Review and Herald, Vol. 52, No. 20.
The Two Hemispheres and the Sabbath, No. 3Page 1
THE TWO HEMISPHERES AND THE SABBATH.—NO. 3.
By W. H. Littlejohn
BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN. The only problem which remains to be solved is, Does the Sabbath day commence with us before it does at Jerusalem, or does it follow in order? If it begins with us first, then we know just how long a period will elapse after we enter upon it before it will reach them, because we know just how long it will take the sun to pass westward over the space intervening between us and them. And again, as already intimated, if our day follows theirs, or rather if the day which we are to keep in common starts on its course with them, we have but to wait till it reaches us in its progress westward and then enter upon it, as a man in the illustration previously used would step upon a train of cars; the only difference in the two cases being that the cars themselves move around the earth, while with us the earth revolves, carrying us first through its shadow, and then through that portion of space which is lighted by the sun until we are brought to the shadow again. Grappling now with the difficulties of the situation, let us candidly seek for all the light which can be obtained. In the outset we are struck with two facts: First, there must be a day-line, or a point where the day begins and ends; second, the earth’s surface is divided into two grand hemispheres known as the Eastern and Western hemispheres, one of which in the beginning must have preceded the other in entering upon the commencement of the creation day. Before attempting to locate the day-line, it might be defined as that portion of the earth’s surface which lay immediately contiguous to the dark portion of the earth, or its shadow, at the time that it made its first revolution upon its axis. This will be made evident when we remember that the creation day commenced with the evening, or darkness, and ended with the morning, or light. Now, therefore, if we can imagine an individual standing at the creation right where, at the moment when the earth first commenced to move, he would discover that he was passing from light into darkness, he would have been situated exactly upon the day-line, or that point on the earth’s surface where the first day commenced. As a consequence, his first day would be completed when, after one revolution of the earth upon its axis, he once more witnessed the setting of the sun to the west of him. As another result, each portion of the earth which lay to the east of him would have entered upon its first day as in turn it also passed the point where for the first time it entered the shadow of the earth. As a necessary result, these points would vary from one to twenty-four hours in the commencement of their days, since a full revolution of the earth would intervene between the passage of the first and the last into the region of shadow. The significance of the line in question has now become apparent; for, as already perceived, it would necessarily become the boundary line on one side of which would lie the commencement, and on the other the close, of two different days of the week; i. e., should that line run north or south through either hemisphere, the inhabitants on one side of it would be keeping one day, and on the other side another day, contemporaneously with them. This fact in itself is of great importance, and will help materially in the work of locating the line; for, as “God is not the author of confusion” either directly or indirectly, we shall be safe in inferring that in locating the day-line he would place it where its existence would, in the least degree possible, produce discord and inharmony. But in order to do this, it will be readily perceived that should he locate it in the ocean, it would be much less liable to produce disorder than it would be by passing through the main land; since it is only occasionally—and then by a very few individuals—that it would ever be crossed at all. Whereas if it passed through one or the other of the continents, it would necessarily be crossed and recrossed incessantly by those dwelling on either the one or the other of its sides. The only obstacle, therefore, in the way of deciding just where the line may be found will be met in the difficulty which might be experienced in determining which ocean is the one through which it passes, and the precise point where it should be traced. Much to our relief, however, the conformation of the continents is such, and the distribution of the islands is so arranged, that there is one, and but one, locality where the day-line in its course from the extreme northern to the extreme southern limit of the habitable portion of the globe, could pass in either ocean without either striking the main land or crossing islands. That point is found on the meridian of Behring’s Straits, one hundred and seventy degrees west from Greenwich. Singularly enough, also, it lies within ten degrees of the meridian where shipmasters are in the habit of changing their reckoning on the log-book either by adding or dropping a day in traveling east or west, as the case may be. Practically, therefore, we find that commerce has actually located the day-line very nearly where it belongs; i. e., in the only region where it could be located without serious detriment to the interests of society. Shall we say that the coincidence is the result of blind chance? Or would it be more reasonable to conclude that the hand of God has been in the whole matter in adjusting providentially the laws and regulations of commerce so as to make them harmonize with the decrees of his word, and the conformation of the earth? We believe that the latter view is the correct one, and that Jehovah has overruled and controlled in this, as well as in the matter of emigration, on purpose to secure that which we now enjoy; viz., the ability to observe a definite day the world around with but very little confusion, and with no necessity for any whatever. By this means, the race—before sufficiently well acquainted with science to reach a proper solution of this