Signs of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 49. (12/22/1887)

Signs of the Times

Dec 22, 1887

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 22, 1887

General Articles.

By Mrs. E. G. White

THE PREPARATION FOR HEAVEN.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

If we would enter Heaven we should strive to bring all that we can of Heaven into our lives on earth. The religion of Christ never degrades the receiver. It exerts a heavenly influence upon the minds and manners of men. When the word of God finds access to the hearts of the rough and coarse, it commences a process of refining upon the character, and those who endure it become humble and teachable, like little children. The mighty cleaver of truth has severed them from the world, and then the work to be accomplished, to mould them after the divine Pattern, is begun. They are to be living stones in the temple of God, and are hewed, and squared, and chiseled, to fit them for God's building. Those who are naturally full of self-esteem become meek and lowly of heart. They have a change of character, and are transformed by the renewing of their minds, and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

God said in the beginning, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" but sin has almost obliterated the moral image of God in man. This lamentable condition would have known no change or hope if Jesus had not come down to our world to be man's Saviour and Example. In the midst of a world's moral degradation he stands, a beautiful and spotless character, the one model for man's imitation. We must study, and copy, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ; then we shall bring the loveliness of his character into our own life, and weave his beauty into our daily words and actions. Thus we shall stand before God with acceptance, and win back by conflict with the principalities of darkness, the power of self-control, and the love of God that Adam lost in the fall. Through Christ we may possess the spirit of love and obedience to the commands of God. Through his merits it may be restored in our fallen natures; and when the Judgment shall sit and the books be opened, we may be the recipients of God's approval.

John saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates of pearl and twelve foundations of precious stones, coming down from God out of Heaven. The streets are of transparent gold, clear as crystal. Everyone who shall enter those gates and walk those streets will here have been changed and purified by the power of the truth; and the crown of immortal glory will adorn the brow of the overcomer.

The nations that have kept the truth shall enter in, and the voice of the Son of God will pronounce the glad welcome, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

Then how can we afford to devote our God-given powers to our own pleasure for one moment? We must yield our whole service to our Master. We must wage, continuously, the battle of self-denial and sacrifice. Christ died that we might live, and with the same spirit of love we should seek to win souls as the purchase of his blood. The word of God, through his apostle, declares, "We are laborers together with God." Our work may seem at times very discouraging; but if one soul is turned from the error of his way to righteousness, there is joy in Heaven. The Father and the Son rejoice in the presence of the angels. The song of triumph is sung and echoed and re-echoed through the courts of Heaven. Then why should we not be wise in this life, and work for the salvation of man to the glory of God? "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Your lives must here be refined, ennobled, elevated; and Christ, the hope of glory, must be formed within you. Your favorite sins will be laid aside; you will fear to offend God, and you will love his law.

For more than forty years I have stood in the desk proclaiming salvation to sinners, and my heart has yearned over them with pitying compassion. I saw before me the purchase of the blood of Christ. There is value in every soul. Said the Lord through his prophet, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." It is the truth received in the heart and practiced in the life that makes men so valuable in the sight of God.

John beholds an innumerable company, precious, refined, purified, around the throne of the Majesty of Heaven. The angel inquires of John, "What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?" and John answers, "Sir, thou knowest." Then the angel declares: "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." Now we have the precious opportunity of washing our robes of character in the blood of the Lamb till they are spotless in his purity. To all who shall do this the promise is, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

We want you to lift your minds from the things of earth to the heavenly glories. We want you to live for the future, immortal life, and decide, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Now is the accepted time. Now give yourselves, without reserve, to Jesus. Be determined that you will have Christ, even if this requires the loss of everything else. The very obstacles and difficulties of the way are for the purpose of making you mighty in faith and giving you spiritual strength. Every effort you make to lead others in the path of God's commandments is registered in the imperishable records. Let not the enemy deceive you. He has filled the world with heresies; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Plant your feet on his immutable counsels, then you will be all ready to come under God's rules of government in the kingdom of bliss. If you ever sing the song of triumph and redemption, you must now be learning its notes. Is Jesus abiding in your hearts? If he is there you will talk about him, you will reveal him in life and character. You will sing his praise, making melody in your hearts unto the Lord. The

sweet spirit of meekness will be cherished, and self will be crucified. When you come to Christ you will not boast, "I am holy." Let God, alone, say that of you, for you know not your own heart. This boast is a sure evidence that you know not the Scriptures nor the power of God. Let God write in his books, if he will, that you are an obedient child, keeping his statutes with a cheerful heart, and the records will reveal it before angels and men at the day of reward.

