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" Sanctify them through Thy troth : Thy Word is froth."—John 1 vii. 17.

Vol. 12.

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1896. No. 39.

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HOW TO MEET ENTICERS.

" My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Prov. i. 10.

HERE is the Father's voice speaking to His child. In nine brief words it warns us of the danger that assails us, and gives us the secret of our defence.

The Danger.—" If sinners entice thee." The enticers have to be met. We are on the enemy's ground, there are sinners on every hand. Our adversary the devil is very vigilant and always busy. So are his subjects, for the deeds of their father will they do. The most characteristic " deed " of the great tempter is to seduce souls into sin. His children take after him.

AN evil-doer has a longing for company' in wickedness, and will work to lead others astray with a zeal worthy of a better cause. When men or women are morally fallen they are possessed with an over-mastering desire to drag others down also. When a man apostatises from the truth his one idea seems to be to draw away disciples after himself. Hence we have the enticer ; he comes to us with soft and honeyed words, and often in the form of an angel of light. We are surrounded by danger—let us watch and be sober.

The Defence —" Consent thou not."

of Jc s ph, always effectual. It is just the reverst tactics of the enemy's attack. His strength lies in a gradual, wind-about approach; ours in a sudden and total resistance. It must be a blunt and per-remptory " NO ! " This is a very small word, but to say " No " effectually and finally so that it means " No," is a great accomplishment. In fact to be able to say " No " to man and " Yes " to God sums up the whole Christian life.

MANY fail on this point : they mean to refuse, but they try to resist gradually, to do it po-litely f fear of giv-ing offence. They hesi-ate, pre-

varicate and are lost.

with Jesus." But poor Peter followed afar off, and then " stood without; " so John went out and brought him in. Then Peter went with the crowd and mixed with them as one of them and warmed himself at the soldiers' fire. We know the result. A girl pointed him out as a disciple of Jesus. His one denial led to two more, and soon he was cursing and swearing. Our safety lies in taking a firm open stand. Don't be afraid of a laugh or a sneer. " If sinners entice thee consent thou not." " Resist the devil and he will flee from you." FRANCIS HOPE.

" AND PETER "

WHEN the women came to the sepulchre on that morning of the third day the angel reminded them that Christ had said He would rise again the third day, and told them to hasten to tell the disciples. Mark's narrative adds two words, not mentioned by the other writers, which

we know meant so much to one in that sor-

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Every moment it is the more difficult to resist, and that which is lost has to be re-gained. The shortest answer is the best. To come out boldly and show our colours is the safest way; people will then know what we are, and we will be saved a deal of further trouble and annoyance; but he who dallies and procrastinates will always be in trouble.

Peter's Failure.—Of this the following is a strong illustration. John and Peter both went into the palace of the high priest when Jesus was on trial. John went in boldly and did not attempt to dis-guise that he was a disciple. " He was

It is short and sharp, but, as in the- case known unto the high priest, and went in

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" Go your way, tell His disciples, and Peter."

Poor Peter had denied his Lord, and then knowing his awful sin, and remem-bering Christ's words, that before the hour of cock-crowing he would deny Him thrice, his heart must have well-nigh broken as the Lord turned upon him that last look of love and sorrow. It must have been the love in the look that kept any heart at all in him ; and now on the morning .of the third day, with no recollection of Christ's words regarding the rising again from the dead, with only the leaden sor-row of his sin weighing upon his soul, he must have wept at the dawning of another day of waking and reflection.

Eta THE PRESENT TRUTH. No 30

But then came the word that the angel spoke: " Tell His disciples, and Peter." The Lord knew Peter's sorrow ; and how that special Personal message must have thrilled the burdened heart ! It is not to be wondered at that the fervency of Peter's desire to see Jesus and fall at His feet was rewarded by an interview that same day. We are told that the Lord had appeared to Peter before He appeared to all together. All assembled were to see Him that day that they might be witnesses of the fact that He rose the third day according to the Scriptures ; but the tender compassion of the Lord for the erring, even for the one weakly denying Him with cursing, was shown for the encouragement of the re-pentant sinner in all time by that special message and the special interview.

It was the prayer of the Lord, too, that saved Peter in the midst of his sin, and gave him repentance and contrition of heart. Jesus had told him that Satan was trying to get him into his power, that he might sift him as wheat. "But I have prayed for thee," He said, " that thy faith fail not." Luke xxii. 31. It was the prayer of Christ that saved Peter from utter shipwreck ,of faith. We may well think it a blessed thing to have the prayers of such an One, and long for such a pro-mise as that for ourselves. We have it. " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." John xvii. 20. Jesus prays for every believer. " The Spirit itself maketh intercession." God longs to help and to save. Peter's awful sin could not baffle the love of God which brought him to repentance and to the feet of Christ, more humble, less self-reliant. That love is drawing every sinner to-day. Oh, that God's goodness might yet lead to repentance the multitudes who are refusing to be drawn, and still continue to do de-spite to the Spirit of Grace.

SUNDAY ENFORCEMENT GROWING

PARAGRAPHS continue to appear in the public prints, showing the' steady growth of the spirit for the enforcement of Sunday observance. This is from a late Echo:—

The Oleethorpes (Lincolnshire) District Council have adopted resolutions dealing with the Sunday trading question. They have decided that no boats or hackney carriages shall be allowed to ply for hire on Sundays. The maximum penalty for offences against the byelaw is to be five pounds with the oanoelling of the license. All street touting and the shouting of wares is also pro-hibited. Bathing machines are in future to be licensed and inspected, and not allowed to be hired .out on Sundays. In addition to passing these

resolutions, a vigorous protest has been made against the drinking that is allowed on Sunday trains.

Such ordinances as these are quite in keeping with the ancient, mediaeval, Sun-day statutes,—but are they in consonance with modern knowledge of what the true scope of law is ? Why is it, that having enjoyed a period in which ecclesiastical tyranny, and legal enforcement of religious forms, has been measurably in abeyance we are now so rapidly retrograding into mediEevalism ? From the point of view of true religion, and right reason, nothing could be more irreligious or more unrea-sonable. But we know by the unfailing testimony of the Scriptures that this form of the expression of the workings of the " mystery of lawlessness " will increase.

GODS POOR-LAW.

CHRIST said, " The poor ye have always with you." In saying this He repeated the thought expressed in the eleventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of Deutero-nomy,—the chapter which contains God's poor-law given to the Israelites. This eleventh verse says, " For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land." Where such regulations as this existed, and were lived up to, would it be possi-ble that there should be antagonism be-tween the " classes and the masses " ? Where every rich man's hand was open to satisfy the needs of his employees, and of the poor about him,—and no debt or obligation but what was outlawed every seventh year,—in that community there would be no deaths from hunger and cold, and no bread riots.

The poor we have always with us, indeed they are with us still after all these centuries. But why are all our. poor-laws and multitudinous charities so inefficient in stemming the tide of pov-erty and holding its increase in check ? Why is it that the old farmer's grim philosophy is so true and it remains a sad and still sadder fact that " the poor in a loomp are bad " ? It is true because there is no release for them. They are bound in their poverty, and the misery and degradation which it causes, for ever. Not only for life, but for generation after generation. Those who are born to the inheritance of poverty are likely to in-crease their inheritance, and leave to their offspring a legacy of still deeper and more hopeless indigence, with the sun-

shine of a possible hope obscured by clouds of yet darker ignorance.

The first section of this poor-law reads: "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth aught unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother ; because it is called the Lord's release." This means that with the end of every seventh year all accounts should be closed and all books balanced. Whatever the amounts might be then remaining unsettled they must be charged up to profit and loss, and new accounts opened with no " amount transferred " to begin the page. No keep-ing alive of old obligations, no debtors' prison, no distraint, no bankruptcy pro-cedure.

What effect would it have on commer-cial affairs to adopt such a business rule to-day? It certainly would simplify mat-ters amazingly, although it might not be thought, at first, that such would be the case. How business men would smile at such an idea! " The plan of a financial crank,—repudiation, and universal bank-ruptcy every seven years," they would say. By no means I Universal solvency every seven years,—with an assured and healthy business thereafter, on a sound basis of ever increasing reliability. God's financing of the world cannot be bettered, and it is because men have not been con-tent to follow the methods He has sug-gested, but have undertaken, as they thought, to improve upon them, for their own selfish individual benefit, that money and lands are now gathering into few hands,—so that the few have more than

they can use or utilise and the many have

nothing. This condition is rapidly turn-ing to the injury of those who thought to benefit by it, and will eventually be their destruction.

The day is surely coming when all these hoards will be found to be as unfortunate a possession as was the talent which the unprofitable servant wrapped in a napkin and hid in the ground. What a multitude, in the day of the second death, will realise the reality of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus ! Is it to be wondered at, that, after the incident of the rich young

man who turned from following Him be-cause he had great possessions, Christ, looking down the centuries to come, and seing the history which they were to make, said, so sadly, " Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." And this be-cause of failure to obey God's poor-law.

September 24

THE PRFSENT •

THE FINAL FINAL DELIYERANCE.

" Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea ; Jehovah has triumphed ; His people are free."

