Signs of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 49. (12/23/1889)

Signs of the Times

Dec 23, 1889

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 23, 1889

Religious and Social Conditions

By Editor

ACCORDING to the figures of the Evening Tribune, the Catholics own four-fifths of the church property in Alameda County outside of Oakland.

ONE after another have fallen victims to the death-charged wires of New York City, and still the courts issue injunctions against cutting them down. Human life is cheap in our great cities.

THE Rome correspondent of the Catholic News says that "Leo XIII. loves America, and shows special attention for American visitors of all religions." And so does the wolf love the lamb, or the serpent the bird. Well did the prophet say, in speaking of Rome, "And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; . . . and by peace shall destroy many." Dan. 8:25.

THE intensity of the joy and peace consequent on "abiding" in God can be approximated and partially measured by the intensity of the agony of separation felt by him who has once known Christ. There is no joy so deep, so satisfying, so full, so stable, as the joy based on abiding faith. Such joy is not mere pleasure; it is not the worldly joy which comes from folly, of which the wise man speaks: "Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom." Prov. 15:21. It does not always manifest itself on the surface. It is a deep, lasting, abiding gladness, which endures amid the sorest trials and greatest temptations. It is the joy and peace which come by believing God.

ONE of the wickedest things, in result, at least, which has struck the present generation, is the religious novel, or romances wherein great Bible characters are made to play a prominent part. Some five or six are announced as being soon ready. Among prominent heroes in these works of fiction, there figure Joshua, David, Paul, and John. The simplicity and pathos of the Bible story cannot be improved upon. It meets the exact needs for which God designed it as it is; but to throw around each of these characters a fictitious glamor and unreal scenes, told in all the fascination of language, perverts the Bible record as nothing else will, and renders the Bible unreal and its simple truths distasteful forever after. Some of those who write may not design to do this, but that does not affect the result, which will be akin to that of tempting the appetites of children from simple, healthful food by unwholesome and spicy viands, till the simple food becomes distasteful, and the rich and spicy food breeds incurable disease. To lead men away—and by such delusive means—from the simple truth of God, is a wicked thing.

THE following from the editorial page of the Catholic News (John Gilmary Shea, LL.D., editor) is most emphatically true of all seventh-day Christians. Will Protestants please take note?

"Among Protestant denominations the Seventh-day Baptists are logical. They find nothing in Scripture to justify observing Sunday as the Sabbath, and rejecting, with other sects, the authority of the Catholic Church; and, professing to believe nothing not expressly laid down in Scripture, they reject Sunday."

IF there was ever a time in the history of the work of God when loyalty to his cause was demanded, that time is now. Professedly Christian ministers and journals are either apologizing for the Bible or utterly repudiating some of its mightiest and most essential truths. The Bible needs no apology. It will, if rightly divided, defend itself. What is wanted is loyalty to that word, unswerving loyalty. The great majority of instances where men fail to stand for God, are not because God's word has proved a failure, but because of the ridicule and reproach of men. True loyalty will remain steadfast though all oppose. The real test of loyalty is amid opposition.

EVERYTHING points to a time when there will be some kind of a disunited union among the sects. All this is to some extent necessary to the making of the image. This compromising bodes no good to the future. The following, from a recent issue of the New York Independent, points out how far that most conservative body, the Protestant Episcopal Church, can go:—

"Dr. Gray, of The Interior, writes an account of a recent conference in this city between committees of the Presbyterian and Protestant Episcopal Churches on the subject of union. He says the 'historic episcopate' was the 'only striking point' between the committees. He writes:—

"I asked one and another of the 'bishops and other clergy' what the goal was to which they were working—if it were organic unity. They said, Certainly. 'But,' I asked, 'how can you approach us, with any possible prospect of acceptance, with an assumption of ecclesiastical superiority over us?' There was no such feeling on their part, they said. But I said there was the external fact, whatever may be the subjective feeling. They said that having found a basis for further negotiations, there would be no trouble about ministerial recognition and reciprocity. I talked to a number of them, separately, and found that they all regarded the question of the ordination of our ministry as involving no difficulty."

"PRAY WITHOUT CEASING."

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

(Concluded.)

God condescends to meet man in his human weakness. The Lord has pledged us his word, so that there need be no occasion for questioning and doubt. The Scripture says: "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil."

