudest unbelievers, devout as the humblest of saints.

“We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time. In an age on ages swelling, To be living is sublime!” —Rev. J. C. Fernald, in Journal and Messenger.

A Remarkable Church Record

A REMARKABLE church record is that of a church at Dorset, Vt. The pastor has been minister for twenty-five years; his chorister has started the tunes for thirty years or more; his deacons have held office, one for forty years, and the other for twenty years; the Sunday-school superintendent has presided sixteen years, and one of the teachers has taught fifty-two years. -Christian Herald.

The Name of the Lord Is a Strong Tower

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."

NOT TOO MUCH SALT.

By Adoniram Judson Gordon

WE may in spiritual things disgust and repel men by a too raw and excessive and unmixed use of religious conversation. A pious, but very refined and sensitive minister, recently declared that the greatest provocation to anger and intemperate speech that he had ever encountered, was in the conduct of a rough and boisterous Christian, who used to shout at him across the street or in the cars, or wherever he chanced to meet him, "Well, brother, how's your soul?" He declared that he was sometimes afraid of backsliding under these greetings. It was difficult, no doubt, for him always to answer the salutation "with grace." And the reason is obvious. This man's speech was not delicately seasoned with salt. It was too salt, and so was nauseous and intolerable, and produced disgust, when it might, if fitly seasoned, have proved refreshing. It is a great art to temper one's Christian conversation exactly to the occasion.

"The gracious words" that proceeded out of Christ's mouth were as wonderful in their adaptation to the time and circumstances of their utterance, as they were powerful in their relation to absolute and eternal truth. Modulated from the most awful vehemence of rebuke to the delicate silence that only wrote upon the ground, they furnish the deepest theme for our study as those that would be masters of fitting speech. "Seasoned with salt"—the evenly mingled and thoroughly transfused grace of the gospel; that flavor of godliness in our conversation that at once preserves it from the corruption of "foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient," and the vice of sanctimoniousness and cant which are not palatable even to Christians; this is what with the greatest carefulness the believer should strive after. But our chief anxiety should be that the savor of godliness should never be absent from our conversation—that it should so permeate and sanctify our speech that, saying much or saying little, there should be that which should indicate that we had with Jesus and learned of him.

—Dr. A. J. Gordon.

A LITTLE THING WELL DONE.

ONE raw, windy day this spring, I sat down for a few minutes' rest, by a window looking out on the street. My head was tired as well as my feet, and the hoped-for repose was sadly disturbed by the swinging and snapping of a gate, on the opposite side of the street. Several persons passed along without noticing it, and then came two boys, of about ten or twelve years of age. They were walking briskly and talking to match, but as they came up to the gate, the one nearest to it lifted his hand, and with one firm, quiet motion put the latch into its place, and the thing was done, just as well done, as if he had stopped and looked at it, and taken a full minute at the operation.

In the few quiet moments which followed, I thanked my unknown friend for his unconscious attention to my want, and somehow the act, simple as it was, followed me all day with its lessons and impressions. The lesson that a little thing, well done, is better than a large thing attempted and left unfinished. The impression that the boy who did that little deed, so well and almost unconsciously, must in all probability be a good boy.

Now if it had been the minister, or the deacon, or some staid old lady passing by, it would not have been surprising, of course, but a boy! Why did he not give it a kick which would have caused it to rebound with the bang so dear to the boyish heart? No, my boy was evidently well brought up; one used to doing things about the house to help his mother; a boy who loves order, and does his work in the right time and place.

What a treasure is such a boy or girl in the home! The thousand little acts of personal love and kindness and self-sacrifice, which a child has the opportunity to render its parents—the steps saved the tired mother, the story told to divert the fretful little one, above all a certain nameless grace, without which the kindest deeds lose their value, and with which the simplest word or act may have power to soothe the overtaxed nerves, and restore the cheerful tone to the wearied heart—all these are to be classed with the "cup of cold water," and for them there shall be a reward.—Examiner and Chronicle.

Origin of a Favorite Hymn.

By Examiner; Chronicle

There is an interesting incident mentioned in the life of Charles Wesley, which led to the writing of one of his best known hymns. One day Mr. Wesley was sitting by an open window, looking out over the beautiful fields in summer time. Presently a little bird flitting about in the sunshine attracted his attention. Just then a hawk came sweeping down toward the little bird. The poor thing, very much frightened, was darting here and there, trying to find some place of refuge. In the bright, sunny air, in the leafy trees, or the green fields, there was no hiding place from the fierce grasp of the hawk. But seeing the open window and the man sitting by it, the bird flew in its terror toward it, and with a beating heart and quivering wing, found refuge in Mr. Wesley's bosom. He sheltered it from the threatening danger, and saved it from a cruel death. Mr. Wesley was at the time suffering severe trials, and was feeling the need of a refuge in his own time of trouble, as much as the trembling little bird did, that nestled in his bosom. So he took up his pen and wrote the beautiful hymn:—

"Jesus, Saviour of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly, While the waves of trouble roll, While the tempest still is high."

—Examiner and Chronicle.

The Drying Up of the Turkish Empire

By The Christian (London)

The drying up of the Turkish empire is proceeding. During the last few years it has lost half of Armenia, all Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cyprus; now it is proposed to take from Turkey, and give to Greece, Thessaly and part of Epirus, while the French are manifestly aiming to possess Tunis. With what calm certainty are the great plans of the Lord worked out.—The Christian (London).

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