LET us read the story in • brief, as re-corded by inspiration. " And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that Was in the dungeon ; and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt ; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel ; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone ; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, to send them out of the land in haste ; for they said, We be all dead men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses ; and they asked * of the Egyptians jewels of

* Many hard speeches have been uttered against the children of Israel, and even against the Lord, because of the word " borrowed" which is found in the common version. It is a mistaken rendering of the original. The children of Israel had worked hard and long for nothing, and now they asked for something in return. What they rtceived was theirs by right.

silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment ; and the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

" And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses ' to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them ; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle." Ex. xii. 29-38, R. V.

" And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that way was near ; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea." Ex. xiii. 17, 18.

" And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead thein the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light ; to go by day and night : He took not away the pillar of the cloud by the day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." Verses 20-22.

" And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon ; before it ye shall encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh

will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them ; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host ; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so.

" And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled ; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him ; and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel ; and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them, .all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea." EX. xiv. 1-9.

" And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid ; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians ? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

" And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you to-day ; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them no more again for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Verses 10-14.

With the manner of their deliverance, everybody is familiar : how at the command of the Lord the sea went back and left a path through the midst of it, so that the children of Israel went through dry-shod, and how when the Egyptians attempted to do the same thing, the sea rushed back and swallowed them up. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land ; which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." Heb. xi. 29. Let us note a few lessons that we are to learn from this history.

1. It was God that was leading the people. And it came to pass, when

612 THE PRESENT TRUTH. No. 30.

Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines." Moses no more knew what to do, or which way to go, than the people did, only as the Lord told him. God could tell Moses, because " Moses was faithful in all His house."

2. When the people murmured, they were murmuring against God, instead of against Moses. When they said to Moses, " Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt ? " they were really denying the agency of God in the matter, although they had well known that it was God who had sent Moses to them.

3. At the first sight of danger the faith of the people oozed away. They forgot what God had already done for them, and how powerfully He had wrought for their • deliverance. The last judgment upon the Egyptians should have been sufficient of itself to teach them to trust in the Lord, and that He was abundantly able to save them from those of the Egyptians who yet remained alive.

4. God did not design that the people should do any fighting. He led them through the wilderness, in order that they might not see war. Yet He knew that if they went the way that they did, the Egyptians would surely pursue them. The children of Israel never had any greater need of fighting than they did when the Egyptians closed in on them by the Red Sea ; yet the word then was, " The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." It may be said that the reason why the Lord did not wish them to see war was because they were as yet un-prepared for fighting. That was true enough ; but on the other hand we must remember that the Lord was as able to fight for them afterwards as He was then, and that on other occasions He did deliver them without their striking a blow. When we consider the circumstances of their de-liverance from Egypt,—how it was all accomplished by the direct power of God, without any human power, their part being only to follow and obey His word,—we must be convinced that it was not according to the plan of .God that they should do any fighting in self-defence.

5. We are also to learn that the shortest and the apparently easiest way is not always the best way. The route through the land of the Philistines was the shortest, but it was not the best one for the Israelites to take. The fact that we get into difficult places, where we cannot see our way out, is no evidence that God has not been leading us. God led the children

of Israel into that narrow place in the wilderness, between the mountains and the sea, just as surely as He led them out of Egypt. He knew that they could not help themSelves in such a trap, and He led them there deliberately, in order that they might see as never before that it was God Himself who was responsible for their safety, and that He was fully able to discharge the task which He had under-taken. Their trouble was for the purpose of teaching them trust in God.

6. Lastly, we must learn not to condemn them for their unbelief. " Thou art in-excusable, 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself ; for thou that judgest doest the same things." Rom. ii. 1. When we condemn them for not trusting the Lord, we show that we know that there is no excuse for our murmuring and fear. We have all the evidence of the power of God that they had, and a great deal more besides. If we can see clearly how foolish their fear was, and how wicked their murmurings, then let us see to it that we do not show ourselves still more foolish and wicked.

"THE SECOND TIME."

THERE is one more lesson that we must note in this connection, and it is of so much importance that special attention must be called to it, for it includes all the others. We learn it from the eleventh chapter of Isaiah That chapter contains in few words the whole story of the Gospel, from the birth of Christ till the final deliverance of the saints in the kingdom of God, and the destruction of the wicked.

" There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots ; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord ; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears ; but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and•reprove with equity for the meek of the earth ; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins." Isa. xi. 1-5.

Compare the first part of the above with Luke iv. 16-18, and the last part with Rev. xix. 11-21, and we shall see how much it covers. It brings us down to the destruction of the wicked. It covers the

entire day of salvation. " And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek ; and His rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Verses 10-12.

Here again we have the deliverance of God's people brought to view. It is the second time that God sets His hand to the task, and it will be successful. He set His hand to the task the first time in the days of Moses ; but the people entered not in because of unbelief. The second time will result in the everlasting salvation of His people. Notice that the final gathering of His people is through Christ, who is the ensign for the nations ; for God is visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. They are to be gathered " from the four corners of the earth ; " for " He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. xxiv. 31.

That this deliverance is to be in the last days, even at the very close of time, is apparent from the fact that He gathers " the remnant " of His people, that is, the very last one of them. And now note this promise and reminder : " And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." Isa.

xi. 16.

Bear in mind the fact that the work of delivering Israel from Egypt began a long time before the day that they left that land. It began the very day that Moses reached Egypt and began to tell the people about the purpose of God to fulfil the promise to Abraham. All the display of the power of God in Egypt, which was but the proclamation of the Gospel, was a part of the work of deliverance. Even so in the day when the Lord sets His hand the second time to deliver the remnant of His people. That day is now, for " behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. vi. 2. All

Wiel/ed Cgueltg.

HERE is a horse at the bottom of a hill, with a load as great as he can possibly draw on a level road. Every particle of strength that the poor horse has is exerted to draw the load on the smooth, level road; hit notwithstanding that, the merciless driver plies the lash with all his might, to try to compel the horse to draw it up the hill, a thing which is impossible. Could anything be more wickedly cruel? If the horse had sufficient strength, a little application of the whip would incite him to use it, but it cannot impart any strength to him. Whipping a horse never adds to his strength ; and so to whip a horse to make him do that

Septemper 24. THE PRESENT TRUTH. 613

Israel shall be saved, because " There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Born. xi. 26. The work of delivering God's people from the bondage of sin is the same as the final deliverance. When the Lord comes the second time He " shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself." Phil. iii. 21. The power by which our bodies will be changed,—the power of the resurrection,—is the power by which our sins are subdued and we are delivered from their control. It is by the same power that was displayed in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

" I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Rom. i. 16. Whoever wishes to know how great that power is, has only to look at the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the dividing of the Red Sea, to see a practical

example of it: That is the power that is to accompany the preaching of the Gospel in the days just before the coming of the Lord.

THE " LOST " TRIBES

A CONTEMPORARY, commenting on As-syrian inscriptions, refers to the theory which t-ies to identify the " lost " ten tribes of Israel with modern Gentile na-tions. The Assyrian records are said to agree in all important particulars with the Bible account of the captivity, and state that Sargon carried away from Samaria 27,280 persons. Others were added after-wards, perhaps doubling the number, and the inscriptions state that he also sent Arabs into the land, which formed the mixed multitude that caused so much trouble after the return from the Babylo-nish captivity. " The system of deporta-tion practised by the despots of that day," says the writer, " never sent the entire people of a land into exile," but only those " whom it was feared might cause rebellion."

We know this, that after the restoration of the temple, in the days of Ezra and Nehe-miah, " all Israel dwelt in their cities." Neh. vii. 73.

The article of which we speak concludes

thus :—

" In reality the ten tribes never were lost.' The few people carried away by

Tiglath Pileser form an insignificant con-tingent compared with the masses that re-mained. They could not have constituted one tenth of the people. The deported were not tribes, or larger parts of tribes, but only individuals, or at most families. These, indeed, have been lost,' but lost beyond a least chance of rediscovery. The tribes as such remained in Canaan, and absorbed the heathen settlers that were sent in. The division into tribes signified little or nothing in later times; the division into tribal territory was not regarded. Anna, of the tribe of Asher, dwells in Jerusalem ; Joseph, the carpenter, of. the tribe of Judah, in Nazareth ; Paul, a Ben-jamite, in Tarsus; Barnabas, a Levite, in Cyprus, etc. In general, the Jew of the New Testament era knew as little from what tribe he came as does the modern

2

WICKED CRUELTY.

which he has no strength to do, is fiendishness. Who would not feel indignation at such cruelty,?

Here is a man who is " without strength " to do that which is right. That weakness he shares in common with all men, " because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7. No man is stronger than Christ was, and He said, " I can of Mine own self do nothing ; " " the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John v. 30 ; xiv. 10. And now a company of men associated to-gether in some capacity, decide that that man shall be compelled by all the pains and penalties of civil law, to serve the Lord. They will bring all the machinery of Government to bear upon him, to compel him to do that which is utterly beyond his power. If the other is fiendishness, what is this?