I have never dared to say, "I am holy, I am sinless;" but whatever I have thought was the will of God, I have tried to do with all my heart, and I have the sweet peace of God in my soul. I can commit the keeping of my soul to God as unto a faithful Creator, and I know that he will keep that which I have committed to his trust. It is my meat and drink to do my Father's will, to present before a dying world the cross of Calvary, to preach repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, to point the way of the commandments of God, that path that leads to the open gates of the eternal city. If you lose Heaven you lose everything. If I can only see the King in his beauty, it is all I desire. Let me listen to the sweet music of his voice, saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Who of you shall we meet in the congregation of the blessed? We want to see you crowned in the city of God. When the Judgment is set and the records searched, may your names not be blotted out of the book of life. This life is of great consequence to us, for in it we have the privilege of preparing for an unending life. I beseech you, therefore, see to it that your influence is not against the commandments of God. The law is just as Jehovah wrote it, in the temple of Heaven. Man may trample upon its copy here on earth, but the original is kept in the ark of God in Heaven. Above it is the mercy-seat, and Jesus, our great High Priest, stands before the ark, to mediate in man's behalf. We want you to keep God's commandments and live, and his law as the apple of your eye; for, "whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven." Seek immortality and the crown of life; then the eternal treasures shall be yours, and an inheritance in the kingdom which God hath promised to those that love him.

AT JESUS' FEET.

By D. M'D. O'Farrell

THE world for fame and wealth aspires, There are no bounds to its desires; With vigilance and care it seeks, But not at Jesus' feet.

With Mary, I would come and sit, Myself to Jesus' care commit, Receiving what he sees most fit, While seated at his feet.

Fame's worldly heights I would not gain, By seeking an exalted name; I'd gain a humble, lowly seat, Close by my Saviour's feet.

I would not go beyond the cross, And more than Christ can give, engross; I'd consecrate myself complete And learn at Jesus' feet.

Oh! give me then some lowly place, Where I may see thy smiling face; I'd wish to have no higher seat Than at my Saviour's feet. —D. M'D. O'Farrell, in Censer.

JEALOUSY FOR GOD.

By Dr. J. H. Thornwell

IDOLATRY, superstition, Socinianism, all the types of paganism, do not more conclusively demonstrate that man is by nature a religious being, than they demonstrate that the carnal mind is enmity against God. The abominations of the Gentile world are not the crude rites of mankind, as many philosophers would have us believe, adapted to the infancy of human knowledge, expressing the natural sentiments of piety and reverence in a form as yet imperfectly developed, and promoting the education of the race in larger and juster views. They are not tendencies towards God in the direction of a proper worship, the feeble and obscure utterances of childhood, sincere and honest, but uninstructed. They are not the results of involuntary ignorance. On the contrary, they are stages of degradation which men have successively reached in their apostasy from God; they are the utterances of alienated hearts, the slanders of malignant and poisoned tongues.

The heavens declare God's glory, and the firmament showeth his handiwork; the invisible things of him are clearly seen, even his eternal power and Godhead, being understood by the things that are made. Creation and providence, the structure and laws of our own souls, proclaim his being, his attributes, and his will; so that men are without excuse. There are radical principles in the mind, which, if cherished and developed according to their proper tendencies, would rebuke the errors of the heathen; so that they may be said to know God, as possessing the germs of that knowledge in the constituent elements of reason. The real difficulty is their reluctance to glorify his name. Hence, they become vain in their imaginations, suppress the light of nature, and their foolish heart is darkened. Hence it is that they have changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things, and have changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator. This is the natural history of paganism.—Dr. J. H. Thornwell, on the Sacrifice of Christ.

FALSE SECURITY.