How gracious and merciful is our God to thus meet the thoughts of human minds! Surely God could do no more for his people than he has done. These precious promises are not given to a few talented ones, but to all, high or low, free or bond, rich or poor, who have endeavored to comply with his requirements.

Those who, through faith in the merits of the blood of Christ, have clean hands and a pure heart, will receive the white robe, the crown of righteousness, and the life that will run parallel with the life of God. There is no limit to the blessings that we may receive in answer to sincere, fervent prayer. The love of God to fallen man is measureless, and if our Father sees that we will not be lifted up with the blessings he has power to bestow upon us, but will receive them with humble and grateful hearts, he will abundantly grant unto us our requests. He says: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,

and it shall be opened unto you; for every-one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

The prayer that ascends from a broken and contrite heart, though it should come from the lips of the lowliest saint, is never disregarded. It is as sweet music in the ears of our heavenly Father; for he waits to bestow upon us the fullness of his blessing. It is not in our power to estimate the supplies that are provided by the Lord to meet our demands. What power might attend the church did we but call frequently and in faith for the abundant treasure of the store-house of God. We have only begun to taste of the richness of the divine promises. It is our privilege to drink largely of the fountain of boundless love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little! God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of his children, and yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God. What can the angels of God think of poor, helpless, human beings, who are subject to temptation, when God's heart of infinite love yearns toward them, and he is ready to give them more than they can ask or think, and yet they pray so little, and have so little faith? The angels love to bow before God, they love to be near him. They regard intercourse with God as their highest joy, and yet the children of earth, who need so much the help that God only can give, seem satisfied to walk without the light of his Spirit, the companionship of his presence.

The darkness of the evil one incloses those who fail to pray to God. The whispered temptations of the enemy entice them to sin, and it is all because they do not make use of the privileges that God has given them in the divine appointment of prayer. Why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray, when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's store-house, where are the boundless resources of Omnipotence? Without unceasing prayer, without diligent watching, we are in danger of growing careless, and of deviating from the right path. Our backsliding may be so gradual that we may fancy ourselves in a good spiritual condition when we are surely on the enemy's ground. The adversary seeks continually to obstruct the way to the mercy-seat, that we may not by earnest supplication and faith obtain supplies of grace and power to resist temptation.

There is so much cowardice and helplessness, and so much dependence upon others, that we are inefficient to do the great work which has been committed to us. God's work cannot be done without a spirit of independence. Every man is to know by personal experience that he can lean upon God alone, and find in him a support and helper. Every man must learn to say humbly and firmly, "Looking unto Jesus, I dare to stand alone; for the Father is with me." This was the attitude of Jesus. He said to his followers before his hour of trial: "Ye shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."

YE DID IT UNTO ME.

By A. R. Thain

In that dread day when all mankind shall stand To answer for their deeds in the body done, Who then shall win the approval of God's Son, And on his right hand form that blessed band? Shall kings stand first? Shall conquest's sworded hand Take heaven by force? Or shall anyone By wealth or learning, rank or power, so run As to obtain, and Christ's "Well done," command? Ah, no! but they who give the hungry meat, Who slake hot thirst, and take the stranger in, Who clothe the naked, and who strive to win Health for the sick, for captives liberty; These, standing lowly at the Judge's feet, Wondering, shall hear him say, "Ye did it unto me." —A. R. Thain, D.D., in Advance.

LETTING ALONE AS A MEANS OF CHILD-TRAINING.

Not doing is always as important, in its time and place, as doing; and this truth is as applicable in the realm of child-training as elsewhere. Child-training is a necessity, but there is a danger of overdoing in the line of child-training. The neglect of child-training is a great evil. Overdoing in the training of a child may be even a greater evil. Both evils ought to be avoided. In order to their avoidance, their existence and limits as evils must be recognized.

Peculiarly is it the case that young parents who are exceptionally conscientious, and exceptionally desirous of being wise and faithful in the discharge of their parental duties, are liable to err in the direction of overdoing in the training of their children. It is not that they are lacking in love and tenderness toward their little ones, or that they are naturally inclined to severity as disciplinarians; but it is that their mistaken view of the methods and limitations of wise child-training impels them to an injudicious course of watchful strictness with their children, even while their course runs counter to their affections and desires as parents. Their very love and fidelity cause them to harm their children by overdoing in their training, even more than the children of parents less wise and faithful are harmed by a lack of systematic training.