Ought not the man to do right ?—Yes. Does not God require Him to do right ?—Most certainly. Then why is it wrong for his fellow-men to try to compel him to do what the Lord requires him to do ?—Simply because the Lord Himself does not seek to compel man to do that which is right. Le knows that that would be of no use. He knows that man has nut the power, and so He Hinllielf supplies the power that the man needs. He comes and works in the man, both to will and to do of Lis good pleasure." Surely God's way is infinitely above man's way.

International Tract E cie: y, C9, Pale: noster Row, London.

This leaflet is supplied for general distribution at the rate of 2s. 6d. per thousand, net. In packets of 100, 6d. eaoh, with usual discount to tract societies. It briefly suggests the wrong principles underlying all religious legislation, and is a timely document for circulation just now,

614 THE PRESENT TRUTH.

No 39

Jew. Then as now the Jews were cosmo-politan. Their Diaspora was scattered over the entire world. Everywhere they found they could prosper as well, or even better, than in their native land. The endless wars in Palestine finally destroyed them as a nation altogether, in the days of Titus and Hadrian. This great Diaspora embraced representatives of all the tribes of Israel. Among modern Jews all these tribes, without any doubt, have their descendants. In other words, the lost ' tribes never have been, and are not now, lost.' "

" MANY PEOPLE SHALL GO AND SAY : "

IN a recent article on the proposed Treaty of International Arbitration be-tween Great Britain and the United States, there is this sentence : " If the grand object in view, accepted as it is in principle by both governments, can once be effectually realised, all the civilised nations of the world will follow our ex-ample, and thus, by degrees, the cruelty, injustice, and folly of war will come to au

end." It is a noble hope, but futile. This is

the time when the nations are crying, Peace ! Peace ! and there is no peace, and will be no peace. The logic of the law of nations in the court of last resort is inevitably and invariably the trial by battle, and always will be so as long as time lasts. But certainly, however feeble and eventually useless the protest against war may be, it is well, indeed it should be the duty of all men, citizens, and Chris-tians, to make it.

It is the noblest opportunity for lofty thought, and word. and deed, which this world affords, to stand in calm fronted op-position to the tide of Satanic evil, of which war is one expression,—and yet we should not deceive ourselves as to when and where the victory is to be. The day has surely come when, as prophesied in the second chapter of Isaiah, many people are saying, Let us beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning-hooks, " nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

But the prophet did not say that the word of the people would be fulfilled. No, the Scripture tells us quite the contrary. So, while applauding every noble and hu-mane effort, those will not be disappointed who look only for that of which they have assurance in the Word of God. There is the Divine promise of peace on earth and good will among men, but the enjoyment

of this is not promised while. Satan and his servants, wicked men and angels, re-main in existence,—this is to be realised in the purified, renewed earth under the reign of the Prince of Peace.

DELIVERANCE FROM A SCOURGE.

IT is God's power that causes the earth to bring forth its fruit, the same word that caused the plants to spring up in the beginning still working. This manifesta- tion of God's blessing is so regular and commonplace that even Christians too often fail to recognise the Divine care in it, and the worldling congratulates himself on the good luck or the careful planning which secured him a good crop, without giving a thought to the Being whose life is springing up in the herbs to give food for man and beast. In the Home Missionary, one of the organs of our Society in America, we find the following simple narrative, written by a woman in one of the Western States, showing how this Divine care was manifested in a special way, in the blessing upon the fields in time of plague. One year the grasshoppers, a scourge like the locusts, had destroyed nearly all the fields in the region and had deposited eggs so thickly that the prospects for the next year were very forbidding. The writer says :—

" My father was an old man in very feeble health ; mother was not strong, and I had two little brothers. My health was also very poor ; and our income was small. Still, we were not discouraged ; we studied the Bible, and believed that the promises of God were the same to us in these last days as they were to His people in olden times, and we laid the matter before Him. We told Him how we were situated, and asked Him to bless us in planting a garden, and to protect it from the grasshoppers ; and we believed He would do it. We knew that He was the same God yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and that His promises were sure ; they could not fail. We had known them to be verified many times. We loved the Lord, and we knew that He loved us.

" In the spring when the grasshoppers hatched out, they covered a large portion of our small garden spot. To all outward appearance, it would be useless to plant a garden there. However, we had the ground prepared, and planted our garden, trusting in the Lord to protect it from the grasshoppers. When the seeds came up, there were no grasshoppers in our garden, and the vegetables grew rapidly. When the grasshoppers were full grown, in the time of day when they hopped and flew, it somided like the fast falling of hail all round and over the garden; and iu the

time of day when they were quiet, they were in great heaps round the garden.

" When I went into the garden, and saw everything growing so thriftily, exceeding everything I had ever seen or heard of, and the grasshoppers so very thick round it; and knew that everything else was destroyed for many miles round by them, it seemed almost like holy ground. I could not but think what a kind heavenly Father we have, and how utterly unworthy we are of His favours."

Not only were the grasshoppers.prevented from destroying the garden, but the yield was extraordinarily heavy.

" When people came to buy of us, they wondered at the abundant yield, in the midst of the grasshoppers. Even those who were not Christians, when they saw our garden, would exclaim, How you are bleissed ! '

" It was for no good thing that we had done, but through the abundant love and goodness of God, who is great in goodness, and good in greatness.' We took the Lord at His word ; we believed He would do as He had promised, and He did not disap-point us. I am sure it grieves the Lord when we disbelieve Him. I believe the Lord is willing, and more than willing, to give us such things as we need, if we ask Him. He says He will do more for us, if we trust Him, than we can ask or even think. We asked a blessing; the Lord gave us sevenfold.

" We had just begun to pay tithes, it being the first time we had ever heard anything on the tithing system, and had not noticed what the Lord says in Mal. iii. 8-11: Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee ? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse : for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and He shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.' In this the Lord fulfilled His promise, and if we love and trust Him, He will do greater things for us than this. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for

His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men ! ' "

The Golden Rose —The Princess of Bulgaria has received the Pope's " golden rose." It goes to the Princess named be-cause she so vehemently protested against having the baby Prince Boris " converted" to the Greek Church. But the baby had to change his religion notwithstanding. The rose that the Pope gives is worth in-trinsically about £2,000, and stands in a golden pot, which bears the papal coat of

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September 24 THE PRESENT TRUTH. 615

arms. This gift is designed for royal ladies only, who are thus rewarded for distinguished service to the Roman Church. A prelate and a guard are sent to bear the gift to the recipient. It is thus that the head of a religious organisation uses the arts which immense wealth places in his hands to gain favour with royalty. It is said that the Pope's gift to Princess Maud, on the occasion of her recent wedding, was the first papal gift to English royalty since 200 years ago.

INDIA AND HER PEOPLE.

times as many people. It lies between the Himalaya Mountains on the north and the Indian Ocean on the South. To the west is the Arabian Sea, Beluchistan and Afghadistan. The country has a coast line of about five thousand miles.

Till recent years the history of India has been but a record of superstition, dark-ness, carnage, and blood. War and strife at the present moment are suppressed, but notwithstanding all the efforts of Christian missionaries for the past century very much of the superstition and more of the darkness still remains. Schools and col-leges have been multiplied in the land and they have done much in removing the superstitious ideas of the people so far as their influence has extended, but common

education does not dissipate the dark-ness.

An English journal last year very aptly described the situation in this great field. It said : " There is matter for thought in the words of a missionary in Calcutta, the devil has gone out of many things in

India as a barbarous demon, but he has come back as a polished and civilised fiend ; and he is more difficult to fight in the latter guise.' Civilisation is not by any meaus Christianity, although it is often thought to be. The highest civilisa-tion is in itself nothing but polished heathenism. The devil as an angel of light is more dangerous than when he ap-pears as the foul fiend Apollyon. Not civilisation, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified' is the one thing needed in all lands."

Christianity will make men civil, but civilisation will not make men Christians. Many of these people who have to a cer-tain extent adopted Western ideas of civili-sation, who have looked with wonder and admiration upon the progress of the West in literature, science and art, have also been more ready to adopt Western scepti-cism and infidelity than they have to fol-low the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is safe to say that thousands of these educated Hindus, educated in professedly Christian schools, possess the idea that Christianity is a science to be studied as one would study astronomy or mathe-matics, and when he has thus demon-strated its reasonableness he has one more theory to hold; but since Christianity is

not demonstrated in that way he concludes it is little worth and so drops the subject as unworthy of his attention.

What these people need to see and know is that Christianity is demonstrated not by a theory but by a life, even by the life of Him who gave His life, so that those receiving it should be able to say, " Nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for Inc.''

The one great object of Seventh-day Adventists in India, or anywhere else for that matter, is to teach the people that one thing that Christianity is a life, a life con-formable to all the requirements of its Divine Author. What a work is that I Well may we say, " Who is sufficient for these things ? " Certainly we are not. ,But we need not despair for " our suffi-ciency is of God " who is an all-sufficient Saviour, and an all-sufficient Helper in every time of need.

I have thus spoken of the educated classes, but they are few compared with the great mass of the people ; and yet from these the truth of God will find representa-tives.