By C. P. Bollman

To search out and expose all the errors that are in the world would be a hopeless task indeed; therefore, it is only by teaching truth that we can hope to successfully combat falsehood. Thus, by showing that the Scriptures do teach certain things, we just as plainly show that they do not teach the contrary; for "God is not the author of confusion;" and all his promises in Christ "are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God."

Within the past few years, and especially within a few months, the writer's attention has been repeatedly called to certain views which substantially teach universal salvation; and he has been asked to accept these views as divine truth; or, failing so to do, to show that they are unscriptural. The latter he will seek to do, not by examining at length a host of wrested and misapplied texts, but by showing that the Bible teaches that few, comparatively, will be saved.

That these views of universal, or well-nigh universal, salvation, taught by Universalists, Unitarians, Mormons (both Salt Lake and Josephites), and by the advocates of the Age-to-Come theory are contrary to the divine truth, and that they lure thousands to eternal ruin by affording them false security of future felicity, must be apparent to every candid, unbiased student of the Scriptures. Indeed, to learn this one need not be a student, but only a casual reader of the Bible; for the fact that "the wicked shall perish," and that "the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away," stands out in bold relief in every part of the inspired volume; and the feat of discovering in it anything to the contrary was not accomplished till the conditions portrayed by the apostle were met, that is, until the beginning of the last days, in which men "will not endure sound doctrine," but "shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

The doctrine of universal salvation could never obtain among men were it not for false views and erroneous ideas of the character and attributes of Deity. It is too often the case that finite minds, all warped by sin and self-interest, seeking to find excuse or palliation for wrong-doing, forget that perfection demands that every part, every attribute, be perfect, and think to magnify the love of God by dwarfing his justice! They forget that though "God is love," he "is of purer eyes than to behold evil," and that he "is angry with the wicked every day."

If we believe that God is an intelligent being, and that as such he created all things, we must believe that he had a purpose, a design in that creation. Just what that purpose was concerning this earth we learn from Isa. 45: 18: "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited." The character of the beings which he designed should inhabit the earth, may be inferred from the fact that "God made man upright." But we are not left to inferences upon this important point, for we have oft repeated, in substance, the declaration, "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever." Ps. 37: 29. In perfect accord with this text are the words of our Saviour, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;" and also the comforting assurance of the apostle Peter: "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."

God certainly designed that this earth should be peopled with intelligent, loyal subjects; not with stocks and with stones, or even with beasts which have no understanding; but with beings endowed with volition, and capable of serving their Creator from choice: "not from constraint, but willingly." This purpose made probation a necessity, and sin a possibility. It is useless to discuss the whys and the wherefores of the case. We are not ignorant of the sequel; man sinned, and fell; but "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here, as elsewhere in the sacred word, the promise of eternal life, salvation, is conditioned on belief; and this Son so freely given by the Father, himself tells us: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3: 36. This text, unless wrested from its evident meaning, must forever stand against the theory of universal salvation.

Another scripture which forbids the acceptance of the doctrine of the final restoration of all men to divine favor, is Eze. 18: 26: "When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die." Here are clearly two deaths brought to view, namely, the death which is common to all men; and following that, it is plainly declared, "for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die." This death is in Rev. 20: 6 called the second death; and it is clearly the condition into which all pass who are under not the transient but the abiding wrath of God. One resurrection or return to life is promised to all men; but only one. They who suffer the second death become "as though they had not been" (Obadiah 16); they are brought into the condition described in Mal. 4: 1: "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Or, as the psalmist says: "Into smoke shall they consume away" (Ps. 37: 20); and in the words of the Saviour, they "shall not see life."

But say some, "While that may be true of a very few, it is not true of any considerable portion of the human family; God wills that all should come to repentance; and surely nearly all if not quite all will come." Such reasoning needs no answer except the words of our Saviour when one asked him, saying, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" And he said unto them, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Space forbids a further quotation or a more

extended examination of this subject, but the reader will please turn to his Bible and read Luke 13: 23-27; it contains much food for reflection for those who try to believe that all will be saved, or that in a future state they will enjoy a more favorable opportunity of making their peace with God. "Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation."

C. P. BOLLMAN.

THE SECRET OF A VICTORIOUS LIFE.