matter through a knowledge of its principles—has been so far guided by an unseen hand as forever to disarm those who would dishonor God by teaching that his law could not be carried out in all parts of the globe in the observance of a definite day, by showing them that this question is one of sophistical rather than of actual importance; since the days of the week are now readily found on all portions of the earth by those who are continually circumnavigating the same. Having located the day-line, it only remains to still further strengthen the argument upon which it rests by additional considerations. These may be found, we think, in the existence of two hemispheres known as the Eastern and Western. If our positions have been properly taken thus far, the Eastern hemisphere, by virtue of the relation it sustains to the day-line, must have been the first to enter upon the Sabbath; as the other hemisphere follows it in the order of the earth’s revolution upon its axis. There is certainly no good reason to be found in nature why this order of procession might not have been the true one. The chances are just as favorable to the idea that the Eastern hemisphere was the first to enter upon the day, as they are that it was the last. We think, also, that the probabilities from the standpoint of revelation are largely in favor of that view. God’s ways are higher than our ways. To him the end is known from the beginning. Unlike our works, his are in no wise characterized by imperfection or lack. Reason, propriety, and fitness in every particular, characterize the works of his hand. To show, therefore, that it would be reasonable and desirable that God should have done a certain thing, is to prove that he has done the same. If, therefore, it can be made to appear that it was in the highest degree fitting that the Sabbath should commence in the East, then it can be demonstrated that it was inaugurated there. We think it can, and offer in support of our view the following reasons: First, the East was the theater of God’s mightiest works. If the animals were not all created there, it is at least true that a portion of them were, and that they were in no respect inferior—if, indeed, they were not superior—to those created in different parts of the world. It was there that the garden, with its unequaled wonders in the line of fruits, flowers, vegetables, trees, etc., etc., was produced. It was there, also, that man, the crowning glory of God’s handiwork, was made. In fine, the most beautiful, the most wonderful, the most difficult, and the most incomprehensible of God’s creative acts were here put forth. How natural, therefore, that a region thus honored by the especial demonstrations of the Creator’s power in production, should be also distinguished by the fact that it was the first to witness the day which was to commemorate forever the end of those labors of which it has received the largest and most important share. Again, it was in the East that God ended his work; Adam and Eve were the last products of his creative power in the earth. Eve’s creation took place probably at the very close of the sixth day, else he must have entered upon his rest before the commencement of the seventh day; but if he ended the sixth day of creation on the Eastern hemisphere, he must also have commenced the rest of the seventh day there; since the rest must have been entered upon immediately upon the close of the labor of the sixth day, as cessation from labor means rest. How appropriate, therefore, that the region which was the first to witness the rest of God should be the first to commemorate it by the rest of man. Once more: the Sabbath was not made for beasts, nor birds, nor reptiles, nor howling wildernesses; but “it was made for man;” or, as the original has it, for “the man.” How suitable, therefore, that it should be so made as to dawn first upon the hemisphere where he was first created, and where his posterity was destined to live for centuries before passing its limits, instead of dawning first upon interminable regions where his foot had never fallen, and which could furnish no creature who could appreciate its spiritual significance. Thus much for the argument that may be drawn from the fitness of things. As heretofore remarked, God being the person concerning whose actions we are reasoning, it amounts almost to demonstration itself. Men sometimes discover after the conclusion of their labors wherein they have made mistakes, and in what particulars they might have improved. Coming events can suggest nothing to his mind. With him every action stands related to every other one in a manner the most satisfactory to which it is possible to attain. In the very beginning God saw and felt the full force of every reason conceivable which bore directly or indirectly upon the question of the Sabbath and the place of its beginning. When the first day was introduced, he well knew that it would be followed by five of labor, and one of rest. He also knew that Adam and Eve would be created where they were created, that they alone of all his creatures would need a Sabbath, and therefore we are safe in deciding that in establishing the day-line he did it in reference to these facts by commencing the first day at a point where, as a necessary consequence, the seventh day would dawn first upon the East, which was the theater of his greatest deeds, and the only place where for thousands of years a Sabbath would be needed at all. Having reached this conclusion, the subject immediately assumes such a shape as is truly gratifying to any devout child of the Most High. Out of chaos come order, method, system, and plan. Instead of a world cursed by an indefinite Sabbath which all may keep at pleasure, or—that which is worse yet—by a state of things wherein infidelity becomes rampant and the faith of thousands is shaken in the word of God itself by the representation that he has commanded us to keep a day the beginning or end of which no man can determine, we have a Bible consistent with every just idea of a wise Creator, and a Sabbath which all men everywhere can both find and celebrate. WHAT MAKES ME GLAD.