The contemplation of the great mass of humanity in this country is apalling, es-pecially so when one considers that the great majority of these know not God, at this moment are bowing down to gods of wood and stone, and have no hope in the world that is of any worth. This vast area of about one and a-half millions of square miles has a population of nearly two hun-dred souls for every one of these square miles. Here are about two hundred and eighty millions of our fellow-beings, more than ninety-five per cent. of whom are still in the darkness of heathenism, and Mohammedanism, which amounts to the sate thing. The highest estimate of the number who have embraced Christianity that I have seen is about two millions, but two-thirds of these are Roman Catholics, leaving two-thirds of a million as the num-ber who profess Protestantism.

The Romish Church finds it compara-tively easy work to turn these heathen into her fold. Francis Xavier, the associate of Loyola was the man who gave the greatest impulse to Catholicism in India. Of his work he wrote: " It often happens to me that my hands fail through the fatigue of baptizing, for I have baptized a whole village in a single day; and often by re-peating so frequently the Creed and other things, my voice and strength have failed me."

But our work is not to persuade men to nod assent to a creed, but to lead them to Him who will save them from the guilt and power of sin. Only through the Lord Jesus Christ can this mighty work be ac-complished.

BRITISH India, including Burmah, is about eleven times the size of the United

e Kingdom, and contains more than seven

616 THE PRESENT TRUTH. No 39.

"0 for the living flame From His own altar brought

To touch our lips, our souls inspire, And wing to heaven our th 111;4."

Here are more than one hundred differ-ent languages and dialects. The leading one is Hindu Urdu used by more than eighty millions of people. Next comes the Bengali spoken by about forty millions. Then!there are Telugu, Mahratta, Punjabi, Tamil, Gujarati, Canarese, Uryia, Ma-layalum, Burmese, Sindi, A ssamese, Kol, Santali, Gondi, Pushtu, Karen and Tulu, beside many others, though these are the principal ones. Into most of these lan-guages the Scriptures or portions of them have been translated.

The first Protestant missionary to India was William Carey. He landed in Cal-cutta November 11, 1793. Carey spent the last forty years of his life in this country. . At the end of the first nine years his heart was made glad by seeing the first convert to Christianity, whose name was Krishna Chundra Pal. By accident this man's arm was put out of joint which led him to apply to Mr. Thomas the medi-cal missionary, Carey's associate. It may be interesting to note that this convert was the author of that good old hymn,

0 thou, my soul, forget no more The Friend who all thy sorrows bore ; Let every idol be forgot, But, 0 my soul, forget Him not."

At the close of 1804 there were forty persons, men and women, who had ac-cepted Christ, and six years later there were three hundred, more than one third of whom were added in the last year named. The marks of Carey's work still remain while he sleeps in Him whom he had learned to trust.

But the message of truth is still to go to millions who have not heard the glad news of a risen and living Saviour, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him. To us is presented the privilege of bearing this message to these darkened perishing souls. Will we all help to do it? Or will we permit unbelief to come in and turn us away from the work which must and will be done ? Oh, that every soul who professes to believe this message would arise in the strength of living faith and say that not only to India's crying millions, but to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, we will, in the name and strength of Him whose the message is, send it forth and so hasten the coming of that day when it shall be said, " The king-doms of this world are become the king-dom of our Lord and of His Christ." And then in that day both those who have gone forth into all lands and those who have by their means and their prayers of faith fol-lowed them and cheered them on, will meet round the great white throne and see those for whom they have sacrificed and laboured, saved at last. I greatly desire to attend that wonderful meeting, but my 8011l desires something even more than

that now, and that is to see men and women who are wholly given up to the Lord and His work scattered over this land and the jewels gathered out from the darkness and rubbish of sin and made ready for the glad day which is so soon to come. Who will enter these places? Who will help to have them entered ?

Calcutta. D. A. RosiNsox.

JOYFUL THANKSGIVING.

Isaiah

LET my heart praise Thee, 0 God ; For though Thou west angry with me,

Thine anger is turned, and Thy rod Stayed, and Thou comfortest me.

Unto God dot& salvation belong. I will trust and will not be afraid.

Jehovah's my strength and my song, I will rest and will be undismayed.

With joy let us draw from the well Of salvation that flows through the land,

And call on all nations to swell The praises His mercies demand.

0 sing to the Lord, praise His name Make mention how high is His state.

All the earth bath the sound of His fame. Declare His most glorious estate.

Cry out and shout, Praise the Lord I O inhabitant of Zion give praise ;

For great is the Holy One, adored, Who dwelleth in the midst of thy place.

FANNIE BOLTON.

TO THE WORK.

THE true worker for God wrestles with God in prayer, and puts intense earnest-ness into the work of saving lost souls. He does not seek to exalt self by word or deed, but simply seeks to win souls. God pronounces the purest, the meekest, the most childlike Christian, the best worker for Him, the mightiest in labour for souls. Heavenly intelligences can work with the man or woman who will not absorb the glory to himself, but who will be willing that all the glory shall redound to the honour of God. It is the man who most feels his need of Divine wisdom, the man who pleads for heavenly power, that will go forth from communion with Christ, to hold converse with souls perishing in their sins ; and because he is anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, he will. be successful where the learned minister may have failed. God has given lessons that are all-important in regard to the duty of every disciple. Not one need be in darkness ; for 'it is evident that every Christian is to be a living epistle, known and read of all men.

Every one who believes in Christ as a personal Saviour is under bonds to God to be pure and holy, to be a spiritual worker, seeking to save the lost, whether they are great or small, rich or poor, bond or free. The greatest worker on earth is to seek and to save those who are lost, for whom Christ has paid the infinite price of His own

blood. Every one is to do active service, and if those who have been blessed with light do not diffuse light to others, they will lose the rich grace which has been bestowed upon them, because they neglect a sacred duty plainly marked out in the Word of God. As the light of the un-faithful one diminishes, his own soul is brought into peril ; and the ones to whom he should have been a shining light, miss the labour that God intended that they should have through the human instrument. Thus the sheep unsought is not brought back to the fold.

God depends upon you, the human agent, to fulfil your duty to the best of your ability, and He Himself will give the increase. If human agents would but co-operate with the Divine intelligences, thousands of souls would be rescued. The Holy Spirit would give devoted workers glimpses of Jesus that would brace them for every conflict, that would elevate and strengthen them, and make them more than conquerors. When two or three are met together to unite their counsel, and to send up their petitions, the promise is for them : " Ask, and it shall be given you : seek, and ye shall find : knock, and it shall be opened unto you." " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ? " The Lord has promised that where two or three are met together in His name, there will He be in the midst. Those who meet together for prayer will receive an unction from the Holy One. There is a great need of secret prayer, but there is 'also need that several Christians meet together, and unite with earnestness their petitions to God. In these small companies Jesus is present, the love of souls is deepened in the heart, and the Spirit puts forth its mighty energies, that human agents may be exercised in regard to saving those who are lost. Jesus ever sought to show how worthless are formal ceremonies, and strove to impress upon His disciples that the Holy Spirit must enlighten, renew, and sanctify the soul.

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

THE WISE : THEIR WORK AND THEIR REWARD.

" THEY that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Dan. xii. 3.

We all know the importance of wisdom in directing the affairs of this life. If he is wanting in wisdom, failure is sure to be stamped more or less plainly upon a man's life history. The higher his rank, the wider his influence, the greater his power and authority among his fellows, the more important it is that he should be able to judge wisely and decide rightly in all

September 24 THE PRESENT TRUTH. 617

•

matters in which he is called upon to judge or decide.

Necessary, however, as this wisdom is, there is a higher wisdom still. As things eternal are of more importance than things temporal, so is the wisdom that comes from above, the wisdom which is concerned with things spiritual, more necessary than that of the world. This wisdom is the leading characteristic of those referred to in the words at the head of this article. It is possessed in a higher or lower degree by all God's people. For the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. God's people ever regard Him with filial fear, awe, and reverence ; and it is the great aim and purpose of their lives to depart from evil. To be truly wise, then, is to be truly religious. And as the essence of true religion is faith, love, and obedience towards God, the truly wise are His believing, loving, and obedient people.

What is the work of the wise? Their glorious task is to turn souls to righteous-ness, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God. The wise are the human instruments which the Spirit of God uses in bringing men out of captivity to sin and Satan into the glorious liberty of the children of God. A truly blessed work is this, to lead souls to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, to lead them to the foot of the cross that they may find pardon, peace, and eternal life through the work of the Crucified. It will be something to be thankful for throughout all eternity, if we have been used by the Holy Ghost in turning one soul from the error of his ways, and our gratitude will be deeper still if we have been instrumental in turning many to righteousness. What comfort it will give us in our last hour to feel that there will be some whom we shall meet on the heavenly shore, whom we have helped to get there. All Christians ought to make it their aim to be in-strumental in the salvation of others. The work is not confined to ministers of Christ. All His devoted servants ought to take part in it. There are three chief ways in which we may do this :-

1. We may preach the Gospel by our holy, consistent lives. We may and we ought to be living epistles, known and read of all men. What an influence for good has the consistent Christian over those associated with him or her in the daily business of life !

2. If we would turn souls to righteous-ness, we may pray for them. How many there are who owe their conversion, humanly speaking, to the believing prayers of relative or friend ! How many an erring son has been led to repentance by the prayers of a pious mother !