A young father who was an earnest student of methods of child-training, and who sincerely desired to be faithful in the training of his first child at any cost to his feelings of loving-tenderness toward that child, made a mistake in this direction, and received a lesson accordingly. His child was as full of affection as she was of life and spirit. She had not yet learned what she might do and what she might not do, but she was rapidly developing impulses and tastes in various directions. Her father had heard much about the importance of parental training and discipline, but had heard nothing about the danger of overdoing in this line; hence he deemed it his duty to be constantly directing or checking his child, so as to keep her within the limits of safety and duty as he saw it.

To his surprise and regret, the father found that, while his little daughter was not inclined to waywardness or disobedience, she was steadily coming into a state of chronic resistance to his attempts at her stricter governing. This resistance was passive rather than active, but it was none the less real for that. She would not refuse to obey, but she would not be ready or prompt to obey. She would not be aroused to anger or show any open signs of disrespect, but she would seem unable or unwilling to act as she was told to. Kind words and earnest entreaties were of no avail at this point, neither were they ever resented or explicitly rejected. If punishment was attempted, she submitted to it with a good grace, but it seemed to have no effect in the way of removing the cause of original trouble. The father never lost his temper, or grew less loving toward his child; he prayed for guidance, and he gave his best thought to the problem before him; but all to no apparent purpose. The matter grew more and more serious, and he was the more bewildered.

One day after a serious struggle with his little daughter over a matter that would have been a trifling one except as it bore on the question of her character and welfare, the father left his house with a heavy heart, and almost in despair over this question of wise child-training. At the door he met a friend, much older than himself, with whom he had been a co-worker in several spheres of Christian activity. Seeing his troubled face, that friend asked him the cause of his evident anxiety, and the young father opened his heart and told the story of his trouble. "Isn't the trouble that you are overdoing in the training of your child?" asked the listener; and then he went on to give his own experience in illustration of the meaning of this question.

"My first child was my best child," he said, "and I harmed her for life by overdoing in her training, as I now see, in looking back over my course with her. I thought I must be training her all the time, and I forced issues with her, and took notice of little things, when I would have done better to let her alone. So she was checked unduly, and shut up within herself by my course with her, and she grew up in a rigid and unnatural constraint which ought not to have been hers. I saw my mistake afterwards, and I allowed my other children more freedom, by letting them alone except when they must be interfered with; and I've seen the benefit of this course. My rule with all my children, since my first, has been to avoid an issue with them on a question of discipline whenever I could do so safely. And the less show of training there is, in bringing up a child, the better, as I see it."

This was a revelation to that young father. He determined at once to try to act on its suggestions, since the opposite course had been such a signal failure in his hands. When again in his home, an opportunity for an experiment was soon before him. His little daughter came into the room, through a door which she had been repeatedly told to push to after she had passed it. Without any special thought on the subject, the father, who sat writing at his desk, said, as often before, "Push the door to, darling." And, as often before, the child stood quiet and firm, as if in expectation of a new issue on that point. The counsel of the morning came into the father's mind, and he said gently, "You needn't shut the door to, darling, if you don't want to. Papa will do it," and at once he stepped and closed the door, returning afterwards to his desk, without a word of rebuke to his child.

This was a new experience to the poor overtaxed child. She stood in perplexed thought for a few minutes. Then she came lovingly to her father, and, asking to be taken up on his knee, she clasped her arms about his neck, and said: "Dear papa, I'm sorry I didn't shut that door. I will next time. Please forgive me, dear papa." And that was the beginning of a new state of things in that home. The father had learned that there was a danger of overdoing in the work of child-training, and his children were afterwards the gainers by his added knowledge.

In the case of this father, the trouble had been that he made too many direct issues with his child on questions of authority and obedience, and that thus he provoked conflicts which might have been wisely avoided. After this new experience, he was very cautious at this point, and he soon found that his child could be trained to obey without considering so often the possibility of resisting or questioning parental authority. When, in any case, an issue had to be accepted, the circumstances were so well considered that the child as well as the parent saw that its right outcome was the only outcome. The error of this father had been the error of a thoughtful and deliberate disciplinarian, who was as yet but partially instructed; but there are also thoughtless and inconsiderate parents who harm, if they do not ruin, their children's dispositions by overdoing in what they call child-training. And this error is worse than the other.