THE words of the apostle Paul are among the most precious legacies bequeathed to the world by great men; a legacy which derives its main value from the fact that it conveys that which was, in its origin, a gift from Heaven. But quite as valuable as Paul's words is Paul's life. Those eloquent and powerful statements of truth which all subsequent generations have carried in their consciences and hearts, would lose half their force if there were not behind them the impulsion of one of the noblest lives ever lived upon earth. The single-hearted devotion to duty, the fearlessness, the noble temper, the patience, and the self-sacrifice of that life constitute one of the supreme achievements of history. For it is in character, and in character alone, that the supreme achievement is to be found. Not in great works of architecture, not in great books, not in great statesmanship, nor in great social movements, is to be found the supreme achievements of which men are capable; a noble character remains, among all the activities and attainments of men, the one supreme and final success; that which neither time nor misconception nor detraction are able to diminish or destroy.

The eagerness with which men turn to the stories of such lives as that of Paul is almost pathetic. They look away from their own failures and infidelities and sins to such a life, and find comfort in the fact that some man has really lived the life which each man would like to live in his best hours. . . . The great satisfaction, the supreme comfort, which springs from such a life as Paul's comes from the consciousness that here was a man who overcame every obstacle, and, instead of being mastered by the things which seemed against him, triumphed over them. His was a life outwardly all defeat, inwardly all victorious. It appeals to and satisfies the inward aspiration of everyone; for each of us feels that just such a life belongs to him; that we were not made to be baffled and beaten and vanquished, but to conquer and overcome, and to emerge from the struggle victorious against all odds.

The secret of a great life is never difficult to find. When Savonarola was brought to the rack, and his persecutors listened eagerly for the secrets they were about to wring from him, the reformer could only reply in his agony, "My secrets are few, because my purposes have been great." Paul's purposes were great, and his method therefore was transparent. Everything was against him, as men look at life. He stepped aside from the career which was open to him, and which promised the realization of the ambition of a Jew; he expatriated himself; he was a wanderer on the face of the earth, outcast, persecuted, rejected, despised, and finally put to death. All things conspired against him, and yet in the face of all these obstacles no one reads his life with any other consciousness than that here was a great eternal victory. This man, with all the world against him, defeated the world, and calmly held it at bay. And this great result was achieved, not by tricks, nor by persuasion, nor by great gifts of mind, but by a tremendous conviction and a life held steadfastly true to that conviction. . . . It was matter almost of indifference to him that men rejected him and spurned him and persecuted him. So long as he had the consciousness of a divine work to do, and of divine strength to accomplish it, he cared little for human aid or help. The world was to him simply the field in which his work was to be accomplished; he did not look to it for the rewards of that work. He belonged to his fellows for all service and helpfulness, but they could neither appoint his task nor reward him when it was finished. Like trees, he was rooted in the common soil; but, like them, light and heat, and the dews and rain which give foliage and strength, came from Heaven. Here is the secret of his life, and here is the only secret by which such success as his can be attained.—Christian Union.

CHOKED CHRISTIANS.

IN the parable of the sower our Lord points out one class of hearers whom he likens to soil overgrown with thorns. It evidently represents rich and naturally productive soil. The seed sown in it was well received and sprang up, but brought forth no fruit to perfection. This is Luke's account; Matthew and Mark say that such hearers become "unfruitful," whether altogether, or in the sense of imperfect and shriveled, we are not careful to inquire; we suppose unfruitful in the sense that salt is not good if it has lost its "savor," and a light is of no service if it is set "under a bushel" or turned into darkness by an outward life that obscures it. At any rate, we have a picture here of a certain type of Christian life that is very sad to contemplate.

The trouble seems to be that the soil was not well prepared before the seed was sown. It was not cleared of thorns. Let us look at some of these thorns and see what they are that choke the good seed. Men and women have essayed to enter upon a Christian life without clearing their hearts and lives of the thorns that are indigenous to the flesh. They forget that God has commanded "the wicked to forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts," before returning unto him.