3. Once more, we may speak a word in season. Let us ask the Master to give us a word that may help a brother or sister to come unto Him, that he or she may obtain life eternal.

A word on the reward of the wise. Could a more striking image have been found to set forth the glory that awaits the redeemed than that of the words from the book of Daniel which we are meditating upon. When we consider the heavens, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars that He has ordained, when we gaze on the star-lit expanse of the sky, may we remember that "the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." H. P. WRIGHT.

WE SHALL BOON BE THERE.

THINE of the glory of heaven's land We shall soon be there,

Where the white-robed throng shall in gladness stand,

All free from care. The river floweth to the sea, And time ends in eternity, And heaven waits for you and me—

We shall soon be there.

For hands that are vanished the heart is sore, But we'll clasp them there;

Fair faces that blossom on earth no more, So pure and fair ;

We shall greet them there in the blood-washed throng,

And their glad, sweet voices shall swell the song

In the land of beauty, that knows no wrong— We shall soon be there.

The years are speeding, and glory waits— We shall soon be there ;

For the oity with open, pearly gates Is waiting there ;

And voices prophetic raise the cry That Jesus is coming by and by. With Him we shall rise to the radiant sky—

We shall soon be there. L. D. SANTEE.

HOW TO BE MISERABLE.

THINK about yourself ; about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you, what people think of you, and then to you nothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch ; you will make sin and misery for yourself out of everything which God sends you.—Canon Kingsley.

GEM-MAKING.

"ALAS ! " cried a diamond to the wheel upon which it was being cut, " here I have been tortured for the last three days. What a misfortune it was that I ever came your way !"

" Say not so," replied the wheel in en-couraging tones. " The last stone that came to me was so rough and dull that you could scarce tell it was a diamond ; • but when I had done with it, it was placed in a king's crown."

" A king's crown I " exclaimed the as-tonished stone, " and do you think that I shall ever adorn the brows of a king ? "

" It is quite possible ; but if not allowed to enjoy so great an honour, you may find some other exalted and brilliant position ; but you will never see the glories of a royal house unless I do my utrhost for you."

" Then grind away," said the gem, as it nerved itself to endure the trial. " I'll stand it if it means an increase of beauty and promotion."—Selected.

WROUGHT IN GOD.

A LONDON paper tells this touching story of Professor Herkomer. His aged father, who lives with him in his splendid home at Bushey, used to model in clay in his early life. He has recently taken to it again ; but his fear is that soon his hands will lose their skill, and his work will show the marks of imperfection. It is his one sorrow. At night he goes to his early rest, and when he has gone his talented son goes into the studio, takes up his father's feeble attempts, and makes the work as beautiful as art can make it. When the old man comes down in the morning he takes the work and looks at it, and rubs his hands and says : " Ha! I can do as well as ever I did I " May we not believe that the hands of Divine Love will thus make over our feeble work. for God till it shall bear the light of day and be perfect to all eternity ?—Observer.

SELFISHNESS.

WHAT makes selfishness such a deadly sin is that it is such a self-deceiving one. A thief knows that he is a thief, a liar that he has told falsehood ; but a selfish man does not know that he is selfish ; hence he never repents his sin, and it grows with his growth and strengthens with his strength.—Sel.

STUNDISTS

THE Stundists sprang up among the South Russian peasantry about the year 1860. The name " Stundist " is derived from the German word stunde, " hour," applied to them because they met at regular hours for the purpose of singing hymns, offering up prayers, and reading the Holy Scriptures and explaining them. In almost every particular they comply with the teachings of Christ, and even the police authorities, who are called upon both by the State and the clergy to persecute them or compel them by force to attend the worship of the Orthodox Greek Church, recognise the superiority of their morality over the rest of the popu-lation. Yet on account of their religion they are treated as if they were criminals. But evidently God's blessing is upon them, as they constantly increase in numbers.—Selected.

"r8 a tylolvta.,e),

618 THE PRESENT TRUTH. No 39.

CRADLE SONG.

THE crickets in the corner sing, O'er farm and field the shadows creep,

Their homeward way the swallows wing, The sun is setting in the deep.

The squirrels seek their leafy hold, The fox is in his hollow tree,

And, huddled in their silent fold, The downy lambkins sleeping be.

The little bird within his nest Hath hid his little head to rest,

And soon, oh, soon The dreamy moon

Will sail along the fleecy west; The day is done, The night begun,

To sleep, my drowsy little one.

But when at break of day we see The spider weaving at his loom,

The soaring lark above the lea The bee amid the clover bloom ;

When frisking baby squirrels wake And sip the leaves of morning dew,

When baby foxes from the brake Do prowl the thorny hedges through,

When on the meadow sweet with hay The white and curly lambkins play,

And, sweet and cool, O'er plain and pool,

Bloweth the breeze of coming day, Thou, too, shalt rise To sunny skies,

And open wide thy baby eyes. —Rowan Stevens.

MRS. MAKEPEACE'S OPINION.

MRS. MAKEPEACE WaS well known in the town of — as a thorough Christian, not because of her lengthy prayers and eloquent exhortations, or a Pharisaical countenance, but because of her con-sistent life as a follower of the blessed Master.

Her life was one of sacrifice and self-denial, ever seeking to alleviate the suf-ferings of others, and performing little acts of mercy toward the poor and forsaken souls for whom Christ died.

It was to this woman Brother Pharisee presented himself with a basket of wares

to distribute gratuitously among his neigh-bours.

He had such a woe-begone look on his usually cheerful-looking face that Sister Makepeace inquired of him, " Are you ill? "

" Oh, no !," " Any of the family ill ? " " No."

Out of work ? " " No." " Lost some money in some of the sus-

pended banks ? " " Oh, no! It is worse than that." " Why, Brother Pharisee, tell me what

ails you ; perhaps I can be of some assist-ance."

" Sister Makepeace, I don't want to say anything about it, and I wouldn't to any-one in the world but you. The fact is that I am so disgusted with Brother Sharp that it just about makes me sick. His busi-ness career is just a sham, and every one who has had any dealings with him re-gards him as a sharper. Why, he has not a spark of Christianity about him, and everything he does just brings the precious truth into disrepute. Surely our church can't prosper so long as Achan is in the camp. I do feel so sorry for him. I have no words suitable to express my pity for poor Sister Sharp and the abused chil-dren.

" I thought I would like to talk this matter over with you and see if something couldn't be .done. I called on Sister C. and Brother B., and have talked with two or three others, and they think just about as I do, since I told them. Of course what I have said to you is strictly confi-dential. I would not say a word against Brother Sharp to injure him, for my motive is just the purest in the world."

All this time poor Mrs. Makepeace sat without uttering a single syllable. And when the basket was empty, and Brother Pharisee arose to go, she quietly asked him if he

could not remain a few minutes longer, as she wished to ask him a few questions concerning this unruly member. Her re-quest was readily granted ; and, fixing her keen black eyes upon her guest, she began by saying :—

" I have known Brother Sharp for many years, ever since I was a child. I have spent considerable time in his family, and these things which you have told me are so unlike anything I ever noticed in him that I am utterly confounded. I had not the slightest idea he was such a deceptive person."

" Yes, Sister Makepeace, he is a bad man, and needs to be severely dealt with."

" How long have you known Brother Sharp ? " inqui, ed Sister Makepeace.

" Several years." " Ever have any dealings with him ? " " Oh, yes, indeed ! " " Did he act honourably with you ? " " Yes." " Gave you all he agreed to far your

labour ? " " Yes." " Did you ever hear of his defrauding

his help in any way ? " " No." " Has he a good reputation among busi-

ness men ? " " Yes, I think he has." " Do you know of his quarrelling with

his neighbours or anyone else ? " " Yes, he has quarrelled with me." " Anyone else to your knowledge ? " " No." " Have you ever visited in his family ? " " Yes." " Was he kind and courteous to his

wife and children ? " " Yes, while I was there." " Does he provide well for his family,

furnish them with proper food, fuel and raiment, give them a comfortable house to live in, etc. ? "

" Yes, I suppose so; but then they say that "—

" No matter what they say ; they say ' is a liar. Does he not do all he possibly can to make home cheerful and give his children an education ? "

" Yes." " Does he let them run wild, and select

just such society as they choose, or read such literature as the mind of the young generally craves ? "

" No, I think not." " Is not Brother Sharp noted for his

liberality ?" " Yes." " You said his work was a sham and

intended to deceive. How do you know ? " " Why, it's not as I would do it." " Then he must work to your standard,

must he, in order to be just? Now, can't you see, my good Brother Pharisee, that, according to your own acknowledgment, Brother Sharp is not quite so black as the

September 24 THE PRESENT TRUTH, 619

devil has pictured him. But, admitting he is just as sinful as you have thought him to be, how much better are you than he ? Can you not see that a person who wants everybody to see as he does, act as he does, is simply a fit subject for the Dark Ages? Who gave you the authority to judge your brother? What saith the Scripture ? —' Therefore thou art inexcus-able, 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself ; for 'thou that judgest doest the same things.' Rom. ii. 1. Don't you know, my brother, that when you go about from house to house circulat-ing reports about your brother, either true or imaginary, you not only cripple his in-fluence, but also belittle yourself and dis-honour God by placing yourself in the place of God ?