By Mrs. L. D. Avery Stuttle
You ask why my spirit is filled with rejoicing—
Why my heart overflows with such rapturous love—
At the wondrous news that the Master is coming,
In vengeance and might, from the realms above.
You ask why I sing in the midst of commotion,
When earth’s mighty kingdoms are trembling with fear;
Why my spirit is glad, and my bosom rejoices,
At the signs that portend that destruction is near. You ask why it is; and I joyfully answer:
Our Lord has commanded that when we shall see
The tokens fulfilling that mark his appearing,
“Exceedingly glad” all his children should be.
I am glad that this earth, with its war and commotion,
So long the abode of destruction and blight,
Is soon to give place to an Eden of beauty,
The home of the ransomed immortal and bright. I am happy, because, in the near-coming future,
The ills that perplex us forever will cease;
When commotion and war, with their myriad evils,
Give place to the reign of perpetual peace.
I am happy, because, in the blessed hereafter,
The graves of the righteous shall yield up their trust;
And the glorified saints, clad in beauty immortal,
With joy shall arise from the moldering dust. Then let us be glad and rejoice in the prospect,
And anchor our faith on His glorious word,
And soon the fair mansions of beauty we’ll enter,
And evermore rest in the arms of the Lord. MRS. L. D. AVERY STUTTLE. Christ Guides His Servant Through Darkness
By John Foster
It should cheer the steps of the servant of Jesus Christ as he journeys, to know that even in darkness his guide is still with him, and that guide is the King of the country through which he is traveling.—John Foster. Trusting God With Our Dearest Treasures
DEPEND upon it our Heavenly Father, like our earthly parents, takes many of our dearest things from us only that he may keep them for us. WHY IS IT?
By Geo. O. States
SOME time ago, for a few weeks circumstances were such that I met with quite a number of churches in Northern Michigan. One thing I noticed which is very sad to think of; that is, that so many of our people absent themselves from the social meetings. I have met with churches of thirty or forty members and found only eight or ten present. I have often thought of this matter and asked myself why it is that so few of our people come together upon the Sabbath for social meetings. Whenever there is preaching we see the whole church out. But the apostle tells us not to forsake assembling ourselves together, but to exhort one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching. Are we exhorting one another when we meet only once in three or six months, and the minister does all the exhorting? We profess to believe that the day of the Lord is fast approaching, and are we doing his will while absenting ourselves from the prayer and social meeting? I know some say the meetings are dull; but what makes them so? Is it not because so many absent themselves that the few who do come feel almost discouraged? Dear brethren and sisters, let us think of these things, and each one resolve that we will do better in future. I know it would please God, and we should certainly gain spiritual strength by meeting together and talking of our desires and determinations. If we gain eternal life, we must be diligent in serving the Lord. GEO. O. STATES. You hear a good many people saying, “I don’t believe in the Old Testament; I believe in the New.” My friends, they are inseparable. A scarlet thread runs through the two, and binds them together. —Sermons, Addresses, and Prayers, p. 154. The third class are those who are not stricken by their sins, who have no deep conviction of guilt. Just bring the law of God to bear on these, and show them themselves in their true light. . . . Don’t try to heal the wound before the hurt is felt. Don’t attempt to give the consolation of the gospel until your converts see that they have sinned—see it and feel it.—P. 381. I can imagine some of you saying, “I wouldn’t be weighed by that law [meaning the decalogue]; I don’t believe it.” Now the commandments that I read to you to-night are as binding as they ever have been. . . . But take the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” If this country fails to keep the Sabbath holy, it will go the way of France, Mexico, and Spain. My friends, every nation that tramples the Sabbath under its feet must go to ruin.—P. 423. An infidel is one who does not believe in the inspiration of Scripture. A good many of them are in the church, and not a few have crept into the pulpit. As I said the other night, those who cannot believe it, never read it. I hear a great many infidels talk against the Bible, but I haven’t found the first man who ever read the Bible from back to back carefully, and remained an infidel.—P. 448. Twenty-one years ago I gave myself to work for souls and bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I exhort you from experience not to neglect private or public prayer; so only can you fit yourselves for work, and become effective Christians. This is my experience. Continue to get nearer and nearer to God.—P. 540. It took Hezekiah eight days to clean the temple from all its filth and uncleanness—to thoroughly purge it. It would be a good idea to clean out a few of the churches of Chicago in the same way. Clean out the fairs, the shows, the lyceums. We want more earnestness and fewer fairs.—P. 555. WHAT ARE YOUR CHILDREN READING?