Forsaking and clearing them out of life does not mean that we are to bring about a complete moral renovation of our lives before we may return to the Lord and obtain mercy; but that we are to look at these things frankly, and choose between them and God, and in mind, purpose, and affection, forsake them; recognize them as things foreign to the character and thought of a child of God, and renounce them. The alien who comes to this country and becomes an American citizen, leaves his country, and then, after he comes here, he renounces his allegiance to the land and potentate of his birth; the sinner who accepts Christ and God has first to renounce his allegiance to his old life and master and then forsake them. If this renunciation of sins is not heartily attended to, the taking on of the Christian profession is much as the oath of allegiance taken by the anarchist, who seeks to engraft upon his new citizenship all the odious doctrines and practices which he failed to leave behind him when he came to this country. Such will never become good Americans. The thorns and briars which they have not forsaken will forever spring up and choke all ideas of true liberty and good citizenship.

It is in this way that so many professors of religion become unfruitful. All the good impulses and holy purposes with which they started out, perhaps in all good sincerity, to serve God have been choked by the growth of the thorns which they failed to forsake. The thorns spring up and choke them. In some cases a life that is well cleared of these upon beginning the Christian life has been choked by the after incoming of the thorns. Mark tells us, in his version of this parable, that the "cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." It would seem, then, that there is a double danger of being choked by these thorns: a danger that lies in wait as we enter in—that is, a disposition to enter upon the Christian profession without deliberately forsaking all wicked ways; and a danger that threatens us—the peril of these things entering in our lives after we have entered into the kingdom.

It is a dreadful thing to be choked. Those who have, either by accident or design, suffered partial strangulation, tell us that it is one of the most dreadful experiences. It

must, to the all-seeing eye of God, be a dreadful thing to behold so many of his children gasping for a breath of life, being choked by the evil weeds, thorns, and tares indigenous to the flesh or diligently planted there by the enemy of souls while they sleep.

Perhaps it will be well to suggest the things which do most choke these weedy professors. Our Lord gives a list of them: "The cares of this world," "the deceitfulness of riches," "the pleasures of this life," "and the lusts of other things." Look at this catalogued list of deadly thorns. "The cares of this world" have swallowed up many a thousand professors, who have forgotten that they were the children of God, and have given themselves to anxious care about what shall be eaten, and wherewithal shall the body be clothed; more who have "made haste to be rich," or have made riches their goal of life; while others have given themselves up to the pleasures of this life; and still others who, in general, allow the lusts of the flesh and of the eye to dictate to them in all their earthly life. Let us be warned by these very suggestive pictures and teachings of our Lord, and look to our lives and see if there be any of these evil thorns "springing up" or "entering in," to mar and hinder the work of God, and choke his good seed.—Independent.

THE MASTER'S WILL.

By Oscar Bliss

I CANNOT see my path across life's trackless ocean, Nor if the gentle breeze or storms shall bear me on; Or if the sunshine warm or clouds shall be my portion, Nor when, nor where, the haven shall after all be won.

I came not on the voyage for profit, nor for pleasure, Nor seeking praise of men—a transient, vain renown— No thought had I of labor, nor the peaceful joys of leisure, The battle's fierce encounter, nor the victor's shining crown.

It was the Master's will! an all-sufficient reason, Why sailed I forth upon life's troubled, changing sea; I know that he is able to guide in every season, I know that he is willing—I know he leadeth me!

Though fair may be the skies, or storms surround my pillow, I lay me down content, the Master knows the way; Obeying his commands, or bright or dark the billow, He'll bring me to my haven, to Heaven's eternal day. —Oscar Bliss, in New York Observer.

FAITH THAT WORKS.

THE Bible has made faith a household word. We hear and read a great deal about it. We ought to know just what it means. And yet a great many people talk and act as if they thought it was some kind of a holy pillow for Christians to sleep on. God is good. Christ has died for us, Christ pleads for us in Heaven. The Bible is full of exceeding great and precious promises. "All things work together for good to them that love God." So let us not fret or worry; let us take things easy; have a good time; dream on our faith pillow sweet dreams, and we will wake up in paradise.

Now in opposition to this vague and shadowy notion Paul writes to the Galatians about "faith that worketh." And he exhorts his Philippian converts to work out their own salvation. And James declares that faith without works is dead, being alone. The truth is that a faith which does not work is no faith at all. . . .