" That is not of the Lord, and the in-dividual who engages in such traffic is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmis-ings.' 1 Tim. vi. 4. 'And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house ; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.' 1 Tim. v. 13.

" Now, my good brother, let me say in conclusion, be careful how you throw stones, lest they rebound and you become wounded. But seek the mind which was also in Christ Jesus. Phil. ii. 5. Pos-sessing the mind of Christ we shall do just as Christ did. Then nothing will be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowli-ness of mind we will esteem others better than ourselves. We shall be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame ; and, instead of talking about our brethren, we shall be studying the character of Christ, and in so doing behold the perfect model of charac-ter building, and thus grow up into Christ, our living head.

4c.

" The apostle says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso-ever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.' "—Signs of the Times.

BETTER THAN ADVICE

THE other day, when a horse drawing a cartful of coal got stalled on West street, the public was promptly on hand with advice.

" Put on the whip ! " shouted the driver of a parcels van.

t " Take him by the head," added a car-' man.

" If that was my hoss," said a man with a bundle of clothes under his arm, " I'd tie a cloth over his eyes. I've seen it tried a hundred times, and it makes 'em pull their best,"

" Don't believe it," said a man with a cane. " I've owned horse -; all my life, and I've had some bad ones among them. The only thing to do is to blow into his right ear."

" You mean the left," said a small man with a very thin voice.

" No, I don't ! I mean the right ear. I've tried it often enough."

A crowd of fifty people had gathered, and now the driver got down, and looked the ground over. One wheel was down in a rut. He stood looking at it, his hand on the horse's hip, and everybody around him tendering advice, when two sailors came along, and one of them called out :—

"Ay ! mate, but here's a craft on a reef."

" Over with her, then." Both seized a wheel for a lift, the driver

clucked for the horse to go ahead, and away went the load, as easily as you please. They were the only two in the whole crowd who had not advised the driver how to do it.—New York Sun.

A DETERMINED LITTLE QUEEN

QUEEN VICTORIA,• at an early stage of her royal career, gave evidence that she had a mind of her own. Stories are also told pointing to a similar conclusion con-cerning little Queen Wilhelmina of Holland. One appears in the Woman at Home. " Do you know where my mother is ? " asked her Majesty, one morning in her eleventh year. " You mean Madame the Regent," answered the instructor. " No, that is much too stiff. I mean my mother. Do you know where she is ? " " Yes, your Majesty. Your mother, the Queen Regent, is now giving audience to the Minister of War." " Then I will go and find her." " Pardon me, your Majesty, but Madame the Regent—your mother—is, as I have said, particularly engaged." " Pardon me, Mynheer, but the Queen of the Netherlands can go to her mother whenever she pleases! " And with that the child went out of the room with her chin in the air.--Church Family Newspaper.

MEASLES.

THE time that measles may take to appear after the reception of infection varies from ten to fourteen days. The symptoms are those of a common cold, with headache, drowsiness and feverishness. The rash appears about the fourth day, generally on the face and forehead first, the spots are of a reddish-brown colour raised above the skin. The face may become swollen and the patient delirious. Sometimes the rash will vanish in twenty-four hours, sometimes in forty-eight hours or even longer, according to whether the attack is mild or dangerous.

It is of the greatest importance to avoid catching cold on the lungs, as it may lead

to inflammation. Getting up too soon may also prove fatal, for measles is not an insignificant disease, and should not be looked on as such in adult cases, but it is not dangerous if treated with care and the patient is kept in bed till really con-valescent. A mild case is often well in a fortnight.—Home Chat.

" WHO TAUGHT YOU TO SWEAR ? "

AN aged minister was once riding on the box of a coach. The driver, a fine-looking young man, frequently swore at his horses. For some time the minister was silent. At length he asked in a kind voice, " Wfll you tell me, my friend, who taught you to swear ? Was it your mother ? "

A tender point was touched. " My mother ? No, sir. Why, my mother is a praying woman. It would break her heart if she heard me swearing," he replied. " I thank you, sir," added the driver.

During the remainder of the journey not another oath was heard.—Selected.

HOW TO CLEAN GLASS GLOBES .

TRY washing glass gas shades or globes with tepid water in which a little soda and blue have been dissolved. Turn down to drain, wipe with soft, dry leather. If the globes should have the least crack or flaw in them be very careful to keep your hands well protected with the towel when drying them, as if the glass were to " fly " suddenly a painful and perhaps dangerous cut might result. When adjusting globes never screw them tight, or they are certain to break when the gas is lighted, as glass expands with heat.—Sel.

Cane Chairs -- \\, hen the seats of cane chairs sag wash them with soapsuds, and place them out of doors to dry. If this is done they will become as tight as ever.

* *

WHEN ironing, it is a good plan to have a small piece of beeswax with which to rub the iron, so as to make it run smoothly.

IT is said that some perfumes are healthful in their effects by destroying disease microbes,—among such are thyme, lemon, mint, lavender, eucalyptus.

* * * To POLISH brown boots mix one ounce

of inuriatic acid, half ounce of alum, half ounce of spirit of lavender, half ounce of gum-arabic, in one and a half pints of sour skim milk. Carefully wipe all dust off the boots or shoes, and apply the polish with a soft flannel. Polish the shoes when dry with a soft duster. Stains may be re-moved from brown boots by the applica-tion of a little methylated spirit; the polishing can be done when the spirit is dry.

620 THE PRESENT 'TRUTH.

Nu. 39

A HARVEST SONS.

WE thank Thee, God of the harvest, Thou hast saved the golden grain, For the song of the reapers, hard at work, Is heard in the fields again. The Autumn winds blow softly, Through the waving ears of corn, As they nod, or gracefully bending low Greet the pleasant breeze at morn. We praise Thee, gracious Father, There's food for man and beast, There's plenty, and to spare, for all From the greatest to the least. Instead of plague, or pestilence, Of famine or of sword, The earth is rich with precious fruits. Thou hast fulfilled Thy word, And all around this favoured land, As far as the eye can see, Are tokens of Thy bounteous hand. We humbly bow the knee, And lift our thankful hearts above And praise His holy name, Who has crowned our labours with reward And saved the golden grain. Oh I bless us, Heavenly Father, With yet a richer store, And on Thy waiting people Thy Holy Spirit pour, And crown with grace their labours; May the seed which has been sown Spring forth in a harvest rich of souls, And the praise be all Thine own.

Belfast. ISABEL SHAW.

•• • • •

AUTUMN SUNSETS.

AT no period of the year are the sunsets so varied and beautiful as in autumn. The brightest tints of Nature's palette are spread lavishly over the calm western sky ; and the day dies on a gorgeous pyre of crimson and gold, which lights up the whole firmament with a glory indescribable. Like the sunset of the autumnal day is the sunset of the autumnal seasons. The many-coloured woods of the year's even-tide correspond to the many-coloured clouds of the sunset sky ; and as the heavens burst into their brightest hues, and exhibit their loveliest transfigurations when the daylight is fading into the gloom of night, so the year unfolds its richest tints and its fairest charms when it is about to sink into the darkness and

desolation of winter." All thejglories woven in the loom of the year, and hid by the uniform luxuriance of the spring and summer growth, come out conspicuously into view in the border and fringes of the autumn scenes—just as the diffused white daylight breaks out into chromatic splen-dour round the edge of a lens.

It is said that no ray of the sun's spectrum falls upon a growing plant without giving some account of itself. It may be absorbed for awhile, but it will certainly appear at some future stage of its growth —in some part or organ of its regular series of unfoldings. It may reflect the green ray only while it is in foliage, and absorb all the other colours ; but when it flowers the red appears in the blossom, the yellow in the stamens and pistils, and the purple in the fruit. All the rainbow tints which make up the full beam of light manifest themselves successively, or con-temporaneously, during the life or death of the plant. The crimson hue that is absent from the foliage and blossom of the straw-berry makes its appearance in the luscious fruit ; the glory of the sunshine, that seems thrown away throughout the whole of its life upon the dull green sheep-sorrel by the wayside, bursts forth in the scarlet radiance of its decay. Everything gets its own turn and share of the universal beauty and grace sooner or later ; and even the parts that are at present uncomely are waiting for a time when their uncomeliness shall put on an unexpected and more abundant loveli-ness.

So it is with the autumnal woods. All through the summer the foliage of the trees gave back to the ardent sun that shone upon them only one monotonous expression. A uniform dull green hue alone responded to his many-coloured allurements, while the lowly flowers returned all his smiles in their varied tints, and showed in their blossoms and fruits how completely they had been changed by their gazing into his own likeness ; the lofty trees remained insensible to the wooing of his brightest rays. But now, in their fading, they cast off all their reserve, and show how they

had cherished in their hearts the beauty which they seemed to disdain. His gifts had not been wasted upon them. In the day of their death thsy brighten with the glories that were absorbed and remained latent during their fresh green life. They are now changed into his image, and break forth into rainbow loveliness beneath his parting smile.—Hugh MacMillan, LL.D.