Preaching a few Sundays since in one of our country churches, we noticed that the little son of our host, who was about twelve years of age, was entirely absorbed in the book which he had secured from the Sunday-school library. He curled himself up upon the lounge, and was soon entirely unconscious of what was said or done in the room. His face was flushed with the exciting details of the story, and he reluctantly closed the volume when summoned to supper. He was reading one of the numerous exciting sea tales, of a prolific author, which are sold by tens of thousands, and form no small proportion of many of our Sunday-school libraries. The language of them is coarse, although not exactly profane; the incidents in them are astonishing, even if not absolutely improbable; the plot is somewhat intricate, the occurrences are exciting, and the outcome is wonderful! Boys are absolutely fascinated by them. Now, what is the most manifest result of reading them? Not to speak of the fact that they crowd aside all religious reading on the Sabbath, and fairly overmaster all the sanctuary and home influences of the day, of a serious or spiritual character; overlooking also, the vital truth that the intellectual and moral culture of such a book is exactly like to that of the family presence of a rough and vulgar companion; that it is all the time weakening the mental fiber, and deteriorating the moral strength,—leaving these important considerations out of our view, for the time, let us not forget that an overmastering, morbid appetite is being nurtured and fed, which will constantly demand, hereafter, the same kind of nutriment, only in a stronger form. All taste for wholesome and improving literature is destroyed, and only a craving is engendered for the lightest and most noxious fictions. Why is it that nearly eighty per cent of the patrons of our public libraries choose only novels, and, when they can be obtained, only those of the most flashy character? It is simply because they are brought up upon these weak and improbable novelettes. But what shall be done about it? Shall we snatch the entertaining volume from the hand of the bewitched little lad? By no means. There is an infinitely better way than this. By all means, if he reads the book, let it be done in the common sitting-room, and in the presence of his parents. Do not train him to concealment and hypocrisy. Do not force him into the hay-mow, or into his cold chamber, or to snatch the opportunity with the stealthy lamp by night. Better, a thousand times, have him read the book before your face, than simply to drive him into concealment, and abuse his conscience and harden his heart at the same time. The boy is to be won to something better. It will cost something, as every valuable result does, to accomplish this, but the end gained will be an ample155compensation for all the time and trouble it takes. Boys that are accustomed to simple and wholesome food find their appetites entirely satisfied with it; but by pandering a lad’s taste with rich viands only for a little while, he will soon turn away disgusted from his oatmeal and bread and milk. We know a father who has been accustomed to read volumes of history, of travel, of adventure, and of popular science, with his little boys almost from the time they were themselves able to read. Now, about ten and twelve, they are as interested in a volume of well written history, in polar explorations, and in clear illustrations of applied science, as the father himself. He reads aloud in the family. He has the children read in their turn; and he makes the facts of their reading the subject of domestic conversation. Here is the simple secret of cultivating a taste for pure and instructive literature. There never was an hour when so many specially entertaining volumes were coming from the press. Hundreds of juvenile works, if only a little time were taken to sift them out from the masses of trash, of the most wholesome and attractive character, are now provided for young people. But the indispensable thing is for the parent to be personally interested in the reading of the child. The father or mother must watch and cultivate the taste, as a wise parent would care for a child if one of its limbs threatened to become, in some way, distorted, or elements of physical disease had manifested themselves. A pure taste for wholesome knowledge is more important than a perfect foot, or the cure of an imperfect foot, or the cure of an oblique vision in the eye. Any Christian parent would blame himself severely, and properly, if he should neglect, in time, to correct any morbid physical tendency on the part of a child. Of how much more importance is it that he should watch over the healthful development of his child’s mind; and how much more bitter will be his chagrin, when he apprehends, as he sometime may, the sad consequences which follow such neglect.—Zion’s Herald. In all ages it has been the work of Satan to counterfeit the work of God. At the time of our Lord’s first advent, false Christs abounded. When, by the power of God, Moses wrought miracles before Pharaoh, Satan, through the magicians, sought to duplicate the work of the Lord. When Noah warned the antediluvians of a coming flood, there were, doubtless, those who preached anything but God’s truth for that time. They believed in holiness, a preparation for death, or perhaps they even assented to the doctrine of the deluge, but despised the offer of salvation by that hated ark. For aught we know, societies of floodists may have arisen, constructing arks of their own design. As it has always been, so it is now. Anything but God’s present truth is in order. The efforts of many modern teachers to avoid this truth, and especially the Sabbath which it carries in its front, remind me of an athletic play among children called “Poison.” The efforts to avoid the goal are sometimes frantic; and when one is so bold or unfortunate as to touch it, he is avoided as one contaminated with leprosy. But God’s truth will triumph. Eight persons believed consistently in the coming flood, and were saved; and some will also believe the “present truth,” and be “hid in the day of the Lord’s fierce anger.” Since thy Father's arm sustains thee,
Peaceful be;
When a chastening hand restrains thee,
It is he.