There are many parents who seem to suppose that their chief work in the training of a child is to be incessantly commanding or prohibiting, telling the child to do this or to do that, and not to do this, that, or the other. But this nagging a child is not training a child; on the contrary, it is destructive of all training on the part of him who is addicted to it. It is not the driver who is training a horse, but one who neither is trained nor can train, who is all the time "yanking" at the reins, or "thrapping" them up and down. Neither parent nor driver, in such a case, can do as much in the direction of training by doing incessantly, as by letting alone judiciously. "Don't be always don'ting," is a bit of counsel to parents that can hardly be emphasized too strongly. Don't be always directing, be a companion precept to this. Both injunctions are needful, with the tendency of human nature as it is.

Of course there must be explicit commanding and explicit prohibiting in the process of child-training, but there must also be a large measure of wise letting alone. When to prohibit and when to command, in this process, are questions that demand wisdom, thought, and character; and more wisdom, more thought, and more character, are needful in deciding the question when to let the child alone. The training of a child must go on incessantly; but a large share of the time it will best go on by the operation of influences, inspirations, and inducements, in the direction of a right standard held persistently before the child, without anything being said on the subject to the child at every step in his course of progress.—S. S. Times.

The Superior Man Takes Advice

"He who can take advice, is sometimes superior to him who can give it."

OUR ELIMS AND MARAHS.

By N. Y. Evangelist

God's mercies come so closely upon the heels of what we call our troubles, that they seem to be intended as compensations for his children. On their journey from the bondage of Egypt to the earthly Canaan, the children of Israel found Elim, with its twelve fountains of cool and refreshing water, and its threescore and ten palm trees with their grateful shade, but one station from Marah, with its waters of bitterness. They seem to have been led to it, and to have rested there, as a compensation for the afflictions at Marah, and perhaps in sight of it. So closely upon our sorrows follow undeserved mercies all along our journey to the "rest that remaineth for the people of God." We are very apt to retain a vivid remembrance of the former, and to be very prompt in forgetting the latter, if indeed we recognize them at all, and to do very much as the old Israelites did. We may not mean it, but we do it all the same. Our Elims, of which we would find many more than we do if our eyes were not so blinded by tears, are sent for the renewal and increase of our spiritual strength along our pilgrimage. Using them for that purpose, we will travel on patiently and faithfully, thankful both for Marahs and Elims, until we untie our worn and dusty sandals, and cast aside our pilgrim staves at the open gates of the New Jerusalem.—N. Y. Evangelist.

THE LORD ANSWERED JOB OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND.

Job was an Edomite Arab, an Emir, a powerful prince, and the most noted man in the land of Uz, if not in all the region of Idumea. He lived some 2,200 years B.C., 818 after the deluge, 194 before the birth of Abraham, and more than 600 before the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, and over 700 years before Heroclitus, the oldest Greek historian, and Homer, styled "the Father of History." The book which bears his name is doubtless the oldest book extant in the world to-day. In this book we have delineated the principles of Gentile theology, primitive piety, Oriental philosophy, the most exalted patience, and the clear retributions of divine Providence. And here, too, is one of the most remarkable instances of the extreme vicissitudes of human life, recorded.

From most affluent circumstances of family, wealth, honor, and influence, Job was suddenly plunged into the deepest abyss of misfortune and personal affliction. And so deep and unusual was his afflictions, that the most distinguished of the neighboring princes came to comfort him. And as Abraham with his angel guests sat under a tree at Mamre, so did Job and his friends, under the spreading branches of some friendly tree, maintain the most remarkable colloquy ever recalled by man. After seven days and seven nights were passed in utter silence, Job breaks the silence and pours forth the bitter tide of his anguished heart, into the ears of his friends. Then commenced a war of words in which were blended, illustrated, and applied, the most brilliant philosophy of the East, with the most profound religious wisdom which the world has ever seen in a similar portrayal.

And now Elihu closes the debate by summing up the arguments on both sides, showing their weakness and their strength, and condemning both parties in debate. Then "the Lord speaks to Job out of the whirlwind." Elihu had noted a whirlwind in the thirty-seventh chapter. Ezekiel's vision was prefaced with a whirlwind. And God is said to have his way in the whirlwind. Here then from out of the rolling and revolving cloud, God, in most majestic and commanding voice, addresses his servant Job, and nothing in the whole compass of language can equal the inimitable grandeur and sublimity of this divine address, as Jehovah's voice was heard in the dark and rolling cloud. He convicts Job of temerity of expression, and ignorance of thoughts, in not being able to comprehend the works of creation, the nature and structure of the earth, the sea, the light, and the animal kingdom, as displayed all around him.