ELECTRICITY IN THE GARDEN

ELECTRICITY has long been known as an important adjunct to the green-house, for the stimulation of growth in plants being forced for the early markets. One grower is able to get three crops of plants in a year by keeping them growing night as well as day. According to the following, which we clip from a London newspaper, there are still further possibilities in the employment of electric lights in gardening. It is characteristic of the hurrying age that even the plants in the field are not to be allowed to take their time for growing, but must work at it night and day :—

" Upon a farm in New Jersey every operation, including growth, is said to be carried on by electricity—electric ploughs, electric sowers, the crops being brought to perfection in half the ordinary time by means of an electric current, while at night the farm is bright with the rays of electric lights."

IRRIGATION ON A LARGE SCALE

AN interesting engineering work just completed in southern India is the turning of the water of a river on the western watershed of the Ghat Mountains, where there is too much rain, into the bed of another river on the eastern side, where there is never rain enough. The west side of the mountains is very steep, so that when the rains fall, they cause sudden and destructive freshets, the water running to waste in the sea. The Periyar River has now been dammed near its sources, and a seven-thousand-foot tunnel bored through the mountain, carrying the water into the valley of the Vaigai, on the eastern slope, a river that is usually dry by the time it reaches Palk's Straits. The works will irrigate two hundred and twenty square miles of territory ; they had to be carried on in the jungle, a hundred miles from a railroad, the material being dragged across four large rivers without any bridges, and up mountains several thousand feet high, with a steep grade. When the governor of Madras went to inaugurate the works, he had to fight his way through the jungles, elephants, and tigers that had come to the opening, refusing to be driven away by bonfires or the shouts of the guards. Popular Science Monthly.

eCu- - cz)--

September 24

THE PRESENT TRUTH. 621

FROM " THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS."

Now; as they were going along and talking, they espied a boy feeding his father's sheep. The boy was in very mean clothes, but of a very fresh and well-favoured countenance; and as he sat by himself, he sang. " Hark," said Mr. Great-heart, "to what the shepherd's boy saith; "

L, so they hearkened, and he said :— " He that is down needs fear no fall ;

He that is low no pride ; He that is humble, ever shall

Have God to be his guide.

"I am content with what I have, Little be it, or much ;

And, Lord, contentment still I crave Because Thou savest such."

Then said the guide, " Do you hear him ? I will dare to say that this boy lives a merrier life, and wears more of that herb called heart's-ease in his bosom than he that is clad in silk and velvet."—John Bunyan, 1628-1688.

• 4464+

A RED APPLE.

IT was a beautiful apple. It looked as if it had been dipped in the sunrise. And a treeful of red apples—what a sight I

So Amy Davis thought, when she went to visit her grandparents. Alas ! the tree was not in their garden, but stood plump and ruddy on Mr. Drake's grounds.

How, then, did Amy get the apple ? Listen :

" There, Amy," said her grandmother, the morning of the day she came, " is a nice, great, red apple. Our neighbour, Mr. Drake, brought it in this morning, to show what kind- of fruit the tree was bearing. He was here before you came. I saved it for you."

" You are ever so kind ; but, grandma, hadn't you better keep it, please ? "

" No ; I saved it for you, dear. You will not get another. I should like to see Mr. Drake give a basket of apples right out for once, but he does not throw his apples round."

Mr. Drake throw his apples round 1 The idea! He did not do any throwing, especially into a neighbour's lap, but laid every apple carefully away in a big barrel. Then he filled another barrel, all for himself.

Amy went out into the garden, holding very carefully in her hand this fine lump of red sunshine.

There were two or three apple-trees in her grandmother's garden. Amy filled

her apron with greenings. But they were hard, winter apples. There was not one eatable apple among them. And old Mr. Drake's red apple looked too pretty to eat. She stood and gazed over the fence at the bright tree, bearing a hundred of just such red apples.

Then she walked along, and was about

0. ,i1 " c,: ' ness and peace were in Israel all through the forty years of the reign

of the great King Solomon. His father David had subdued all the enemies of God's people, even as Christ shall subdue under Him all those who rise up against Him. The peaceful reign of Solomon which followed is a type of the reign of Christ, the Prince of Peace, in the new earth when all His enemies are destroyed.

One night, at the beginning of Solomon's reign, the Lord appeared to him, and said, "Ask what I shall give thee." " Solomon sat upon the throne of the Lord," as ruler over His people, and he knew that he needed the wisdom of God to be able to govern them aright. He therefore replied, " Give me uow wisdom and knowledge." And the Lord answered him, " Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee."

" Happy is the man that findeth wis-dom. . . . Length of days is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour." So when the Lord gave Solo-mon wisdom He was giving him at the same time long life, and great riches and honour.

His fame soon spread through the earth, and wonderful stories of his wisdom and riches reached the ears of a great queen of the south, the Queen of Sheba. Anxious to know if these things were so, and to learn all she could from one to whom God

. had given such wisdom, she started on a long journey to see and hear for herself. So great a distance had she to travel that Christ said she " came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon."

Nor was she disappointed ; for she found

to put her teeth into the red apple when—what was it she saw ?

Somebody asleep, as he leaned against the roadside fence, under the oak tree at the corner. How tired he looked, his head bowed, but having such a restful nap —the tired traveller !

" He has no home ; he has been walking

that not only were all the reports true that she had heard, but "the half was not told " her. She proved Solomon's wisdom with hard questions, and of all that she asked the king there was nothing that he told her not. We are not told what any of these questions were, but no doubt every-thing that had perplexed the queen was now made clear to her understanding, for she communed with Solomon " of all that was in her heart." She felt that she had received so much benefit from her visit that before leaving she exclaimed " Happy are these thy servants, which stand con-tinually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom."

Yet in the days when Jesus Christ was on earth, a greater than Solomon,—One " in whom are hid all the treasures of wis-dom and knowledge "—walked and talked with men. And many wondered at the gracious words which He spake, and said, " Never man spake like this man."

But many more came " to prove Him with hard questions; " not, as the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, to learn of His wisdom, but through jealousy to seek to embarrass Him before the people, and to try to get Him to say something which would give them an excuse . to put Him to death. Yet the wonderful wisdom of Christ met and answered every question in such a manner that even those who asked them for such a wicked purpose were sur-prised into saying, " Master, Thou hast answered well."

The perfect wisdom of Christ may be ours also. It is hidden in the Word of God. His promise is that if we keep His words within us they shall be " fitted in our lips." "Have not I written unto thee excellent things in counsels and know-ledge ; . . . that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee ? " E. E. A.

622 THE PRESENT TRUTH. No 30

a long way ; he is hungry," thought Amy. " Had I not better give him my apple ? "

But she wanted it so much for Amy Davis Finally, she thought she would not be like old Mr. Drake, but would give away her treasure.

She went back to the house, found a piece of white paper and a lead pencil, wrote on the paper, " For a poor old man," and, carefully wrapping the red apple in the white paper, timidly, gently, laid her gift in the old man's lap. Then she tripped softly away.

About an hour later, after a pleasant walk, she was going into the house, when she heard a strange voice in the kitchen, and stopped. Somebody was speaking to Grandmother Davis :—

" You see, Mrs. Davis, I was asleep, having dropped down here by the fence to enjoy the autumn sunshine. I found this apple and a piece of paper, when 1 awoke, in my lap. You say it is your little granddaughter's handwriting. Are you sure that it is, and that it is the apple I brought here this morning ? "

" Yes," said Mrs. Davis ; " It is Amy's writing, and the apple that I gave her. I tell the apple by a whitish circle round the stem."

That night at the tea-table by little Amy's plate stood a basket of red apples. A slip of paper was on top. On the slip was written : From a poor old man," and below this, " Neighbour Drake. "— -Edward A. Rand, in Little Men, and Women.

COOKING AND EATING

IT would be absurd, in the face of the tempting viands daily placed before us, to say that food would be ju A as well un-cooked. Yet to render food more palatable is the least of the reasons for cooking it. Nourishment depends upon the complete-ness with which food is changed by the processes of mastication and digestion. In this modern era, when everything is done with a rush, there is great danger of throw-ing upon the stomach more work than it can do, by the hasty and inefficient manner in which we chew our food. Here we perceive the great p..,,vince of cooking—that of an intermediary agent between an insufficient mastication and an overtaxed stomach. Iu other words, cooking may

be made to serve, to some degree, the pur-pose of mastication. Potatoes cooked till they are " mealy " need much less time and chewing than those which are boiled hard and " soggy." On the same prin-ciple, the pride of the housewife is in her " light and spongy " bread.

It is better than the hard cakes of milled corn and water that were relished in primeval days, because the minute bub-bles of air which are incorporated into the bread facilitate its digestion, without the labour of long chewing which the cakes demanded. Meat and vegetables, upon being properly cooked, lose the covering inside of which the fibres and grains of nutriment are hidden, a result which, it is true, may be similarly obtained by masti-cation. We must not suppose, however, that it is easy to obtain proper results in cooking, or to recognise them when they have been obtained. Because an article of food is palatable and slips into the stomach without effort may be the last of reasons why it should be nutritive and easily taken care of by the stomach. In-dee-I, so great are the difficulties in mas-tering the proper methods of cooking, and so important are such methods to the human economy, that the subject deserves to be treated rather as a science than as an art.—Selected.