There is a sense in which we of ourselves can do nothing. But that is no reason or excuse for our not trying to do something. God has promised to work in us both to will and to do. Yet he will not and cannot work in us when we refuse either to will or to do. . . . His power waits for more efficient co-operation on our part, as the electricity waits in the battery until the operator connects the conducting wires with its poles. Comparatively small as our part is, he has made it indispensable. He gives us faith in order that we may work.—Occident.

Keep Cheerful, Hopeful, and Contented

KEEP cheerful, hopeful, and contented.

OUR BROTHERHOOD WITH CHRIST.

By United Presbyterian

THERE is more of comfort and grace in the thought of the brotherhood of Jesus than is ordinarily received from it. It was a part of the joy of the good tidings that the Saviour was "born," for thus he came into our life. That joy is still ours. Not simply that, bearing our nature, he is able to make the atonement, but his life is parallel with ours, except as to sin, and becomes a real example and a sustaining power. Knowing him only by faith, his divinity sometimes becomes to us more real than his humanity. We look up to and depend upon his divine power, but do not walk with him as we should. He is our Elder Brother, but enthroned rather than living with us, and sharing our life in everything except sin. We therefore need to dwell upon the completeness of his humanity, that we may derive the full measure of help and comfort that belong to the thought of our brotherhood with him.

"Unto you is born;" Jesus did not descend in human form; he was born; he is the son of Mary. He is in the fullest sense a member of our race; he has all that belongs to human nature in its purity. Christ's body did not differ from ours; he is "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." "Handle and see," he said even after his resurrection. He was sustained as we are, growing into maturity and exposed to suffering, subject to weakness, and finally to death, as we are. He passed through all the stages of mental development, from the feebleness of childhood to the fullness of his power. There was in him the normal development of the affections and the maturing in righteousness with advancing years. There was to him all that comes from the experience of life; from knowing men, from kindness, from the wickedness of men, and from the sufferings of life. "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." He is thus brother to everyone. . . . In one sense, his life was on the level of ours. It rose above it as the heavens are above the earth, but he was not separated from us. He hungered, and thirsted, and was weary; he sat at the table of friends, enjoying their hospitality, and he sat on the well-curb, in the heat of the day, waiting for a drink of the cool waters. He rejoiced in the love and kindness of friends, and his soul was cast down by the indifference of men to his teaching and their hostility to his work.

There was to Christ, in all things, the utmost freedom of choice. There was, indeed, always present the divine nature, but his human nature was in no wise hampered or restrained by it. Nor was he relieved from the necessity of care, thoughtfulness, foresight, prudence, and wisdom. He saw with human eyes. His heart was the heart of a man, and his conscience was a man's conscience. His life was our life in the issues presented to it; in the processes by which he reached conclusions, and in the emotions which he experienced; in its relations, its joys, and its sorrows, but without sin or imperfection. And therefore he lived by faith, continually seeking guidance and help by prayer, and was sustained by hope in the sure word of his Father.

Such a life is full of comfort and grace to us, and should be closely studied and followed. It comes to us with the charm of its pureness and its blessedness, and with the mysterious, sustaining power of the divine presence that entered into it, and made Jesus both the Son of man and the Son of God. It is presented to us by the apostle as the crowning example of that faith by which we should live, and in which there is the victory of life. Being an example, it is an inspiration also. The perfect balance of his mind, the patience and purity of his life, and the marvelous love that dispensed blessings in every word and touch, make his the ideal character, and therefore our hope. Great, yet humble; followed by multitudes, himself seeking the individual sufferer that he might give help; with power to command service, yet washing the feet of others; offered the crown, but choosing the cross, that he may save, Jesus is the one life that can draw us to its purity, and by his grace lift us up into the divine image. Keeping it constantly before us, we are the victors over the world, whatever of ill it may have, and in our brotherhood with him we will enter into his glory.

THE TEMPTATION OF DREAD.