He then proceeds to demonstrate Job's weakness and folly, and challenges him to observe and emulate the least display of the divine energy as seen in nature and providence. He cites him further to some of the brute creation, with which he is unable to contend by reason of their great strength—behemoth and leviathan, monsters of land and sea, and of such prodigious strength that no human power can equal them. But the sublimest part of this catechetical argument is when the Lord challenges Job to tell where is the way of the light, and the dwelling-place of darkness. And how is the light parted from the darkness? Then higher yet, O Job, thou mortal man, "Canst thou bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his seasons, or canst thou guide Arcturus and his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven, and canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Gird thyself now and tell me if thou canst? And if not, then know thy creature place."

These and like categorical interrogations so impressed and oppressed Job that he cried out in confusion and humiliation, "Behold I am vile; what shall I, what can I, answer thee. I will lay my hand upon my mouth; I will proceed no further." It was man's extremity and God's opportunity. For who can answer to God for one of a thousand? And if from the whirling cloud God's voice is so terrible, and overwhelming his language, who can answer him face to face? who stand in his presence? who measure strength with him? or who may oppose his wisdom to that of the Almighty?

But the Lord graciously loosed the bands of Job's captivity, and made him an intercessor for his friends. Here was the reward of patience and integrity, under the most trying circumstances! Job had restored to him all, and more than his former possessions.

Here are then things to be considered of profit to us. 1. The trial of Job's integrity for all the world to see. 2. Man's utter weakness in comparison with God's Omnipotence and Omniscience. 3. The abounding mercy of our covenant God towards his own children.—Herald of Truth.

PRAYER.

By James W. White

It is not prayer, This clamor of our eager wants, That fills the air With wearying, selfish plaints.

It is not faith To boldly count all gifts as ours— The pride that saith, "For me His wealth He ever showers."

It is not praise To call to mind our happier lot, And boast bright days, God-favored, with all else forgot.

II.

It is true prayer To seek the Giver more than gift, God's life to share, And love—for this our cry to lift.

It is true faith To simply trust his loving will, Which'er he saith— "Thy lot be glad" or "ill."

It is true praise To bless alike the bright and dark, To sing all days Alike, with nightingale and lark.

—Rev. James W. White, in Christian Union.

RELIGION AND BRAINS.

By Christian Commonwealth

THERE is much that has never been thought out in the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Every sentence of his doctrine is one of the artesian wells of truth. When once we have touched its meaning, it never ceases to pour out new fountains of significance, of refreshment, of cleansing, and of healing. Where, for instance, has there ever been a preacher who has been able to do more than to hint at the force of Christ's precepts on love to God: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength"?

Now here is a quadrilateral of spiritual strength which massively confronts all the malign forces of all the ages. Love to the Deity is the prime duty of every man. But this fourfold agency of love is perhaps the one great subject, the general misunderstanding of which vitiates the whole life of the race. For almost universally, love is associated solely with emotion. It is reckoned to be the cordial distilled from the strongest affections of humanity, and it is understood to be noble or ignoble according as it is idealized or sensualized. And here the common doctrine exhausts its application. But how small a beginning is this of the divine doctrine? Love in its highest application is not only a function of the heart, affection, emotion, but equally of all the mind, all the soul, and all the strength of man. If it be at all understood what this involves, the extension of signification is indeed vast and immeasurable, for the whole nature of humanity is at once involved. The mens, the mind power, the reasoning intellect, is as much concerned with love as the warm, impulsive, passional function; the psychē, the very vital essence that is distinguished by consciousness, is called to this high responsibility; and that there may be no supposed limit, the ischys is to be yoked to the faculty of love, this being the summing up of the whole capacity of manhood.