Know his love in full completeness
Fills the measure of thy weakness;
If he wound thy spirit sore,
Trust him more. Fearest sometimes that thy Father
Hath forgot?
When the clouds around thee gather,
Doubt him not.
Always hath the daylight broken,
Always hath he comfort spoken;
Better hath he been for years
Than thy fears. Therefore whatsoe'er betideth,
Night or day,
Know his love for thee provideth
Good alway.
Crown of sorrow gladly take,
Grateful wear it for his sake,
Sweetly bending to his will,
Lying still. To his own thy Saviour giveth
Daily strength:
To each troubled soul that liveth,
Peace at length.
Weakest lambs have largest share
Of this tender Shepherd's care;
Ask him not, then, when or how,
Only bow. HOW READEST THOU?
By J. Lamont
In contending for their faith, most people have fallen into the habit of arraying one Scripture text against another. This seems to me to be a bad practice, and one that is very inconsistent in a person who accepts the Bible; for if he believes the one text, does he not the other also? The man who believes in the eternal torture of the wicked will quote Rev. 20:10: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” But does he believe the preceding verse? No; because it says the fire devours them. Read it: “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them.” These verses do not contradict each other. They are both right, each telling a part of the story of the fearful doom of the ungodly; and both were written by the same prophet and inspired by the same Spirit,—the Spirit of God. If there is a lack of harmony, it is in the way men understand it, and not in the word of God. If we remember that “forever” does not necessarily imply endless duration, it will help us to see the whole matter clearly. From Ex. 21: 2-6 we learn that when the year of release came, if the servant refused to leave his master, the fact was certified before the judges, and he remained a servant forever; not throughout eternity, but during the lifetime of the servant, which might be several years and possibly only a few hours. So Satan and all the wicked will be tormented as long as they live, and then be devoured by the terrible fires. It is said that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 7. Are these wicked cities now burning? Certainly not. They were speedily reduced to ashes. 2 Pet. 2:6. And they were set forth as an example to those who after should live ungodly. Of the final doom of all the wicked we read: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25:41. A minister once said, while urging the doctrine of eternal torment, “Hell was not made for man, but for the devil and his angels, and they will neither burn up, turn to ashes, nor cease to be; and wicked men will share their fate throughout the endless ages for having followed them.” But the Bible teaches that the devil will cease to be. Friend, how are your theories? Do they allow you to believe the whole of the Bible, or only a part of it? Does God’s book tell one story, and but one, on any subject upon which it treats? or is it contradictory? How readest thou? J. LAMONT. SILENCE
By Eliza H. Morton
It has been said that “speech is silver, and silence is gold,” and there is much beauty in the statement. Words have power to move the heart, and language is a gift of God; but, like all other faculties, it is liable to be perverted. He who speaks the truth utters words graven on golden tablets. He who utters falsehood stains the white leaves of human life with unsightly blots. It is an old adage that “the truth should not be spoken at all times,” which means that silence is often preferable to speech. When scandal is repeated in your ears, silence is well. When a friend utters impatient, thoughtless, cruel words, silence is sweet. When you are informed of circumstances that reflect on the character of your enemy, silence is divine. Silence is power. The little noisy brook, dashing over the pebbles, makes a continual commotion; yet its strength cannot be compared with that of the mighty river which flows calmly and peacefully into the bosom of the great ocean. There is in some lives an undercurrent of power not revealed by the lips. This inner life makes human life sublime. All that is noble, all that is pure, all that is worthy of love, is hidden in the heart, and little acts often reveal what words never express. Strength is born in silence. Thought is matured in secret chambers, and mind can be developed as well in the peaceful stillness of nature’s secluded haunts as in the bustle and turmoil of the great city. We would by no means decry those who seek to cultivate the faculty of speech. “Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pictures of silver,” and happy is the person who can use them aright. They either reveal the true sentiments of the heart, or cover the hideous deformity of the hypocrite. Although we may admire eloquence of speech, yet we should not despise the “halting tongue.” What is denied