Killed by Tobacco.—An evening paper recently reported the death of a boy of fourteen who, proud of his record as a smoker, smoked nineteen cigarettes in close succession, and to the admiration of his silly associates. The boy was taken ill soon after, and, notwithstanding the physician's efforts, died in great agony, a victim of nicotine poisoning. Where one is killed outright in this way, thousands lay the foundation for consumption and future ills by the foul practice.

* * *

A SPEAKER at the Congress on Alco-holism at Basel, Switzerland, estimates the amount of alcohol consumed annually, per capita, in different countries, as follows : France, 13 quarts; Switzerland, 10 quarts; Belgium, 10 quarts ; Italy, 10 quarts ; Germany, 9 quarts ; England, 9 quarts ; Sweden, 4 quarts ; Norway, 3 quarts ; Canada, 2 quarts.

This result is obtained by bringing all the drink used to a common standard on the basis of the amount of alcohol which they contain.

* *

MEDICAL men have uttered warnings against the evils of coffee drunkenness ; disgust for food increases in severe cases until the patient can only take coffee or bread soaked in coffee.

—Every ruling monarch in Europe has German blood in his veins.

—A prooess for colouring by electricity is in suooessful operation in Germany.

—The number of Armenians slaughtered in Con-stantinople is variously estimated at from 2,000 to 5,000.

—Russia is watching all Armenian committees in the Caucasus and suppressing agitation against Turkey.

—The electric wires of the French railways are so arranged that they oan be used for telegraphing or telephoning.

—Several new expeditions are being planned to get to the North Pole, and Belgium has just voted to send one to the Antarctic regions.

—There are still savage islands in the Salomon Group, a party landing for scientific research having been attacked recently with severe loss of life.

—Probably the owner of the largest number of dogs in the world is a Russian cattle king, who has 35,000 shepherd dogs to look after 1,500,000 sheep.

—The Trades Union Congress voted to demand of Parliament that the age of child labour should be raised to fifteen years, and of night labour to eighteen years.

—If all the armies of Europe were to march at an eight-mile pace five abreast, fifteen inches apart, it would require nine and a•half days for them to pass a given point.

—The Nile expedition is already engaged with the advance forces of the Dervishers, who fight with desperation, but who oan do little against the superior arms and skill of the British-Egyp-tian force.

—It is said that peace is concluded between Italy and Abyssinia, the latter oonntry asking a large sum for the expense .of keeping the Italian prisoners who were taken at the defeat of the Italians at Adowa.

—A Transvaal paper says that whole tribes of natives between Pretoria and the Limpopo have almost nothing to live on, nor can they expect crops till February. They pursue after the swarms of locusts, which are food for them.

—Li Hung Chang is on his way back to China. He is said to be desirous of starting railways in China, but the mandarins are thought unlikely to allow the general opening of the country. The e•ivoy's chief purpose in visiting the Governments of Europe was to get their assent to doubling the duties in China to increase the imperial revenues.

—The National Sunday League, which exists for the purpose of antagonising the National Sun-day Observance League, and for the popularising of Sunday excursions, Sunday opening of Mu-seums, etc., now has a membership of 6,000, with an annual income elf £35,293. The League has just opened a new hall, of its own construction, in Red Lion-square.

September 24. THE PRESENT TRUTH. 623

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ISAIAH, 44

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.624 THE PRESENT TRUTH. No 34

SIR rand truth. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "And lo, I

am with you aiway, even unto the end of the world."

LONDON, SEPTEMBER 24, 1896.

FOR TERMS SEE FIRST PAGE.

THE PRESENT TRUTH may be obtained in South Africa through the International Tract Society, 28a Roeland-street, Cape Town.

THE language of the military camps is that of the shambles. The cables say that during the flight of fifty Matabeles the newly arrived Hussars " were afforded op-portunity of testing their swords."

THE prohibition of meetings in Constan-tinople may interfere with the Bible Insti-tute which our friends in Turkey had arranged to hold. But it may not, as

• during the riots there last year the Bible school went on as usual, attended by Ar-menians and Greeks.

THE Armenian revolutionary committee address a manifesto to the Powers declar-ing that in case of inaction by Europe, they are preparing to "drag Death again into the contest," and " to bring about a general catastrophe which shall engulf us and those who surround us." They mean to bring disaster upon Europeans next time.

The Sword —When Peter drew the sword to defend Christ from a mob, Jesus told him to put it up. When Christ was upon the cross, He said of the wretched rabble that had placed Him there, " Father, forgive them." When the disciples were persecuted and martyred they followed Christ, never appealing to earthly power for the punishing of their enemies. Yet they lived in the days of Nero, whose name has become a synonym for brutal power, so much so that to this day cruelty enthroned is spoken of as a " modern Nero." Christianity to-day is exactly what it was in the days of Christ and the apostles.

Force and Violence.—While all the na-tions are perfecting appliances for making war more than ever terrible, and the man who invents the highest explosive that can be adapted to use for killing men in war is highly paid, is it surprising that those elements that are at war against society and against all government and order should likewise resort to the use of those explosives of so high a power that one

criminal may work destruction that appals one to contemplate? Who cannot see that the world is rapidly filling with violence, as in the days which were before the flood ?

God's Power —While the world is seeking for power, and reckless criminals resort to dynamite as a fit weapon to express their hatred of their fellow-men, God sends a message concerning power to the world. Paul declares the Gospel to be " the power of God unto salvation." The word power; aunamis, is that from which we derive the word dynamite. The Gospel is God's dynamite, to destroy the power of sin. It is spiritual force employed to rout the legions of darkness and rouse the sinner to accept the reign of righteousness. It is what the world needs now. God's power bears a message of peace to those who will accept it. But Satan's dynamic power is in the heart a spring of hatred which shows itself in war and revolution and lawlessness.

Whites and Coloured.—Whenever any of the Powers want a particular part of countries already unappropriated by them, it is always easy to find moral reasons for forcibly taking possession. The mission of carrying civilisation to the uncivilised is the plea. But the Daily Chronicle frames the following indictment of the white race, which has so abused the privileges which God has given it. It is Christianity that the feebler races need :—

The uncivilised earth nas a heavy account against its civilised guardians. Europe has, in the main, inoculated the savage races with its vices rather than with its virtues, and they have flowed through the veins of black and yellow men like raging pestilerces. Disease, prostitution, drunkenness, are the white man's hall-marks ; by them he is known on every Pacific strand, on every African lake and forest where his feet 'have trod ; and in too many oases they obliterate the higher religious and moral code, the saving gifts of energy and industry which he also carries with him.

International Trusts — An exchange publishes the following paragraph from an American paper :—

Among the marks of the last days are the existence of "rich men" and the heaping to-gether of treasure. This state of things and the oppression ari_ing therefrom is increasing. Recent despatches have informed us of the formation of three great trusts. The Standard Oil Company has combined with its only rival, and succeeded in its efforts to control the oil trade of the world. The borax output of the world has passed into the hands of one inter-national company, with a capital of $2,600,000 ; and the Coates; the Clarks, and the Kerrs have united in a " cotton-thread trust," with a prospect of controlling the cotton-thread trade of the world.

This tendency to the consolidation of business interests for the benefit of the few, within the " ring," and to the dis-advantage of the great public, has especially characterised the last decade.

That the " trusts " and " combines " are now developing to their highest possible extent and becoming international, would seem in itself to argue that the pinnacle from which the disastrous fall was to take place is just about to be reached. The days are come in which men do indeed say to each other, " A confederacy." There is a scriptural warning in reference to that time.

THE Pope has at last definitely pro-nounced the Anglican orders invalid, de-claring that Anglican clergymen must be re-ordained when going over to Rome in profession as well as practice. It remains to be seen whether this little technicality will be any barrier to the reunionists.

IN the work of our missionaries amongst the natives of the South Pacific islands they do not, of course, neglect any op-portunity for setting .the truth before Europeans. A report from one of the Society Islands says that a British Consul there has begun the observance of the Sabbath, and a notice on his office door announces that no business is transacted on that day.

A LATE paper notes a most unexpected source of difficulty between the Pope and United Italy in the matter of the new Italian postal card. The paper says :—

There is a new friction between the Pope and the kingdom of Italy. The new postal card is em-blematical of United Italy and the loss of the temporal power of the Pope. The Pope is offended ; and u n his appeal, Catholic postmasters refuse to pass it through the mails. The card is said to be made in perfect accord with the international agreement, and so Italy claims damage of those countries where the card has been refused circula-tion.

Saint-Making.—The absurd spectacle of a Catholic court weighing evidence to determine whether they will allow a cer-tain person long since dead to be canon-ised, or made a saint, is paralleled by the action of the Chinese emperor in the case of Thibetan Llamas. Believing in the transmigration of souls, it is the theoly that when the chief Llama dies he is im-mediately re-incarnated in the child chosen as his successor. But " the empercir has been known even to forbid a person to be re-incarnated, and has placed him on the list of those from whom the privilegi3 of successive births into the world is with-drawn for ever.' "