This first and great commandment receives astonishingly little attention. It is treated as if the love with all the heart were the main body of the truth, and all the other three precepts were but the tail to the theological kite. But the more these four great terms are reviewed the more convincingly does it appear that the great commandment is treated by the unconscious majority as if it were but a comparatively trivial obligation or a mere fraction of our human responsibility. The words which Christ chose sweep the whole extent of our being. Kardia covers everything that metaphysicians bring in under the realm of affection; psychē is the spiritual principle, the breath of life, which gave the name in Greek also to the winged butterfly, seen fluttering from the mouth in so many images; dianoia measures all the splendid endowment by which the philosopher discriminates between the animal soul and the human spirit, including intellect, will, memory, imagination; and ischys brings in even the physical powers, which become transfigured by association with such spiritual faculties. Here is a study at which most preachers hardly even glance. Of course none of them would deny that the subject of study exists. Preaching, as it is, does not contradict or deny it, but it for the most part ignores the extent of the empire of love. Is it wonderful, then, that love should come to be regarded as the prerogative simply of the heart? The truth is that here we have on the one hand a marvelous provision and an equally marvelous neglect of it. Christ has filled up the ocean of our needs; we persist in exploring one region alone of the glorious expanse. Man needs to love, for he is made to love, and he must in order to his own highest development love One worthy of his capacities; and, moreover, in exercising his affection he must do so with every faculty of his nature.—Christian Commonwealth.

LIBRARIES UNDER THE SANDS.

THE learned gentlemen who constitute the Victoria Institute of London, enjoyed at their last meeting a paper written by Professor Sayce that gave a historical description of what has become known in regard to the conquests of Amenophis III. The recently discovered archives of the old king's palace were carefully investigated by Professor Sayce, and he learned from the tablets and inscriptions that literary intercourse was not unknown in the civilized world of Western Asia as long ago as the fifteenth century before the Christian era; that there was, indeed, a great deal of bookishness, so to speak, between Babylon and Egypt, and in the smaller States of Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, etc. This state of affairs was not unsuspected by those who have cared to gain some history of the ancients, from available sources, even before the estimable Victoria Institute came into existence. Nevertheless, the world must be interested in two of Professor Sayce's inferences—first, that Babylonian was the court and diplomatic language of that day, as French in modern times; second, that under the ruins and débris of Kirjath-Sepher (interpreted "Booktown") there is a tablet library awaiting the spade of the excavator. It is assumed that Kirjath-Sepher was the seat of a famous library, and, as the town was also known as the "sanctuary," that the library, composed of clay tablets with cuneiform indenture, was stowed in the temple, like those of Assyria and Babylonia. From this assumption to the other, that Babylon exercised a widespread literary influence, is easy and natural, and this influence, we are told, explains the use of the names of Babylonian deities among the inhabitants of the West. Nebo, the mount on which Moses died, received its name from the Babylonian god of literature. These tablets make clear another point, concerning which the distinguished archeologist says:—

"Ever since the progress of Egyptology made it clear that Rameses II. was the Pharaoh of the oppression, it was difficult to understand how so long an interval of time as the whole period of the eighteenth dynasty could lie between him and the 'new king,' whose rise seems to have been followed almost immediately by the servitude and oppression of the Hebrews. The tablets of Tel-el-Amarna now show that the difficulty does not exist. Up to the death of Khu-en-Aten, the Semite had greater influence than the native in the land of Mizraim."

Moreover, a matter of consolation to many people of religious sentiment whose faith has had some knocks from learned skeptics, these Tel-el-Amarna tablets adduce corroborative testimony to the historic accuracy of the Pentateuch, though we are yet ignorant what is the evidence rescued from the palace of Amenophis. Should the Sayce conjecture be justified by the fact, and a library be unearthed from the ruins of Kirjath-Sepher, the discovery will be one of inestimable value to the world of science and philosophy, for it would probably introduce us to the literature of one of the highest civilizations in ancient times. The Tel-el-Amarna tablets, that are accounted the greatest historic discovery of the century, are, perhaps, 3,500 years old, and supply a link between sacred and profane history that is of the highest importance. If there lie under the sands of Syria and Palestine the rich libraries the judgment of such men as Sayce accredits to that keep of ages, clearly the student would have a great duty to perform in its rescue from long oblivion. What discoveries have been made signify with what pains the cuneiform writers preserved the records of their times, celebrating the achievements of princes, and the thoughts of wise men. That one of these cities should be known as "Booktown" proves the likelihood that there were massed libraries of more than ordinary value and importance to a people cultivated in the art of literature to the extent it is probable the Babylonians were. The societies of savants in Europe—English, French, and German—should co-operate to the end of making the fullest and most thorough search for these treasures; and it would be an honorable thing to do would some of the rich Americans who are interested in historic research, contribute of their means to the furtherance of a work of such dignity. There is no good reason why America should not share in the honors of these Old World discoveries.—Chicago Inter-Ocean.