the one may be given the other, and silence may cover a depth of tender feeling, a mine of wonderful thought, and a wealth of soul beauty. A SISTER writes from Olivet, Mich.:— Seeing an article in the REVIEW asking for the experience of those who had paid tithes faithfully, and of those who had not done so, I give my experience as that of one who has not. I embraced the truth nearly two years ago, through reading. My husband embraced the Sabbath, but has not come out strong in the truth. Especially does he lack faith in God in regard to temporal affairs. We had just bought a farm of forty acres, mortgaging it for $1000. My husband put in four acres of wheat, and I had strong faith to believe the Lord would prosper us. We were not paying any s. B. that year. We had just nineteen bushels of wheat. I was forcibly reminded of these words: “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste.” Haggai 1:9. The present year I pledged five dollars for the cause. We had a good crop of wheat; enough, as we supposed, to pay all outstanding debts besides the interest on the mortgage. I was anxious to pay my s. B. first, but my husband thought we should pay other debts first. What is the result? We are in arrears about $55. (We became involved in debt before becoming Seventh-day Adventists.) I firmly believe that we should pay our tithes out of the first-fruits, and that we shall not be prospered if we do not. Where there is no reverence, there is no godliness. Where seriousness and holy awe are in feeble exercise, there the “powers of the world to come” are feebly operative. But how deplorable are the examples presented every week of the absence of this sentiment from the pulpit. We can hardly believe the types which thus spell out for us in the newspapers the words of irreverence and of flippant nonsense which are substituted for the gospel of Jesus Christ in some of the pulpits of our land. The great reform so needful now-a-days must begin at the altars of God. Let the priests cease to offer strange and unhallowed fire. Let them cultivate in their own experience and speech that reverence which their people must feel if they are to be spiritually elevated. And we apprehend that the shortest road to reverence will be found in a more scrupulous adherence to Bible truths. Let the pulpit be occupied with important themes; let sin, righteousness, and a Judgment to come fill the mind of the preacher, and we shall read of no laughter, no applause. Let substantial doctrines be preached, and we shall not be shamed by reading in the Monday papers such dreary columns of politics, personalities, and things bordering on the profane. Bats fly at night because the light is gone. Frivolity fills the mind because reverence is not there. Would it were possible to bring the shadow of God’s presence over the mind of every popular preacher. We should soon see the effects in a better type of godliness throughout the church. “Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”—The Presbyterian. The Burden of Rearing Children and God's Care
WHEN we think of the labor required to rear the few that are in our households,—the weariness, the anxiety, the burden of life,—how wonderful seems God’s work! for he carries Heaven, and earth, and all realms in his bosom. —The President has appointed Thursday, Nov. 28, as a day of national thanksgiving. —The Universalists have recommended entire abstinence from the use of tobacco. —It is estimated that not less than 80,000 Germans in the city of Chicago attend no church whatever. —There are in London 1,030 charitable institutions, of which the total income for last year was £4,651,182. —During the month of September, the government sold whisky stamps in Chicago amounting to $560,555. —During the past year there have been 110 cases of leprosy in Spain, 71 of which ended fatally. —A Cremation Society in London is about to erect a crematorium on the model of the one in Milan. —In the present state of public opinion, the law of the Sabbath is relaxed beyond any known precedent in New England. —London, Nov. 5.—In the mills at Wigan, 1,070 looms and 94,000 spindles are stopped, and 2,500 looms and 310,000 spindles are running on short time. —The Russian imperial yacht sailed for Odessa with the Grand Duke Sergius, son of the Czar, and suite, Oct. 22. The yacht was wrecked, but all on board were safely landed. —A party of sixty-five Bostonians, all Protestants, recently paid their respects to the pope, complying with the prescribed etiquette of kneeling in his presence. —The native bishop of Hayti has recently preached in Westminster Abbey—the first recorded instance of a colored divine listened to in that venerable place of worship. —A French Huguenot congregation that has for generations met in the nave of the Canterbury Cathedral has celebrated its 327th anniversary. The present members are about to join the Presbyterian church. —On the announcement of the Cyprus clause in the Berlin treaty, a Constantinople