By William Gurnall

FAITH, and only faith, can quench the fiery darts of Satan's affrighting temptations. This sort of fiery darts is our enemy's reserve; when the other proves unsuccessful, then he opens this quiver, and sends a shower of these arrows to set the soul on flame, if not of sin, yet of terror and horror. When he cannot carry a soul laughing to hell through the witchery of pleasing temptations, he will endeavor to make him go mourning to Heaven by affrighting him with the other. And, truly, it is not the least support to a soul exercised with these to consider that they are a good sign that Satan is hard put to when these arrows are upon his string. You know that an enemy that keeps a castle will preserve it as long as he can hold it; but when he sees he must quit, he sets it on fire, to render it, if possible, useless to them that come after him. While the strong man can keep his house under his own power, he labors to keep it in peace; he quenches those fire-balls of conviction that the Spirit is often shooting into the

conscience; but when he perceives it is no longer tenable, the mutiny within increases and there is a secret whisper in the soul of yielding unto Christ; now he labors to set the soul on fire by his affrighting temptations; much more doth he labor to do it when Christ hath got the castle out of his hands, and keeps it by the power of his grace. It is very observable that all the darts shot against Job were of this sort; he hardly made any use of the other when God gave him leave to practice his skill. Why did he not tempt him with some golden apple of profit, or pleasure, or such like enticing temptations? Surely, the high testimony God gave to this, his eminent servant, discouraged Satan from this method; yea, no doubt, he had tried Job's manhood before this, as to those, and found him too hard; so that now he had no other way left probable to attain his design but this.—Gurnall.

GIVING THE BEST.

LET us not be content with serving the Lord a little, with giving him the odds and ends of life, the cold crumbs and broken fragments, as it were, that fall from life's table. Thousands of people are perfectly willing to be Christians if their discipleship will not interfere in the slightest degree with anything else that they wish to be or do. In fact, their sole purpose seems to be to solve the problem how to grasp the world with one hand and to keep hold of Heaven with the other. They do not seem to care for any stars in their crown, for any sheaves in their garner. "A starless crown and a third-rate harp in Heaven," they seem to say, "are good enough for me, if I can only keep from getting shut out forever."

Such service is little better than no service. In fact, we are not sure that it is considered as service at all. If we read our Lord's life correctly, he would not have allowed such people to count themselves among his disciples. If there was one thing about which he was emphatic, it was that if anyone would follow him, he must leave all. If anyone would be his disciple he must take up his cross. What sublime courage it took for a friendless young man, as he appeared to be, to turn away the rich young ruler from his standard, when his cause seemed to be in such desperate need of influence and wealth, simply because he lacked one thing, because he would not give up all for Christ! His demands are just as imperative now. He asks our all and our best or nothing. He never makes a compromise with any soul, and that soul dreadfully deludes itself that thinks it can make a compromise with Christ, and give him anything less than all it is or hopes to be.—Golden Rule.

SUGAR-COATED RELIGION.

BUNYAN speaks of religion as going in "silver slippers." In these times, to make it popular, it is sugar-coated. Its hard doctrines are smoothed down. Old-fashioned Bible orthodoxy is largely modified. The Slough of Despond is filled up, or bridged over. Saints and sinners mingle in free converse, and who are the saints and who the sinners it were not easy to tell. The more "jolly" the minister, the more popular.

Since the time that Bunyan's Pilgrim traveled the road to the celestial city, matters have greatly improved. Were he to travel it again, he would not recognize it as the same. It is by no means the rough and perilous road that it was in his day. There are now no foes to be met, no battles to be fought, no chained lions even to frighten the traveler. And, instead of trudging along afoot, staff in hand, at a slow and weary pace, he may speed his way in the cars, and Pullman cars, too, supplied with all desirable comforts.

But, alas, the end! It were well to consider that. Will all these pilgrims arrive at last at the "city that hath foundations"? Is the road that they are traveling the right and the safe road? Will they awake at last and find themselves in Heaven? Will their religion stand the test of the great trying day? When the great separation shall then be made, will all these easy-going pilgrims be found to have traveled the way that leadeth unto everlasting life? The Saviour teaches that that way is a way of repentance, of faith, of self-denial, of humility, of renunciation of the world, and of holy living. He also teaches that many at last will find themselves to have been mistaken. He says: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord." "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me."—Clericus, in New York Observer.

The Scandal-Monger’s Business

"The scandal-monger does the devil's retail business," says President Hyde, of Bowdoin College. "Scandal consists of putting a grain of truth with a bushel of surmises, inferences, misinterpretations, and innuendoes, and peddling the product as unquestioned fact." That is poor business, but the scandal market is exceedingly lively nevertheless.—Evangelical Messenger.

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