SILENCED.

A DANCING professor felt it his duty to try to win one of his many associates to Christ. "Oh, —," said he, "I long to see you a Christian; do come to Jesus; won't you?" "For what?" was the blunt rejoinder. "Why, for salvation. Don't you want to be saved?" "Yes, I do; but what particular sins do you want me to be saved from?" "Why, we are all sinners, you know." "Yes, I know; but I do not cheat, lie, swear, nor use tobacco. What lack I yet?" "Do you pray?" "No; do you?" "Yes," said the "Name-to-Live," "I pray for you." "For me! When, I'd like to know? Monday night you were at the dance; Tuesday night I met you at the ball, and we didn't get home, you know, until four o'clock in the morning; Wednesday night I saw you at the sociable, and, like the rest of us, you 'carried on like sixty;' Thursday night I don't know where you were; but if cards could testify they would tell what you and I were up to until two o'clock Friday night, and now it is Saturday, and for the life of me I can't tell what time you've had for prayer this week, or when you could have felt

like it. Oh, I forgot. Your church holds a prayer-meeting every Thursday evening, does it not?" "Yes." "And was that where you were last Thursday night?" "Yes, certainly." "Did you pray for me there?" "I tried to," was the faint response. "Well, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but for conscience' sake don't do that again. If you pray for anybody, pray for yourself. You claimed when you were converted to have had more happiness in one hour than you had had in your whole life before, and if that had been true I should have been a Christian long before now; but, as far as I can see, you seek your happiness just where I do—in the world; and if it is right for you, it can't be wrong for me." So saying, he departed, leaving his friend to ponder upon his ways, and wonder how effectual and fervent the prayers of one could be who was trying faithfully to serve God and mammon, or how much such prayers would avail in the salvation of lost souls.—Christian Secretary.

YOUR BIBLE.

By Julia H. Thayer

LET it be open upon your table at all times—you can afford to spare it room enough for that—where you may find it a refuge to which you may continually resort. Read it in the morning when your mind is clear, and before bodily fatigue renders the act a hard duty instead of a delight. Prepare your heart for conflict, out of this wonderful armory of everlasting truth, and learn at least one of its watch-words each day, that you may be ready to answer every challenge.

Do not think it your duty to enjoy equally each inspired book, simply because it is the word of God, but read and study at first such parts as you like best and can fully understand; and thus will you be led up gradually to a better appreciation of all the rest. One object of its infinite variety of style and subject would seem to be, that it affords satisfaction to every demand of heart, soul, and spirit.

Do not be afraid of injuring the books of your Bible by too much use, but mark freely your favorite passages. Let this book be indeed the "home of the soul;" live in it, use it daily. Furnish its spacious, white chambers of thought with the common experiences of your life, where helpful angels of memory will rise to greet you whenever you may choose to return to them.

When you come across any of those puzzling questions that you cannot understand, and that the ages have sought in vain to answer, exercise your faith by turning your mind away from them and dwelling, instead, upon such themes as are profitable to you. Those things that are closest to us, and ever within our reach, are the ones that are the most necessary to our highest good. Acknowledge the inadequacy of a finite mind to comprehend one that is infinite, and be content to wait for God's answer to every question that seems unanswerable.

Do not read your Bible hastily, formally, or from a sense of duty. Remember that the grandest human minds have acknowledged it to be the Book of books, considered both intellectually and spiritually. Make a study of its shining words, turning them over and over again and looking at them from all points of vision; for so long as you do this, just so long will they continue to crystallize into new and strikingly beautiful forms. Only those who look thus lovingly can see the divine revelations, for truly the "secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." Only the seeker is told that he shall find; only the asker is promised that he shall receive; only to the one who knocks comes the sweet assurance that the door shall be opened. The Bible is the "door," leading out of the black dungeon of sin into the blessed light and freedom of Christ's merciful love. Then search and ask and knock, for within that golden portal is eternal life.—Julia H. Thayer, in Interior.

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