banker invested £40,000 in property on that island; it is now worth £300,000. —During the past year the Old Catholics in Switzerland have increased from 10,000 to 20,000. The prospects of that church in Switzerland are considered more favorable than in any other country in Europe. —Benjamin Franklin, the great preacher and champion debater of the Campbellite church, died near Anderson, Ind., Oct. 22, after an illness of but four hours. He was, perhaps, the greatest man among them since the days of Campbell. —Several towns in Central America have been destroyed by an earthquake, and others have suffered from it. The loss of life is serious. An eruption of the volcano of Santa Anna is apprehended, and serious consequences are feared. —Professor Hayden, of the Geological Survey, has crossed the Rocky Mountain divide ten times during the present season. Several fine glaciers have been discovered, located and named, in the Wind River Mountains. —The list of shareholders in the broken Glasgow Bank fills nearly two pages of the local newspapers. The estates of the larger shareholders aggregate £2,860,000, and range from £200,000 to £10,000 each. Among the smaller shareholders are many executors, guardians, and women, who will lose every penny they own. The directors are in jail to a man. —Some idea of the value of the products of California aside from her precious metals may be had from the fact that in one week more than a hundred ships' cargoes of this year's wheat passed out of the Golden Gate at San Francisco. Their value is upwards of $6,000,000. An average of 100 carloads of freight pass over the Central Pacific Railroad daily. —Mr. Edison's discovery, or invention, of the phonograph, has taken a singular hold on the popular imagination; and his announcement that he believes he has solved the problem of the electric light, and can divide it indefinitely, producing illumination at one-twentieth the cost of gas, has been received with a much larger share of credence than is usually given to similar announcements. The light is said to be softer, cheaper, and in every respect better, than gas. —During the year 1877 there occurred 100 recorded earthquakes. In the three months of June, July, and August, there were only eleven earthquakes, while 34 occurred in September, October, and November; as usual, the most violent occurred in South America. Among the most noteworthy events of the year was the eruption of a new volcano in a district hitherto supposed to be free from volcanic disturbances, namely, on June 11, in a new crater near the Colorado River, California. —Pope Leo XIII. does not like the limitations of his temporal power any better than his predecessor did. It chagrins him to find himself unable to crush with his right hand those whom now he can only hurl anathemas at. Right under the shadow of St. Peter's are Protestant Christian schools. How the pontiff aches to get those teachers and preachers over his gridiron. “It is greatly to be deplored,” he says, “that in this our Rome, the center of Catholicism, august seat of the vicar of Jesus Christ, it is permitted heterodox sects to erect temples, open schools, and diffuse corrupting publications among the people, while to us it is not given to oppose, as we would do, an efficacious remedy against inundating impiety.” History remembers but too well what is meant by Papal “efficacious remedies.”—Advance. —The Presbyterian Witness says; “The state of affairs in Turkey still looks alarming. Neither Turkey or Russia seems disposed to fulfill in good faith the articles of the treaty of Berlin. A renewal of war seems by no means improbable; and should it come to pass, woe to Turkey! It would then be hardly possible for England to stand aloof. She has guaranteed Asia Minor, and that guarantee would virtually extend to the Turkish capital. Collision with Russia would be apparently inevitable. The trouble in Afghanistan is expected to employ many thousand British troops. Russia will foment that trouble and make the most of it, in order to weaken the British forces by division;—in order especially to prevent the employment of Sepoys in European warfare. The prospect is anything but re-assuring; and what makes it far worse is the terrible commercial depression that prevails everywhere, and that in Great Britain amounts almost to a panic. The jubilations in England over Lord Beaconsfield's diplomacy appear now to have been rather extravagant. The Scotch people were at no time carried away by the excitement of the time. They thought of fresh and unknown complications that were involved, and they would, if they could, count the cost.” “Austria is unsettled, and her ultimate policy very uncertain. Divided by powerful contending parties, the empire is not able to take that place in the counsels of Europe which it should naturally assume. Italy, too, has her internal troubles; but not of a very serious character. Few expected the late Cairoli Cabinet to stand many months.”